I admit that I am playing catch up tonight with posting my sermon texts. I've been that busy this past week, and it isn't going to let up for at least another week or more. 'Tis the season.
And because it's that season...there are those for whom Christmas is not a happy time. And after the year we've been living in the United States with this horrible regime who have been grabbing people off the streets...with the blessing of the Roberts Court...this has been a really hard year.
So we offered a "Blue Christmas" service, which included a time for healing prayers and anointing with oil. Here's the message I offered...in light of the Gospel reading from Luke. See what you think.
Text: Luke 2:8-20
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When I first proposed that we hold this
Blue Christmas service…the members of our worship committee chuckled…thinking I
was proposing some kind of Elvis tribute.
And while this isn’t a gathering we have
traditionally done here at St. Barnabas…it’s one that many Episcopal Churches
have come to provide to their communities in recent years.
Christmas…especially in this
hemisphere…where the days are shorter and the nights are longer… is a time when
some are feeling oddly out of step with the expectation of being joyous.
And I couldn’t help but notice that THIS
year…more than at any other time that I recall…many of my clergy colleagues
across the country seemed to have reached a similar conclusion:
That 20-25 needs a Blue Christmas.
Because 20-25 has been one very hard and
difficult year for a lot of people.
Heck…just the past eight days has felt
like a particularly trying time…with shootings and murders of Rob and Michelle
Reiner…and the ugly words spoken and shared across social media about all of
it.
The accusations and anger surrounding
the murder of Charlie Kirk this summer got reawakened all over again.
And the prospect of rising costs of
healthcare and groceries is lingering in the heads of millions of people.
That pall of sourness and meanness that
hangs over all of us and only makes whatever personal struggles we each are
wrestling with feel that much worse.
We are…unfortunately…a people sitting in
darkness…and not just because this happens to be the shortest day of the year.
And yet…even in the darkest of times…it’s
important to remember that darkness is a temporary occurrence.
The light is still out there if we keep
our eyes open and searching.
We can hear that message in both the prophecy
of Isaiah as well as our Gospel.
Both the prophet and the angel deliver a
message to people who are feeling as though they are in a hopeless situation.
The people in Isaiah’s time were afraid
of one set of enemies…only to be conquered by a different army.
Mary and Joseph...as well as the
shepherds…were living under the thumb of an occupying Roman Empire.
And in both cases…in their troubled
times…the promise was there that the future was brighter…and they’d be walking
in the light again.
A time was at hand when they will be
comforted by the presence of a wonderful counselor and prince of peace.
The fact that the angel made this known
first to shepherds is that reminder to us today that God seeks out those on the
margins for this good news.
Shepherds weren’t the ruling class….(they
still aren’t today).
They were the working poor of the First
Century…so low on the class strata that they were seen as social outcasts.
These shepherds were minding the sheep
at night…in the dark as it were.
Regular sheep herders did their work in
the day…so scholars think these shepherds were associated with the
Temple…caring for the sheep that would be used for sacrificial purposes that
would have needed round the clock observation.
It’s to this group of people…doing the
unglamourous work others wouldn’t do for the benefit of the community…that the
angel came to deliver the news of hope.
It was this group…not the political…religious
or even economic leaders…who received a vision of a great light and saw a
heavenly chorus singing of peace and glory coming into the world.
In the darkest hours…the promise of God
is to meet those of us who are sitting in gloom and grief…be present with us.
And encourage us to lift up our heads…open
our eyes and receive light…love…hope…peace…and yes: even comforting joy.
When things aren’t right in our lives or
in the world around us…we have this Christmas story as our reminder that we are
not alone.
Psalm 30 says “Weeping may spend the
night…but joy comes in the morning.”
Keep the faith.
And may we all come to see the dawning
of Christ’s light of Love for us and the world this Christmas.
In the Name of Our One Holy and
Undivided Trinity.
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