Christmas Eve, 12/24/2018

Sermon on Luke 2:8-20, by Samuel David Zumwalt

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 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.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

THE GREAT PHYSICIAN: WILL TAKE YOUR HEART

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you have a little girl whose next birthday is twelve, you don’t think of your child as being ready to be engaged and, then, to be married a year after that. In fact, in our culture, many if not most American women are delaying marriage until their late 20s. Their parents urge them to get their education and settle into a career first. Then marriage. Then children. We know that the greatest cause of poverty, the greatest cause of involvement by young men in gangs, and the greatest cause for large numbers of young men in prison – all come from single moms raising children without fathers. Every empire that has failed has been undone by the deterioration of the nuclear family – a father, a mother, and children. The myth of progress leads some to believe we are different, but the prima facie evidence of poverty and gang violence in America says, “No.”

One hundred years ago, particularly in farming communities, girls were routinely married at fourteen after having completed the 8^th grade. Their husbands would have been just a couple of years older, having worked full-time in the fields after having completed school with the sixth grade. In well-to-do homes, daughters were regularly married at 18, after having completed high school. Even in the 1960s, marriage just out of high school was the norm for girls.

So, the Blessed Virgin Mary had just reached puberty when she was betrothed (engaged for one year) to Joseph. That was the norm for a culture that highly valued virginity. She would have been 12 or 13 at betrothal and no older than 14 at the time of her marriage. Sometime after her betrothal, Mary was visited by a messenger from God. And this is where the story challenges.

Now, let’s be clear that popular culture loves the supernatural when it comes to TV, movies, and video games, but, oppressed by the fear of peer disapproval and tyrannized by the notion that what the masses think reasonable automatically excludes the very idea of God and of angels, many respond to the idea of virginal asexual conception and God becoming human as nonsense.

But, “you’ve got to be kidding” or “I’m not buying that” do not pass muster as logic or reason.

Frankly, there are any number of popularly held ideas and opinions that have no basis in science or are actually not scientifically verifiable that the crowds insist must be embraced simply because they are the new dogma of post-modernity. Brilliance or facility in one arena does not make one brilliant and facile in all arenas. Being on TV, in the movies, or on stage as an actor tends to mark you as an exceptionally talented liar and nothing more. Having a Ph.D. or Th.D. means you have an amazing capacity for talking and writing endlessly about many things that have no relation to objective truth or even commonsense. Fame, notoriety, or tenure do not mean you can actually make a rational or logical argument. Death continues to be the great leveler.

So, then, let us suppose that none of us is the center of the universe. Oh, we may act like it, and the wealthier or more popular we are may mean getting away with that foolishness for a good while. Nevertheless, each of us has an expiration date. Our mortality precludes our ability to argue rationally against the idea of God or against such a thing as asexual virginal conception. For, the big if is this: IF there is a God, who is the Maker and Owner of all things, who is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, that God can do exactly what that God wills – whether we, in our mortal, impotent, limited knowing, and spatial and temporal fixedness, think it possible, reasonable, logical, or believable. In other words, “You’ve got to be kidding” or “I’m not buying that” don’t lay a glove on a God who is the Maker and Owner of all things.

So, I ask you to suspend your obstinate disbelief at least as much as you do when you watch a TV show, movie, or play that happens in another place and time. You’d do it for J.J. Abrams.

Angels, God’s messengers, are a separate order of being. One does not become an angel at death, “It’s A Wonderful Life” notwithstanding. All the angels were created at the beginning of creation, according to the Scriptures, and those on the side of God outnumber the evil ones two to one. Angels can appear bodily, but they are, in fact, spiritual beings not bound by space or time. One of God’s angels announced to a 12- or 13-year-old Jewish virgin that she would be the bearer of God’s Son in human flesh. Like anyone given to wanting rational answers, she asked how it was possible since she was a virgin. The angel said it would be so. She said, “Let it be.”

The young woman suspended her disbelief: “OK. If God says so, that’s fine with me.” Of course, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. That’s true of anyone who gets married and especially those who want children. New parents learn that B.C. means the time before children.

Tonight, we don’t have to review what Joseph thought when she said the Holy Spirit was the father of the baby. I’ve thought his response may well have been, “Oy veh, Maria!” I digress.

Now, just for the record, I’ve sat through lectures and read books that contend Luke’s infancy narrative is just a nice piece of historical fiction. People who make these arguments really don’t know more than those who believe that Luke is actually reporting what Mary told him at a later date when he visited her in Ephesus, where she was living in the home of her adopted son John. Again, “you’ve got to be kidding” and “I don’t buy that” aren’t made any more logical by the number of footnotes you use and the number of letters after your name. We could go on to talk about all the many other alternate stories about Jesus still being told today, but we don’t have the time here. Take a good course on the development of Christian doctrine taught by someone who actually believes. Or, google “Issues, Etc.” and start listening to some excellent podcasts.

So, again, an angel appeared to shepherds out in the field telling them of the birth of God’s Son, the Savior. The heavenly army choir suddenly appeared singing: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth.” That’s the proper response to great news. You sing a song of praise. Then, the angels left, and the shepherds looked at each other and probably said something like, “What was that? Are we dreaming? And, if so, how can we be having the same dream?” So…they went to Bethlehem to check it out and found the newborn Messiah, the long-promised King from David’s family. When they told the parents what the angels said, others that were there wondered at these things. But Mary pondered in her heart all that they said. Then, having delivered great news like the angel, they did as the heavenly army choir did. They praised God.

So, why should this story make any difference at all? If it’s not true, then you can go back to what you were doing, waiting for death to take you or someone who means the world to you, and then pretend you get to make up what happens, if anything. But, since you and I are mortal, what we pretend disappears the minute we die. It’s like when you throw out the food that has passed its sell-by date, only a lot more painful to those left behind. And, then, when you get your heart broken, or someone abandons you, or someone cheats on you, or someone publicly humiliates you, or you do any or all that to someone else, THEN all you can say is you’re sorry. But that doesn’t undo what you did or what was done to you, and there you are with your stomach kicked out from the inside. And to kill the pain, you may grab a bottle of pills or booze or someone to lay down beside you who won’t be there for you…and later you’ll only feel even worse.

BUT, if it is true, and I believe with all my heart that it is true, THEN you have the promise of forgiveness, eternal life, and the healing of all that is broken in and around you, because the Savior of the world has been born, God in human flesh, and He will take your sin and your death to His lonely cross and give you in its place forgiveness and eternal life. And, when you are baptized into His saving death and joyous resurrection, you have His promise that all that He has done was done for you without any cost to you…that you may be His forever. And, when the baptized come to the altar with empty, sin-sick hands, because that’s all that we can bring to the altar, THEN the Great Physician says: “This is my Body…This is my Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Receiving Jesus in the Host and Cup, you and I have peace with God forever. Like Mary, that’s a lot to ponder in our hearts. In fact, the Great Physician, Jesus, the Healer of every ill, will take our hearts and fill them with joy. Isn’t that Great News? If you agree, then there’s only one thing to do. Let’s sing like angels before we go!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Samuel David Zumwalt
Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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