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CHRISTMAS DAY, 12/25/2007
Sermon on Luke 2:1-20, by Hubert Beck
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (English Standard Version)
ALL WHO HEAR IT WONDER AT WHAT THE SHEPHERDS TOLD THEM
God entered our worldly arena through a child who inspired "wonder and awe" - not the "shock and awe" that is so treasured by the powerful of the earth - but a "wonder and awe" that virtually leaves us speechless.
What kind of words can one use to describe the "wonder and awe" inspired by standing in the dim light of the stable in Bethlehem? What words are available to understand this moment in all its proportions? What words are available to fully interpret this moment? What words can possibly express things that even the angels struggled to put into words when announcing the birth of our Lord to those shepherds on the Judean hillside?
"Glory to God in the highest," they said, adding,
"and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased." (English Standard Version)
But these words from the heavenly sphere are hard to convey with exactitude, for translators struggle to convey the full sense of this angelic message - especially in its latter part.
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (New International Version)
"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!" (New Revised Version)
"Glory to God in highest heaven,
and on earth peace to all in whom he delights." (Revised English Bible)
"Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him." (The Message)
"Glory to God in the highest Heaven!
Peace upon earth among men of goodwill!" (The New Testament in Modern English)
If even angelic words are so ethereal that they are hard to get into human language with precision, what words of ours can be properly and most appropriately spoken as we stand beside this crib recently used to feed the cattle?
The angelic words are of such significance, however, that they have found their place in the liturgy of the church as our own human expression of praise. "Gloria in Excelsis!"
It is in the liturgy of the church, in fact, that we find some of our best expressions of praise. One of the Introits used in the service of Christmas Day reads:
"The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things.
He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn -
shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations. (from Psalm 98:1a, 2, 3, 4, 6)
Where our words fail before this feeding trough holding the holy child, the inspired words of the psalmist speak very eloquently - and they are incorporated into the service of the church where God's people are gathered as the body of Christ speaking them together in responsive fashion.
The same psalm is joined to Isaiah 9:6 when the congregation again joins in what is called "The Gradual," speaking responsively:
To us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things. (Isaiah 9:8, Psalm 98:1)
One simply cannot find words to express what we see when we join the shepherds at this scene of Jesus' birth. Here the Son of God has become flesh. We know what the words mean - but how to join them meaningfully together is all but impossible through our mere human intellect. Here the Spirit must make our hearts the manger within which the child lies, for the manger that lies before us holds a marvel beyond either our human comprehension or the confines of our human mode of speech.
O dearest Jesus, holy child,
Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,
A holy shrine, within my heart,
That you and I need never part. (from Martin Luther's hymn "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come")
The shepherds found some kind of words to tell people about what they had seen and heard, for we are told that "all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them." But were they words of understanding, words of comprehension - words beyond the awe and wonder of a newborn child, a mother and father swaddling their infant in wrapping cloths, a rough-hewn nursery surrounded by animals useful to an inn-keeper who had been so kind as to admit them into these unplanned-for quarters? After all, apart from the unusual surroundings as such, they had undoubtedly seen babies clothed as this one was many times before - and parents equally proud of and adoring their newborn child. It was beyond their experience, however, to see a divine presence in a human one. Their words at this time were confined to earthly words about an earthly experience just as their eyes were confined to earthly perception.
The angelic announcement, of course, had established this scene as a unique one. It took eyes other than human, however, to see the blood coursing in a body that would, in another thirty-three years, give it back to the ground from the cross of his suffering. It is unlikely that the parents, themselves, could see that far beyond this moment, for that matter, in spite of the mystery surrounding the birth that only they knew about. The scene was too serene to think of things like suffering and dying. The shepherds could only report the awe and wonder of a birth announcement that had been made in the heavens by messengers of the divine. That announcement did, indeed, cause wonder and awe as much as or more than the child himself, who appeared so much a part of this earthly scene. What they could not see, though, was the heavenly intent behind the birth. That was for other eyes yet to behold when this child became a man.
Yes, the shepherds spoke. But their speech was far too limited to capture the full awe and wonder of this moment just as their eyes were far too limited to see what really lay before their very eyes. Even to this day words cannot fully capture the deepest measure of this night.
Words set to music sometimes do better at this than words merely spoken. Christmas hymns and carols are sometimes better at giving us a glimpse into this manger scene than simple spoken words alone. From of old the birth story has been told in fashions such as his.
Of the Father's love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending he,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.
Oh, that birth forever blessed,
When the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bore the Savior of our race,
And the babe, the world's redeemer,
First revealed his sacred face
Evermore and evermore.
These words from the fourth century are marvelous bearers of the wonder and awe of the birth text we read earlier. They were followed in turn by other "interpreting verses" to complete the hymn of praise to be sung alongside Joseph and Mary and the shepherds in that stall at Bethlehem. From of old the scene was captured in eloquent fashion through words like these, being put to music through the ages as interpretations of that text. The tune to this text as we sing it today comes from the thirteenth century, almost a thousand years later - a moving testimony to musical interpretation of these words coming through the ages, interpreted still later by others who stood at this manger adoring the child in melodic fashion, and come to us in the twenty-first century as a witness to the grace of God that embraces all time and all eternity.
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light.
The hopes and fears
Of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.
For Christ is born of Mary,
And, gathered all above
While mortals sleep,
The angels keep
Their watch of wond'ring love.
O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing
To God the king,
And peace to all the earth.
How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is giv'n!
So God imparts
To human hearts
The blessings of his heav'n.
No ear may hear his coming;
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will
Receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.
Can you say it any better than Phillips Brooks did in these lovely words? At the very point where words fail us to all intents and purposes, they provide the medium for servants of the Lord to offer inspired insights into this marvelous night in ways that we find all but impossible to express on our own.
This birth which is beyond words, in fact, is spoken of by the apostle John as a birth through which "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14 ESV) What seems beyond speaking became a Word in bodily form, available to the earth as one in whom all the promises of God came together and in whom those promises resided. Soldiers returning from Iraq can perhaps relate to this, albeit in a form quite minor compared to this body bearing the divine image. Upon their return from duty they greet their wives, long "spoken to" only by e-mail or phone, by embracing them in bodily fashion. So also, the word of the Lord, spoken through the prophets in ages past, was now seen and heard and embraced in the fleshly form of this child of Bethlehem.
In a way like this writers inspired by God, some bearing such authority that they became written as the word of Scripture and others under the authority of that Scripture once written long ago, have put words around the child who occupies this manger, helping us to see the wonder that he bore in that infant body.
This morning, then, we join "all who heard it, wondering at what the shepherds tell us." (v. 18) Although we, like them, must return to the tasks that we left momentarily in order to come to this manger of which the angels spoke, we have the advantage they did not have of being able to follow him from this place to his circumcision and naming, to his visit to the temple as a twelve year old, to his baptism by John, to the mountains and plains from which he spoke, to the homes and lives that he touched, and finally to his date with suffering and death in Jerusalem. We stop here only momentarily in wonder and awe, but with equal wonder and awe we, with Mary his mother, will "treasure up all these things, pondering them in our hearts" as we follow him on his journey to death and resurrection. All this we will discover, is "for us."
This, after all, was neither a happenstance birth nor was his an idle wandering through life. This moment with all other moments to follow has a direction, an intention, a divine commitment to bring us out of darkness into the marvelous light of God's gracious restoration of lives once squandered in sinful self-serving wandering. This astonishing will of God to reach down into our lives through this child of Bethlehem - and, in turn, through water, bread and wine coupled with his continuing word - claims us by the power of his Holy Spirit to honor and praise, serve and obey him.
Gentle Mary laid her child
Lowly in a manger;
There he lay, the Undefiled,
To the world a stranger.
Such a babe in such a place,
Can he be the Savior?
Ask the saved of all the race
Who have found his favor.
Gentle Mary laid her child
Lowly in a manger;
He is still the Undefiled
But no more a stranger.
Son of God of humble birth,
Beautiful the story;
Praise his name in all the earth;
Hail the King of glory.
Or, as the Prayer of the Day for Christmas bids us pray together as the body of Christ on earth:
Grant, almighty God, that the birth of your only-begotten Son in human flesh may set us free, who through sin are held in bondage; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen