12-24-18 Christmas Eve Readings & Sermon

A reading from Isaiah.

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.

You have multiplied the nation.

You have increased its joy.

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.

As people exult when dividing plunder.

For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us.

Authority rests upon his shoulders.

And he is named wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.

He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

The word of the Lord.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

The word of the Lord.

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration and was taken while Corinius was governor of Syria.

All went to their own towns to be registered.

Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.

He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged, and who was expecting a child.

While they were there the time came for her to deliver her child.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.

To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign for you.

You will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace among those whom God favors.

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place which the Lord has made known to us.

So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger.

When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

The Gospel of the Lord.

About two weeks ago, uh they put on an event at the National Cathedral.

Uh presiding bishop uh Michael Curry was there, and so was Jim Lovell, who once worshipped in this parish.

And um Jim Lovell talked about what it was like.

You know, there's this these famous moments were coming around the dark side of the moon, there was not sunrise, there was earthrise.

And um, you know, Jim and the other astronauts, uh, I'm I'm gonna just paraphrase, I didn't quite this right, sort of said it was in leaving the earth that they were actually able to see it for what it was.

They had to leave it to see it.

There was something about coming around and seeing the earth arise before them, particularly in a year 1968, where there'd been two assassinations in the United States, um, protests for the Vietnam War.

Amidst all this sort of chaos in our own country, the astronauts came and they had this vision, this beautiful vision of the planet that we take now for granted.

Helpful to know, they say, one quarter of the Earth's population watched that.

A quarter of the earth watched and saw for the first time how we look.

Jim said then, and this seems to make a great deal of sense, when there's a new event, in some ways we go back to the beginning and try to think really what does it mean all along?

We don't go up a staircase and say, I've left that behind.

We have to re-weave what it all means.

And so they picked the beginning.

This is probably the strangest Christmas sermon you're ever going to hear, because when else do you hear Genesis chapter one?

But we're gonna start in the beginning.

And I want to let you know this is not really my original idea, this comes from the rabbis.

This is their interpretation of Genesis chapter one.

In the beginning, when God started to make the world we now see and enjoy, God didn't start from scratch.

In this story, the spirit of the deep was over the formless void.

And then from that mist, that primordial chaos, God began to make what we see.

It's almost like when you hear this story, and notice, there's no separation between sky and water or earth.

There's no difference or distinction between light and darkness.

It's as if you took 128 Crayola crayons and colored with each one over a white page, it would look like nothing.

And the story, what happens is God looks at that mess and starts to draw out colors and beauty.

And so the first thing God does is separate light from darkness.

This isn't the sun and the moon, this is light and darkness.

The sun and the moon come later.

And once there's light and darkness, well, then there's an evening and a morning, and that's the first day.

And the rabbis, just like Stephen Hawking, said the first thing God created was time.

Day one is the beginning of time.

And on the second day, God separates the sky from the water.

They were one, and that's the end of the second day.

And on the third day, God separates the land from the water, and that's the end of the third day.

And then God, in the same story, goes backward and revisits each thing.

And said the fourth day, God makes the big light, which we call the sun, and the lesser light, which we call the moon, and all the other little lights, which we call the stars.

The first thing God made was time, and on the fourth day, God makes the lights to regulate time, to govern it, to fill it up.

The second day, God made the water and the sky.

On the fifth day, God fills the water with all the swimming things, the duck-billed platypus and the blue whale, the mahi-mahi, and God fills the sky with all the flying things, the birds, the insects.

There's an end of the fifth day.

On the third day, God makes the land.

On the sixth day, God fills the land with all the living things of the land.

Us.

And there's an evening, a morning, and there's an end of the sixth day.

And now it's the seventh day.

And God looks at everything God has made, all of the order and new life and beauty that God has pulled from the chaos God started with, and says, It's very good.

And you know what's interesting about the seventh day?

There's no evening and there's no morning.

And the rabbis say, this is helpful if you know Hebrew, the word for seven in Hebrew is Shabbat, which we say Sabbath in English.

It's the number seven, and it means perfection as well.

There's no end to the seventh day, and you know what God does.

God looks at everything and says it's very good, and then God does what?

God rests.

And the rabbis say God is resting in the very first thing God made.

God is resting not in a sanctuary or a holy city.

God is resting in time itself.

The rabbis say the Sabbath is when we enjoy God's presence in time.

God rested.

And tonight we celebrate the incarnation, which really defines how God's rest is different from our own.

When I rest, I take a nap.

I close my eyes.

When God rests, God becomes incarnate in a human body.

And don't you see then the world begins again.

Apollo 8 was a crazy idea, you said.

Let me tell you another crazy idea.

Becoming incarnate is a human baby.

You know what a lizard's born, it knows as much as its mother.

Baby lizards are just like their adults.

And what do you know?

Lizards are not very good caregivers.

They don't really know much.

You leave a baby lizard, it does really fine.

You leave a human baby, it does not.

Curiously enough, human babies are about the most defenseless thing there is.

Takes us about ten, twelve years to be self-sufficient, having been cared for.

God picked to rest like that.

If God had called me, I probably would have given God some different advice.

I would have suggested that God come in a swarthy, superhuman, avenger type figure and sort of eradicate all the evil that there is and solve our problems for us, and then the world would be great.

If God chose to wear an infinity gauntlet even cooler.

God was not interested, in my opinion.

One day maybe God will be.

And it's a way I hope you'll revisit with me, because the truth is you've probably heard this story before.

You probably will hear it again, but we do have an opportunity, I think, in the re-hearing to hear how creation itself might have been turned, and how we, in fact, might join God in turning it.

Part of this is that our tradition gets a little bit in the way, you know, and we're going to sing this lovely song.

It really is a beautiful song.

But you know, the reason that night was silent was because the organ in Austria failed and they couldn't play the organ.

This was not silent.

I've been around these.

Um extremely loud.

And you know, I will tell you, having been around one of my own, the thing I was most afraid of was silence.

Like fifteen minutes into sleep, having not slept for thirty-seven hours, I thought, I don't hear her breathing.

No, the night wasn't silent, and God's rest isn't silent either.

And this is one of those interesting things, I think, about our Christian story, because sometimes we come here and we say, look, okay, Jesus is born and he's the savior of the world, and um, well, awful people still seem to be around and terrible things happen.

So come on, Jesus, let's work this out.

And while I cannot get rid of that cognitive dissonance, um what I can say is that there's an interesting meditation about the Christchild.

Our human babies don't fend for themselves, we look out for them.

I wonder what it would be look what it would be like if we started looking out for the Christchild and one another.

Babies make all things new.

You know, when a baby comes home, you realize how much you don't know about things like basic safety, um, covering electrical outlets, and not leaving pan handles and boiling water just around, and taking away your expensive electronics from your coffee table.

These are things your child teaches you, and you know if you've ever taken a small child to someone else's home who doesn't have children, it's sort of like, oh, please put your valuables away.

Um, please cover the sockets.

You know, you just have to go through this grueling bit where frankly, just why don't you come visit me at my home?

That would be easier.

Babies don't just need looking out for, you know, this interesting thing is that babies are able to find um wonder.

Wonder, I think that's the right word, and even the most well mundane and quotidian things.

Um, if I'm walking down the street and I hear my keys, it makes me either hate my pants or my keys.

Because this is the most annoying sound in the world when you're walking, just about, you know, or switching pants.

What's interesting is that when a baby hears twitching pants and jingling keys, I mean it's like the angel chorus for the first time.

What is that magical symphony you're playing?

You mean this one?

And how strange.

Um, when it's a little baby, it's not really like annoying.

It's like, what?

That's interesting to you.

Okay, well, I'll just jingle the keys.

And somehow it is that in caring for someone who has wonder, you start to find it again yourself, even if it was just for the very first time.

So I wonder if God has filled time itself with God's presence, isn't it fair to say that God would like to be born in each and every one of us?

And if that's the case, then as we come to the manger this year to celebrate the birth of the Christ child, what if we cared for him in one another?

What if we were mindful about the dangers we often are oblivious to with our colleagues and family members?

And I don't just mean panhandles, I mean the barbed way that we often give backhanded compliments to our spouses and co-workers.

What if we were mindful of that and thought, you know, that might hurt the baby Jesus?

So let's turn the handle a bit and let's cover over that socket.

Let's keep the baby safe.

And what if we were mindful and the people who annoy us and challenge us, sometimes just for the sake of doing it, that maybe the baby Jesus is just tired or hungry, or could use a change.

You don't have to change them, that's the good news.

Well, you might, especially if you're related.

But um but what if instead of trying to get revenge or being angry, we said they're there.

They're there.

You don't even know what you're saying because you're hungry or you're tired or you need a change?

What if we cared for the baby and the mangers of our lives?

And of course, what if we were able to do what the story says that God does when God looks at the world, whether from Apollo 8, from your glasses, from your non-corrected lenses?

What if we were able to say that is very good?

What if we were able to look out and say, instead of it's raining and I can't do this or it's foggy?

What if we were able to say with wonder, very good?

What if we were able to look at our fellow human beings and say fundamentally very good?

My left arm got really strong from carrying a baby around.

Stronger than it got in college wrestling.

Caring for a baby is tough work, even if it's Jesus, I want to tell you.

Maybe especially if it's Jesus.

And maybe this is part of the wonder of the manger.

Maybe the greatest gift we can give is not gold and frankincense and myrrh, it's just care and wonder and protection.

Isn't it amazing that a quarter of the globe in 1968 watch this transmission so they can see themselves in a new way?

If you do that, you have opened your heart to the miracle of the incarnation again this year.