Christmas Eve Sermon

Sermon

Text: Luke 2:1-20

Grace and Peace to you on this day of our Savior’s birth from our God and Father!

Our Savior born of a virgin, first told to shepherds, born not in a castle or fortress, but a stable. Our Savior, come to we lowly people. We, who so often are hurting, pains from death, loss, separation, fear, and grief. We, who are the poor, the needy, the outcast, the pushed aside, the forgotten, the lost. We, who are crushed by the power of sin, sin that causes us to fight, causes us to find no consolation with each other, causes us to separate ourselves from each other and from God. We, all of the world. We have a Savior who has come to us and will always come to us. We are saved through the actions of this baby who comes to us this day.

And so, the grace and peace of our savior be with you, this day and all days.

Our text today is one that we know so well. A young women with child, travelling, her husband by her side caring for her. She reaches the end of their journey, not to a castle or fortress, but a stable. She gives birth not in the midst of fanfare announcing the birth of the new king, but amongst animals.

The first to know of this are shepherds in their fields. In what is certainly a shocking and frightening experience an angel of the LORD bursts forth and declares to them that the messiah has been born. A throng of angels then appear praising from the heavens. The Shepherds, still shaking, then rush to see this new born child.

Jesus, the messiah, is born not in power, but in weakness, his first onlookers poor shepherds. Those who are on the lowest rung of the ladder. It is in stark contrast to the Emperor whose decree has sent this family to Bethlehem. This child comes not in war and power, but in peace and forgiveness. And the message that is given to those shepherds is “Fear not!” They need not fear because in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord has been born.

One of my favorite Christmas stories is about a missing Jesus statue.

The Pastor of a small town comes into work on Christmas Eve morning and finds that the statue for Baby Jesus is missing from their antique outdoor nativity scene. Service is set for that evening and he knows that people will be upset about the statue being missing. He thinks, maybe it has not been put out yet. So he proceeds to look through every storage place in the church. He crawls into the attic, he squeezes into the furnace room, everywhere, even gets on his hands and knees and looks under all of the pews. He calls all the leaders of the church, and finally decides that the unthinkable has happened, someone has stolen baby Jesus. He sits in the church office for an hour before service thinking about who could have done this, and during the service tells the congregation the news, thinking how could one of these people have potentially done this. He tells them that if it is returned by the end of the day no charges will be filed, and no one will tell who it was.

Later that day, while taking a walk to try and get his mind off of this tragedy he comes across little Billy, a little boy around 4 who is a member of his church. Little Billy is walking with a bright shiny new red wagon. The pastor thinking to talk to Billy to cheer himself up, picks up his pace, and catches up with Billy. As he pulled up to the child, about to ask how he likes his new wagon from Christmas, he sees tucked into a blanket sitting in the wagon, the tiny baby Jesus doll.

Upset that such a small child would take the doll, he kneels down to tell Billy that he did something he should not have done, and ask him to bring the doll back. Billy looked back at the pastor with tears forming in his eyes. “I was going to return Jesus, but I promised him that if I got a new red wagon for Christmas I would give him the first ride.”

It is to the fear of Billy, that pastor, and the shepherds, and all of us that Jesus comes. We all fear, Billy in the midst of accusations. The Pastor in the midst of searching. The shepherds at the pronouncement of the world changing. And we fear, because of the concerns of life. Fear of cancer and disease, death, economic uncertainty, environmental issues, and continued war and extremism. It is to all that Fear Not is spoken.

One of my best friends, Elly, is a Pastor in Jerusalem for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land. Bishop Younan of that church sent out his Christmas Message this week. In it he tells the story of the Palestinian Christians of Israel and Palestine. He tells of their fear.

Today Christians in the Middle East are just a small minority, living in a world filled with danger and filled with what must seem to be insurmountable challenges. And so it was with those first shepherds of Beit Sahour, only three or four of them, perhaps one or two still children, all uneducated and untrained in speech. I could understand if they had been timid in telling the story. But Luke tells us they went home glorifying and praising God. And I could understand if today’s Christian community remained timid about its witness. But then I hear again those first two little words of the Christmas message:

“Fear not!”

The angels call to us from the first Christmas.

“Fear not!”

They speak to us when we hear the Christmas story once again.

“Fear not!”

And from the manger in Bethlehem we continue to hear.

“Fear not!”

Bishop Younan’s message echoes not just to those of the Holy Land, but to all in this world. It is a message that we need to tell to our neighbors, to our friends, to ourselves.

Fear not!

A message of comfort, swirling in the chaos of our world,

it flutters to our ears only to be ripped

away by the wind.

Fear not!

our God again whispers to us.

hear that message, in the midst of life, hear that message.

When worn down,

when hunched in pain,

when our eyes are emptied of tears,

when all seems lost. Hear that message. Fear Not!

Our God comes into this world, not in the midst of power and violence, armies and swords, but into a quiet, calm night. Not to declarations of the birth of the next emperor, but to a comforting cry. Do not be Afraid.