Luke 1:26-38; 2:1-20
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable
in your sight, O God, you are our rock, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen.
Merry Christmas!
I don't know about you, but
in my world, the past few weeks have been filled with buying presents, addressing
cards, working overtime, making plans with family, hanging ornaments, opening
little doors on an Advent calendar, missing loved ones, listening to music, watching
movies…
Because, of course, I had to make time in the midst
of all that preparation to see the new Star Wars movie! (Twice.)
Here’s a question for you –
no spoilers, I promise.
What do Star Wars and Christmas have in common?
Awkward questions about paternity.
The past few weeks, this
season of Advent, has been spent in preparation for the celebration to come.
Most of the preparation that we do leading up to
Christmas is for the details of the celebration. What food will be served? Who
has a new address since cards were sent last year? How much can we afford to
spend on gifts this year? Which worship service should we attend?
The real celebration of Christmas actually needs very little
preparation at all.
The celebration today is
for the birth of a baby!
And really, when a baby is born, the big picture
matters way more than the details. Did the child arrive, alive and well, and is
mom safe and supported by loved ones?
If the answer to any of
those questions is no, then the details don’t matter. Boy or girl? Breech or
sunny-side-up? Doctor or doula, home or hospital? Those details matter very
little unless the baby arrives and is healthy, and so is mom.
The birth of a child can
inspire mountains of preparation, but the most meaningful celebration for a
healthy birth needs very little preparation!
Mary and Joseph could hardly have been less prepared for the birth of their
son. They were far from home, had no bed, and certainly no thematic nursery
prepared to greet their baby.
But, God be praised, their
son arrived! And there was much rejoicing, in heaven and on earth.
Today we transition from preparation for the coming of the Messiah to celebration of the Messiah’s arrival!
Jesus showed up on
Christmas, and Mary and Joseph were never the same.
Jesus showed up on
Christmas, and all of humanity was never the same.
Jesus showed up in a small
town in an out-of-the-way Roman colony. By all societal measures, he was born
to poor, unremarkable parents.
Jesus was visited by people
at both the lowest and highest rungs of society – shepherds from the fields,
and wise men from a land far away.
Throughout his life, Jesus had an impact in the
lives of fishermen and tax collectors, paralytics and Roman soldiers, priests
and governors.
Jesus showed up in a feeding
trough for animals on that first Christmas, and Jesus continued to show up in
all kinds of places throughout his ministry.
And now, Jesus shows up in
our world today.
Like the angel promised to Mary, there is no end to
Jesus’ kingdom – there are no boundaries of geography or gender or education or
economics.
Jesus is in our poor
neighborhoods and our royal cities.
He is in refugee camps and all-inclusive resorts.
Jesus shows up at
the homeless shelter and the retirement home, at day care centers and senior centers.
Jesus shows up in coffee shops and soup kitchens,
fast food joints and five-star restaurants.
Jesus shows up in our homes
and in our hearts.
Jesus is even at our dinner
table.
In my family, we had a
tradition growing up.
When it was your birthday,
you got to pick what you wanted to eat for dinner, and then you got to eat your
meal on the red plate. Around the
outside it says, “you are special today.”
My parents gave a new You
Are Special plate to both my sister and me when we got married… and presumably
will do the same for my brother if he ever gets married… so that we could carry
on the tradition in our own families.
We used the You Are Special
plate on holidays, too. On Christmas, whoever set the table would get out the
red plate, and set an extra place for Jesus.
It was his
birthday that we were celebrating, after all.
The red plate was a
reminder to us that our shared meal on Christmas was to celebrate Jesus showing
up in the world – in Bethlehem, in church, and even at our family dinner table.
Today, in this church, Jesus is really here. Just as surely as he was born in
Bethlehem and placed in a manger, he is also among us now.
The preparations are over
and the celebration has begun!
Jesus is in the music, in the Scripture, in the
children, and in the
candles that we’ll be lighting at the end of the worship service.
Jesus is here, at our
table, in the bread and wine that we are going to share together in a few
minutes.
In fact, from the moment
Jesus was born into the world, his existence was related to the food on our
table here tonight.
Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem. That name comes from two Hebrew words, Bēṯ Leḥem,
meaning “house of bread.”
“Oh little town of house of
bread…”
The unexpected birth of Jesus in Bethlehem connects
incarnation directly to one of our most basic needs – bread.
I’m not taking about the
carb-loaded, gluten-full bread that many of us hardly ever eat any more – I’m
talking about bread as shorthand for basic dietary sustenance, as in, “give us
this day our daily bread.”
The fact that Jesus was born in a place named
“house of bread” reminds us that Jesus provides for our daily needs like food
and water and the air we breathe. It is also a reminder that we need Jesus just
as much as we need food and water and the air we breathe.
Jesus was born into the
house of bread, to a couple who was unprepared to receive him, to a world that
mostly didn’t recognize him until after his death.
But Jesus showed up. The baby was born regardless
of whether humanity had finished all our preparations.
And Jesus continues to
enter into our lives – on holidays (holy days), and on birthdays, and in the routine
of our daily lives.
This is the good news of
Christmas – Jesus is here! Jesus is in our homes and in our hearts, in the
ghetto and in the gated community.
God has sent
the Messiah to the world to save us from ourselves.
Jesus comes to us no matter
what our celebrations look like during this holiday season. Jesus comes to
share a meal with us, to bring us our daily bread, and to sustain us for the
life of faith that lies ahead of us.
Thanks be to God for our
savior, born this day. Let the celebration begin.
Amen.
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