Christmas Eve A December 24, 2016
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Isaiah 9: 2-7 + Titus 2: 11-14 + Luke 2: 1-20
It is very good to be with you this night. However it is that you happened to be here, we are very glad that you are here, and on behalf of this community of faith, I welcome you warmly and wish you the greetings and joy of this holy night.
This time of year is often a time when we reminisce about special times…. stories of Christmases past are freely shared. We remember the time that Uncle Harry was so into his cups that he forgot to be mad at Uncle Glenn. We remember favorite gifts and foods and traditions. And if we are young, we dream a bit about how it might be….this day of celebration.
Tonight I’d like for you to reminisce with me about something just a little bit different. I’d like for us to remember the dreams and hopes we had for our lives when we were young. Or even just remember what you thought life might look like at different stages and ages.
Maybe you thought that in your young adulthood you would travel the world, or get your PhD, or have children. Maybe you imagined that in middle age you would live abroad or teach at a university or have that dream job or be an active parent in the lives of your children. And maybe you dreamed that in retirement you would enjoy your favorite hobby every day, or work for passion instead of a paycheck or spend every day with the grandchildren.
My point is that I would bet that all of us, at some time or another, spent some time dreaming about what life would hold and might have in store for us.
Imagine then, the dreams of young girls in the 4th or 5th century. They would not have the capacity to realistically see themselves in a trade or a craft; women generally were supported by the closest male member of their family and then by their husband. But in all likelihood, these Hebrew girls would have heard the story of the coming Messiah. Maybe they sat at the feet of their mothers or grandmothers and heard the stories or maybe they overheard their fathers and brothers talking about it when they left the local synagogue. The Messiah, the Christ, would be born to the house of David, said the prophets. The Messiah, the Christ, would be the prince of peace, the mighty God and given endless authority. They would have heard the stories….of Samuel and Miriam and Abraham and Sarah….and maybe, just maybe, their dream for themselves was that they would be the chosen one. That they would be the one to whom God would entrust the gift of bearing the Messiah into the world.
Such dreams wouldn’t be limited to just the young Hebrew girls, either. Certainly boys would have imagined, as they heard the stories in the temple, that their family might be the ones to bring about the Messiah.
And of course, because we know the way the story plays out, we know that Joseph, a simple carpenter, and Mary, a young girl, were the ones to whom God sent Gabriel the messenger….Fear Not. You will bear a son. You will name him Jesus.
I wonder about the rest of the girls and men….the ones to whom the angel did not come. The ones who, every day, said I am ready, YHWH, I am ready. Let it be to me. Let me be the one. When their barely whispered dreams did not come true, what did they do with their lives then?
Because it’s not as though God did not have a task for them as well. It’s not as thought their lives did not have holy purpose and deep meaning.
It’s not even as though they had not been the called ones. Called to the extraordinary work of God.
Those to whom the angel did not arrive with an annunciation would also have known the stories of their faith, stories of their ancestors and the prophets, that were stories of God’s presence in the midst of disappointment, pain, and sadness. They would have heard of the story of Sarah and her deep sadness over her childlessness. They would know the story of how Moses never set foot in the promised land, even after he led God’s people toward it for 40 years. And they would also know that God was with Sarah and Moses just as God was with them.
When I asked you to remember how you envisioned your life, I’m willing to bet that, for all of us, there were some dreams that simply didn’t come true. That despite our best efforts or maybe because we never gave them, we never traveled to that far away land or had the corner office. Or maybe we have loved ones who we never imagined would be gone from us so soon. And maybe, in that, we feel just a little bit like the ones who waited on the angel to tell them they were God’s chosen ones. That they were chosen to bear the Christ.
And here is where the news comes to us…the news of this night….the good news that tears apart the heavens and startles even the shepherds on the hillsides. That we are the ones. We are the ones. We are the ones chosen to bear the Christ child into the world. Not in the way we might have dreamed it. And certainly, not in the way that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the world.
But we are the ones called to share the gifts of the Christ. And this is the season and this is the night when we are called upon to remember what those gifts are and what they are not. The coming of the Jesus in the world was to draw the world into perfect peace….into unfailing love….into a holy hope. The coming of Jesus into the world was not, is not, and will never be about the separation of people or the division of nation against nation. The coming of Jesus into the world was not, is not, and will never be about some being chosen of God and others being rejected. The coming of Jesus into the world was and is for all people.
What we remember and celebrate this night….is that God has come….the God who created this world in its fullness and it beauty and its wonder….God has come to live among us. For 33 years God lived among us as Jesus, the Messiah. And then God sent the Spirit, to continue the work begun at creation and continued in Jesus.
And that Spirit has been sent to and planted within each one of us.
So no matter how our dreams and visions and hopes and plans did or did not, will or will not come to pass as expected….know this:
Jesus is Emmanuel….God with us. With us in every joy and in every sorrow, in every dream dashed and in every hope realized.
And God has called us, just as surely as God has called those before us….to bear the Christ into the world.
We bear the Christ in the way we treat one another….every one another.
We bear the Christ in the way we believe that goodness is stronger than evil and that love is stronger than hate.
We bear the Christ when we speak words of peace….words that unite rather than divide.
We bear the Christ when we hold up and live out the truth that all people are beloved of God.
And then we allow others to bear those truths….to bear the Christ back to us.
This is the gift of this night and this season and of every season. That love has been born….born to those who hoped and yet never dared dream that God might choose them….born to us….who God has chosen, called, and sent to bear the love of Jesus into the world.
Thanks be to God and let the church say…Amen.