Christmas Eve

By The Rev. Martha Frances+

Christmas Eve (Christmas Day 1)

The Nativity of our Lord

24 December 2009 

Text: Luke 2: 1-14 [15-20]

Others: Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11-14; Isaiah 9: 2-7 

      Where were you that first Christmas, the night when the Christ Child was born into the world in that cave in Bethlehem?  My question may at first sound silly & naïve since the birth we celebrate tonight happened 2 millennia ago, yet each year as we set out our own nativity sets, dress children as Mary & Joseph & the heavenly host of angels for the live nativity at Joys of Christmas, listen to the beauty of those carols which tell the whole story, & come to Midnight Mass to celebrate this love feast with our community of faith, we're called to enter imaginatively into the story which is so terribly familiar that we may let it pass us by if we don't become part of it once again.  So come with me, will you, as we make the story ours here in 2009, the end of the first decade of the 21^st Century?

      First I ask, how will we get to Bethlehem?  In Luke, we have no star as Matthew's magi do, nor do most of us have the knowledge to travel by the stars even were we able to find "the" Christmas star this year.  Mary & Joseph arrived in Bethlehem as a new family going about the business of life, in this case, registering for the census which we will do again in the U.S. next year.  The shepherds, unlikely guests at the stable, to be sure, were guided by the heavenly revelation of a host of angels.  Even if you recognize your guardian angel occasionally in your life, it's unlikely the host of heaven will lead you to Bethlehem as the shepherds were led.  You may have been faithful in your Advent preparations this year, attending worship each of the 4 Sundays & perhaps during the week, reading daily scriptures & perhaps an Advent meditation book, & enjoying one of the many Christmas stories on TV, all of which have led you to Bethlehem in due course.  Or perhaps family or circumstances or exhaustion from shopping or an unusual spiritual experience has propelled you into the pew tonight, bringing you to pay attention to this child in Bethlehem.  No matter which road you took to get here, the story & the storyteller Luke invite us all to Bethlehem tonight to take part in the mystery & wonderment of God come to earth as a helpless baby to enter totally into human life as only one who has lived it can know it. 

      Now that we are here, let us briefly consider the scandal of the whole story.  After all, it's quite a scandal that when God chose to come into the world as a baby, completely helpless, he was laid in a feed trough.  Jesus didn't come in splendor or luxury in a world capital but slipped into a backwater country far from the seat of earthly power with unwed parents to care for him & no extended family readily available to counsel this teenage mother.  Further, God was born on the road, for his parents were traveling on business, & their reservations at the Bethlehem Hilton weren't even honored.  From the beginning, God identified with the powerless, the oppressed, the poor & the homeless.  Perhaps only those humble enough to be in need could fully enter into God's way of seeing & behaving in the world.  Each one of us probably feels that we try to do God's will in our lives, yet what do we hold back?  What would we have to let go of to relate totally to the God who might actually be born in us anew tonight?

      Finally, the Christmas story tells of the birth of a new king.  Tho there are still kings & queens in the world, we Americans proud of our democratic government scoff a bit at the quaintness of a kingdom.  We must enter into Jesus' world to appreciate the symbolism of Jesus' being given the throne of his forefather David.  Altho Caesar Augustus was considered the bringer of peace, true peace would only be experienced through the sovereignty of this child born in Bethlehem. 

      For many of us, the change of governmental leadership a year ago gave us new hope that at least some of the troubles of our society & economy would turn around, & many have been disappointed that a new world order has not been accomplished since this past January.  Worldly leadership is definitely important, & we should all participate in the democratic process, not only at election time but also by letting our opinions be known to officials as they go about the process of representing us, yet the new world order which Jesus embodies is that of God's design for the redemption of all peoples, not only those with whom we agree, but everyone.  The hope of the shepherds, those who are outside the centers of power, even those in a little struggling parish in northwest Houston, is the hopes & dreams of all the years which are met in Jesus tonight. 

      Christmas is all about hope, & we do well to pay attention to those to whom Jesus' birth & ministry made a difference.  Those who were notified of Jesus' birth & his importance were the seediest in society, & later, it was with the common people that he gathered, from the ranks of everyday folks he chose his disciples, & about the leveling out of the economic order so that all would receive what they needed to live lives of dignity that he preached.  Jesus hung out with folks like those of us who are at Hope, & Jesus continues to call us to be faithful, putting the next foot forward in hope, accepting humbly that Jesus must be in charge of our lives & when he is so, Jesus' love & care will be enough.  Listen to the stories of the Christmas carols this year.  Really listen.  We not only hear what happened in Bethlehem centuries ago, but we are encouraged with what Jesus can & will do in our lives today when we get out of our own way to make room for Jesus to dwell fully among us.  Christmas offers great encouragement to us at Hope this & every year.   Pope John Paul II put the multiple importance of Jesus' birth in perspective when he said:  "To predispose our mind to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, one day will come to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize him as present in the events of daily life. Therefore, Advent is, so to speak, an intense training that directs us decisively toward him who already came, who will come, and who comes continuously."  Let us welcome this Jesus into our lives tonight & always. 
 
 

Advent III

By The Rev. Martha Frances+

Year C Advent III

13 December 2009

Text:  Luke 3: 7-18

Others: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12:2-6); Philippians 4:4-7  

      "You brood of vipers!"  This is the greeting our old friend John the Baptist gives to his followers who have come out into the desert for him to baptize them.  I would imagine he adds insult to injury by shaking his fist a bit, don't you?  He's warning his followers that they must not only go through the ritual of cleansing in baptism but that their actions (the fruits) must match the intentions they show when they have John baptize them.  John goes on to say that just because they are bonified Jewish folk—children of Abraham—doesn't mean that's going to allow them to behave in unrepentant ways.  John doesn't beat around the bush about people's walking the walk & not just talking the talk, does he?  He calls them to behave so that the experience of their baptism makes a difference in their lives every day, not just on the Sabbath or when they are at temple or synagogue. 

      The crowds are rather quick on the uptake.  They ask, "What then should we do?" The tax collectors also ask, "Teacher, what should we do?"  Then the soldiers ask, "And we, what should we do?"  At this time of year, many of us also ask, "What should we do?"  It's not that we don't have enough to do, & everything we do involves traffic & crowds & hassle—right?  So it's a good idea for me, & perhaps for you, to stop short & ask, "What should I do?" as we prepare for Christ's birth again this year.

      Before we get too much into the specifics of the Gospel today, let's remember that it's Advent.  As we begin a new liturgical year, we look inside ourselves, preparing to greet Jesus as enters the world as a human being, born like us to a human mother & father in that far-off city of Bethlehem yet also born into our community again this year as Savior & Lord. 

      After all, in preparing for Jesus' coming, we are out of sync with the rest of society who thinks Christmas is already here.  Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving lead to piped in Christmas carols.  For most folks, there's much frenetic activity crammed between Thanksgiving's gluttony & New Year's bubbly.  Each year, I hear people reach Christmas Eve just wishing the whole celebration were over.  How often I've seen folks spend the actual holiday moaning about whatever they've not accomplished that would make the holiday perfect instead of enjoying what is already the gift of the day because of what God has done.  One of the best piece of advice I've ever been given, especially at holiday time, is to let enough be enough.

      Advent encourages Christians to apply brakes to the frantic rush, to take time out to slow down to consider why all the mania.  I know you've heard me say this before, but it bears repeating:  Advent calls us to take time to breathe, to truly stop, look, & listen to stories of the Christ child's arrival in a manger, to prepare the way for Christ to come into our lives.  We don't sing Christmas carols yet in church; our songs are those of anticipation & expectation, calling to God-with-us to come into our hearts as Christ enters the world anew.

      This is Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, Latin for the Epistle today: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice."  Today's mood is one of urgent expectation.  "Let's get on with this Advent, this Coming." The apostle Paul today tells us "the Lord is near" & encourages us not to worry, to keep on doing the things that we have learned & received, for the God of peace is coming soon.  In fact, "the Lord is near" is also a reminder that we are ever in God's presence, that God holds us in the palm of the holy hand.

      So we Christians ask John the Baptist, along with the crowds, the tax collectors, & the soldiers, "What should we do?"  Here's old John, Jesus' cousin, a strange man born in his parents' old age, dedicated to a strict sect which doesn't shave or touch alcoholic beverages.  He comes out of the desert, dressed in peculiar clothes, eating a weird diet of locusts & wild honey, calling people to prepare for the Lord's coming by repenting & being baptized. 

      Now repentance doesn't just mean saying you're sorry.  Repentance digs much deeper than that.  Repentance means changing things in your life, turning around & going a different way, one hundred eighty degrees different.  Repentance means putting things right in relationship to others.  John tells those who have come to be baptized that they should bear fruit worthy of repentance.  John tells them their baptism should make a difference in the way they live their lives. 

      John tells those who come to hear him & be baptized by him that they can't depend upon the fact that they are the children of Abraham in order to be saved.  Who their people are or what their ancestors could claim won't cut it.  They are called upon to repent & get right with God themselves.  We might say, "You mean it doesn't matter that we're Episcopalians or that our mamas took us to church all the time when we were growing up?  That doesn't make us automatically the 'in' group?"  Nope, John says, you have to take personal responsibility to repent, to behave differently.

      And those who come to be baptized said, "What should we do?"  You know what?  John didn't say, "Come, live like me!  Get rid of your fancy clothes & cars & eat locusts & wild honey & grow your hair long."  John didn't expect everyone to use him as a model.  John customized his response to each group who came to him.  He seemed to know what the particular temptations were of each group who was asking.  The way the tax system was set up, it was expected that the tax collectors would overcharge.  John told them to charge only what their taxes were, no extra for themselves. 

      The soldiers also asked, "And we, what should we do?"  They worked for the Romans just as the tax collectors did.  Their job was to keep peace in this occupied country, & they often did so by strong-arming, pushing their weight around.  I think today we would call it police brutality, & we see that behavior on TV even if we haven't experienced it directly.  John tells law enforcement officers not to take money which doesn't belong to them & not to threaten people or accuse them falsely.  John tells the soldiers not to flaunt their authority, not to bully people—all temptations for the soldiers. 

      The crowds ask, "What then should we do?"  Here perhaps John is talking to us.  He says to be generous & share with the poor—those who have no clothing or food.  John tells them not to be greedy.  John tailors his responses to the temptations of each group who asks him "What should I do?"  What temptation would he recognize in you?  What behavior are you called to change in order to go forth & bear fruit?  What about us as a community, as Hope Church?  What needs changing in order for us to bear more fruit?

      Today I ask, "What should I do?"  Would you like to ask John, "What should I do to prepare for the coming of the Christ child?  What should I do to be ready for Christ who comes to judge the world?"  John's first response to each of us is that we should repent.  John says this Advent season is a time to examine our lives & see what doesn't work in them—what is unloving or what takes unfair advantage of others or what is greedy.  What is your "game," your wall that keeps Christ & others out?  What keeps us so occupied with "doing" that we forget that we are human "beings?" 

      John tells us to make room in our lives & hearts for Jesus to come in.  John tells us when we repent, we will bear fruit.  His advice is very radical.  He tells us that we are to share our possessions generously & to turn from ourselves to concern for others.  How can we be sure those others deserve our generosity?  We can't always, & that's not our job.  He asks US to repent & to reach out to others with love & generosity.

      Our gospel tells us that the people were filled with expectation—what Advent is all about.  Expectation is desire under girded by faith & prayer.  And John reminds us that he comes only to help us prepare the way for our Savior.  God sent John because God's desire comes first.  God desires us to desire God.  So God reaches out to us expectantly in the person of John.

      John reminds us that he baptizes only with water but Jesus comes after to baptize with the Holy Spirit & fire.  The Holy Spirit, or wind, & fire are symbols of judgment, & judgment is certainly part of this passage.  He tells the people that the axe is lying at the root of trees which do not bear good fruit, & then he tells us that the Spirit's winnowing fork is at hand to separate the chaff from the wheat so that the chaff will burn away.  Even if we live in the city, we can imagine the heavy grain falling to the ground & the lighter outer covering, the chaff, blowing away in the wind.

      And we need to remember today that John's message is indeed good news.  The message of judgment comes with the offer of repentance & forgiveness available—& we need it throughout our lives, not just once or twice.  John tells us that the Messiah is coming soon, that we have the time we need to prepare our hearts for his coming.  Paul has words of wisdom & hope for the Philippians but also for us as people of Hope.  He calls us to be gentle, not to worry about anything, to couch our prayer & even our supplication in a spirit of thanksgiving for God wants to know what we desire.  Paul tells us that we will be guarded by a peace which we can't even understand when we allow Christ to lead our lives.

      As we continue our Advent journey this year, we turn once again to ask, "What should I do to bear fruit worthy of repentance?"  I urge you to take time to ask Christ that question this week?  "What should I do?"  And then listen for a response.  Hopefully, you will sense the urgency of Advent, and continue to call to the Christ child, "Come, Lord Jesus.  Quickly come!"