December 24, 2022
Luke 2: 1-20

Christmas Eve has become soooooo complicated.

Covid changed the way we could gather for worship for two Christmas seasons. Then, when it looked like we could gather a bit more like we had in pre-pandemic days, the blizzard hits and plans had to be changed.

Like others, I lamented the inconvenience this reality created.

But then, I was reminded that earlier this month I offered a homily on God intruding on the plans we make … we plan, God laughs. It’s good to remember that things happen in God’s time.

In that vein, we gather today to mark the coming of God’s light into the world in the form of an infant … traditionally, marked three days ago. 

After feeling like our community has been fractured … after feeling disconnected and burdened … during the past three years, we need to gather … we need to feel the renewing embrace that being in community carries with it … to feel that our sense of being exiled to the wilderness is nearing an end.

Still, we need to remember God’s promise has been with us all along.

During the Fall, we heard about a people in exile. They had been scattered by various conquering armies. Now, the Roman rulers are forcing the people to come back to their homeland for a census.

The census was necessary to set tax rates and help the oppressors determine how troops would be allotted to keep the peace and to enforce their wishes.

The census … which treated people like a commodity to be counted and exploited … placed yet another burden on an already overburdened people. 

It would be good to keep in mind that the nativity stories we hear have been scrubbed and altered for modern audiences. The first audiences for Luke’s version of the nativity would have heard it quite differently.

They would still be feeling the effects of living under Roman rule. They would have been familiar with the types of people involved in the story … they would know the smells of the stable where the baby took his first breath. As well, they have wondered what an inn was. They didn’t come along until centuries later.

People were expected to open their homes to visitors … whether family members or not. People in need were not to be abandoned. 

The Roman census placed such a burden on the people, that they couldn’t live the life they were called to live under the covenant. The demands placed on the people meant Mary and Joseph were pushed aside… to a room off a back alley … to have their child alone.

During the Fall, we also heard of the promises that God made to the people at various times in their history … and how God remained faithful to those promises and to the people regardless of how the people fell short.

Today, God reminds the world of the promise that has been kept.

The word of what has come into the life of the world is first shared in the most unremarkable of places … at the edge of the community in a field with outcasts.

God interrupts the shepherds’ lives with grace … so much so, that the shepherds are afraid, or, perhaps, they believe they aren’t worthy of such a visit.

In this time, shepherds live with their flocks in the Judean desert surrounding Bethlehem … they are among the least desirable and most despised members of society. 

The shepherds may have wondered if the message was truly meant for them.

God’s message to the shepherds … was that the promise made to David had been fulfilled by the birth of a baby in Bethlehem. 

The child will renew all creation.

The shepherds decide to leave their flocks alone and go to Bethlehem to see if what they have been told is true.

There, at the side of the manger, the shepherds explain that a messenger from God had told them about the child’s birth … of what they would find in Bethlehem.

Then, they returned to their flocks and began to proclaim what they saw. 

The shepherds became witnesses that God’s promise made to David was kept.

The words they shared … their description of what came into their lives … are the words treasured by Mary… the ones that she took to her heart. … they are words that first made love known to the world.

In this time of uncertainty and when the light in the life of the world might seem a bit far off, perhaps we can take comfort from this part of the story. That even though we may feel like we’re alone in some isolated field, God continues to be with us. Through words and actions, the light of God’s love still shines in our lives.

There is a place in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem where you can kneel on the floor … stick your hand into a small hole … and supposedly touch the ground where the manger sat.

I like to think that through our loving words and actions, we become a place where the power that lay in the manger can be known and experienced.

Author Diana Butler Bass calls this a theology of intimacy.

It’s a theology where God is not some distant God, but rather a God who is near … a God who is woven into this life … into our lives … a God who is with us … a God who beckons us to new life and to share that new life with the world.

A God who calls us to share in the story of what happened in Bethlehem.

Luke’s nativity story serves as a reminder that God often works beyond our line of sight and it is only later … when we hear others’ stories … that we recognize God’s presence.

Luke’s version of the nativity with its faithful actions of the shepherds calls us into place where we can praise God … a place where we can sing the songs of hope for all to hear.

The notes of the song of the shepherds continue to resonate with us today.

It is a song that tells of a welcoming, inclusive love … a song that tells of the star that shines above for all to see.

It is a song that reminds us that new life comes into the brokenness of this world… in the most unexpected ways and places.

Like the shepherds … we are called to share the news of great joy … to tell of the steadfast love that breaks open hearts … to sing a song of hope.

As we go out from this place, may we always sing such a song.

God’s blessings and peace be with you this day and through all of your days … Emmanuel … God is with us … has broken into our lives… the light has come and the darkness will fade.

Hallelujah!

AMEN