Sermon for December 24, Christmas Eve
Sermon for December 24, 2024 Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
So I asked the internet this week what women say giving birth feels like. One mother shared rather graphically, "The best description I can offer of how the pain actually felt was like a deep internal 'pulling'–like someone kept reaching up deep inside me, grabbing hold of whatever internal organs they could, and trying to tug them out." Unpleasant. Another mother said, "My labor pain felt like my hips were being pulled apart!" But it is not just the pain, one mother named the satisfaction of ending the nine months of pregnancy, she said, “It was the most empowering thing I've ever done. I would do labor over again in a heartbeat; the nine months preceding it is the hard part.” So many endings come with a birth: the ending of the nine months pregnancy, the ending of the labor and delivery…but also bigger, “idea” endings: if the child is your first the birth is the ending of family just being the two of you, or the ending of whatever “me-time” you thought you had as you enter the world of diapers and midnight feedings. So many endings come with a birth, and yet we understand, that to make a birth about endings is to completely miss the point of the birth.
Especially this birth. I love how on Christmas Eve we get to just pause in the magical and transcendent moment and bask in the glow of mother Mary, cradling her newborn babe, father Joseph hovering protectively, really unsure of what is next, the shepherds, completely out of place, still shaking in awe and fright from their encounter with the angels. It is a quiet, perfect moment, the sounds of animals bedded down for the night and the sweet smell of hay. And yet we understand that with the birth of this one who will be called the Christ, everything has changed. God has entered the world in the flesh of a newborn babe. And, yes, his birth means a whole lot of endings. His birth signals the ending of the Temple and all the sacrifices, the ending of the law as it was observed by the Pharisees and scribes. His birth is the ending of the time of the prophets and ending to the old age itself. His birth will be the ending of death and the reign of sin. And yet we understand, that to make this birth about endings is again to completely miss the point of the birth. Because to focus on the ending is to miss the kingdom-shattering and world-changing new beginning. And God is all about new beginnings.
The Israelites couldn’t help but look back and long for the days in Egypt, but of course the whole point of the wilderness was not to make them miss Egypt, but to prepare them for the new way of living and a life of faith God had in store for them in the promised land. Paul had to be utterly confused and his life turned upside down when God blinded him on the road to Damascus, but the point was the new transformational thing God had in store for Paul. Or again, the three days Christ lay in the tomb the disciples hid and were afraid, only counting the cost of what they had lost, completely missing the new thing God was about to do on Easter morning. You see, our God is all about new beginnings. And so on this night we celebrate a birth. We look forward and anticipate what God is going to do next. Because our God is faithful, our God is powerful, and our God is in charge. What does this new beginning mean for us?
The new beginnings promised this night make us want to stand and sing; truly, it’s Christmas Eve, how can we not sing? “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light!” And my God, for those of us experiencing loneliness or grief or struggle, listen to the new thing God is doing! In your darkness a light has shined. Or again from our reading from the prophet Isaiah, the promise that in this birth God is working an end to all wars and violence! The beginning of the reign of the Prince of Peace! “For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born unto us…and he is named…the Prince of Peace.” Don’t you just get exhausted by all the violence and murder in the news? War after war, more and more gun violence and senseless shootings. Into all this war and bloodshed we are promised God is doing a new thing, here in this birth! Swords into plowshares! Melt down all your guns! For one has been born and his name is the Prince of Peace! The promised new beginnings here in this birth are nothing short than the very reign of God itself!
We are told that mother Mary took all these things and treasured them in her heart. Her heart became the Hope Chest, that treasury of all things meaningful and significant. She would have added to those treasures of course the promises of the angel Gabriel, who in his visit to her announced that this child, this newborn babe, would be called “the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.” Or again her uncle Zechariah, at the birth of John, announcing of her baby now lying in the hay in the manger, “God has redeemed his people and raised up a savior…who will give salvation by the forgiveness of sins!” Son of the Most High God? The throne of David? Forgiveness of sins? The Savior? All these things swirled in Mary’s mind in this quiet moment, exhausted, at the end of so many things, and yet beholding this new thing that God was doing.
This is a night of so many endings, it is true, but to make it about endings is to completely miss the point. For our God is a God of new beginnings. And beginnings are powerful. Beginnings are laden with hope. Beginnings are full of opportunity. Beginnings invite us into a season of change as we behold this new thing that God is doing. And on this night of all nights we celebrate and proclaim this new thing that God has done, that indeed Christ the Savior is born. Amen.