25 December 2011 “Keep Unwrapping” Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

25 December 2011 “Keep Unwrapping” Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

I believe it would be the perfectly normal thing to come to church on Christmas day, feeling all warm inside from the joy of the morning, and expect at worship to have that joy sustained and even, if possible, raised a bit.

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year. It is a time of anticipation and celebration. It is a time we unashamedly celebrate in our hearts the birth of the baby Jesus. While tinged with anxiety, a baby being born is also a time of celebration. And the Christmas birth is no exception.
We love hearing the familiar story and the eye witness accounts of the scene in the stable. And we can imagine the first time the baby Jesus must have cried and those standing by smiled and longed to pick him up and comfort him in any way they could.

We also realize more than just a baby has been born this day. Jesus becomes a man, a different sort of man. He becomes a man of peace, conviction, wisdom and moral fiber. This day a savior is born!

Shortly after his birth there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Than an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.”

I can only imagine how those shepherds must have felt when the angel of the Lord stood before them. Actually, that’s not right, I cannot imagine. Having never knowingly had an angel of the Lord stand before me, I cannot imagine how they felt. But, something caused the angel to say to them, “Do not be afraid!”

There are times we need to hear those same words. In the midst of real suffering we long to hear, “Do not be afraid.” In our darkest hour we pray an angel will come to comfort us saying, “ Do not be afraid, for see I bring you good news of great joy for all the people.”
Good news of great joy. This is the emotion at the heart of Christmas, great joy. Not a joy that creates pleasure or euphoria. No, this is a joy that creates in us a new desire, an enthusiasm, a passion, an eagerness. This Christmas emotion of great joy is God’s joy, it is a joy that comes from a God who still cares for this creation and all those faulty selves that live in it.

Often we read in scripture of the importance of having wisdom about these things. If knowledge is the makeup of things and wisdom the significance of things, we learn through Luke’s gospel the importance of this Jesus who comes to us first as a baby, then a man, and finally, a messiah.
Let me caution you from the beginning. The story of Jesus’ birth, his life as a man, even as messiah does not tell us the complete story. Jesus has a deeper purpose. He lived to be in relationship with each of us. Which means we are all related to that child and we are all related to one another. This truth is hard to fathom. The world we live in is not a world that sees and acts and does things as if we were all related. On the contrary, we hear proclaimed every day, there are foreigners in our midst.

Janet and I have been blessed with the births of seven grandchildren and I can tell you, families come together at a birth like at no other time. Others of you have had similar experiences with a family, or friend, or neighbor. It is not that we don’t always get along, it just seems that at a birth particularly we find ourselves excited to see even the most cantankerous brother or sister, aunt or uncle. For they have come to see the baby and they too have traveled from afar, they have come bearing gifts of glad tidings. With each birth comes great hope and a new chance to love innocently again.

God really started the whole thing. From the very beginning, God creates. And that creation has not stopped. That is what God does. And babies may be the crown jewels of God’s creation. It should come as no surprise to us that God’s redemptive act often begins with the birth of a child. For Abraham it was Isaac, for Hannah it was Samuel and for Isaiah and all the people of God the promise again is through the birth of a child.

This child then becomes a man. A different sort of man. A man of peace, conviction, wisdom and moral fiber. Yet, there is more to this Jesus than this. Who among us is without sin? No one. Who among us is without material possession? No one. Who among us is wiser than the wisest ruler, wisest priest, wisest sage, and wisest truth teller. No one.

This man Jesus lives like no other before him. He was a teacher. His lesson was about living in this world and the next. He performed miracles. He healed the sick, cured the lame, and raised the dead. He was a prophet. He knew about the kingdom to come. He could see into the future and offered us a picture of a reality greater than the one of this world. He was a priest. He brought passion and gentleness and caring and healing to a bitter and frightening world. He was a peacemaker. He found gentler ways to respond to violence and terror and threats. He was a ruler. He ruled with love and justice and mercy. He was a sage. He was a wise man. He knew the significance of things and he committed his entire life to bring truth to a world torn by illusion longing for understanding.

This Jesus, this man of human flesh and blood, born to us again this Christmas is the truest compass to the good ever known to mankind. This Jesus, if we have ears to hear, teaches right living in the eyes of God. Right living with all of God’s creation. He excluded no one. He includes us and everyone around us and everyone known and unknown to us and everyone who has come before us and everyone who will come after us. Everyone is included in Jesus’ world both here and in the world to come.

His message is simple, yet impossible at the same time. Simple in theory, but impossible in reality. Simply to say, I can do that, impossible to actually do. Impossible if we dare take life on alone. Absolutely possible if we unite with the one who desperately desires our company.

With Jesus Christ, born this day to be our savior, all is real. This world and the truth found in our faith, they are real. This Christmas season makes that truth alive.

The zeal in this mornings Christmas story is in the personal nature of God’s promise, “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” “To you is born this day”, to you and to me and to all God’s people, our Savior is born.

In the movie “Field of Dreams”, a child of the 1960’s turned Iowa farmer suddenly hears a voice telling him to plow up his fields and build a baseball field. “If you build it, he will come” says the voice. Ray, the farmer, obeys the voice and finishes the field. The voice visits again, telling Ray, “Ease his pain.” Mystified by whose pain he is supposed to heal, Ray begins a long search for the one who will be healed by this cornfield turned baseball diamond. One day, Ray’s father, who had died before Ray had ever had a chance to build any kind of meaningful relationship with him, appears on the field for a game with several other ballplayers. With tears in his eyes, Ray believes he has finally found the one in need of healing. “Ease his pain,” murmurs Ray. As his father steps across the field Ray says, “It was for you Dad that I built this field.” “No Ray,” says one of the players gently. It was built for you. “It was for you.”
It was for you and for me that Jesus came this Christmas season. It was for our hurts, our sins, our failings, our broken heart, our doubt, our grief, our anger. We were in the dark and he wanted to be the light to guide us back home.
The transforming moment of Christmas comes when we claim our place at the manger. When we realize that the Christ Child has come, not just for the world, but for us. It is not just world peace that he promises, but our peace.

My prayer this Christmas is that we will accept this gift, that we will realize our exhaustion is good, for our weakness is God’s strength. Our emptiness gives God room to enter in to our lives and to allow us to take our place alongside the manger and join with the heavenly host who proclaim, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and his is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen

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