Christmas Eve Sermon

What happens tonight?

What happens tonight? If you ask my three-year-old, she would say that tonight, Santa is coming. If you questioned her more, she might say that Jesus is born. Even more, and she might tell you that we finally get to light that fourth candle on the Advent wreath, the one that’s been bugging her for weeks now. It’s finally here. What happens tonight? Jesus is born.

What happens tonight? We’ve waited for this night for weeks. We’ve prepared our houses, we’ve baked our cookies, we’ve wrapped our presents, we’ve listened to the carols. Maybe we’ve listened to the stories leading up to tonight in the Bible…the one about John the Baptist and his mother, Elizabeth, the one about Jesus saying that the end times are very close, right around the corner, in fact, and the one where John the Baptist is giving us the good news that the Messiah is coming and will harvest the people of God. Just to stretch it out, we’ve lit one candle, then two candles, then three, and now finally all of them stand lit.

And after all that, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. I come to this night, and maybe you do too, full of expectation and hope but also full of all the things that bring us down in this world…everyday stress, the state of the world, war, poverty, sitting in traffic. I bring all those things with me to this night, and I bet you do too.

What happens this night? What happens when we come face to face with God? What happens when we see the God who lives in Jesus’ birth tonight?

We can see what happens when we look at the ones who were there that night. The ones who saw Jesus, face to face, and were touched and changed by his birth.

What happened to the shepherds that night? What did they feel when they saw the face of God in the angels? They felt, we hear in the story, fear and trembling. The old translation says that they were “sore afraid.” Very afraid. Insanely afraid. Because the night had become as day…the night got lit up by the presence of these angels, and I can’t imagine that the song they were singing was quiet. They were afraid. And that’s how we feel too, sometimes, when faced with the presence of God. Afraid, when our life is lit up to show what we have done and left undone. Afraid, when we hear the voice of God telling us even good news in our life. Afraid. That’s what happens first tonight…we feel afraid. But thanks be to God…the first words out of the angels’ mouths was “DO NOT BE AFRAID…WE ARE BRINGING GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY!” Do not be afraid, even though the presence of God means nothing is done in secret. There’s good news of great joy for all people, even people who are afraid, even people like us. Do not be afraid.

What happens this night to the people who were afraid, the people who lived in darkness? What else happened to those shepherds? Well, in the words of the movie Forrest Gump…they just ran! They didn’t walk to the manger, they went with haste, meaning, they RAN. That’s how meeting God affected them…they ran to the manger to see this baby. And this people, who had lived in darkness…then they praised and gave thanks to God! These shepherds, these common people who didn’t have anything, really, ran to see the baby Jesus, and then they ran back out again, praising God, preaching, prophesying, and telling everyone who they met what had happened to them. That’s what happens this night. Even people like us…people who don’t have any special qualifications…people who have walked in darkness…people who aren’t even expecting ANYTHING…these people become the ones who spread the good news about the birth of Jesus, because they can’t imagine doing anything else. Seeing the face of God so changed them, so touched them, that their lives have become all about running, not walking, to tell people who haven’t heard about the grace of God.

What happened this night to Mary? What happened to this important disciple, this servant of God? Mary gave birth to Jesus. In the Orthodox church, her title is God-bearer. She brought God into the world in Jesus. And that might have been enough, her saying yes to God, when an angel came to her to ask if she would be the one, her giving birth. But she becomes more than that. After these things happen to her…all these things, can you imagine? An angel visits you and tells you that you, if you agree, will become the mother of the Messiah, and you’re a teenager and not even married yet? You carry the baby, agree to your husband and the government’s crazy idea that you, nine months pregnant, should take a three-day trip to Bethlehem on a donkey so they can count you, and then give birth in a stable. I think that would be plenty for me, thanks, for one lifetime.

But Mary is special. Mary knows that these things that have happened around her son’s birth will affect everything. So she looks at all these things…the angels, her strange pregnancy, the shepherds, running to her side, the bright star over the place where she gave birth, the beautiful baby boy in her arms. She looks at all these things, and she holds them dear, she holds them to herself. She keeps them inside, even though she’s not sure what they all mean at the time. But she preserves the memory of this night, of all that happens to her in this night.

And we preserve it too, don’t we? It’s Christmas Eve, the night we waited for, the night that the herald angels sing and the faithful come and the night is silent, at least for a little while. We treasure the moments and we remember them in our hearts, even if they’re not perfect, because we have brought our tired selves here to worship the baby in the manger and his face is the face of God.

So we, with Mary, remember this night, and all that has happened. We carry it with us when, like Mary, we have terrible things happen to us, when life is not so wonderful and magical by candlelight. Mary must have carried the memory of this night with her when she saw her son on a cross, so many years later. Although there was pain and struggle and death she carried within her the memory of a night, this night, when the star shone and the angels sang and a baby was born who would save us all.

Amen, and Merry Christmas!