This has been a really rough year for so many in my congregation. Hurricane Idalia is still messing with people's lives as they fight with their insurance companies over damages. Others have had difficult health events. And then there is the reality of war happening around the world which touches the lives of those connected to the air force base.
I keep hearing people saying that "Christmas is canceled" particularly in the Holy Land due to the terrorism and war that has been gripping the region for the past two and half months. If ever there was a time for us to call upon Jesus to be made manifest, now seems the time!
I realize that most preachers in the United States will steer clear of the hardships that surround us as they preach their Christmas Eve sermons. We want everyone to be happy and joyous, after all. But I'm just too much of a journalist, too much of a person who sees the things happening in the world and knowing that those are the things my people are hearing and experiencing, too. So I don't want to ignore the realities happening around us. But I want to also remind us that those realities are met on Christmas by a new thing, a new reality that has come to redirect our attention back to Love.
And so here it goes. See what you think.
Text: Luke 2: 1-20
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Prayer: The Word was made flesh and dwells among us.
May it be the Word we hear…read…mark…learn and inwardly digest as the guiding
light of our hearts. Amen.
I was casually scrolling through my social media…Facebook and
various news sites…when I came across a story about the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Bethlehem….and their nativity scene.
Interested…I clicked on the headline…which said there was something
“controversial” about their display.
Having in my previous career reported and witnessed no end of
controversies about nativity scenes and menorahs and all kinds of religious
symbols on display in government buildings…I had to wonder what could be so
controversial about a church putting up a nativity scene in the Holy Land?
The story popped up on my screen…and the image was arresting.
Instead of a manger with Mary and Joseph looking on in awe and
wonder on the Christ child….the church had assembled broken rocks and concrete.
And there…in the middle of the rubble…was Baby Jesus.
Instead of swaddling clothes…he was wrapped in the Palestinian
kufiyah…their traditional black and white scarf.
There were a few sheep scattered in the ruins.
Off in the distance…one could make out a shepherd here or there.
Even in this scene…the heavenly chorus is able to reach the lowly
shepherds with good news.
It looked like so many of the images we’ve been seeing emerge from
the Holy Land as the war in Gaza rages on.
The church’s display captured the reality on the ground and the
feelings in the air.
It was certainly a provocative move.
What many Americans probably don’t realize is that Bethlehem…the
city which we commemorate as the birthplace of Jesus…lies inside the
Israeli-occupied West Bank…a little more than six miles south of Jerusalem.
And while there has been a lot of attention focused on Gaza…there’s
been tension and violence in the West Bank for some time as Israel creates more
and more settlements in areas with Palestinians.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th…relations
between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank have gotten worse.
There are the extremist Zionist factions which have no problem
assaulting Palestinians….taking out their hurt and anger and fear on those who
farm olives.
There are those Palestinians who support fighting against Israel
who they see as the oppressor and a source of their misery.
For Palestinian Christians…they are embroiled in a nightmare.
The voices of peace on both sides…Jews and Muslims desiring a
two-state solution to the constant conflicts in the region… are still out there.
But the noise of war captures much more attention.
Bethlehem…which relies largely on Christian tourism especially at
Christmas…is not a safe place to go.
Christian leaders in this little town made the difficult decision
to cancel tree-lighting ceremonies. And while there are Christmas Eve services
being held…they are not the same as in years past.
The headline writers have told us that “Christmas is canceled” in
the Holy Land.
But I would argue quite the opposite.
Because that image of Jesus laying amidst the broken bomb-scarred
rocks in a Lutheran Church in Bethlehem is as much a sign of Christmas for us
in the 21st century as what those ragtag shepherds saw when they
trekked off to the manger in search of the Messiah…two thousand years ago.
Jesus then…and now…comes to us amidst the chaos and the rubble of
real life.
Jesus was born into a world in which his own earthly parents would
be forced to flee to Egypt as refugees.
The political landscape of the Roman Empire was fraught with
tyranny and bullying of the Jewish population.
It was a dangerous world.
There were greedy people holding positions of power and privilege.
There were those doing what they could to get by and not cause any
trouble.
There were some who had dropped out of society to go live on the
outskirts of town with John the Baptizer by the Jordan River.
And there were hundreds of people who felt hopeless to counter what
was happening in society….and others who kept looking for ways to end the
corrupt systems that held them back.
And there were wars.
All of it sounds a lot like our world today.
So when newspeople want to report that Christmas is canceled…I say,
No.
Go find another phrase for your click-bait! (and as a journalist by
training…I reserve the right to criticize my colleagues of the Fourth Estate!)
Yes, maybe all the usual activities aren’t happening.
Maybe the manger scene is messier than what we’re used to seeing.
But Christmas is not just about Christmas trees and gift-giving….or
the latest pitch for a new Toyota.
Christmas for us is the celebration of God’s in-breaking into the
world…the day that Love came down to earth to dwell among us as one of us.
And boy! It is so important and necessary for that Love to come to
this world now!
Given all the upheaval in Europe and the Middle East…and our own
continued meanness and in-fighting in our national and state politics…with our
social safety net in Lowndes County stretched to the breaking point…we sorely
need to get back to the Source of Life…and Light.
We need that light to shine boldly and brightly.
We need it to pierce through the depths of the gloom and darkness that
threatens to overshadow all that is good.
Now maybe you’re sitting there thinking, “Great, but where is that
light coming from?
When is it going to show up?”
I don’t have an answer for that.
But I can at least get a glimpse of where to look.
We can start by taking in the sight of our Advent wreath.
We can see the flickering lights.
Each candlelight was added one at a time through Advent.
Now…we have this ring of fire around the one central Christ candle.
This gathering of light can serve as an outward and visible sign to
us… a beginning for our prayers and meditations.
And again…it’s a symbol. A representation of the light of Christ.
At our baptism…we were handed…or maybe our parents and
godparents…received a candle representing the light of Christ.
Besides being a sweet gift…that candle is meant to be the reminder
of what is inside all of us.
Each one of us carries with us that light of Christ.
So it is really each one of us who has the potential to do the work
that Christ came into the world to do:
to sit and care for those who are brokenhearted,
the oppressed,
the person in need of a friend.
One of the traditions at Christmas Eve is to sing “Silent Night.”
We do this by candlelight.
The usher lowers the overhead lights as we pass the light to each
other’s candle.
Tonight…as we do this…think of it as the symbolism of being a light
of Christ for your family…your friends…for your neighbors.
A light that you can pass on to someone else.
A light that may need you to cup your hand around at times to keep
it going.
Take a moment to look at a room full of candlelight.
Be still and know that the God who is meeting us in this moment is
the God who is calling us now to fulfill the dream of God’s peace on earth as
it is in heaven.
The world cannot cancel Christmas if we commit to being Christ’s
hands and feet…ears and eyes…head and heart.
Time for us to show up and shine on.
In the name of God…F/S/HS.
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