Meditations for Christmas Eve - Interludes to Lessons and Carols 2019

John 1: 1 - 5

Isaiah 9: 2, 6 - 7

Luke 1: 26 - 38

Matthew 1: 18 - 25

Luke 2: 1 - 7

What is it about a baby?

There aren’t many experiences common to the whole human race.  But everyone is born into this world.  Nearly everyone, within their abilities, learns to crawl and then to walk, learns to speak, learns the faces of loved ones, learns hot and cold, learns the meaning of the word NO.

It humbles me that a God who could reach out and touch the world in dramatic ways, as he had at times in generations before – in a flood, in plagues, in mighty battles, in toppling buildings, in earthquakes and fires - chose to touch the world more than 2000 years ago with the tiny hands of a baby. 

A vulnerable, wrinkly, crying baby.

Most of us, at one point, have held a newborn in our arms and marveled at their tiny perfection.  I imagine young Mary, weary from the physical demands of childbirth, caressing this baby’s face in awe.  I imagine Joseph, stressed by his travels and scared to death about what had just happened, picking up that squirming, crying, swaddled boy for the very first time…

I’m pretty sure that O Little Town of Bethlehem has it wrong…

“How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given…” 

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t silent.

I’m pretty sure there was crying,

         wailing and weeping,

                  fear and mystery. 

And a tiny baby boy. Flesh and blood. Sweat and tears. Hunger and thirst.

Many times, I can’t fathom God’s power.  I can’t understand how it all works.  But at Christmas, I am reminded that I share one experience with all regardless of race, socioeconomic status, education, parents, geography. I have been a baby. I have held babies.  I have tickled their tiny feet, changed their diapers and been awed by the workings of their tiny minds.

God chose to touch this world as a baby…a human baby.  I can understand a baby. 

God wants us to know him.  He sought to teach us to be human by his own humanity.  We all share this human experience with Jesus, the baby… born in Bethlehem.

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

Luke 2: 8 - 20

What the Shepherds saw….

In the dark of the night…the text says that…In the dark of the night, the glory of the Lord appears and a heavenly host of angels to boot.

Lately, we’ve been accompanying our dogs anytime they need to go out.  That means I am often standing in the yard in the dark of night with my fuzzy slippers and a huge down coat, looking at the sparkling frost on the grass and the moon its current phase set against a starry sky. 

I imagine the shepherds had a pretty amazing view of the night sky.

These shepherds were the night shift. Theirs was the work of keeping animals that were on the hunt at bay so that the sheep or the goats they tended made it to morning light in one piece and alive.

They did not own these flocks. These were the ones on the night shift. The ones who don’t make the family holiday gatherings because they work in the dark, doing the things many of us prefer to pay others to do.

And in the darkness, there appeared an angel, and then a heavenly host. I think that means a bunch of angels, right? What the shepherd’s saw was the glory of the Lord. I am reminded of Moses asking to see God…and getting to see God’s glory – because it is too much to see all of God.

In good company with Moses then are the shepherds.  The night shift.  The hired help.  Not to the priests in the Temple.  Not to the Emperor.  Not to folks in warm homes.  To the night shift.  To the hired help. 

There came good news:

“On Earth, peace among those whom God favors!”

What the shepherds heard was that the good news was for them.  The promise of peace was for them.  That they warranted a visit. 

And like Joseph agreeing to take Mary as his wife in spite of her being with child, like Mary agreeing to bear a son even though she didn’t understand how, the shepherds left their fields because that is what they were told to do.  They went and they were amazed.

This. This is Christ the King whom shepherds guard and angels sing.

Matthew 2: 1 - 11

John 1: 1 - 14

  

Go light the world!

There is light in the world.

Even when it seems oh so dark.

In the dark stable where Mary and Joseph huddled to watch new life enter the world.

In the dark fields where shepherds watched their flocks.

In places where families are divided by conflict.

In places where cancer patients receive treatment but not always hope.

In places where there is no dry roof or warm floor.

In places where there is no clean water.

But there is light in the world. That is what we are promised. 

Light came into the world.

Light is in the world.

Darkness cannot overcome the light.

Light that shines into our lives.

Light that beckons us to carry it.

…To carry it out into all the places.

So that darkness does not overcome the light.

So that light shines and gathers.

Brightly.

What has come into being in him was life….and that life IS the light of all people.

Radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.

Jesus, Lord at that birth.

Gloria in excelsis deo!

Thank you, God.

Let’s light the world.