Preached at Canadochly Lutheran Church on December 24, 2015
Scripture text: Luke 2:1-20
Every year around this time, we are told that our cherished holiday is under attack. That Christmas isn’t what it used to be anymore. We are greeted in stores with “Happy Holidays.” Our children perform “Holiday shows” and put up “Holiday Trees.” Nativity scenes are banished from public spaces because of something in the Constitution. Christmas is under assault! There’s a war on and we must fight.
Well, as I look out over all of you here gathered tonight, sitting in these pews, singing hymns, praying prayers, and worshiping our Lord, I have to simply scratch my head at the idea that Christmas is somehow under attack. After all, isn’t THIS what Christmas is truly about? Celebrating the birth of the savior of the world? Keeping Christ in Christmas by keeping Mass in Christmas. Worshiping our Lord. That’s what this holiday is really about.
But it’s obvious there are those who wish to make this holiday (and it is a holiday, a holy day) into something more. They want it to be some manner of cultural marker. Proof of our true Christian-ness or true American-ness or something. If you say Merry Christmas and put up a Christmas tree and spend far more money than you probably have in the stores for gifts, then you’re one of the “in-crowd.” You’re not one of them. Those people. Those Christmas-hating atheists or Jews or Muslims or whatever. You’re not one of those pagans who like to remind us this festival has its origins in the solstice celebrations of old and that Christians appropriated them to make Christmas.
We’re not one of those wicked people out there who hate Christmas. We’re not them. We’re those who truly honor this day. That’s what certain people want us to say and think about ourselves. They want to make Christmas into a dividing line, separating us from all those who don’t measure up on some arbitrary scale of Christmas devotion..
If we’re listening to them, if we’re making this day into a line that divides us from our fellow human beings, then we truly have utterly missed the point of why Jesus came in the first place.
Why did he come?
The song of the angels gives us that clue. As the shepherds look up in awe upon the heavenly host, rank upon rank of angels singing praise to God, we hear the purpose the Jesus’ birth: on earth (let there be) peace among those whom God favors.
Peace, not division. Harmony, not divisiveness. Calm, not violence. Love, not hatred. That is what Jesus came to bring.
“Ah, but Pastor, such gifts are only to those whom God favors,” you might say. And you’d be right. That’s the precise reading of the text, translated accurately from the original language. But who is it that God favors?
The Christmas Warriors would probably puff themselves up at this point and say “Well, us, of course. We’re the real Christmas people. We’re the real Christians. We’re the real Americans. We’re the real whatever.”
Hate to disappoint you, but that’s not what the Bible says.
Jesus’ coming is predicted all throughout the Old Testament. To Abraham, God says “From you will come a blessing that will be for all people of the Earth.” To the prophet Micah, God says “all the nations and all the peoples will come to me and he will beat their swords into plowshares and they will learn war no more.” These ideas are echoed even in the New Testament. What does Jesus himself say about why he came? To Nicodemus in that verse most of us, if not all, have memorized “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son...”
The Christmas story itself even highlights these truths. The angels appear to the poor shepherds, barely more than slaves, up in the hills. The star calls to the magi, ambassadors of far-away kings, rich and foreign. The stage is set for the salvation of the whole world.
The WHOLE world. All people. All families. All nations. THAT is who God favors. THAT is who is to receive his peace and blessing. Rich, poor, American, foreign, black, white, gay, straight, men, women, young. old, all of humanity. Christmas isn’t ours to possess. It isn’t ours to bludgeon others over their heads for their insufficient devotion to it, because Jesus gives himself to everyone and for everyone.
He proves this time and again in his life. When a Roman comes to him in desperate need for a sick servant, Jesus heals. When Jesus encounters a hated tax collector, he invites him to become a disciple. When Jesus meets a woman caught in adultery, he forgives her. Time and again, Jesus proves that his mission is for all people. He’s a uniter. He brings the world together in peace.
This is what Christmas is really about. It’s the whole “peace on Earth” bit. But how can we have peace on Earth when we are so ready to condemn and divide from one another? I get that there is evil in this world; we see it on the news every night. But it will not be overcome by our embracing its ways, but by us doing what Jesus has called us to do as his disciples. Do as he did. Love your neighbor. Forgive your enemies. Bring peace into the world around you.
This day is for all people, just as Jesus came to save all people. God’s favor is upon the world, all of it, even the parts we don’t like. That’s what this is all about. God was not going to settle for a sliver of the world. He was going for all of it. And so should we.
God bless. Merry Christmas. Amen.
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