Christmas Eve 2011

The Rev. Tommy Thompson

Christmas Eve 

24 December 2011

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! 

It is with great joy and thanksgiving that I greet you tonight; for this night is a holy night.  It is a night that shines with splendor.  The twelve days of Christmas has begun.  So let us celebrate with festive joy!  For God, out of His great love for us, has appeared in human flesh to save us from sin and death!  

Oh this day gets romanticized as much as any day of the year.  Many see Christmas as simply the birthday of baby Jesus without much more thought put into what it means that Jesus was once a baby.  Many of us receive the warm fuzzies when we consider the manger scene...the shepherds, the animals, Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus.

Somehow we miss the fact that for the holy family, this night was not very cozy or comfortable at all.  Somehow we miss the fact that this record of the birth of Jesus as presented in Luke’s Gospel, is a story full of tension and threat. 

Luke begins the narrative of Jesus’ birth with these words: “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.”  

This statement is not simply a statement given to us for the purpose of locating in history when the event of Jesus’ birth took place.  More than that, this statement demonstrates the vastness of the Emperor’s rule.  The emperor who was understood, at the very least, to be quasi-divine, has summoned not simply a region or a nation, but “the world” to be registered.  All people are to report to their own towns to be to participate in the Emperor’s on-demand tax burden.

As much as anything, this census is yet another reminder to all people, particularly, the people of Israel, that the Roman Emperor is in control.  The census reminds God’s people of an alien, unwelcome intrusion into the affairs of the Jewish people.  It reminds them of the allegiance they owe Rome as a conquered nation. 

The people of God have been waiting for the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  These descriptions that Israel only attribute to the one true God, the Roman empire attributes to the Emperor.  For them Augustus is Lord; he is the one who was understood to be the prince of peace as he supposedly unified the world under Roman rule.  The census reminds the people of God that if Augustus is Lord and Ruler of what he understands to be the entire world, then no one else is. 

It is against this political backdrop that the story of Jesus’ birth comes to fruition. While the emperor thinks he is in control...while he calls all to their birthplaces to remind them who is in charge even in those intimate places, God is at work, using the the emperors decree to bring about His purposes. 

The emperor summons Joseph and Mary, along with “all the world” to go to their own towns for yet another reminder of who is in charge.  But Augustus didn’t realize that God was toying with him, bringing to fulfillment the song of Mary through his own decree. 

Because the command for all to go to their own towns is an opportunity for God to bring his promise to fulfillment when he said of Bethlehem:

“But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,

   who are one of the little clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

   one who is to rule in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,

   from ancient days.

Therefore he shall give them up until the time

   when she who is in labour has brought forth;

then the rest of his kindred shall return

   to the people of Israel.

And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,

   in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great

   to the ends of the earth;

and he shall be the one of peace.”

This is the last place the Emperor would expect a king mightier than he to appear.  In Bethlehem?  really?  humble Bethlehem?  Future kings and emperors are born into this world with pomp and circumstance...Bethlehem? 

But not only the Roman Empire, but the people of God themselves, aren’t looking for anything special to come out of Bethlehem. Maybe they’ve been told for too long that their Lord is Caesar?  Maybe they’ve settled ... maybe they’ve forgotten.  Maybe they’ve  become so accustomed to the world’s use of power and authority that they couldn’t recognize the reign of God coming to fruition even if it were right under their noses?  Because the one who is to rule the world, and his name is not Augustus, is born and no none even notices...well, shepherds, and animals...but in Roman society, who are they? 

The text says that, “while Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to deliver her child, and 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.”

While the Emperor is flexing his muscles, reminding the world who is in charge, God appears in Bethlehem of all places, and there is no room made for him.  There was no room made for him...

Why not!?  If God is God and not Augustus or anyone else, can’t God just command a royal entrance?  Can’t God overthrow Augustus and make it known immediately that He is in charge?  Why this kind of entrance?  For not just a king but THE King?  Why was there no room made for Him?

Maybe our world has be so diseased by sin...so confused by the abuse of power...that we truly have no room for God in our lives. 

And this is the point of Christmas.  Christmas if anything, is about the mystery of God becoming human.  God becoming creature...God putting on flesh.

I like the way my little Hannah put it one of her Christmas prayers when she prayed, “God thank you for getting Jesus dressed.”  This is what Christmas is really about!  The Son of God gets dressed.  He puts on as clothing, our flesh and bone so that we might be dressed in the life of God! 

The God we made no room for has made room for us in His very life by becoming one of us!  And this good news was confirmed when the Son of God who was truly human overcame death and ascended into heaven as a human being. Now a human being sits at the right of God the Father with the prints of love in his hands and feet ever visible! 

God has made room for us in His life.  God has begun a new reign...the rule of love.  And He did this knowing full and well we couldn’t make room for Him...knowing that we are in sin...knowing that we are in error.  Augustus rules for His own benefit; God’s reign is for the benefit of the other.  Augustus sits in a palace, on a throne...God walks with His people most especially through the messiness of their lives and brings them through the mess to victory in Christ. 

I think this is why God firsts appeared to shepherds and in the city of David, the one who was the shepherd-come-king.  God appears on earth to shepherd his people...not bully them.  He is willing to stay with us day and night and even smell like us at our worse in order to save us.  This is the good news of Christmas.

Maybe your life is in disarray this Christmas?  Maybe you’ve accepted the mask the world has given you to wear during the “holiday season?”  It may even be that you’ve wore the mask for so long, your face has grown to fit it...

I have good news for you: Christ is born in Bethlehem!...in Bethlehem!  the Shepherd of God’s people is here and he wants to walk with you even through --No! most especially  through --the messy and deathly places and toward grassy green pastures and quiet streams of water. 

Christ is born!  Glorify Him!