The Rev. Dr. Austin Leininger
Sermon of Christmas Eve Night
24 December 2017
Readings:
Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14(15-20)
Psalm 96
To us is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord…”Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom God favors!” Amen.
Over the past four weeks of Advent we’ve prepared for this night of light and mystery—recalling the words of the prophets, the words of the angels, the stories of the here and now and the not yet of God’s kingdom of light and inexhaustible love. And tonight we finally celebrate the mystery of Christ’s birth—as the incarnation of God’s love.
This is the night! In the midst of the earthy smells of animals, feed, and travel-worn bodies, Jesus has arrived! In the midst of life throughout the rest of the world going on as though nothing else had happened, a great light has appeared in the quiet obscurity of a Bethlehem stable! Of course, the angels have also returned! For the fourth time since Elizabeth conceived, the angels have returned, announcing the birth with praise, singing, and heavenly fanfare to the whole of the world itself—where a group of shepherds were the only human witnesses to all the majesty of heaven’s chorus of praise. And for the rest of the created cosmos, a new star has arisen as the light of all lights has been born into the world. And here, after centuries of waiting and promises, preparations, and anticipation, in the humble stable of a small town, the mystery finally draws us in.
The magi have set out on what will be a two-year long journey to encounter God face to face in their own Epiphany of God’s light in the Christ Child. And the Shepherds have come in from their fields of the angelic visitation. In awe, amazement, and rejoicing, they have come to gaze upon the face of God, incarnate in human form.
A light shines in the darkness! Into the world a new light has come. The light of God’s love—the very light of creation itself—has come to walk amongst us, to learn our ways so that he could teach us what it means to be loved as God loves—to teach us again what it means to be loved so much that God would do anything for us, even die for us, to show us that this love can never be taken away. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined…. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest,” for, as the Angels proclaimed, “To us is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord…Glory to God in the highest heaven!”
Arriving in wonder, the shepherds find the holy family and tell them what they’ve seen and heard about the tiny new life swaddled in the manger.
Gazing into the eyes of the one who watched creation itself unfold in the beginning of time, the shepherds returned to their lives, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them by the angelic host.
Here, in this tiny new life, the separation between God and humankind has been laid bare. Since the beginning, God has walked with us, loved us, and has never left us. Yet we have built walls between ourselves and God. We have walked away and never looked back. We have assumed that there is an impassible barrier between us and the divine who has sought us since the first moment we turned away. Tonight we are reminded again that God is with us—here, now, in this and in all places and times—that God loves us beyond any love we have ever experienced, and, in the tiny outstretched arms of the Christ Child, we see in human form the same gesture that God has been making since the beginning of time.
While he was Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams reflected on the facets of the divine that are reflected throughout creation—in the natural beauty of the world surrounding us, in the love and care built into the fabric of our closest relationships, in every corner of the created order, and in the faces of every human person created in God’s image.
This night as we celebrate God’s light and love incarnated in the Christ Child, let us remember that same light is reflected in our own lives and hearts as we live as Christ’s hands and heart in this same world that still shines with the light and love of the Christ Child. This night, the light that shines in the newborn messiah’s eyes beckons to us again, offering to ignite the same spark of divine light reflected back to God and to one another from each of us, created in the image and likeness of God’s own light and love.
On a night far removed by time and place, in an ancient and obscure middle-eastern stable, a baby was born who would never have been known or noticed… except that nothing has ever been the same since.
A light was kindled in the darkness, the light of divine love was and is rekindled in our own hearts. God’s promised messiah, expected for centuries and remembered for millennia, has come to us this night in the tiny, frail, helpless, beautiful body of Christ.
Rejoicing with glad hearts and still in awe of all they had seen and heard, the shepherds returned to their fields changed forever by the events of this holy night. In just a couple short week’s we’ll hear again the awesome story of the Epiphany of the Magi, who will similarly encounter the divine in the most unexpected and humble home of Mary and Joseph, and who will also depart changed forever.
Mary, the bearer of Jesus into the world is said to have treasured all these words in her heart—silently contemplating the awesome wonder of all that has happened to her and to this world on this night of birth, of light in the darkness, of visitation, and of wonder. She too was changed forever, yet—even more profoundly—in the mothering arms of this young woman lay the sleeping infant messiah whom she would comfort, care for, feed from her own breast, raise, and teach to love as humans love—all so he could grow strong, comfort and care for her at the foot of the cross, feed her with the living sacrament of his body and blood, and teach her and each of us with her to love as God loves.
This Christmas night we too are called to the manger, to the Bethlehem stable where the light of lights lies waiting, where in the eyes of the Christ child we too are called to encounter the infinite and eternal light and love of that same creator God who has beckoned to us throughout the ages of the world. This is the night! The night of light, of love, of angelic song and rejoicing. The night God stopped waiting for us to come back to our source, and came to join us as one of us—to show us the way back into the light of God’s eternal and undying love.
My children sleep this night with memories of all of us sitting around the fire-circle in our backyard. We each shared a favorite experience of light in the darkness with a warm apple cider and with the fullness of anticipation and delight upon us at the near approach of Christmas. They sleep this night with memories of the Christmas Pageant, and the community celebration of Christ’s birth that reminds them of the light of Christ that is never extinguished—even when we cannot see it. They sleep this night with memories of the joys of our family celebrating the gift of Christ through exchanging our own gifts around the Christmas tree. They sleep this night, and I soon with them, with the welcoming of the Christ Child, of God’s light, of God’s love alive and familiar in their hearts.
The mystery beckons. The Christ Child awaits. Together, let us approach with awesome wonder to gaze anew upon the face of God.
To us is born this night in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord…”Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom God favors!”
Merry Christmas!
Amen