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The
Nativity of Our Lord - Christmas Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7 ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Gospel according to John 1:1-14 & Luke 2:1-20
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the
beginning with God. 3All things came into being
through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come
into being 4in him was life,*
and the life was the light of all people. 5The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.* 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own,* and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,* full of grace and truth.
2 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 8 In that region there were shepherds living
in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then
an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel
said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of
great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this
day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah,*
the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find
a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 13And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,*
praising God and saying, 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I love the nativity story. Yes, yes, we probably all know that there’s lots of reason to question whether it’s historically accurate, but I really don’t care much about all that. The nativity story is a narrative about a one-time event in history. It’s a great story, but it’s job is to get a point across, a point that relates to all of history, and I’m much more interested in the point of the story than in quibbling with the story itself. As we gather at Christmas and reenact the wonderful story of the nativity, we should ask ourselves, "What does it mean?" Last week I was driving with my daughter Elizabeth. Like most preachers the week before Christmas, I was pondering what to say about Christmas, and I asked Elizabeth, "Elizabeth, what do you think Christmas means?" "What do you mean?" she replied. "I mean, the story of Christmas, of Jesus being born in a stable, what do you think that means for us?" "I don’t know," she said. "Take a guess," I said, "what do you think it means?" "Stop it, Daddy! Leave me alone!" It was at that moment that I realized what a burden it is to be the child of a preacher, so I left her alone. But I’m not going to leave you alone. Because Christmas doesn’t mean much if we recount the story of that birth at a particular place in a particular time, but don’t ponder what it means for us in our place and time, and for all places and all times. That’s the difference between reflecting on the nativity story (so that you can squabble with details if you want), and reflecting on the incarnation, which is a reflection on— God. "Incarnation" comes from the Latin root word carnis, or flesh, and means "to become flesh." The point of the nativity story is that God — the lofty, distant, powerful, unimaginable, unfathomable, unapproachable Creator of the Universe — became flesh, became human. So what does that mean to us? Nothing, if —when you hurt, when you grieve, when you rejoice, when you pace anxiously in the intensive care waiting room, when you get your diagnosis, when you break your promise to quit for the hundredth time, when you love deeply, when you marvel at the beauty of a hot-pink sky or a piece of music that moves you to tears, when you are filled to overflowing with gratitude, when you are angry at the injustice, when you weep for the world, when you are bent by depression, when you see a child take his first step, when loneliness feeds on you, when you long deep in your soul to love God and know that you are loved — what does it mean to us that God became human? Nothing, if in all those real times in our real lives we can relate to a God who is the lofty, distant, powerful, unimaginable, unfathomable, unapproachable Creator of the Universe who has not been where we are, does not know how we are, and is not where we are. That doesn’t work for me. And our God knows that. And so, our God did this really astounding thing. And so, we have the story of the night air being pierced by the cry of the lofty, distant, powerful, unimaginable, unfathomable, unapproachable Creator of the Universe. It is the cry of a baby, born in poverty, lying if a feeding trough. Most of us have an image we got as children of the powerful, Creator-of-the-Universe God. Hopefully, we haven’t hung on to it, but I want you to revisit it for a moment. For most of us, it’s the image of a sort of cross between Santa Claus and Charlton Heston playing Moses: a man sitting on a throne with a long beard and long, flowing white hair. You know that image, don’t you? Keep it in mind for a bit. There have been many stories like this, but I want to tell you one from Sojourners Magazine. It’s the story of an eleven-year-old boy who had cancer. He had been through a very hard time. He had lost all his hair. He was thin. He felt like a pincushion. He was tired of throwing up. But now he was stronger, and he was going back to school. Being eleven, what he worried about most wasn’t his fragile medical condition or whether he would have the stamina to get through the day. What he worried about most was how different he would be, how the other kids would tease him for his baldness. He experimented with wigs and bandanas, and finally settled on a baseball cap. So the dreaded day came, and he entered his classroom with his cap on and fear in his eyes, only to see that all the kids in his class — had shaved their heads. The meaning of Christmas is not that God will make everything easy for us, or that God will do our will, or that there will not be tragedy or injustice in the world. The meaning of the incarnation is that our childhood image of God is wrong. The meaning of that piercing cry in the night — is that our God has a shaved head. The Rev. James H. Pritchett, Jr. St. John’s Episcopal Church, College Park, GA. If you would like to comment on this sermon or receive these sermons by email, contact me at rector@stjohnscollegepark.com.
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