Christmas Eve Sermon
Sermon
Location Faith and St. Luke Lutheran – Date 12-24-2008
Christmas Eve
Primary Text: Luke 2:1-20
In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge is shown as a person who does not care for anyone in the world except himself. He is a miser who withholds help and care for all of his fellow townspeople. He is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve night. The first, the Ghost of Christmas Past, brings him to his past where he sees how well he was treated by his employer compared to how rudely he treats Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s own employee. He then sees how his love for money and care for his own financial well being costs him his love from youth, Belle and the happiness that would have given him.
The second ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Present, brings Scrooge out to the streets of that Christmas Morning. There he sees the bustling of the Christmas season. They reach the house of Cratchit, where inside they see a solemn toast to Scrooge cause a pall to fall over the festivities. At Scrooge’s nephew’s house games are played with Scrooge being the punch line to the jokes. The ghost leaves after informing Scrooge that he does not think that Cratchit’s son, Tiny Tim, will survive to see another Christmas.
The third ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a bleak future filled with death, both the death of Tiny Tim which brings pain and grief to the Cratchit household, and also the death of a rich miser whose death brings no grief to anyone and is celebrated on the streets of the town. Scrooge realizes that to keep all of this from occurring he must change who he is.
On Christmas morning he sends the biggest turkey from the butcher to Cratchits house, gives generously to charity and cheerfully spends the day with his nephew and his nephews wife. He meets Cratchit the next day and after feigning being his former misery self changes his demeanor, and becomes like an uncle to Tiny Tim and becomes known as a generous and giving man, embodying the Christmas Spirit.
On Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Savior, “who is the Messiah, the Lord.” We spread out from here in good cheer, and sing our praises like the shepherds and angels, we give generously to those in need, and we share the name of Jesus with all around us. But then as the weeks go by, we become more, and more caught up in our own selves again. Instead of stopping to help someone in need, we travel past because we don’t have the time to help. We do not give as much because we have now received the bills for our Christmas spending, and we seem to see the Christmas spirit dwindle away. There are no more Christmas lights up, no more carols of the radio, and no more Christmas displays up around town. And we revert from being reformed Scrooges, back into our misery selves.
This happens all over the world. In Bethlehem, the spot of Jesus’ birth, the different groups of monks who care for the Church of the Nativity will occasionally fight with each other over who has the rights to certain spots in the church and who gets to clean what. Where is the spirit of Christmas in that? In the bigger picture where is the spirit of Christ in that?
But Christ does not just come once to us and then leave. Because of the timing of Christmas at the end of the calendar year, it seems like we have Christmas, then New Year’s comes and Christmas is over. But Christ’s birth is simply the beginning of the story. Jesus comes to us everyday, through our baptism everyday we are born anew into Christ’s death and resurrection. Even on Christmas, we consider Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our sinful selves may be distracted by the glamour of the world and all that we could have for ourselves, but Christ reminds us that he cares for us, and continues to work through the Holy Spirit to change us like Scrooge was changed.
This is also not an individual or one time thing. This has happened for generations. When I visited Israel and Palestine last January, I had the opportunity to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. What struck me the most was not the church building itself, it was dark, poorly lit, the entrance required bending over to get through a small door, there were very few decorations, -- mainly very old smoke and incense darkened pictures, candles everywhere, and orthodox hangings, what look like large Christmas Globes, strung on up across the ceiling. The Church is divided into many sections, the Greek Orthodox section, the Armenian Apostolic section and the Roman Catholic section. Each control their own area and there are distinct differences in decoration. The actual cave, we generally envision the manger as a small barn, but the common method of storing animals was to use natural caves, is underneath the main part of the church. To enter it you go down through a narrow stairway, the birth site is located on one side, a little undercut with a metal star imbedded into the ground marking the spot, and opposite to the right of the spot is a small manger believed to be the spot where Jesus was then laid. This as well is not particularly elaborate. The undercut is only about four feet wide, you have to get down on your hands and knees to reach the star and the manger is located in a little out clove about 5 foot by 5 foot, only big enough for three or four people. The entire cave is only about 10 feet wide by 30 feet long. The ceiling of which is blackened by hundreds of years of soot from the candles people light in prayer in the cave.
What was awe inspiring for me was not all that, it was the people who came there. Over almost 1700 years, people have been coming to churches built at this site. There have been untold millions of people to tread those floors, peer into that darkness, and touch that metal star. Everyday of the year, not just Christmas, people come to that church and revere the one born there. Despite their fighting the fact that three religious groups, who have very little to do with each other outside of the few holy sites they care for jointly, can operate this site for the most part peacefully speaks to the power of Christ and the peace that he brings to the world.
On Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Savior, “who is the Messiah, the Lord.” We spread out from here in good cheer, and sing our praises like the shepherds and angels, we give generously to those in need, and we share the name of Jesus with all around us. We ask that Jesus carry us and remind us that it is not the building that is the church, but that the Church is the untold millions who are Gathered and Sent, cleansed and restored, cared for and transformed by Christ’s Birth, Death, and Resurrection everyday in every part of the world.
Let us pray,
Dearest Jesus, we thank you for coming deep, deep, down to this world of hardship and difficulty and we thank you for dying to save us from our sins, and we thank you for our promised place with you in the resurrection. On this day of celebrating we ask you to be with those who are in distress, protect all who travel, be with those who fear, and those who grieve, we ask you to be with all the world this day and all days in both our celebrating and our grieving. When we cry out in fear tell us to not be afraid, for you, our Savior, our Messiah, our Lord, have come to us, and that brings us great joy. We ask that you bring us the time foretold in the hymn, “It came upon the Midnight Clear.” “when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling, and all the world give back the song which now the angels sing.”
In your name,
Amen
Location Faith and St. Luke Lutheran – Date 12-24-2008
Christmas Eve
Primary Text: Luke 2:1-20
In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge is shown as a person who does not care for anyone in the world except himself. He is a miser who withholds help and care for all of his fellow townspeople. He is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve night. The first, the Ghost of Christmas Past, brings him to his past where he sees how well he was treated by his employer compared to how rudely he treats Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s own employee. He then sees how his love for money and care for his own financial well being costs him his love from youth, Belle and the happiness that would have given him.
The second ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Present, brings Scrooge out to the streets of that Christmas Morning. There he sees the bustling of the Christmas season. They reach the house of Cratchit, where inside they see a solemn toast to Scrooge cause a pall to fall over the festivities. At Scrooge’s nephew’s house games are played with Scrooge being the punch line to the jokes. The ghost leaves after informing Scrooge that he does not think that Cratchit’s son, Tiny Tim, will survive to see another Christmas.
The third ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a bleak future filled with death, both the death of Tiny Tim which brings pain and grief to the Cratchit household, and also the death of a rich miser whose death brings no grief to anyone and is celebrated on the streets of the town. Scrooge realizes that to keep all of this from occurring he must change who he is.
On Christmas morning he sends the biggest turkey from the butcher to Cratchits house, gives generously to charity and cheerfully spends the day with his nephew and his nephews wife. He meets Cratchit the next day and after feigning being his former misery self changes his demeanor, and becomes like an uncle to Tiny Tim and becomes known as a generous and giving man, embodying the Christmas Spirit.
On Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Savior, “who is the Messiah, the Lord.” We spread out from here in good cheer, and sing our praises like the shepherds and angels, we give generously to those in need, and we share the name of Jesus with all around us. But then as the weeks go by, we become more, and more caught up in our own selves again. Instead of stopping to help someone in need, we travel past because we don’t have the time to help. We do not give as much because we have now received the bills for our Christmas spending, and we seem to see the Christmas spirit dwindle away. There are no more Christmas lights up, no more carols of the radio, and no more Christmas displays up around town. And we revert from being reformed Scrooges, back into our misery selves.
This happens all over the world. In Bethlehem, the spot of Jesus’ birth, the different groups of monks who care for the Church of the Nativity will occasionally fight with each other over who has the rights to certain spots in the church and who gets to clean what. Where is the spirit of Christmas in that? In the bigger picture where is the spirit of Christ in that?
But Christ does not just come once to us and then leave. Because of the timing of Christmas at the end of the calendar year, it seems like we have Christmas, then New Year’s comes and Christmas is over. But Christ’s birth is simply the beginning of the story. Jesus comes to us everyday, through our baptism everyday we are born anew into Christ’s death and resurrection. Even on Christmas, we consider Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our sinful selves may be distracted by the glamour of the world and all that we could have for ourselves, but Christ reminds us that he cares for us, and continues to work through the Holy Spirit to change us like Scrooge was changed.
This is also not an individual or one time thing. This has happened for generations. When I visited Israel and Palestine last January, I had the opportunity to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. What struck me the most was not the church building itself, it was dark, poorly lit, the entrance required bending over to get through a small door, there were very few decorations, -- mainly very old smoke and incense darkened pictures, candles everywhere, and orthodox hangings, what look like large Christmas Globes, strung on up across the ceiling. The Church is divided into many sections, the Greek Orthodox section, the Armenian Apostolic section and the Roman Catholic section. Each control their own area and there are distinct differences in decoration. The actual cave, we generally envision the manger as a small barn, but the common method of storing animals was to use natural caves, is underneath the main part of the church. To enter it you go down through a narrow stairway, the birth site is located on one side, a little undercut with a metal star imbedded into the ground marking the spot, and opposite to the right of the spot is a small manger believed to be the spot where Jesus was then laid. This as well is not particularly elaborate. The undercut is only about four feet wide, you have to get down on your hands and knees to reach the star and the manger is located in a little out clove about 5 foot by 5 foot, only big enough for three or four people. The entire cave is only about 10 feet wide by 30 feet long. The ceiling of which is blackened by hundreds of years of soot from the candles people light in prayer in the cave.
What was awe inspiring for me was not all that, it was the people who came there. Over almost 1700 years, people have been coming to churches built at this site. There have been untold millions of people to tread those floors, peer into that darkness, and touch that metal star. Everyday of the year, not just Christmas, people come to that church and revere the one born there. Despite their fighting the fact that three religious groups, who have very little to do with each other outside of the few holy sites they care for jointly, can operate this site for the most part peacefully speaks to the power of Christ and the peace that he brings to the world.
On Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Savior, “who is the Messiah, the Lord.” We spread out from here in good cheer, and sing our praises like the shepherds and angels, we give generously to those in need, and we share the name of Jesus with all around us. We ask that Jesus carry us and remind us that it is not the building that is the church, but that the Church is the untold millions who are Gathered and Sent, cleansed and restored, cared for and transformed by Christ’s Birth, Death, and Resurrection everyday in every part of the world.
Let us pray,
Dearest Jesus, we thank you for coming deep, deep, down to this world of hardship and difficulty and we thank you for dying to save us from our sins, and we thank you for our promised place with you in the resurrection. On this day of celebrating we ask you to be with those who are in distress, protect all who travel, be with those who fear, and those who grieve, we ask you to be with all the world this day and all days in both our celebrating and our grieving. When we cry out in fear tell us to not be afraid, for you, our Savior, our Messiah, our Lord, have come to us, and that brings us great joy. We ask that you bring us the time foretold in the hymn, “It came upon the Midnight Clear.” “when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling, and all the world give back the song which now the angels sing.”
In your name,
Amen
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