Christ Church – December 24, 2011
Christmas Eve, 8:00 and 11:00
Isaiah 9:2-7, Titus 3:4-7, Luke 2:1-20
The birth narrative, the story of Jesus’ birth, is profound, full of hope and peace. The story is told to draw us into the glory of this most magnificent gift from God. The Gospels of Mark and John do not include a birth narrative. We hear the story only in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. In fact, our memory of the story is actually a conflation of the two Gospels, and even an extension of the Gospels. King Herod sends an unnamed number of wise men to find the newborn child. They bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are”. We easily conflate the two stories since Matthew and Luke tell the story differently. Remember, the Gospels were written to reach their own particular audience and reflect the author’s own emphases – all with the intent of drawing us into life lived with God. Matthew and Luke both want us to know that the coming of Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, prophesied as we heard in the lesson from Isaiah this evening: “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.” Yet, the birth narratives are told differently in Matthew and Luke as a way of introducing the author’s own telling of the Gospel message. So, let’s take a look for a moment at some of the differences.
In the Gospel of Luke, we have the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth who conceive and give birth to John the Baptist. The angel Gabriel visits Mary and tells her that she will conceive a son and she will name him Jesus. Mary visits Elizabeth, and when Mary greets Elizabeth, the child who will be John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb. From this passage, we get the Magnificat. Mary exclaims: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Mary and Joseph journey to Bethlehem. Mary gives birth to Jesus. She wraps him in bands of cloth and lays him in the manger because there is no room for them in the inn. A multitude of angels appear to the shepherds in the fields, and the shepherds travel to Bethlehem and find the baby Jesus in the manger.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Mary and Joseph are engaged and Mary is found to be with child. An angel appears to Joseph and tells him to not be afraid. Mary will bear a son and Joseph will name him Jesus, and Jesus will save the people from their sins. King Herod hears about this child being called the King of the Jews and feels threatened. So, he sends wise men to find the child. The wise men journey to Bethlehem and indeed find the baby Jesus. However, they are warned in a dream to not return to Herod. An angel appears to Joseph and warns him to flee with his family to Egypt. Herod has all children age two and under in and around Bethlehem killed. Herod dies and an angel appears to Joseph telling him to journey with his family to Nazareth. That’s the story in the Gospel of Matthew: we do not hear about Mary and Joseph journeying to Bethlehem, we do not hear about the birth, no angels sing in the night sky, no shepherds come to adore.
Matthew and Luke tell different birth narratives, setting the stage for their own telling of the gospel message (Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Christmas, New York: HarperOne, 2007). For example, the Gospel of Luke focuses our attention on the marginalized. In the birth narrative in Luke, the introduction to the Gospel as a whole, shepherds journey to the baby Jesus, rather than wise men who journey to the baby Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Luke focuses our attention also on women. In Luke, the birth narrative centers on Mary and Elizabeth. In Matthew, the birth narrative centers on Joseph. Two different birth narratives are both told to draw us into the glory of this most magnificent gift from God. In the Gospel of Luke, we are taken by this story of the Christ child being born in a lowly manger while the night sky is filled with a heavenly host of angels. The Gospel of Matthew introduces us to Jesus’ divinity through the angels who repeatedly appear to Joseph guiding him until his family is safely settled in Nazareth. But, the actual birth of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew is strikingly every day, so absolutely ordinary. The actual birth isn’t even mentioned. Christ came into this world and lives with us in this world in the most ordinary, yet extraordinary way.
This time of year, we hear many news stories highlighting the events of the past year. I watched a video recently I found particularly moving reminding us of The Most Inspiring Moments of 2011 (yearinreview.yahoo.com/2011/blog/1263/inspiring-video/). In March of this year, Japan was devastated by a tsunami. 125,000 buildings were destroyed. More than 15,000 people died. The emergency crews didn’t give up and four-month-old Iroha Ishikawa was found buried in the rubble alive. Christ lives in our every day. In May, Joplin, Missouri was struck by a devastating tornado. 25% of the town was destroyed. 161 people died. Thousands pitched in to rebuild. Christ lives in our every day. UC Berkeley student Austin Whitney was paralyzed in a car crash. In May, he walked across the stage at his graduation ceremony with the help of a robotic exoskeleton. Christ lives in our every day. You may recall seeing the photo taken in August at Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson’s funeral. Tumilson was killed in Afghanistan. His devoted Labrador retriever, Hawkeye, lay on the floor next to the casket throughout the funeral. Christ lives in our every day. In January 2011, Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head in an assassination attempt. Thirteen were injured, six were killed. In August, Giffords walked onto the floor of the House for an important vote. Christ lives in our every day. In September, at a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Mayor Michael Bloomberg read these words from James Baldwin: “The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us, and the light goes out.”
Christ is our light. Christ is our hope and our peace. The light only goes out in the sense that we turn away. God gave us the gift of Christ so that we might know, profoundly know in our hearts and in our minds, that God lives with us. We are never alone. Throughout the tragedies, the trials and tribulations of life, we are supported and guided and loved. God wants us to know God’s presence. God wants us to know God’s boundless love. I hold on to these words that I heard around the time of 9/11: For every act of evil in this world, there are 1,000 acts of kindness. I believe that – I believe that is Christ’s love. On this blessed evening, let us give thanks for this love that came into the world that we might know how to create, how to reason, how to love all for the glory of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Amen.
