Christmas Eve
Music 6:30 ~ Lessons and Carols 7:00
Meditation by Rev. Dr. Mary Alice Mulligan
Scripture Luke 2: 1-20
We gather every year on Christmas Eve to hear the birth story, to sing familiar carols, light candles, and feel our faces glow in holy light. Our coming together is not merely a habit or even a beloved tradition. Something happens here on Christmas Eve which renews our faith. It refills our souls with sacred assurance that God is for us. So pause now to read the familiar story from Luke 2:1-20.
On Christmas Eve, we love to hear this story. Hundreds of thousands of people will listen to the story tonight. And we know each person will interpret what they hear differently. Even among the St. Andrew family, there are differences in how we understand the story. Some of us accept the scene as we hear it. We believe Joseph and Mary responded to the requirement to be registered; that they traveled to Bethlehem when Mary was 8½ months pregnant; that their baby was born in a barn and placed in a feed trough. We believe that a multitude of angels appeared to a group of shepherds who left their job to go see a holy baby, because God told them to. We believe it happened as written.
Others of us believe that the story developed as the early church experienced the presence of Christ continuing in their midst after the Crucifixion. They sensed he was more than a holy teacher. There was a unique presence of God in him, so gradually stories arose to explain how they understood him. If he contains the presence of God, he must have been conceived by the power of God. And if he participates in God, then heaven would announce his birth, because he transcends the barriers between heaven and Earth. Those of us who believe the stories developed over time don’t care if the story happened as the early church wrote it. We care that the early church passed down their belief that God was uniquely present in Jesus and that God’s love is manifest among us. In all our differences, still we gather on Christmas Eve.
Because on Christmas Eve, the story rejuvenates our souls. We sense the presence of God among us now when we hear it. Our different interpretations don’t matter, because regardless of what a camcorder might have captured 2000 years ago, the importance for us is what the story shows for us, now. And what does it show? The nativity story shows that the Creator of the Universe loves humanity and chooses to be with us. Ours is a God who chooses to transcend the barrier between a sacred realm and our earthly/human existence, as much as possible. This holy presence does not arrive as domineering royalty demanding to be served, but as a powerless baby, as vulnerable as any of us. He is born into a struggling family, into a people occupied by imperial powers. The story shows us a God so focused on the least among us that no one in the town notices the birth, except heaven erupts among the smelly, lowest caste guys outside of town. Not just one heavenly being bursts in with excitement, but a multitude of them. So we learn that the margin is where the divine focus is, breaking in at humanity’s most humble places to announce the Good News of God’s love through the presence of Jesus. So, 2000 years later, the story is still for us, because if God broke in there, certainly God can break in here as well.
Someone told me this week that they have become a part of St. Andrew, even though they haven’t joined, they aren’t often present in worship, and they rarely put money in the plate. They became a part of us, because God is present here, filling people with the ability to love others, to reach out in generous acceptance, no matter who someone is. Like that person, sensing God’s welcoming presence, our souls get filled up here, and God’s loving presence overflows, not because of anything we have done to deserve it. Just in our gathering, God is among us.
When we listen to the story, we are reminded that God loves us absolutely. God chooses to be with us, born in frail flesh like us. God comes as one of us, to let us know we are loved fiercely, divinely, eternally. Unto us is born this day, a Savior. God with us.