Sermon 12/24/2021 “This day!”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection, Alexandria, Virginia
Text: Luke 2:1-20
Day: Christmas Eve 2021
One of my earliest memories as a child is hearing tonight’s gospel lesson read. I look forward to hearing this narrative, this telling, of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in Bethlehem so far from his parents’ home. This story never gets old, never gets beyond our desire to hear it told, never becomes inconsequential or irrelevant in our lives. This is the story—the events—that changed human history forever: God, born to us, come as one of us to teach us how to live and to be with us forever.
I saw a nativity scene this year, Adoration of the Magi, by the 15th-century Dutch painter Rogier van der Weyden, that sums up Jesus’ story. Under the heading of “spoiler alert,” there was an image of the newborn baby Jesus, wrapped in cloth and surrounded by Mary and Joseph, shepherds bowing, animals lowing, magi coming from afar, with angels overhead—and a crucifix attached to a post behind the baby in the manger.
This is the story—the events—that changed me forever, convincing me that, though we are all born to die, that through the living and the dying of this child we all can live, as he lived.
Our lesson tonight is very economical, each word carefully chosen and the whole story highly polished by telling of Jesus’ birth over and over. We know this story; I daresay we came to hear this story tonight, there’s:
- Mary, the pregnant, unwed teenager who said “yes” to God
- Joseph, the perplexed but faithful finance
- Augustus, the emperor with delusions of control and need for taxes
- The newborn Jesus, wrapped in rags and lying in a crude bed in a stable far from home
- Rough men, reeking of sheep, sent by singing angels to find and worship the child
As many times as I have heard this story (as many times as I have TOLD this story) I noticed something new this year: two little words, the words “those” and “this.” These two words mark the momentous shift in reality that occurred at Jesus’ birth. Our lesson begins, “In THOSE days…” What were THOSE days? Those days were the BEFORE, before God came physically into human history. In THOSE days, the emperor was the biggest authority on the planet, the most consequential human around. He could say the word, and people had to return to their ancestral homes to be counted, to be taxed—moved around as mere pawns in the emperor’s game of life.
But then in tonight’s lesson, the articles get definite: this registration, this day, not just anywhere but in King David’s city of old where the Messiah was foretold to come, and this sign: a very unusual place to find a newborn baby, wrapped strips of cloth and lying in a manger. THIS thing that had come to pass: a baby not just as promised, not just filled with promise, but embodying the promise, “Lo, I am with you always,” the Lord would grow up to say, “even unto the end of time.” And beyond!
THOSE days were over; this day God’s promise to us had been fulfilled.
We know this story; we know these events and how they will play out. We know how this story resounds throughout history, stirring us to come worship the Christ child even to this night, some 2,000 years later.
You may recall, I had a lot of fun last year with this story. Last Christmas was our second one away from our property. The year before we had been in a borrowed chapel on the seminary campus. There were no mangers to be had—fittingly, all managers were in use that night and we had none of our own on that most holy night. At our service our “baby Jesus” doll was in a dresser drawer, looking strangely serene on the high altar in the seminary’s Immanuel Chapel—spoiler alert, indeed! I doubt that altar has hosted such a thing since!
That was two years ago. Last year we were still away from home, not in Bethlehem but in another borrowed building, this time the seminary’s dining room, dodging the COVID-19 virus. The service was livestreamed to you all with a minimal number of people physical present, but “our” baby Christ Jesus blessed us all wearing a onesie bearing the message “My first Christmas—AGAIN!”
Tonight—this night—we rejoice that we have a “home” here on Hope Way, that we can all worship together safely, even if only online, and that God is STILL with us, finding us wherever we are, come anew this year to invite us to share in his story. We’ve heard the story and our need to stay safe and worship in our homes again will at least allow us to belt out all hymns, beginning with “Joy to the World, the Lord has come;” all the way through to “Hark! The herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.” Born THIS day, in the City of David, our Savior, Christ the Lord.
But I ask you these things:
- What difference will this child make, lying there in his newest manger, if we do not make room for him in our hearts and in our lives? Will you let this bit of promise and hope grow within you, or will you linger in THOSE DAYS?
- What difference will the angels make, if we don’t let their glorious song move us to worship the Christ child? And would you still worship the Christ child if the angels are the only ones who could safely sing?
- What difference will the shepherds’ finding Jesus make, if we don’t also come to Jesus anew, this very night? Because you can’t be here safely in person, will you let us come to Jesus anew for you?
- What difference will it be, that “those days” are over and “this day” begun, if we think this baby is just like all the others who were ever born?
Alleluia! Unto us a child is born.
O come, let us adore him!
