Christmas Eve
In that familiar passage from Luke’s Gospel that you’ve heard many times, we are told
that because of a census, because the Emperor required that everyone return to their hometown and register, that Joseph packs up his pregnant bride and they journey from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, known as the city of David, because Joseph had descended from the house of David. But, because everyone is really excited to get home and get registered so they can start paying taxes to the Emperor Augustine, consequently all the inns are booked up. So, this young family is forced to stay in a stable. Normally, going from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have been about a four day trip, but remember, Mary is pregnant.
You ever travel with a pregnant woman? Probably took them a week and now they’re here in Bethlehem, and there’s no place to stay, it’s cold, damp, and dark, and they have to stay in the stable. Of course these days we’ve really dressed that barn scene up to look pretty cozy, but it wasn’t. Cold and damp and in a real barn, means all of those farm animal smells rise to a new height. Who knows maybe that’s what induced Mary’s labor. Frankincense and myrrh really were thoughtful and appropriate gifts from the wise men.
Of course, this passage doesn’t even tell us about the wise men. We get the shepherds
instead. A bunch of rough neck shepherds, not at all the elite of the political or even the religious world of that day who you’d think would be there to greet the Messiah, the Son of God. In fact shepherds were pretty sketchy types who lived out on the fringe, always suspect, and rarely if ever included in polite society.
Who do we have today who as a subculture group could be compared to shepherds. I don’t know, maybe migrant farm workers. And yet it is to this motley crew that God sends heralding angels saying, “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
And once this heavenly angelic host leaves, the shepherds know that they’ve got to do
something, they’ve got to go and find this child. You don’t get visited by the multitude of the heavenly host and then just sit there watching the sheep. So long sheep, and here we come Jesus. These roughneck outcasts of society took the message that God gave them to Mary and Joseph, and I suppose anyone else who would listen. All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said. And having shared the message and seen the baby, the shepherds left rejoicing and were never the same after seeing and experiencing the magnificent, infinite love of God incarnate in one small, baby child. That’s what was there before their eyes and that’s what is underneath all those tastes, and smells, and carols of Christmas. It is the healing love of God.
And when we open ourselves up to it, God gathers us up in that love, not to just make us feel loved and ok with ourselves, but so that we will live that love, make that love incarnate, present in the lives of those around us. And so in this holy season of Christmas I invite you to enter into the love and fellowship of God, and as you come, remember: In the goodness of God, you were born to this world. By the grace of God, you have been kept all the day long, even until this hour, and by the love of God fully revealed in the face of the infant Jesus, you are being redeemed. Amen.
The Rev. Dennis Campbell
December 24, 2022
All Saints’ Episcopal Church
