Christmas Eve
December 24, 2021
Good Shepherd, Wells, MN
Luke 2.1-20
At our staff meeting Wednesday, for devotions Andy asked us to think of a childhood memory from Christmas. That was easy for me since I’d been thinking about that subject for tonight’s message. I remembered that we got to open a present before dinner on Christmas Eve, had dinner and then went to church, and then we opened the rest of our presents when we got home. Furthermore, my parents were scrupulous about equality for each of us four siblings so much so that one year we all got identical clock radios. (I still had mine until it died a few years ago.) I recalled how my bachelor Uncle Floyd was always invited but insisted he would come “only if you don’t get me anything.” Of course, there was always a present for him under the tree. I especially remember one year I artfully disguised a gift for my sister Cheryl. She wanted a record album, but knew she would know it immediately if I wrapped it as is. So I made a cardboard tent over the album and then wrapped it. She had no idea and I took great pleasure in seeing her baffled several days before Christmas.
Simple memories from a simpler time. I’m guessing you all have your own memories. But I’m also guessing that the most cherished memories are the simplest. We don’t need to overly dramatize wonderful events because the best stories tell themselves, like the Christmas story. Though there are marvelous elements to the Christmas story, heavenly hosts that appear in the night sky for example, the power of the story is in its simplest form. Love in God-form comes down and takes on human-form to be with us. That God does so in the simplest of places to the simplest of people makes it a simply powerful story for all people.
As we have prepared for the celebration of Christmas, we have simply noted the themes of Advent leading to tonight’s story. During the first week of Advent, we noted the Signs of Hope that are present within us even as darkness grows. In the second week, we have trusted in Jesus as the Way of Peace in the wildernesses of our lives. Then in week three we have declared the power of Joy at Jesus’ coming to transform our lives. Finally in the fourth week we have seen how God’s Ordinary Love does the extraordinary. All of these themes come to focus tonight on Jesus as the Light of the World, the Light that no darkness can overcome.
Even so, we need to acknowledge that there’s a shadow that falls across the manger at Christmas time. We must admit that there are Christmases that aren’t as full of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love, and Light as we’d like. I remember the Christmas that my sister received her last doll. She knew she was getting too old for dolls as did my parents. It was time for that to end, yet it was bittersweet even as it was necessary. That may be a smaller shadow than some of you are experiencing this Christmas. There’s a shadow for some of you whose Christmas is blue. Perhaps it’s the first Christmas without a loved-one or maybe it’s the inability to gather with family due to Covid. Some of you may have gone through a divorce or are dealing with illnesses. No doubt there are others. Yet, the shadow present among these other shadows comes from the cross, the babes’ ultimate destiny.
That part of the Jesus story, simple and profound as it is, is not tonight’s story, even as it lurks in the background. For tonight it is enough to proclaim that Jesus is the Light of the World, the light that no darkness can overcome. We rejoice that Jesus is a light that shines into the darkest areas of our lives and declares to us this night that we are not alone in the shadows. So, rather than cursing the darkness we will celebrate the Light by lighting candles, turning off the lights, and singing that song written during one of the darkest times in human history, “Silent Night.”
I echo the thoughts of our synod Bishop Regina Hassanally who, in her Christmas letter declared that if we only had the one Light it would be enough. Even so, that Light multiplies in every one of us. And so we pray that there is someone who bears that light for you this Christmas and that each of us would in some measure shine with the Light of Christ burning in us. Merry Christmas, God’s Beloved. May the simple story shine brightly within you and may you make good memories as you bask in that Light, for God is with you. Amen.
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