Christmas Eve 2021: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
I love the music of the season – Advent hymns like “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People,” “People Look East,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and so many more. Christmas hymns too, of course – all the ones we sing tonight most especially. And of course, there are the secular songs – “All I want for Christmas Is You,” “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas,” and many more those…well, except that awful “Mary, Did You Know?” – for more about that, see a previous sermon, but the short answer is – of course she knew. Read the Gospel of Luke and quit mansplaining the birth of our savior.
But after this very long time of pandemic, one secular Christmas song has really resonated with me lately, and perhaps also with some of you – “Need A Little Christmas Now” – from the musical Mame. There is a verse in it that seems to be written for just such a time such as this – a time when gathering for worship or with friends & family is an on again-off again roller coaster ride, a time when we are mourning the loss of those we love, a time when the world seems gripped by anger, hate, and violence, a time when we seem so very tired by all that we have been made to bear. It is this verse:
“For I’ve grown a little leaner, grown a little colder, grown a little sadder, grown a little older, and I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder. I need a little Christmas now!”
Indeed, haven’t we all?
Haven’t we all felt leaner? Even if our pandemic zoom marathon may have packed on the pounds, we feel less our selves, less sure of what tomorrow will bring, less patient with all of it. Leaner is just another way of expressing that lessness.
We feel a bit colder too, don’t we? Our patience is wearing thin, our world seem darker, and we shudder from the vitriol and violence that breaks out from nearly every corner.
Sadder doesn’t even begin to describe the heartache we have all experienced this past year and a half. And all of it has made many of us age a bit more than the time that has passed would explain.
So yes, I think we all need a little angel sitting on our shoulder, and we do need a little Christmas now!
But wait, where is our angel sitting on our shoulder?
We sure see a lot of them in Christmas displays and pageants, and there were angels long ago telling those shepherds about the birth of Jesus. Now, about those shepherds, they may not have realized it in that moment, but they too needed an angel sitting on their shoulder, but they got far more than that, right? – they got a whole bunch of them singing across the night sky above! What a sight that must have been.
Heck, we would settle for just a single one about now, right?
Ahhh, but you see, they are there – every day. Every moment – they are there with us – trying to get through, trying to show us the light that defeats darkness, trying to tell us the good news!
The thing is, we often don’t see them because we aren’t looking for them.
There is a show I watch, and perhaps you do too. It is “Call the Midwife,” and it is “is a BBC period drama …about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and 1960s… The series was created by Heidi Thomas, originally based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth who worked with the Community of St. John the Divine, an Anglican religious order, at their convent in the East End in London.”1 We still have religious orders in our Anglican church, in fact there is a convent of Episcopal nuns in Mendham, NJ , and a monastery of Episcopal monks in West Park, NY.
The show features a voice over done by Vanessa Redgrave, that is supposed to be the voice of the now older Jennifer Worth reflecting back on her experiences delivering babies, and working with the other midwives, some of whom, like her, were not a part of the convent. In the 2018 Christmas Special episode, this is what viewers heard in that voiceover: “There are always angels everywhere. Perhaps we only think to look for them at Christmas when their wings can be seen, when their halos glow with light. But they are always there. There in the quiet corners, there in the shadows, there in their ordinary clothes and they are beautiful. Make room for the angels for they will catch you unawares and fill your heart in ways you never could imagine.”
And that, my friends, is very true.
They are the ordinary ones, offering extraordinary acts of love – nurses, doctors, and staff who attend to the sick and the dying; first responders who risk their lives every day for others; people of faith all over the world who give of their time, treasure, and lives to help the poor, the outcast, the stranger, the imprisoned, the addicted, the lonely, and the lost. Angels are all around us – the earthly and the heavenly.
The light of angels – the light of God’s love – is always there – just as Christ – his light, his love – is always there – Christmas and every day – in church, and in our homes, offices, and everywhere we are willing to take him in our hearts, to see him in others, to be him and to serve him in the world.
That is the good news of Christmas
Because despite what Hallmark movies will tell you (and I do love my Hallmark movies), Christmas is about more than brightly decorated evergreens, visiting with family, and falling in love with your high school sweetheart. In fact – it is about none of those things. Christmas is Christ’s Mass – when all of Christendom celebrates the birth of Jesus, our Christ. And in that birth, everything changes.
Everything and everyone changes.
Because as the prophet made clear in the words from Isaiah heard tonight in churches all over the world “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, as we heard this night, in the epistle to Titus, “…the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.”
We who feel leaner, colder, sadder, and older are those very people – we walk in darkness and tonight we have seen a great light. Tonight – light has shined – and it is for all people. It is for YOU! Yes, you! God came into this world to show you just how much you are loved. Because the good news is that Christmas isn’t just for some people, but everyone – rich and poor, gay and straight, of all races, genders, and languages. God’s grace and love breaks down our human borders, breaks through our personal defenses. God became incarnate, knowing the cost, so that every single one of us may come to know that they are deeply and unconditionally loved by our Creator – just as we are.
And that good news – that good news of Christmas, the good news of God incarnate – willing to be born in our midst, to live among us, to die for us – that good news, my friends, will change not only our lives, but all of the world.
That is why we are here – because we already knew this to be true. We just needed to hear it again. We needed to be reminded. We needed to focus – not on the trappings of Christmas – but on the heart of it. Because we are the worn out ones, suffering under the weight of this pandemic, feeling a bit hopeless, unable to see the angels in our midst, unable to see the Christ in front of us.
We needed a little Christmas now, and we knew that it was in this place, hearing the word, receiving him in the Eucharist – that we would experience the fullness of this night.
We needed Christmas now.
And Christmas is here for us – it always is.
Just as long as we open our eyes, our hearts, our very lives – to seeing the angels proclaiming, to receiving the Christ born within us, to embracing the God who loves us beyond measure – just as we are. There is no test to pass.
We don’t need to have the perfect Christmas,
with the perfect presents,
with the perfect children,
with the perfect parents.
We need only let Christ be born anew in our hearts, to make room for the angels in our midst that we may see them, and we will know that we are all that we need to be, we will know the real meaning of love – unconditional, all abiding, all inclusive love.
And then we won’t need a little Christmas now – because it will always be Christmas for us, for those around us, and for all the world. Or, as that great theologian, Dr. Suess, would put it:
“Christmas Day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be just as long as we have we.
Welcome, Christmas. While we stand…Heart to heart… and hand in hand.”
Merry Christmas Everyone!
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1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_the_Midwife
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
December 24, 2021
Christmas Eve – Christmas Day I
1st Reading – Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
2nd Reading – Titus 2:11-14
Gospel – Luke 2:1-14(15-20)
