A Christmas Homily: Embracing the Divine in Vulnerability

Foreign.

Thank you for engaging with the homily by Pastor Chill Will from

Chapel Hill.

I hope this message encourages you, challenges you and moves you

to go deeper in your faith and enrich how you love God and love

your neighbor in your day to day life.

Just a reminder.

Like the Scriptures and Gospels themselves, this homily was

written for a particular community in a particular, particular

context, time in history.

And yet, like our sacred texts, I hope that these words hold

timeless truths about God's unconditional love and grace.

We hope these words speak to you in a meaningful way.

Merry Christmas.

Good to see all of you here at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and

Lutheran Campus Ministry on this holy night.

Here and those gathered online just I'm Pastor Will.

I wish you a very very Merry Christmas.

Gospel comes to us in our midst from the Gospel of St. Luke.

Glory to you O Lord.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all

the world should be registered.

This was the first registration that was taken while

Cornerius was governor of 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.

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

in the guest room.

Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields

keeping watch over their flock by night.

Then the angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of

the Lord shone around them and they were terrified.

The angel said to them, do not be afraid.

See I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.

For 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 that you will find a child wrapped

in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly

host praising God, saying glory to God in the highest heaven

on on earth, peace among those who God favors.

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherd

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 what the shepherds told them.

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, just as it had been told them the gospel

of the Lord, the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit.

The first message and proclamation from Christians was,

christ is risen.

But before anyone would say back, christ is risen indeed.

Alleluia.

People, rightfully so, had questions.

Okay, slow up.

This is unbelievable news.

Who is this Christ you speak of?

And if he rose from the dead, how did he die?

Well, we're talking about a rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth, and

he was killed by the authorities on a Roman cross.

Okay, we of course, have more questions.

What did he do to get himself killed?

Well, he taught that the kingdom of God has come near.

He spoke truth to power.

Not only did he preach and teach this, but he also lived it

and revealed God's love for all people, not only with words,

but with action and with miracles.

And he also hung out with a bunch of fishermen, tax collectors,

the marginalized, and those perhaps who had contagious diseases.

And he literally fed those who were hungry.

When people and his followers started claiming him to be the Christ,

those in power with authority felt threatened.

Ah, gotcha.

We're starting to see what kind of Christ this guy was and what

got him into trouble.

But what about his family?

Where was he from?

What's his origin story?

Great question.

Let me tell you the story of Christmas.

All four gospels in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John share

the story of Jesus, his life, what kind of ministry he did, and

what happened to him and his followers the final week of his life,

the week we call holy.

But Matthew and Luke are the only ones who share Jesus's origin

story and what we have for our Christmas story.

Filling in our nativity set.

The Gospel of Matthew shares the Christmas story mainly from Joseph's

point of view.

And Matthew is the only Gospel that shares the magi story.

The Gospel of Luke is the only Gospel that shares the Christmas

story we heard read tonight.

It holds Mary's point of view, and it's the one with the shepherds

in the field and the surprising, terrifying angelic messenger.

While all four gospels share the story of Holy Week, and only

two share the Christmas stories.

With all the questions and curiosities and legitimate skepticism

that surround Jesus, the Christmas stories are still important

stories because they reveal who Jesus is and why he matters.

The very nature of the divine.

In all the stories I love and consume and geek out on, I love it

when the creators and the authors plant clues or Easter eggs

that point to the bigger picture of the story that they're

trying to tell.

Luke's Christmas story for sure does just that, with the familiar

images of a young family traveling to Bethlehem and shepherds

in their field, along with the nostalgia that we bring to this night

and to the story.

The Christmas story, like Jesus does in his own life and the

way he lived it, subverts expectations and flips cultural norms

of power and authority.

What we imagine when we talk about God with our complicated and

unstable world, with the reality of the fragility of life

and the complexity of political struggle and the human

condition, this is the world that God chooses to be born into.

I love that in the Christmas Story we meet these unnamed shepherds

who were minding their own business, doing their daily routine,

who are already out on the margins of town and society.

It's there where God shows up and breaks it.

Does God announce the good news of Christ to the mighty and

the powerful?

The rich or the influencer?

No, rather the divine messenger show up to those who are

on the margins, the outcasts, and to those some consider unclean

and unworthy.

Perhaps these shepherds have spent many nights looking up at the

stars and many times marveled at the universe, perhaps asking deep

existential questions that we all ask and wrestle with.

And without any pious action or secret prayer on their part.

This is where God shows up and gives us a snapshot and confirmation

of God's solidarity and response to the world.

You is born this day in the city of David, a savior, the Messiah,

the Lord.

This will be a sign for you.

You will find the baby wrapped in bands of clothes, lying in a manger.

In this baby, in this gift of Christmas, all of our fears and hopes

meet.

Tonight at Christmas, heaven and earth collide the realms of the

divine and all the earthly dimensions entangle with one another

not as a supernova or an explosion or in a palace or a golden

ballroom, but with the birth of a vulnerable baby who isn't even

provided a guest room.

Now, did you notice the change in our Christmas story from Luke

this evening?

Which reminds me of a little joke.

How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?

Change?

Oh, no.

Not only for Lutherans, but for everyone, change is hard.

When I read the new Revised Standard Version, updated edition

of the translation of the Bible with a Christmas story, and

I read that they had changed the word no room in the inn to guest

room.

I was like, oh gosh, here we go.

The message boards are going to blow up, the world's going to

freak out, and yet I bring this change to light this evening.

Not to dismantle your nativity scene or ruin your childhoods, but

perhaps this small change shift in clarification can help us

look at this story in a fresh way.

Now, I'm not going to get in the weeds too much with this, but

the new Revised Standard Version of the Bible that we use

here at Holy Trinity and a part of the ELCA just published an

updated edition.

So we now have the NRSVUE to help enhance readability and comprehension

of the Bible while still remaining faithful to the original

Greek manuscript.

Like all things and with life itself, modern language is in a constant

state of evolution and how we translate the Bible would be the

same.

The update edition looked at the Greek word for in which is nataluma

and saw that a better translation would be guest room.

The word kataluma is only used three times in the New Testament.

In Luke when he's sharing that Mary and Joseph are looking for a

place to have this baby.

And in Mark and Luke when Jesus and his disciples are trying

to find a place to have his last supper, the Passover meal before

he is crucified.

The place where Jesus takes bread and wine and says this is my

body, this is my blood shed for you.

I love this Easter egg of a Christmas gift.

Luke connects the place of Jesus's birth and being placed in

a manger to the meal.

We connect the Holy Communion in Mary and Joseph's day.

Each house and living quarters were not laid out like our homes

with a living room and a separate master bedroom and other

separate guest rooms.

Everyone slept in the same room.

There was not really any privacy.

Some homes had an upper room or a guest room carved out for guests

or just to have as an extra room when Mary was about to give

birth.

Our story shares that there was a census taking place.

Bethlehem had lots of people around and Joseph's relative's home

was most likely full of people not making Mary climb a ladder or

stairs to an upper room while she's pregnant.

Perhaps the most private place for a woman to give birth was off

to the side near where the animals were kept.

So this part of the story may not be about a cold hearted innkeeper

pushing a young pregnant woman away to be with animals, but rather

Mary and Joseph found his relative's house filled with guests

who were also there for the census and couldn't find private

closed doors to give birth.

But what they were offered was the lower part of the house, the

place that housed and fed the animals that needed to be brought

indoors.

You the animal song from our children's musical Move back, move

back, said the cows, said the sheep, said the cows and the sheep.

In a town named Bethlehem, a word that literally means house of

bread, the Christ, the promised Messiah, was born in the

lowest place of the house, off to the side in a place placed in

a manger, an animal feeding trough.

Here we see God's nature and humility on full display.

We we who gather tonight and huddle around this story are called

to keep our eyes open and to pay attention to how Jesus's nature

and humility plays out in the rest of his story and how he postures

himself the rest of his life and story.

In Bethlehem, this house of bread, we keep our eyes and hearts

open and pay attention to the kind of bread and and meals Jesus

served and who he invites to the table.

The common question around Christmas is often, will you find

room for Jesus and his family in the inn?

But even with this small little language shift and change,

the question doesn't change a whole lot.

What about our guest rooms or the guests that we invite to the

table?

What space do we provide for Christ and for those that he sought

after and aligned himself with?

In this very human story, Christ shows us how to be human.

You see, the story we huddle around tonight is just a prequel.

There's more story to be told, more story to be shared.

The Christmas story isn't the story, but a prelude and a foreshadowing

of the rest of the story of who this Jesus is and where God directs

the divine intention.

In the rest of the story, the story of God who stands in solidarity

and takes to heart our vulnerability, fragility, fears and

longing.

The story of God who continued to show up on the margins and the

places we least expect.

A story of God who flips tables of injustice and challenges

us that the first will be last and the last will be flirt.

The story of Jesus who illustrates the nearness of God,

the heart of God, and the mystery of faith with lost sheep,

small plants, small seeds.

The story of God who washes feet, dies on the cross, and who

will not let death have the final word.

In our lives and in our world, Christ is risen.

Risen indeed.

All in the I personally don't know what the new year will bring.

Most likely there will still be ups and downs, twists and turns,

joys and tragedies, similar routine and yes, indeed, change and

I'm pretty sure there will be challenges not if but when and yet

as a community of faith we have a pretty good record of meeting

those challenges.

Taking our lead from Jesus who was born, who is risen and who continues

to be with us wherever we are in life and faith.

When we leave here tonight our world will continue to be terrifying

and uncertain and yet in all that uncertainty I am certain that

this house of faith will continue to be a house of bread for

all and we will continue to share with one another.

Do not be afraid for to you Christ was born.

Christ is risen, is risen indeed.

Foreign.

Thank you for listening.

If there is anything that stood out for you or if you have

a question or you just want to have a conversation, you are always

free to reach out and contact us and remember you are not alone

and that you are loved with a love stronger than death.

Sam.