The Night Before Christmas Eve
2006 Christmas Message from the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ

Jesus Be With Us: A Christmas Eve Sermon

Tonight at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ we celebrated the birth of Jesus with a candlelight service.  Our Scripture readings came from:

Proverbs 8:1, 22-24, 27-31
Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7
Matthew 1: 18-23
Luke 2: 1, 3-7

There is no podcast of the homily from night but my notes are below.  KGW was there with a camera crew for the early part of the service so you might catch some of the music from our choir if you tune in at 11 pm. 

When babies are born we have mixed emotions.

It is a joyous time when we celebrate the seemingly impossible miracle of our existence.  We look at our new born children and feel love so deep that it can be overwhelming.

And a few minutes after that we get scared.

What will their lives be like?  Are they healthy?

Can we make it as parents?  Am I about to faint?

Mary and Joseph must have felt all that and more.  Their child was born in the midst of an occupation of their land by the Romans - a dangerous time to be sure - and from the very beginning they knew that this child of God was someone unique... someone deeply touched by the Spirit.

We gather each year at this time to celebrate the birth of the Son of God... a baby so precious that from the very moment of his birth some realized that the hopes of the world rested on his tiny shoulders. 

What a gift Jesus was.   

"In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord, God has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the whole creation to its Creator," reads the United Church of Christ statement of faith.

Celebrating the birth of Christ is important is many ways:  it is a tradition that we treasure because it brings us together as family and friends, it is a time when we share gifts with one another to express our love and devotion, and it is a moment that Christians - divided about so much - unite to express our love and faith in the one called the Prince of Peace.

Compassion, love and justice were the central themes of Jesus ministry.  As a Jew, he echoed the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures.  He also called on humanity to envision the Kingdom of God not as some far off idea but as a reality that we should work toward in the here and now.

In the midst of war and deep global poverty the message of the Prince of Peace is as relevant today as it was over 2,000 years ago.

Through the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit we still hear Jesus calling us today. 

We are to be peacemakers - not the instigators of unprovoked wars.

We are to bring justice to the least of these - not bystanders to the world's injustices. 

We are to be faithful to God - people committed so deeply to God's commandments that we are willing to follow Jesus all the way to the cross if necessary.

What happened on the day Jesus was born?

God broke through into the world again - but this time not with the force of the Big Bang or some other cosmic event - no, this time it was something even more powerful: the miracle of the birth of a child filled promise and hope.

Each one of us carries that same promise and hope because we too are children of God and whether we like it our not we have inherited Jesus' mission:  In the words of the Prophet Isaiah we are called to be the "repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in." (Isaiah 58:12)

Jesus said it this way:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself."   

When we come to the table tonight for Holy Communion it symbolizes for us in a powerful way what Christmas is all about.  It is about the start of a revolution... one fought not with armies but one waged in total love for one another and for God.  Sharing a meal with God and all who gather is an act of reconciliation.  We come to the table as liberals and conservatives, Americans and citizens of the world, gay and straight, rich and poor... as neighbors... because in the Kingdom all are welcome.

That was a lesson Jesus' contemporaries could not comprehend.  After all, instead of welcoming the pregnant Mary it is said she was turned away and forced to deliver her baby among livestock.  Jesus himself would die at a young age at the hands of the Romans who saw his message as a threat. 

If Christ is to be with us in a meaningful way today it will take all our efforts to act not just as the beneficiaries of his deeds but as those who follow his way. 

Do we show the same sense of love, compassion and justice as Jesus asked us to do? 

Empires still rule today.  Babies and their families are still left homeless.

It doesn't have to be this way.  There is another way where:

6The wolf shall live with the lamb,
   the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
   and a little child shall lead them.
7The cow and the bear shall graze,
   their young shall lie down together;
   and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
   and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
9They will not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
   as the waters cover the sea.

- Isaiah 11:6-9 (NRSV)

That kind of world - where everything is at peace and justice is perused with vigor - is available to us if we bow down and follow Jesus of Nazareth and finding that peace is what the Christian faith is all about.   

Amen.

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