Sermon Monday December 24, 2007
Christmas Eve
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Has there ever been a more blatant example of what it means to be among those walking in the darkness that our Old Testament lesson refers to than the words from our Gospel lesson "..there was no room for them at the inn." Talk about someone in need of a do-over or a reset button, it’s the innkeeper.
If only the innkeeper would have known the miracle that God was about to bring about through this wayward couple that happened to be traveling through, certainly they could have found somewhere for Joseph and Mary to stay. This Innkeeper had a golden opportunity to allow the most momentous birth in the entire history of all mankind to take place in their place of business, instead they let the opportunity pass them by.
Now in defense of the Innkeeper, this had to have been a pretty busy time with the registration going on and all these people who come from Bethlehem flocking back there for the registration. Really it’s not surprising that there was no room at the Inn. Business-wise, the Innkeeper probably saw the registration as the golden opportunity because of all the business that was flowing in. The Innkeeper was blinded by a desire for money. The Innkeeper was walking in darkness and missed the great light that walked before them.
And of course, having the benefit of over 2000 years of hindsight, it’s easy to be critical of the Innkeeper. It’s easy to condemn the Innkeeper for completely missing this situation of the extraordinary appearing among the ordinary that was set before them. But the truth is this is something that we fail at probably everyday. We don’t just fail to see the extraordinary among the ordinary, we fail to look for it.
We may talk about how much we admire the generosity of people like Mother Teresa or other people who give so generously of their time and talents, some of us might even donate something to charity this time of year or maybe even spend some time volunteering this time of year. And that’s all well and good, but in our day-to-day lives we are most likely to be just like the Innkeeper, so focused on what we think is important that we run the risk of missing out on the extraordinary coming to us in the midst of the ordinary.
And ironically we are perhaps more likely to allow this to happen this time of year more than any other time of the year. The innkeeper was probably pushing himself to the limit so he could keep up with all the potential business that was coming in then, while trying to secure repeat business for the future. Well this time of year, often we are so busy shopping and making plans that we lose sight of what really is important not just this time of year, but all year all the time.
Around this time of year we always hear all kinds of people trying to give their spin on what Christmas is really all about. Sheila and I were watching the Glenn Beck show last week and he had a guest host on this particular night. And the guest host was saying that he believed Christmas was really about visiting family and friends and enjoying each other’s company. Sheila rolled her eyes and sneered something like "Oh c’mon that’s not what Christmas is about." And she was right.
Usually when people offer up their view of what Christmas is ‘really’ about, it’s usually meant to be in opposition to the notion that Christmas is about shopping and all the commercialism connected to it. And that’s certainly important to remember, especially since we all probably give in to that rampant commercialism at least a little bit this time of year. But I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually believes that Christmas is about commercialism or spending money.
And so just because someone recognizes one thing that Christmas isn’t about, doesn’t mean that they recognize what Christmas really is about. Spending time with family, being nice to each other, being generous, that’s all a part of Christmas in that it’s part of what we do at Christmas, but that doesn’t mean that is what Christmas is about. Christmas is about our Lord coming to us and bringing to us the extraordinariness of Himself wrapped in the ordinariness of an infant, of a baby born in a barn.
He was born in a barn because there was no room at the Inn, and so Joseph and Mary moved on. They moved on and ended up in a barn and our Lord appeared as an infant in a manger. While the Innkeeper missed the miraculous nature of what would soon take place with the birth of this child, the shepherds on the outskirts of town would not miss it.
Of course they had the advantage of having an angel appear to them and pronounce to them what was taking place. And the shepherds were initially every bit as oblivious as the Innkeeper. It says that an Angel of the Lord appeared to them and they were terrified. They immediately assumed that what was taking place before them was not something to rejoice over, but something to be afraid of. But then we hear the Angel say to these shepherds the same thing that he said to Joseph in yesterday’s Gospel lesson when Joseph was considering dismissing Mary instead of taking her as his wife.
The Angel tells the shepherds not to be afraid, and that he is bringing for them good news of great joy for all people. And he tells them to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the messiah, the Lord. And then the Angel tells them where they would find this Savior. He doesn’t tell them to go to some great palace or some elaborate temple.
He tells them that they will find the child wrapped in bands of cloth lying in a manger. For a long time, I thought a manger was just a crib. But then I found out what it really is; a feeding trough for livestock. Well that had to take these shepherds at least a little bit by surprise. But again, that is what this season is about; the extraordinariness of God appearing to us in the midst of the ordinariness of our world.
And so these shepherds, after witnessing a sign of a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, heed the words of the Angel and they go the Bethlehem to see the Christ child. And they see that the One who had been foretold; the great light who would lead His people out of darkness had appeared as a newborn child in a manger in Bethlehem.
And so they do the only thing they can do after everything they have seen, they respond in the only way that they can think of. They go and tell everyone about it. They glorified and praised God for all that they had heard and seen.
They go out and they tell people about this extraordinary Child who appeared to them in such ordinary circumstances. They tell people about this Child who will grow up and live among His people, teach and preach and then He will die under circumstances that will seem to some to be just as ordinary as His birth. But when He was born He was wrapped in bands of cloth. When He died He would be wrapped in our sin and in our bondage to our plans and our obsessions and addictions. Through His death He would free us from all that binds us. Through the resurrection sin, death and the devil would be defeated.
And now it is our turn to walk in freedom. The grace of God that we read about in the lesson from Titus has appeared. Salvation has come. And that grace and salvation comes to us daily, even when we are like the Innkeeper and become too focused and even obsessed on what we deem to be important. Even then our Lord continues to bring the extraordinariness of Himself to us in the midst of the ordinariness of our lives; the ordinariness of a preacher proclaiming God’s Word to you, the ordinariness of the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, the ordinariness of the baptismal font, and the ordinariness of each of you.
So now the Christ child has appeared and we have been freed to take our cue from the shepherds, and go about the business of glorifying and praising God and through the Holy Spirit bringing the extraordiness of the Lord to the ordinariness of our neighbor, sharing the love of Christ with them through Word and deed.
Amen
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Has there ever been a more blatant example of what it means to be among those walking in the darkness that our Old Testament lesson refers to than the words from our Gospel lesson "..there was no room for them at the inn." Talk about someone in need of a do-over or a reset button, it’s the innkeeper.
If only the innkeeper would have known the miracle that God was about to bring about through this wayward couple that happened to be traveling through, certainly they could have found somewhere for Joseph and Mary to stay. This Innkeeper had a golden opportunity to allow the most momentous birth in the entire history of all mankind to take place in their place of business, instead they let the opportunity pass them by.
Now in defense of the Innkeeper, this had to have been a pretty busy time with the registration going on and all these people who come from Bethlehem flocking back there for the registration. Really it’s not surprising that there was no room at the Inn. Business-wise, the Innkeeper probably saw the registration as the golden opportunity because of all the business that was flowing in. The Innkeeper was blinded by a desire for money. The Innkeeper was walking in darkness and missed the great light that walked before them.
And of course, having the benefit of over 2000 years of hindsight, it’s easy to be critical of the Innkeeper. It’s easy to condemn the Innkeeper for completely missing this situation of the extraordinary appearing among the ordinary that was set before them. But the truth is this is something that we fail at probably everyday. We don’t just fail to see the extraordinary among the ordinary, we fail to look for it.
We may talk about how much we admire the generosity of people like Mother Teresa or other people who give so generously of their time and talents, some of us might even donate something to charity this time of year or maybe even spend some time volunteering this time of year. And that’s all well and good, but in our day-to-day lives we are most likely to be just like the Innkeeper, so focused on what we think is important that we run the risk of missing out on the extraordinary coming to us in the midst of the ordinary.
And ironically we are perhaps more likely to allow this to happen this time of year more than any other time of the year. The innkeeper was probably pushing himself to the limit so he could keep up with all the potential business that was coming in then, while trying to secure repeat business for the future. Well this time of year, often we are so busy shopping and making plans that we lose sight of what really is important not just this time of year, but all year all the time.
Around this time of year we always hear all kinds of people trying to give their spin on what Christmas is really all about. Sheila and I were watching the Glenn Beck show last week and he had a guest host on this particular night. And the guest host was saying that he believed Christmas was really about visiting family and friends and enjoying each other’s company. Sheila rolled her eyes and sneered something like "Oh c’mon that’s not what Christmas is about." And she was right.
Usually when people offer up their view of what Christmas is ‘really’ about, it’s usually meant to be in opposition to the notion that Christmas is about shopping and all the commercialism connected to it. And that’s certainly important to remember, especially since we all probably give in to that rampant commercialism at least a little bit this time of year. But I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually believes that Christmas is about commercialism or spending money.
And so just because someone recognizes one thing that Christmas isn’t about, doesn’t mean that they recognize what Christmas really is about. Spending time with family, being nice to each other, being generous, that’s all a part of Christmas in that it’s part of what we do at Christmas, but that doesn’t mean that is what Christmas is about. Christmas is about our Lord coming to us and bringing to us the extraordinariness of Himself wrapped in the ordinariness of an infant, of a baby born in a barn.
He was born in a barn because there was no room at the Inn, and so Joseph and Mary moved on. They moved on and ended up in a barn and our Lord appeared as an infant in a manger. While the Innkeeper missed the miraculous nature of what would soon take place with the birth of this child, the shepherds on the outskirts of town would not miss it.
Of course they had the advantage of having an angel appear to them and pronounce to them what was taking place. And the shepherds were initially every bit as oblivious as the Innkeeper. It says that an Angel of the Lord appeared to them and they were terrified. They immediately assumed that what was taking place before them was not something to rejoice over, but something to be afraid of. But then we hear the Angel say to these shepherds the same thing that he said to Joseph in yesterday’s Gospel lesson when Joseph was considering dismissing Mary instead of taking her as his wife.
The Angel tells the shepherds not to be afraid, and that he is bringing for them good news of great joy for all people. And he tells them to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the messiah, the Lord. And then the Angel tells them where they would find this Savior. He doesn’t tell them to go to some great palace or some elaborate temple.
He tells them that they will find the child wrapped in bands of cloth lying in a manger. For a long time, I thought a manger was just a crib. But then I found out what it really is; a feeding trough for livestock. Well that had to take these shepherds at least a little bit by surprise. But again, that is what this season is about; the extraordinariness of God appearing to us in the midst of the ordinariness of our world.
And so these shepherds, after witnessing a sign of a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, heed the words of the Angel and they go the Bethlehem to see the Christ child. And they see that the One who had been foretold; the great light who would lead His people out of darkness had appeared as a newborn child in a manger in Bethlehem.
And so they do the only thing they can do after everything they have seen, they respond in the only way that they can think of. They go and tell everyone about it. They glorified and praised God for all that they had heard and seen.
They go out and they tell people about this extraordinary Child who appeared to them in such ordinary circumstances. They tell people about this Child who will grow up and live among His people, teach and preach and then He will die under circumstances that will seem to some to be just as ordinary as His birth. But when He was born He was wrapped in bands of cloth. When He died He would be wrapped in our sin and in our bondage to our plans and our obsessions and addictions. Through His death He would free us from all that binds us. Through the resurrection sin, death and the devil would be defeated.
And now it is our turn to walk in freedom. The grace of God that we read about in the lesson from Titus has appeared. Salvation has come. And that grace and salvation comes to us daily, even when we are like the Innkeeper and become too focused and even obsessed on what we deem to be important. Even then our Lord continues to bring the extraordinariness of Himself to us in the midst of the ordinariness of our lives; the ordinariness of a preacher proclaiming God’s Word to you, the ordinariness of the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, the ordinariness of the baptismal font, and the ordinariness of each of you.
So now the Christ child has appeared and we have been freed to take our cue from the shepherds, and go about the business of glorifying and praising God and through the Holy Spirit bringing the extraordiness of the Lord to the ordinariness of our neighbor, sharing the love of Christ with them through Word and deed.
Amen
posted by Steve at 12:05 PM
1 Comments:
Not bad, although you started with the innkeeper and finished with the shepherds. I would have liked you keeping on one theme throughout
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