Holy Covenant United Methodist Church - Luke 2:1-20 "Do Not Be Afraid" (Christmas Eve)

Luke 2:1-20 "Do Not Be Afraid" (Christmas Eve)

Written by Rev. Don Lee
Saturday, 23 December 2006
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!’ 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. Prayer: Lord of Christmas, we come to adore you. Receive our worship as we receive your gifts of love and grace. Be born to us this day. Amen. Merry Christmas! I am convinced my Manchester Terrier is conspiring to steal Christmas! I’ve found evidence of this several times over the last few weeks. He “slunks” unnoticed into the front room and carefully peruses the Christmas tree looking for his next holiday chew-toy! Some ornaments mark special occasions, -the birth of our children -a trip my wife and I took BC (before children). -Then there are the ornaments my big sister, Deborah carefully assembled one year from the handful of surviving childhood pictures. -And of course, the many ornaments my children have lovingly assembled at the annual Advent Festival, out of things like hand colored Popsicle sticks, glitter, and glue. Every so often I’ve walked into the living room and stumble on to a pile of splintered wood, gnawed paper, and fuzz… the remains of another “Christmas past.” On the one hand, (honestly?) I am mortified. On the other hand, I can’t blame Taz, after all, it’s a tree with stuff on it! Never has he been scolded for eating anything off the trees in our back yard, forbidden or otherwise. Why should this tree be any different? Whose idea was it anyways to establish a tradition that parks a tree smack dab in the middle of our living rooms? Talk about sending mixed signals! So, aside from moving the most important ornaments out of reach, I’ve become rather philosophical about those piles of splintered wood and shards of plastic when I stumble on to them. They are a gentle reminder that life isn’t always perfect or even pretty, despite the best of intentions. There is brokenness in it, and loss. Things don’t always go the way we want. Sometimes, too many times, we hurt, and hurt deeply. We grieve, we weep, we blame, we accuse, we refuse to forgive, we sin. You don’t have to look very hard to find evidence that this world is far from perfect. In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. When I read the story of the nativity, I am struck both by how very humble the birth narrative is, as well as by how accurately it reflects the shortcomings of our humanity. The Christ child is birthed not to royalty, nor is he to be found in the Holy City of Jerusalem (where the Magi first looked for him), rather he is born in a livestock feed-trough in an inconsequential town on the margins of society. As warm and fuzzy as we try to make the nativity, it’s a sad commentary on humanity; Political powers force a pregnant woman to travel several days by donkey and what must have seemed like a hundred miles for a census that has as its chief purpose, collecting tax money. Because no one will make room for her, Mary is forced back into the streets to deliver her baby. Forget doing the “Christian” thing, how about just doing the humane thing? Come on people! Humanity doesn’t come off looking so good here. God, however, comes off amazingly well! God comes to us, enfleshed in an infant. What could be more pure and vulnerable then a newborn baby? One of the greatest privileges about being your pastor is getting to bless your newborns! It’s so easy to see God in them! There vulnerability is disarming. There’s nothing pretentious about a child. So it’s hard to believe this child (in the gospel narrative) could change much of anything. But as Simeon tells Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed." -Luke 2:34 God comes to us in Christ, because of our brokenness and sin. And when he is born in our hearts, he brings: wholeness, healing, and forgiveness. Better yet, he uses us to bring his gifts to others. After all, God is in the business of putting lives back together. There’s a movie that’s just been released, The Pursuit of Happyness. Based on the true life “rags to riches” story of Chris Gardner. What you might not know is that Gardner, who now owns his own brokerage firm and is a mulit-millionaire, spent some time in a shelter/soup kitchen run by Glide Memorial UMC in San Francisco. Mr. Gardner credits his success to the encouragement of his former pastor, Rev. Cecil Williams, as well as to his confidence in his own ability to succeed. Mr. Gardner recalls, “Cecil Williams would talk every Sunday about being able to walk on the waters of life. And he’d say that baby steps count, too, as long as you’re going forward. That’s food for the soul.” Recalls Rev. Williams, of Gardner, “He was one of the few men I’ve seen who had a baby with him at all times. And I remember him because he had the gall to say that, without a doubt, he was going to break out of the cycle of poverty.” While the film depicts Mr. Gardner, an African-American man, working to break into a profession dominated by white males, the film doesn’t suggest Mr. Gardner encountered racism. Says Gardner, “There’s a bigger barrier beyond racial barriers. It’s the barrier of the human spirit, the barriers of possibilities, of what can and can’t be done.” Comparing “working with the homeless” to gardening, Gardner concludes, “If my contribution is anything, maybe I’m representative of all the gardening all the United Methodists have been doing for years.” -UMR 12/15/06 I’m proud to be a United Methodist! We should all be! Like those mangled ornaments my puppy leaves for me to find, too often, life chews us up and spits us out. The Good News of Great Joy is that God is in the business of putting lives back together. In fact, the church exists for that very purpose. That’s the wonderful thing about having a community of faith. We help each other to be all that has God created us to be and together we are better then any of us would be by ourselves! All because of a baby born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem! As we enter this time of Holy Communion, we remember that Christ comes to us in love, out of our great need. He comforts our fears and speaks peace to our chaos. He comes bearing gifts; grace and mercy in our time of need. Christ comes to break down the “barriers of the human spirit” that divide us from one another and to rebuild the brokenness our choices have caused within others and us. God is in the business of putting lives back together. The question is, ‘Will I let Him in? Will you?’ O holy child of Bethlehem. Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin and enter in, Be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels, The great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord, Emmanuel.