Christmas Eve 2015: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.

There is always a discussion around Christmas and Easter by us preaching types that centers on whether we even need to preach Christmas Eve – afterall the story, the hymns – it is all so familiar and really tells itself. Sorry…you are not that lucky. Still, they have a bit of a point. I mean, how many of you can practically recite from memory that scene from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in which Linus explains the real meaning of Christmas? Well, Linus did have a good script – ure to work with, didn’t he.

So, you’all know this story. You may have even acted it out as a child in a Christmas pageant. Okay, we might get the versions from Luke and Matthew all mixed up in our mangers at home, but the basic story we know in our heart…or at least in our heads. So that begs another question – why are you here?

Why are you here?

Why, when you could be home getting some last minute tasks done, or celebrating with people you love, or perhaps flopping exhausted on the sofa in front of the TV watching yet another Christmas movie on the ABCFamily 25 Days of Christmas. But instead…you are here!

Maybe it is the music, the familiar joy of it. Or perhaps it is the beauty of the candlelit church. Or maybe it is something you have always done on Christmas Eve, as much as putting up a Christmas tree or hanging up stockings. Or maybe you are here just to avoid being someplace else. Maybe.

See, I think, whether we realize it or not, we come here for the S-Factor – No, not the X-Factor, the S-Factor (but the truth is out there!): the sounds, the sights, and especially – the story. Because it is the story – the one read, the one sung, the one symbolized by candles – it is there where we find a meaning that the goes far beyond Santa & Elves, or Silver & Gold, and that lasts well beyond the twelve days of Christmas. But I also think we have lost sight of the story a bit because we are so familiar with it.

How many of you have been driving to work or home or some other place you go often, and you suddenly realize that miles have gone by without you really being aware of it? It happens to me all the time. Most of you know I live an hour away, and I have to admit that, while I am paying attention to the road, of course, I don’t really see everything as it goes by. Sometimes, I don’t even know the names of the streets I drive on regularly because the route is so familar to me. Does that happen to any of you?

I think it happens to many of us at this time of year especially. Our minds can only absorb so much. And so this familiar story is one we let wash over us. We know how it goes. We know the characters, the plot line, the whole shabang. We sort of drive by it (or it drives by us) without our really hearing it anymore.

But I know that when something shakes me out of that commuting routine, like a detour or someone else doing the driving – I usually find something I never saw before. Maybe it is a new building going up, or perhaps a flowering tree, or even that there may have been a better way to get where I was going in the first place.

So – time for a detour.

Let’s not look at this story in the usual way, but let’s go by a different path – trying to imagine ourselves as the characters. Now, I remember at one parish, when a snowstorm canceled out the children’s pageant, the priest couldn’t even make it, I gave all the children’s costumes to the few adults who walked in the door that morning. And, believe it or not, there was almost a fight over who got to be…no, not Mary, but the star of Bethlehem. I kid you not. So, to avoid a similar situation…let’s leave that part out and start with Joseph.

Joseph – Jesus’ other dad (you knew Jesus had two dads, right?) By the way…I’ve told this to a few of you before, but I as on a mission trip with some high schoolers a few years back. And, during one part of the trip, the discussion in the van was about God not being a boy or a girl, or perhaps being both. One of the girls said she planned to study biology in college, so seizing the moment I asked her “So…if God is both a boy and a girl what would that be biologically?” She wrote down two XXs and an XY. “Okay” I said “and if Mary is his mother…” She wrote down XX. “Then Jesus…” She looked at her paper and shouted “Oh my God – Jesus was a girl!” I looked at the other priest who was driving the van and said “My work here is done!”

But back to Joseph. Here was this man who was asked to believe something so profoundly beyond his imagination…why did he? Out of fear? Out of love? Out of desperation? Maybe you are a Joseph. What are you asked to believe – and…why do you? What do you hold to be truth? How is truth defined in your life and in your heart? Joseph – was a man committed to relationship – with God, and with Mary. What relationships are calling for your attention?

And then there is Mary – the chosen one. The one who said YES to God. She ponders things in her heart – the introvert often overlooked in the Christmas hubbub, but not missing anything that is going on. Marys exist now – everywhere – and not just as introverts. Maybe you are her. We like to make Mary all calm and cool, but the thing is – this was likely a frightening moment for one so young as Mary, as any one of you might have experienced who have had a child. Babies don’t come with a training manual. And that whole Silent Night thing – I am sure Mary would say what any other mother would say “did the author of that hymn EVER set foot in a delivery room?” Or for that matter, anywhere near a baby at any time in the many nights that followed? Silent Night – If only!

There are the shepherds – the outcast, the ones in darkened places, those who might wonder if God has forgotten them – or exists at all. And yet it was to them that the angels, the messengers of God, appeared. Maybe that’s why angels so often have to say “Do not be afraid” because it is to those whom society would least expect, to the ones who would not expect it themselves, that God goes – to the Mary’s and Josephs, and to the low shepherds who lived on the society’s margins. God coming there is a surprise to them, and I would imagine a bit on the scary side too. Maybe you can relate to that – to surprising moments of grace when you felt furthest from it. I wonder how we might react – in our moments of darkness, of loneliness, sitting on the fields of the forgotten – perhaps you are there now. What would you do? Would you accept the invitation – would you go to Bethlehem?

There are angels themselves, of course. I am sure all of you are thinking – yeah, that’s me…a little angel. But, while you shine your halos, maybe we can ask ourselves – where have we had messengers enter our lives, and…did we see them? Did we listen? Did we respond?

Let’s see… who else…

Oh yeah – that’s right…there’s the donkey! Travels all over God knows where – seriously – God knows where…and then, just when they find someplace to lay down and get a bite to eat, don’t you know they put that baby right on top of his food. Poor guy. Of course I always now think of Shrek’s Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy). If you haven’t seen “Shrek The Halls” the Christmas special – I have one thing to say – are you crazy? You have to watch this. Anyway, there’s this one scene when Donkey is trying to console Shrek the ogre, who is clueless about how to “do” Christmas. And Donkey says “My mama used to always say, ‘Christmas ain’t Christmas till somebody cries!’ Usually that someone’s me.” I wonder sometimes if some of us can unfortunately relate to Donkey on this one.

And now we have left out two important characters…Jesus, and…the innkeeper.

The innkeeper – perhaps the most important role (though you wouldn’t know it if you asked Sunday school children, right?) The innkeeper who was shutting the door, saying there was no room.   Now, my favorite Christmas pageant of all time was in the movie “The Bells of St. Mary’s” – why? Because it is simple, and full of mistakes. One of these is when the young Joseph is about to knock on the door of the inn (which is really just a curtain), but before he does, the inkeeper pokes his head out and says his big line “Sorry, I don’t have any room.” And Joseph says, “But I haven’t even asked you yet.” This is why I love Christmas pageants – there is a lot of truth there. Are you an innkeeper? Are there people you are shutting out?

And then there is Jesus. The holy child of God. The light for a world walking in darkness. A baby – the most vulnerable of humanity – totally dependent, needing love, shelter, and relationship. God enters into this world in the same way we all entered it.

That is why this story is so important – all the characters – all of it – because it is a story about us.

The Christmas story isn’t about something that happened a long time ago in a Galilee far far away (sorry – couldn’t resist). The Christmas story is our story – it happened to each of us, and is happening now. And because we grow and change through the years, the story changes with us – that’s why we need to hear it every year. Some years we are the shepherds, feeling alone, isolated, in the dark. Other years we will feel like Joseph, being asked to believe until we see, but deeply commited to relationship no matter the cost. Or maybe we are Mary stepping forward to say “Yes!” to some new part of our lives, but not really knowing what that will mean for us. Many years we are even Donkey crying at Christmas. If we are honest, we are sometimes the inkeeper who said there was no room – perhaps without realizing it, or perhaps out of fear – shutting out others, and refusing to allow love in. And all of us have encountered messengers in our lives – whether we saw and listened or not.

But of all the characters one thing never changes – all of us are Jesus every year – the vulnerable child, and the symbol of love, the unexpected one, and the one who brought light into the darkness of the world. And it is this role most of all that we are called to live every day.

The world still walks in darkness – the darkness of violence in our streets and in our hearts, the darkness of oppression and hatred, the darkness of poverty and loneliness.

A young family leaves their home because of their oppressive government…vulnerable, weak from travelling, desperate for a place to call home, if only for awhile…and finding doors closed to them – no room at the inn. In fact, before they can even knock on the door, they are being turned away.

If you think I am talking about Mary and Joseph…you’d only be partially right. I am also talking about a young mother and father from Syria, rejected just before arriving at the door in Indiana, but found hope in Connecticut – where a door was opened to them. And, I am talking about all the other refugees all around the world. How prophetic for us today that our story begins in this way “This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of…Syria.”

Doors are still being shut to those in need, to those who are women, who are gay, who are physically and mentally challenged, to the immigrant and the homeless, to those who think or believe differently, and so many more. These doors are shut – sometimes before they even knock – And it is those very people standing outside that offer to us grace in unexpected ways.

But there is hope – and it lies within you and me, and all those who are celebrating tonight. Because when God dwelt among us, we were transformed – transformed into change agents for the world. It is we who are able, as Christ alive today – to bring about “peace on earth.” We just have to see it in ourselves – to own the story, to say, as Mary did, “Yes!”

We must go where the shepherds are, where the Marys and Josephs wearily travel, where those who live in humble dwellings, or no dwelling at all, struggle to survive. We must go and be the light that cuts through the darkness. And, we must stand up to the innkeepers and the governers – the ones who create systems of oppression from which others flee, and the ones who turn their backs on them when they come looking for help.

That is the story of Christmas.

It is our story.

It is your story.

It is a story we must live.

And if we do, if we say “YES!” perhaps one day we might all truly know…

Peace on Earth.

Merry Christmas!

For the audio of the sermon from the 10pm service, click here:

The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
December 24, 2015
Christmas Eve – Christmas Day I
1st Reading – Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
2^nd Reading – Titus 2:11-14
Gospel – Luke 2:1-14(15-20)