“Love, In A Manger, Laid”

Christmas Eve 2020: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.

Tonight is a most holy night – one that is usually so familiar, but for us in this year a bit strange, even bittersweet.

Many would say that Christmas is about traditions, some passed down for generations – family gatherings, food, presents, favorite movies watched together, festive parties, and attending Christmas Eve services. Much of that is gone this year, because we need to keep people safe. Perhaps it feels like the Grinch really did steal Christmas after all.

These have been dark and difficult days, to be sure: COVID still killing thousands by the day, anger & hate filling our national discourse, bigotry and xenophobia on the rise, so many out of work, millions around the world hungry, and so much more. And at a time when we would need so very much to gather together, we can not. We are, as the passage from Isaiah this evening put it, “The people who walked in darkness”- the darkness of isolation, of despair, of grief.

Yet if we really think about it, on a larger scale, there have been worse times for this nation, and for the world – after all, that passage from Isaiah wasn’t written in 2020. Darkness has always been a part of the history of the people of this earth. In recent times there was the Great Depression, World Wars 1&II, millions killed in the Holocaust, the atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, the Cold War and atomic bomb drills in schools, the civil rights marches & violence against them, and on and on and on.

I remember a song by Billy Joel, “We didn’t start the fire” in which he does a rapid fire list of the crazy headlines over his life to that point. Some of you may remember that I talked about it years ago in a sermon from Pentecost. From the Wiki page for it: “Joel got the idea for the song when he had just turned 40. He was in a recording studio and met a 21-year-old…who said “It’s a terrible time to be 21!” Joel replied to him, “Yeah, I remember when I was 21 – I thought it was an awful time and we had Vietnam, and y’know, drug problems, and civil rights problems and everything seemed to be awful.” The friend replied, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it’s different for you. You were a kid in the fifties and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties.” Joel retorted, “Wait a minute, didn’t you hear of the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis?”

So no, this isn’t the worst year humanity has seen, but it has been a difficult one, and for those who have lost a loved one to this pandemic, it very well may be the worst year of your lives and a deeply dark and horrible time. Sadly, because so many violated the pandemic safety precautions during Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are likely to experience more tragedy in 2021, leaving empty chairs at holiday gatherings for years to come.

So why talk about such dark things on this night? Haven’t we had enough of that already? Yes, but it is to remind us, that as that passage from Isaiah went on to say “The people who walked in darkness…have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.” And that, my friends, is the headline for the news tonight and every Christmas Eve.

For on that night so long ago, angels appeared – not to those in power, not to the rich, not to the pious, but to shepherds – the ones who lived on the margins, who lived a difficult life, a people who that very night were walking in darkness. To them, the angels proclaimed the good news that would change everything – for them, and for the world. If we thought 2020 changed our lives, well it is nothing compared to what happened to those shepherds, to Mary, to Joseph, to all the world that night.

Many years ago I told you the story of the author of a favorite hymn sung this time of year. It’s called “I heard the bells on Christmas Day.” Well, in this difficult year, perhaps we need a reminder that there was a time in our country when things were far worse, and of a man who came to know that Christmas is more than a story, more than a favorite carol or hymn, more than candles in our churches.

The hymn was from a poem written in 1864 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which was set to the music we now know so well. This was a poem born not of joy, but of deep loss. Longfellow’s wife Fanny had been killed a few years earlier when her dress caught fire. His son, who insisted on enlisting in the Civil War had been severely injured just a year before. And on that Christmas Day in1864, he penned his poem when there was not yet an end in sight for the battles that ravaged the country. It is a work that expresses the horror of war, and the power of this night, of this child Jesus. As most only hear a few verses when it is played on the radio or TV, I want to share the full poem with you again:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat