Sunday, December 24, 2007
John 1:1-5,14
Minister
of Discipleship
This
truly is a Holy night! Our confirmation
class recently learned what the word “holy” means – it means to be set apart
for a special purpose. And this night
does have a special purpose…it i s a night set apart from all other nights…it
is the night when we are called to remember something that has changed the
world….it is the night when we make an incredible claim – the claim that the
Lord God who created all the universe decided to come and live as a part of
that creation. Perhaps you took a
moment or two this cold, dark evening to look up at the stars as you walked
to/from your car. As you looked up in
the heavens, did you stop to think just how huge God’s universe really is? If you haven’t done so, take just a minute
as you leave here this evening and look out on God’s vast creation. And then, ponder the significance of the One
who created all we can see and so much more deciding to be a part of that
creation. Madeleine L’Engle, in her
book, Bright Evening Star, puts it like this:
“Was
there a moment, known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when
the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word,
who had called it all into being, went with all his love into the womb of a
young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient
harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for joy?
Power.
Greater power than we can imagine, abandoned, as the Word knew the
powerlessness of the unborn child…Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity,
Christ, the Maker of the universe or perhaps many universes, willingly and
lovingly leaving all that power and coming to this poor, sin-filled planet to
live with us for a few years to show us what we ought to be and could be. Christ came to us as Jesus of Nazareth,
wholly human and wholly divine, to show us what it means to be made in God’s
image.” [from Dec 4 meditation in
Watch For The Light-Readings for Advent and Christmas]
Notice
the last two claims L’Engle makes – Christ came to us to show us what we
ought to be and could be – Christ came to show us what it means to be
made in God’s image! God comes to
us because God loves us so much that God wants us to reach our full potential –
that for which we were created!!
Phillips Brooks, the author of the hymn we have been singing this
evening seemed to grasp this quite well – and, in fact, he takes this to
another level in the 4th stanza when he prays, “cast out our sin and
enter in, be born in us today.” Be born
IN US today!
Ever
since I started praying about my sermon for this night, this phrase kept coming
to me – “be born in us today.” I wasn’t
sure why, but I went ahead and told Thom several weeks ago that was the title
of my sermon. (That’s what we call in
the preaching business stepping out in faith J) I kept
asking myself, what does it mean to sing “be born in us today”? What are we asking when we pray that
petition? In the midst of my research,
I discovered that Phillip Brooks actually wrote a final stanza to this hymn
which we do not have in our hymnal. In
fact, I have never seen this stanza before.
That is a real shame, because I think it goes on to expound upon what
Brooks meant when he said, “be born in us today.” Listen, here is the key --
Where
children pure, and happy pray to the blessed, Child,
Where
misery cries out to Thee, Son of the mother mild;
Where
charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The
dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and
Christmas comes once more.”
[Then
Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan, pg 167]
When Christ lives in us we are people with pure
hearts who see the joy around us. We
are people who still believe in prayer just like the prayer of a child. We are also people who know that misery
comes into our lives. But, because of
the presence of the Christ, we know we can cry out to God and that God will
bring comfort. Perhaps we will even get
to be a part of the comfort for others when they cry out in misery. And, of course, when Christ lives in us, we
will see the world around us with the eyes of Christ. We will see the needs and we will be ready to “open wide the
door” of our hearts so others may know this love that has come to live within
us.
This
past week I happened to come across a story that is apparently a classic
Christmas story. I think it speaks
very clearly to what it would mean for Christ to be born in us today. It is the story of a young orphan named Jake
who lived around the turn of the century – that’s the previous turn of the
century, I guess we have to start making that clear now-a-days J. He had been
brought to live in this parish orphanage along with several other boys from off
the streets. These were tough kids,
kids who had never seen or experience love in their lives and sometimes that
became very apparent in their behavior.
They weren’t the lovable kind of orphans you hear lovely little stories
about at Christmas time. So, as you
might imagine, this particular orphanage did not receive much support from the
local community. Of course, the
community was glad these boys were off their streets, but their care didn’t go
much beyond that. There were no special
surprises waiting for them under a Christmas tree; There was no neighborhood Santa appearing at their Christmas Eve
dinner to bring them something from his sack of collected toys. Instead, there was only the parish priest
who arrived at dinner on Christmas Eve to tell them the Christmas story.
Each year after the priest finished the
story he would pull out an old sock he carried in his coat pocket. He would reach into his sock and give an
orange to each boy. This was the
highlight of their year!! It was a
cherished gift! Each young boy would
reverently receive his orange, carrying it around for several days smelling it,
handling it. Each boy wanted to prolong
the anticipation as long as possible, the moment when he would press his
fingers into the skin, smell that wonderful smell, and then begin ever so
slowly to savor each juicy slice of this gift from heaven.
Well, this particular year, Jake was
anxiously awaiting the arrival of the parish priest as were all the other
boys. But, unfortunately, as often
happened in this orphanage, Jake started a fight with another boy during the
afternoon. This was one of the great
“sins” of the orphanage. And, as it
goes with sins, there was a consequence that went along with it. When you started a fight, you went to bed
with no dinner. In this particular
case, it meant that Jake would go to bed without Christmas Eve dinner – also
missing the coming of the parish priest!!
He was so upset, he tried and tried to get the orphanage director to
suspend his sentence till the next day – he even offered to go without dinner
for more than one night just so he wouldn’t miss his Christmas Orange. But, rules are rules. And, as the rest of the boys finished up
their meager dinner and went into the sitting room around the fire to hear the
Christmas Story Jake was lying up stairs crying, dreaming about the Christmas
Orange he would miss that year. Finally
he drifted off to sleep.
When he woke the next morning, he heard
the other boys already downstairs for breakfast. He imagined each of them sitting at the table with their
Christmas oranges sitting proudly in front of their bowls as they began their
ritual of anticipation. He wondered how
he would get through those agonizing days of watching them prepare to tear into
their oranges knowing there was no future orange for him. Then as he turned his head to look at his
small night table, he noticed something wrapped up in a small cloth. When he opened it, he saw a makeshift orange
– slices of orange were all being held together in the cloth to make the shape of
an orange!! He ran downstairs and discovered that each boy –instead of enjoying
the several days of preparation – had broken open his orange and given one
slice of his orange to Jake!!
The orphanage director was amazed when he
discovered what the boys had done. He
commented on this to the priest. He
said, “how could a group of tough boys from off the streets who have never
known love or generosity from anyone suddenly know how to give such a
sacrificial gift? How did they even
come up with the idea to give away something so precious to them?” The priest just smiled. He knew the answer, of course. He knew that each year on Christmas Eve the
boys had heard the story of sacrificial love.
Each year on Christmas Eve they had heard the story of God giving away
something most precious so simple folks like them would know that they were
loved and their sins were forgiven. And
so, on this Christmas Eve Jesus was born in the hearts of these boys as they
gave away something most precious to them as a way of forgiving Jake’s sin.
We have come on this Christmas Eve, this
Holy night, to celebrate that same
story told once again. And if we are
willing to receive the gift of the Christ child into our lives, we will become
people of joy, people who know how to receive and give comfort in times of
misery. We can accept this gift of love
and let it grow in our lives so that we see the needs around us and are ready
to give – even those things most precious to us – so others can know they are
loved and forgiven.
Come now to this table and receive the
gift of Christmas as it is broken into pieces – let it be born in you today!!