Christmas Eve 2017 Sermon

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews

St. Joseph-St. John Episcopal Church, Lakewood

December 24, 2017

Christmas Eve

Luke 2.1-14

The grace of our Savior Jesus Christ,

            the love of God,

            and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

be always with you.

[And also with you.]

Let us pray

“Nature reordered to match God's intent,

nations obeying the call to repent,

all of creation completely restored,

filled with the knowledge and love of the Lord.

“Little child whose bed is straw,

take new lodgings in our hearts.

Bring the dream Isaiah saw:

knowledge, wisdom, worship, awe.”[1]

Merry Christmas!

Tonight Christmas is in full force.

We’re even getting a white Christmas,

            it looks like.

We’ve bid the faithful

come and adore Jesus the Christ Child.

We’ve joined angels in singing Gloria in excelsis deo.

We’ve heard the familiar,

            every-Christmas-Eve story

                        of Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem,

                                    Mary giving birth to Jesus her first born

                                    wrapping in bands of cloth — swaddling clothes —

                                    and laying him in a manger.

It’s Christmas! Finally!

This year we’re even cut short a week of Advent,

            those four Sundays leading up to Christmas,

                        and yet this year has been a. year.

Let’s just remember some of it:

            Charlottesville.

            Las Vegas.

            The fire in London.

            Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

            California wildfires and South American earthquakes.

In the midst of it all we hear again,

            “Do not be afraid; for see—

I am bringing you good news of great joy

for all the people: to you is born this day

in the city of David a Savior,

who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Throughout Advent,

            St. Joseph-St. John has been

singing a paraphrase of the song Mary sings

            not long after she finds out that she’s pregnant

with Jesus the Messiah, the savior of humanity.

Throughout Advent,

            I’ve been preaching —

because Advent’s Biblical texts make it clear —

            that coming to church isn’t just to feel good.

Worshiping Jesus the Christ

            requires engaging the outside world.

From Mary singing about the filling of the hungry

            while the rich are sent away empty

                        to the angels bidding peace among all humanity

                                    Jesus changes the world.

The primary act of Christian worship

            is coming together to read from holy Scripture

and break bread.

Breaking bread and pouring wine,

knowing Jesus in our hands, in our hearts,

            incarnate of Mary, incarnate in Bread

                        changes the world.

Tonight, tomorrow,

this Feast of the Incarnation

            we celebrate that God changes the world

            not by dominating others

                        but by coming in ultimate vulnerability:

                                    born, with all the associated dangers.

God becomes human

            not by possessing a grown man

                        but by inhabiting a womb

                                    and nursing for early growth.

God becomes human

            the same way we do

                        in the tenderness of a child,

                                    screaming like so many babies.

God becomes human

            and makes his first bed in a manger

            redeeming all of creation

                        by becoming a part of it.

The prayer that I opened this homily with

            are a verse and subsequent refrain from the choral work

                        “The Dream Isaiah Saw.”

Throughout Advent and into tonight

            Isaiah gives a vision of what the world can be like,

                        what the world is like because God reigns

                                    and when God saves all of creation.

“You have multiplied the nation,

you have increased its joy; 

they rejoice before you

as with joy at the harvest, 

as people exult when dividing plunder. 

For the yoke of their burden,

and the bar across their shoulders, 

the rod of their oppressor,

you have broken as on the day of Midian. 

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 for us,

a son given to us.”

In a year of the Las Vegas shooting and Hurricane Maria,

            we again remember that a child has been born

                        and God has broken the rod of oppression in that birth.

While coming to church isn’t just to feel good,

            it's pretty comforting to know that God loves all of creation,

                        loves each of us and all of us,

                                    to live as one of us,

                                    to be born as one of us,

                                    to live as one of us the entirety of life,

                                                even death.

When we find comfort in this place or at this table,

            I hope we’ll remember a prayer from the Episcopal tradition,

“Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table

for solace only, and not for strength;

for pardon only, and not for renewal.”

That as we eat this bread

            and drink this wine we pray:

Little child whose bed is straw,

take new lodgings in our hearts.

May we help bring the dream Isaiah saw:

knowledge, wisdom, worship, awe.

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[1] “The Dream Isaiah Saw” by Glenn L Rudolph