ISAIAH 9:2-4, 6-7
PSALM 96
TITUS 2:11-14
LUKE 2:1-20
Sermon
12/24/01 12/25/01
Christmas
Eve Service, 10:30 p.m.
Christmas
Day Service, 10:00 a.m.
Christmas is different this year, some people say, and not joyfully. A nervous, cautious, down-sized Christmas, some say. Others may be more despairing, saying that Christmas will never be the same or even asking how one can celebrate Christmas after such a year. Let us listen to some imagined voices of Christmases past to see if we can find the answer.
Amsterdam, December
25, 1945. Winter grips a Europe which
lost millions dead in the just-concluded war, and millions more wander as
homeless refugees. The war to liberate
the continent from one appalling tyranny ended with Joseph Stalins troops
controlling everything between Greece and the Baltic. Hunger and cold stalk those who survived combat or the
concentration camps. The world we knew
is gone and God only knows what will replace it.
It is the best we
can do simply to survive.
Christmas. Yes, today is Christmas. My only Christmas present is to read this
story to myself: And the angel said to
them, Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which
will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a
Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Valley Forge,
Pennsylvania. December 25, 1777. All those brave words in Philadelphia a
year-and-a-half ago are hard to hold onto now.
Maybe the world really was meant to be ruled by kings; life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness will be hard-won if they are ever won at
all. General Washington holds out hope,
and if he does, I guess I will stick with him, though this winter is only just
begun. I have to say I am afraid: afraid for myself, for my family, for my
country, for the whole round world.
But today we
gathered round while the Chaplain read these words to us: And the angel said unto them, Fear
not: for behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord.
Paris. Christmas Day, the Year of Our Lord,
1349. Half the city has perished in
this dreadful plague. They say
one-third of Europe has died. May God
have mercy on us before we are all gone, unless indeed this is the end of the
world.
I am exhausted from
burying the dead. I have given last
rites more often each month this year than in any previous year since I was
ordained, and some people died so quickly I could not reach them. It is a great mercy his Holiness Clement VI
granted remission of sins to all those who died of the plague unattended by
priests.
Will anything be
left of my poor parish, my beautiful city, my beloved France, of Christendom
herself? Will I be here to see another
Christmas? I am afraid.
Now, I must read
the Christmas Gospel to those poor souls brave, or foolish, enough to come out
of hiding to attend Mass.
Et dixit illis
angelus nolite timere ecce enin
evangelizo vobis gaudium magnum quod
erit omni
populo.
Quia
natus est vobis hodie salvator qui est
Christus Dominus in
civitate David.
Hippo, North
Africa. December 25, the Year of Our
Lord 410. This is the first Christmas
since the Goths sacked Rome last summer.
We cannot pretend to be unmoved.
The unthinkable has happened:
Rome, ruler of all lands, has been proven vulnerable and has been
violated by the barbarians. Is this the
beginning of the end for the Empire which has ruled all the world since before
Our Lords birth? What will become of
us here?
Our bishop,
Augustine, is valiant, and he reminds us that our first citizenship is with the
city of God, which can never be stormed by any invader. Still, I confess, I am afraid. I told his grace, and he smiled and told me
I would be the one to read the Christmas Gospel at the Cathedral.
Et dixit illis
angelus nolite timere ecce
enin evangelizo
vobis gaudium magnum quod erit
omni populo.
Quia natus est
vobis hodie salvator qui est
Christus Dominus in civitate David.
New York, December
25, 2001. They are still pulling bodies
out of the ruins of the World Trade Center.
I still look for it sometimes, not wanting to believe this horrible disaster
really happened. Just looking at the
skyline hurts.
Osama bin Laden has
not been heard from lately, but he has not been found, eitherdead or
alive. No way of knowing how many of
his followers are still in business or what they may do next. Or who is sending anthrax through the mail
hereor whether thats over, or what comes next.
And the poor
Afghans, who suffered so much, now have a country where you take your life in
your hands just walking around, thanks to millions of land mines.
All this, and the
recession, too. I wonderis my job next? Dear God, I am afraid.
And now its
Christmas. I wonder if anyone has ever
felt afraid at Christmas. I hope
Christmas is about more than decorations, and store-bought presents and
superficial jollity, because I need more now. Christmas will never be the same for me; it must mean more,
or not mean at all.
I think I remember
where to find the story in the Bibleyes, here it is:
But the angel
said to them, Do not be afraid;
for seeI am bringing you good news of
great joy for
all the people: to you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,
the Lord.
Yes, the wrappings
have changed this year. The complacent
self-assurance, smug, false security and unbalanced prosperity of a year ago in
America are gone. We have joined the
rest of the world, living in a world with a level of risk and anxiety we have
not experienced as a nation for some time.
But risk and
anxiety are part of the human condition more often than not. And peace on earth and good will to all is
all too rare a phenomenon among human beings.
The human condition boils down to this:
we need help. Some years we realize it more than
others. This is one of those
years.
We need help. Not just best wishes. Help. E-mails are nice, but
cards and letters are
nice, but
phone calls are nice, but
when people really need help, nothing is
quite like someone showing up in person.
This is what
Christmas is really all about: God showing up in person because we need
help. We cannot save ourselves in
any sense of the term. By ourselves, we
cannot reach heaven, nor make this world heavenly. Only God can do either; God offers to do
both.
And God offers to
do both not in response to our pilgrimage to some exotic, hard-to-reach retreat
center, or because we mastered some occult code, but because we human beings
were floundering around making a bigger and bigger mess of things. God came to us: that is Christmas. The Savior is called Emmanuel, meaning, God with us.
God did not stay,
so to speak, in the owners box in the stadium, looking down at us on the
field through binoculars; God got right down on the field of our lives with us,
no matter how cold or muddy it was. Or is. God didnt just send an attachment that
said, You are loved. God showed up in
person, and showed Gods love for us, no matter how tough the
circumstances.
Palestine was ruled
by a brutal dictator, King Herod, who shortly after Jesus was born murdered all
the little boys of Bethlehem in an effort to kill the one the Wise Men called
the newborn King of the Jews. Later,
supreme political power in Jerusalem was held by a political hack named Pontius
Pilate who tortured and crucified the King of Kings to appease a mob. Those were not quiet times, and being the
Savior was no cushy job.
Only thus could a
decisive invasion of the world by Gods love take place. Only by coming where God is needed most and
the risk is highest could the awesome gift of Gods own self be given.
So yes, God is
always at Ground Zero, whatever that means for each generation, for each
nation, for each person, for each year.
There is no disaster too great, no human wickedness too appalling, no
suffering too profound to scare God off or keep him from coming. This year is no different.
No one and nothing
can stop Christmas from coming. No, not
Lord Voldemort. Not Sauron. And not Osama bin Laden. Christmas, the real Christmas,
happens not because everything is just right but because it isnt, and
only God can make it so.
At the first
Christmas, God began making the world anew.
Nothing could stop him then, or since, or now. And each and all of us can be part of Gods team in making the
world new through our good works done in thanksgiving for Gods grace and mercy
shown to us.
It is indeed time
for Christmas to mean more, to mean more deeply than ever before
for us. For 2,000 years, in good times,
in exceptionally challenging times and all kinds of times in between, the
message of God has come: God is with
us. God can make a way out of no
way. With God nothing is impossible.
With faith, hope,
teamwork, energy and divine guidance, Christians have dealt with the challenges
before them and persevered. We will
too. Christmas has never stopped
coming. Neither have Gods gifts of
himself to us.
The angel said to
them, Do not be afraid; for seeI am bringing you good news of great joy for
all the people: to you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
(The
Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard