Sermon for Christmas Eve
Sermon for Christmas Eve
And so we celebrate again the coming of the Christ child. We celebrate everything that the Christ has come to represent in our lives. Peace. Hope. Joy. Love. It is no accident that our Advent wreath has come to represent those four qualities. They are what we cling to in this season, especially in a world that has grown so dark and fearful. Christmas has seemingly become more and more important as the world darkens around us. We need its light. We need its hope. We need to be reminded that the Christ has indeed come into the world.
That same light has shone brightly during other dark periods of our human history. There are the stories of soldiers during the first world war gathering from opposing sides to play soccer together and remember that although they were enemies on the battlefield, they were still human. They were still brothers and, in another time, and space, they may have been friends. It was a moment of hope in a time of dread, where so many died in the muck and grim of the trenches and a whole generation of youth was all but laid to waste.
We need Christ’s light desperately, as we face a new year of deep uncertainty and angst. What is going to happen? Will things improve? Will the wars that have raged in Gaza and Ukraine and so many other places in the world finally end or will they continue or even possibly escalate? Will we finally see relief for the hyper-inflation that has put such a strain on so many families? Will we see an end to divisive politics and hate mongering? Will our youth be listened to as they cry out for support and compassion? Will all the disaffected groups in our society find peace and safety, rather than fearing that their existence might be endangered by the wrong policy or law? Will we take seriously our stewardship of creation, so we can leave future generations a viable home where untold generations of our ancestors might yet flourish? So many questions. So many reasons we feel so unsettled and so frightened by what our future might bring.
So many questions, yet these issues are of our own making. We are giving thanks for the coming of the Christ child in our midst and celebrating again the coming of the Prince of Peace, but are we doing our part to follow where our Prince is leading us? We long for Christ’s peace and hold it close in this Christmas season, but are we doing our part to be agents of that peace? For every question I asked earlier, we should be able to find ourselves in the solution, at least in some small part. We need to disabuse ourselves of the notion that God will simply wave God’s hand and make everything better. That has never been the way that God has operated. It has been through the agency of God’s chosen that the darkness was driven back. It was through God’s love shining in them that things changed.
The Israelites found their freedom through God’s intervention, which found its human agency through people like Moses and Aaron. They were the mouthpiece of God. They were the one’s who, with God’s guidance, would lead the people out of slavery. And it was Moses protégé, Joshua, who led the people into the promised land.
It was the prophets who spoke truth to power to try and bring the Israelites back to God. They were not always successful, but they fought hard to follow where God was calling them to go. There were other such figures. Ezra. Nehemiah. The disciples. Paul. The countless men and women who have come since, all working to shine God’s light into the world and often paying with their very lives in the process.
And of course, there is Christ. His story is only beginning tonight and in the course of his life, he will give everything and he will die for the sake of God’s love, as an agent of God’s love, as the incarnation of that love. Christ gives everything for the sake of creation and in turn, Christ asks us to do the same.
There is no magical moment where God will change everything through the flick of a wrist. That is not how things truly change. They truly changed when Christ came to earth, to teach, to heal, to die, and to be raised to new life. They changed when God’s spirit animated people to stand for what was right and true and because they did, the horrors of the world abated, if but for a moment.
We long for Christ’s peace but forget to realize that we are called to be agents of that peace. We want to see God’s kingdom take root in the world but forget it must take root in our hearts first. No justice, no change, can happen unless it happens in our souls and we go out into the world, forever changed by our encounter with the Gospel.
One of my favorite story tellers and theologians, JRR Tolkien articulated this idea throughout his works. Though light always triumphed in Tolkien’s stories, it was only accomplished through the sacrifice and suffering of those willing to go where there was need and do what needed to be done. Though there was never a “God” figure named in Lord of the Rings, Tolkien did develop a God of his universe in some of his prequel books. And when the reader encounters that character, you realize that this figure is at work throughout the story. It was Iluvatar (Tolkien’s God figure), that gave Aragorn the strength to be the chosen king and help defeat the darkness of Sauron. It was Iluvatar that gave Frodo and Sam the strength to take the ring to Mordor. It was even Iluvatar that caused Gollum to interfere at the last moment, ultimately leading to the destruction of the ring. Tolkien was a staunch Catholic, so it is not hard to see Iluvatar as God. And by making that connection, Tolkien is making two points. God will inspire people to be the agents of God in this world, and through them, acting in God’s strength, the world will be changed. But Tolkien was also clear that it would cost these individuals everything to accomplish what needed to happen. Frodo was left mortally wounded and sickly for the remains of his life. The Elven people were forced to give up their homes which they had inhabited for thousands of years. Though the light was triumphant, the triumph took sacrifice. It took those of good heart sometimes losing everything so that the world could be a better place.
It may seem grim to say this, but this is the narrative that comes to life this night. Not a whimsical peace, more ephemeral than real, which we often mistake for the purpose of this night. Rather, the story is only beginning. It is a story of a love that is radical, reckless and will never stop fighting for the soul of creation. It is a story about the inspiration of countless people who have struggled to follow where Christ has led so that the world is not lost to the darkness. It is a story of sacrifice and struggle. It is our story. It is the story that changes the questions that we ask. Rather than asking “God, when will you come to make all things right?” we ask “God, where might I serve so that I can help shine your light into the world and help change this darkness into light?”
The Christ is born in Bethlehem and we sing Hallelujah. Christ is born in Bethlehem and will show us the way to move out into the world and give love as we were first loved. It is the story of a humanity who, through the help of God, can become what we were always meant to be, a humanity that strives in love for the good of all.
Amen