Peace, Goodwill Toward Men.

Brad Sullivan

Christmas Eve, Year A

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

Romans 1:1-7
Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

This passage from Luke’s Gospel, verses 8-14, is one of the best known passages to me (although for this passage, the King James Version is the one I usually remember).  The reason I know and remember this passage so well is not because I’ve heard it in church a lot, although I have.  The reason I know and remember this passage so well is because I have seen “A Charlie Brown Christmas” many times, and this is the passage which Linus recites to tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. 

This was not a big church event or some religious leader or elite proclaiming the story of Jesus’ birth.  In this secular story, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” a little boy told his friend about the Christmas story.  I rather doubt you remember every Christmas sermon you’ve ever heard…or even any Christmas sermon you’ve ever heard, but if a friend of yours were to tell you the Christmas story, and tell you what Christmas is all about, I bet you’d remember that.

God has a way of breaking through and working with the ordinary stuff in our lives.  …of course God could have come in power and great might.  God is powerful and mighty, and yet, God so often identifies with the lowly.  God has power and doesn’t need us to brandish our power in order to impress him.  God is powerful, but even more so, in his very nature, God is relationship and love. 

God identifies with love even more than with power. So, God comes to us in the loving act of the birth of a child.  There are few more loving moments than when a child is born.  I remember when my kids were born, and each time, I looked at them, and I felt this new love just happen, this new space in my heart suddenly be created as I looked at my sons for the first time. 

God came to us in a way that would bring out the very best in us.

Once a year, for twelve days, we get to look on that baby Jesus and love God as a newborn baby.  Once a year, for twelve days, we can have the best brought out in us again.  After that, we’re into Epiphany, and we hear stories about Jesus as a grown man, and he starts getting into our business and messing with our lives, but for now, we just get to give our love to Jesus and receive God’s love for us in his gift of himself to us. 

What is the point, though?  What is the true meaning of Christmas?  Well, I don’t think that question has one answer, but many.  Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that God brings out the best in us, giving us a gift of love so that we might love him more.  Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that God has become one with us in Jesus and this shows us that God has never and will never give up on us.  God joined himself to us in Jesus, so if God gives up on humanity, then God will have to give up on himself.

Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that along with never giving up on us, God will continue to strive with us, to dwell with us, to love us, and that one day, Jesus will return and will put all things right.  Jesus, the savior, the messiah, will come again to restore all of creation.  In the mean time, we get to love God as a little newborn baby.  We get to share that love with others.  We get to be with others in the ordinary parts of their lives and strive with them, just as God strives with and never gives up on us.  We get to tell others the story of our faith, the story of Christmas and why we believe in this little baby whose birth we remember today. 

We get to share this story and the meaning of this night.  I doubt you’ll remember much of what I’ve said tonight in a year.  Any of your friends could hear this sermon and likely not remember much of us either.  If you tell your friends what Christmas is all about, however, I bet they’d remember that, just as I remember the words from Luke’s Gospel.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:8-14)  Amen.