Sermons 2003-2004

Christmas Eve 2004 Luke 2:1-20

Finally! Finally, it’s here. Christmas Eve, the night Jesus was born. Now we can let go of at least some of the hurry and preparation and getting ready and Christmas shopping and all the things that fill our days and minds and hands until now – when, finally, it’s here.

Oh, to be a little child on Christmas Eve again. I think that’s some thing of what Jesus meant when he said we have to approach everything about the Kingdom of heaven as a little child, bedazzled by the wonder and majesty and mystery of it all. Have you noticed how our attitudes toward Christmas change as we grow older and maybe wiser – especially when we compare it to the attitudes of our little children and grandchildren?

It doesn’t seem to bother the children that Christmas is so close so soon. Why is it they never seem to have any trouble getting ready for it? We older and wiser ones make a much harder thing of it; we always insist there is so much to do to get ready. Perhaps the difference is that the children are content to let Christmas happen, gaily and joyfully entering into the majesty and mystery and wonder of it all. Meanwhile we adults and senior citizens are so sure that it can't happen unless we do all the right things to make it happen.

Many of the things we do to adorn this season, to set the stage for the drama that is coming, are certainly good, and belong there - so long as they do not take over so completely that we have no time or room for that other kind of preparation, which is nothing more nor less than being ready, like the children, to let Christmas happen in its own way. Or perhaps we should say, to let it happen in God's own way! (1)

And tell the story – wallow in sentimentality. If there is a time to wallow in sentimentality it is on the night when the angles sing, the shepherds watch, and the stars danced in the sky. So come away to Bethlehem, come as a child, come to see this thing that has taken place which the Lord has made known to us.

Two examples: There are many pictures of the Christmas story as painted by the old masters. These paintings reflect the different understandings of the incarnation that each of the artists tried to express. One picture of the shepherds is a detail from a 15th-century Dutch Book of Hours. Eight solid and solemn shepherds hold hands and are obviously doing a circle dance, although two are going in opposite directions and one seems to be standing still. Another shepherd points to heaven, where the words of the angel appear in large letters. Their faces express not even a glimmer of excitement—these are sturdy, no-nonsense shepherds—but as joy, and wonder, and majesty, and mystery starts seeping into their souls, their feet cannot help dancing.

Contrast this with a card by a contemporary five-year-old artist. In the stable scene, a red-cheeked Jesus beams cheerfully from his manger. Mary grins like a Cheshire cat and has her arms raised in triumph as though her soccer team has just scored the winning goal, and two shepherds in multicolored, almost gaudy clothes stand happily at either side. At everyone’s feet are seven of the woolliest sheep you could wish to meet, all falling around laughing for joy; one even seems to be holding its sides as it laughs. A lantern swings from the ceiling of the stable as if it has been shocked by an earthquake, and it fills the stable with bright yellow light spilling out into the world. (2)

Auditions were held in heaven for the angel choir that would sing to the shepherds on the first Christmas. A committee selected only 100 angels, based on musical ability, commitment to practice, and overall enthusiasm for the task.

When the choir director met with the choir for the first time, one voice was obviously out of place; it was loud and off key. After listening to each angel individually, the angry director identified the loud angel and sent her home.

The selection committee intervened, stressing that the loud angel was deliberately included because her commitment and enthusiasm clearly exceeded that of all others who auditioned. The committee made its case up the chain of command and ultimately God called the choir director on the telephone to have the loud angel reinstated.

Months of rehearsal failed to train the loud angel to sing more quietly and on key. In volume and pitch, the loud angel was not able to blend with the other 99 voices. In desperation, the day before Christmas the choir director instructed the loud angel to move her lips, but not to let any sound pass through them.

With the loud angel silenced, the angel choir was perfect. The dress rehearsal was flawless, but no one, including the choir director, was satisfied. It just was not quite right, and everyone knew it. The unique sound of this choir – what made it special and gave it character – was missing; it lacked that one voice that was slightly louder and slightly off key.

With resignation, the choir director told the loud angel to sing, “but not too loud.”

All 100 angels and the choir director had tears in their eyes as they heard their signature sound restored with the return of the loud angel’s voice standing out among the rest.

On that first Christmas Eve, the shepherds said that the angel choir was the very best choir that they had ever heard, now that all the voices were there. (3)

But even as the shepherds heard the heavenly chorus die away and as they hurried off to Bethlehem, one shepherd stayed back. His most mischievous and troublesome newborn lamb had wandered off again. And the shepherd was afraid that it would fall down a cliff and hurt itself. Or worse, be killed by a wolf.

So this shepherd searched high and low across the hills, but no lamb was to be found anywhere. He thought that maybe somehow it was following the other shepherds on their way to the manger so he hurried to catch up. But they hadn’t seen the lamb and the lamb wasn’t to be seen.

The shepherd kept looking for the little lamb on the way but the great shining star over the manger soon distracted him from his search. The light spilling out of the manger seemed to light up the whole world as they came closer. And when the shepherds reached the manger and stopped to look at the wonderful sight of the newborn king, they noticed that the little lost lamb was lying at the feet of the baby.

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. 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. Come to Bethlehem, come and see, come as a child to see this thing that has taken place which the Lord has made known to us. And join the little lost lanb at the foot of the Christ Child.

. AMEN



1. Adapted from “Christmas preparations we often forget,” in SOMETHING’S COMING ... SOMETHING GREAT, by ROBERT A. BERINGER, C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1992.

2. Adapted from Rosalind Brown, "Go Out in Joy,” at www.textweek.com.

3. Ted Johnson, “Bodybuilding: Christmas Stories”, at tjohnson@congregationsolutions.com