Luke 2.1-20

Christ Mass Eve (Revised Common Lectionary) | 12.24.23 | Luke 2.1-20 | Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

“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 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]

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people…to redeem us and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” [Titus 2.11, 14]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord

Earlier today, during the hours leading up to noon, there were probably millions of baptized people throughout the world who either spoke or sang the opening line from Zechariah’s song of praise – “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free!”  This phrase (from the father of John the Baptizer) provides an excellent background for the Son’s Incarnation which is being observed this evening throughout the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in a world that is shot through with a shallow confidence and a stubborn anxiety.

The word, “blessed,” used rather thoughtlessly these days, literally means “to speak well of.”  Thus, when the phrase, “Let us bless the Lord,” is used in the Church’s liturgies, we are being reminded to “speak well of the Lord,” and for good reason – he has pulled us away from the crushing realities of this world’s life!  The word, “blessed,” definitively reminds us that the thousands of gods in this world, while making their attempts, cannot begin to match up with the LORD God of this universe.

When Zechariah points out that this overwhelming and compassionate God has “come to his people,” he is recalling the Incarnation of the Son, the One who came into, grew, and then emerged from Mary’s body.  “Setting them free” points to the freedom the Son has given all people from the realities of sin, Satan and death, realities that stir up all the trouble in the world’s life, realities that keep it mired in an unending cycle of senseless living.

This night, then, when we “speak well of the Lord” points us to the holiest night of the year, the night before Easter Day, when the Liturgy of Holy Saturday startles us with the reality that the Son is breaking free from his crucifixion the previous day!

The Gospel for this evening revolves around three paragraphs in Luke’s second chapter.

As we turn into it, it is striking how Luke has the world on his mind as he describes the birth of Mary’s Son.  This comes out in the setting for Jesus’ birth.  The emperor of Rome, Augustus, has thrown the whole country into motion with the order to have everyone register themselves in the places from which they have come.  What catches our attention about this is that Augustus, a powerful and skillful leader, is currently being hailed as the world’s savior!  He has brought peace to the entire Mediterranean world and is being thought of as a god!  Luke, however, audaciously details how the real Savior of the world is beginning to make his way into it and the world has no idea this is occurring!

In the middle of this motion and turmoil, we see a barely known husband and a teen-aged, pregnant wife making their way to Bethlehem.  Because of Mary’s pregnancy, the journey is difficult and dangerous.  They, along with all the other people (which includes the wealthy and the poor) are traveling in response to the government’s order.  So they come to Bethlehem and settle into a stable.

This raw setting, though, marks fulfilling of the Lord’s promises over the centuries:

First, Bethlehem is the city of David, Israel’s greatest king and the head of a family line from which the Messiah would eventually emerge. Second, the word, “Beth-le-hem,”

means “House of Bread”; Jesus, who is “the Bread of Life,” is being born into this house.  Third, the bands of cloth wrapped around Jesus’ body show the Lord’s people (through Mary and Joseph’s actions) receiving and caring for the Messiah.  Fourth, the manger (mentioned in Isaiah 1.3) shows the place from where the LORD God is choosing to dwell with his people.

Luke still has the world on his mind as he describes the Lord’s announcement of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds out in the fields.  Biblical teachers suggest that these people were keepers of the sheep that were sacrificed in the Jerusalem temple (if so, Luke may be

pointing to Jesus’ crucifixion).  It is night and they are doing their work when the Lord’s

appearance through an angel startles and terrifies them.  This is somewhat surprising because shepherds are a hard and rough group!  The Lord’s angel calms them, telling them that this birth is the fulfilling of the Lord’s promises to his people through the centuries.  This angel is joined by others and they burst into a song (an eruption that has surfaced in the Liturgy as a hymn of praise, “Glory to God,” for thousands of years since this birth).

Luke then describes the shepherds rushing off to Bethlehem, finding a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger.  Their finding signals that the Lord’s people are finally coming to know the Lord’s manger, reversing Isaiah’s lament that, while animals know where they are supposed to be, the Lord’s people do not!  After the shepherds report the angel’s message about this baby, the first reaction is one of “astonishment.”

Luke tells us that it is Mary alone, the Mother of this baby, who keeps these events, interpreting them in her heart.  This suggests that it is Mary who is retaining what is being heard.  The shepherds are now allowed to depart.  Shepherds are pointers of future believers who will glorify the LORD God for what they have heard and will praise the LORD God for what they have seen.  The shepherds are believers of Jesus’ birth, but it is Mary who is the bridge to the Son’s crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.

The events of this holy birth are bewildering to Mary.  An angel has proclaimed “this day” as one of salvation – the sign has been given, heavenly hosts have appeared, and shepherds have made their way to the manger.  These are puzzling events that Mary keeps in her heart.  She will interpret them fully after the Son’s ministry when Jesus ascends to eternity, returning to the Father from whom he came, completing the work of salvation.  We, in turn, remember that Mary was not only present at the Son’s crucifixion and ascension but also at the pouring out of the Son’s Spirit on Pentecost.

It is no wonder, then, that everyone in the world-wide Church are “speaking well of the Lord” this evening.  The LORD God is slipping his Life into the world’s life!

This evening, then, while most people gather in their own clusters of families and

friends, there are groups of the baptized and ordained who gather in the presence of the Father, Son and Spirit to be reminded of how their Life is slipping into this world’s life.  Through the Son’s Incarnation, the redemption (the rescue) of the world’s people is getting underway.

Why?  This compassionate and gracious action is THE rescue from ourselves, it pulls us from the life given by the world at birth.  Such a rescue is needed and vital because the software given us at birth has a major glitch in it.  That birth gave us the instinctive drive for one’s self, the desire to be like God, the notion that everything in this life revolves around what we think and do.

Underneath the world’s life, this glitch mars everything, it confounds the life and work of our parishes, it unsettles the lives of those who are baptized and ordained. Thus we are not surprised by the realities of the world’s life: its tendency to be negative; its inability to see beyond itself; its “gift” of political leaders who cannot be trusted; its creation of government structures that bog down and become ineffective; its unwillingness to honestly confront the hatreds rolling out from the souls of the world’s people.

Unfortunately, this glitch leaks into the lives of those who are baptized and ordained.  This is why parish communities are often confounded about the ministry given them by the LORD God.  We skip over the natural drive for self.  We encourage parishioners who honestly think we are to give others what they want.  We school pastors who think the ministry is all about them.  We control our behaviors so they don’t make the local news. We organize our parishes so they look successful by the world’s standards.  We consider social media to be the solution to the issues we confront.  We work the Church’s life down so that others may be inclined to throw their lives in with ours. We exercise too much creativity with the traditions handed down to us.

This glitch in human nature is a highly dubious “gift” from the realities of sin, Satan and death, marring the world’s life as well as the lives of those who are baptized and ordained.  Tonight, though, the Lord’s people recognize he is slipping his Life into our own so as to free us from that dubious “gift.”  He does this from his Holy Writings as well as through the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist.

Those who cluster on their own this evening are many more than those who gather in the Lord’s presence.  But it is the baptized and ordained who are seeing the full impact of the Lord’s Life making its way into their own.  We are not better than others, but we have seen what happens when the Son’s Incarnation makes its way into our lives.  It frees us from the instinctive grasping for self, it pulls us from the world’s life, it replaces the realities of sin, Satan and death with the realities streaming from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!  They are slipping their Life into the world this evening, making it possible for us to “speak well of the Lord” for what he has done and will continue to do!

Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord

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Pr. Carl A. Voges, STS, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com