Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Christmas Eve
Please read Luke 2:1-20
Mary and Joseph, on the road to Bethlehem. Mary, great with child – not even Joseph’s child. Likely frightened, certainly anxious, as so many mothers-to-be are. Surely, she has passed the point in her pregnancy where travel is really the best plan. Joseph, his new bride in tow, perhaps wondering if he was doing the right thing, as if there was a protocol for what might constitute the “right thing” in such a situation. The innkeeper, booked solid what with this census. Sure, it’s good for business, but – he’s even got people where people ought not to be. Perhaps he was worried he would lose his license or be shut down by the Board of Health – sending a pregnant lady out to the stable! The shepherds, tending their flocks, are overcome by, of all things, angels. “The glory of the Lord” shining around them, likely scaring the sheep, not to mention the shepherds… Out of their element, all of them. Standing on unfamiliar ground, hoping beyond hope that they are making good decisions, wise choices.
On Christmas Eve, we celebrate the birth of a tiny baby, venerable, yet also vulnerable. A baby upon whose fragile shoulders will one day, we have been told, rest the government. A baby whose name shall be called, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” We are as people who have walked in darkness, suddenly seeing a great light. But sometimes, that great light can be startling, as anyone who has ever taken refuge under the covers when a light is switched on in the middle of the night can attest. We aren’t always ready.
In 1999, Kenny G recorded a version of Auld Lang Syne called “The Millenium Mix,” which incorporated sound clips of a broad range of events of historical and cultural significance – good and bad, uplifting and sobering. It’s impossible for me to listen to that track without becoming emotional. It’s impossible for me, and I think perhaps for many of us, to become immersed in the joy this season is meant to bring without acknowledging the pain so many of us know so often – within our world, within our country, within our families, within our bodies, and our souls. The overwhelming reality of war, destruction, devastation, hunger, homelessness, inadequate health care, illness, loss, loneliness, poverty – we could go on and on… These brutal realities threaten to undo us. It’s that exposed nerve that we perhaps may want to hurry to excavate and tend too, lest any infection spread any farther.
On this holy night we can live in this contradiction. Let me suggest that we must live in this contradiction. Indeed, we’ve no choice. An authentic life, a faithful life, must engage the world in which we find ourselves, warts and all. The promise God has made with us, for us, is one that will be kept. This child whom we celebrate on this holy night, this child for whom we have waited with bated breath, this child peacefully sleeping in his mother’s arms, has been born to be our savior – and we certainly stand in need of a savior.
On this holy night, let us stand in awe with the shepherds, marveling. Let us sing with the angels, rejoicing. Let us be at peace, one with another – this night and all nights.
Rev. Erica L. Brown
Pastor of Howland Community Church
Warren, Ohio