Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | December 24, 2023

People will ask, “Are you ready for Christmas?”

It’s a question that is on about the same wavelength as “What about that weather?” or “How are you?” Folks really don’t want an answer.

I’ve made the mistake sometimes of telling people what I really think and I can see their eyes glaze over with polite indifference and a smile and nod that implies, “Sorry I asked.”

There are different ways to approach readiness for Christmas –

There is Christmas the holiday;

There is the season of Advent leading up to Christmas;

There is Christmas as a daily reality of “God with us.” 

Christmas brings into sharp focus the difference between the reality of our lives and what we hope for – for ourselves and for the world in which we live. The challenge for me has always been to find the reality of God with us, to point to it, to somehow reflect it, and to bring it to bear in life and work. That is the daily reality of Christmas. We realize that if ever the world needs what Christ gives, it is now.

The first Christmas Eve service I ever conducted started out like a picture book fairy tale. There was a soft snow falling and as I approached the little church in the woods the lights shown from within like beacons of welcome and warmth.

Christmas Eve is one of those times in church when everyone has a free pass. If someone hasn’t been there on a regular basis or even for years, no one gives them a “Well look who the cat dragged in” kind of look. Everyone is welcome.

And children can be, shall we say, a wee bit exuberant in church. We’ve all seen them and we’ve certainly heard them. Most of the time we think they are cute; which they are, most of the time. Sometimes they can be distracting and when that happens, usually their parents are embarrassed or even mortified. They are the parents who apologize to me after a worship service. I usually say something like, “I tend not to notice, unless they’re screaming.”

During the picture-book-fairly-tale Christmas Eve service we were at the point where I was giving my ‘thoughtful Christmas Eve meditation’ when there was a noise from the congregation that I could not overlook. Someone went, “Shhh!” rather loudly. I did my best to ignore it but it happened again, “Shhh!” I noticed it was coming from the back row where an extended family was sitting. This was a small seating area. So when someone went, “Shhh!” it tended to silence the rest of what was happening in the service.

In response to the most recent “Shhh!” there was the voice of a girl of about 3 years of age who said at the top of her voice, “But I have to go pee!” To which again her mother said, “Shhh!”

In most cases, if your child tells you she has to use the bathroom, especially if she is three years old, then you tend to respond by looking for the nearest exit and going there. I can’t think that what I was saying was so fascinating that this mother wanted to risk an accident. Finally, she got the message and took the child to do what she needed to do; by which time she was more or less screaming that she needed to do it.

I don’t remember what I was talking about that night. Something poignant about Christmas, no doubt.  But I certainly remember word-for-word what that three-year-old girl was saying.

Since then I’ve told the one story dozens of different ways and dozens of ways the same. I’m always reminded that when we come into this season of good cheer, that for many people the cheer can seem a bit forced and artificial.

We watch the seasonal adverts on the tv that try to evoke a spirit of Christmas – some want to bring out the nostalgic tear and some want to invite to the festive spirit – all by spending our money. We carry our own Christmas spirit in us, regardless of how the world around us tries to tell us how we should feel.

We’ll go from here today and move on to Christmas. For some our purpose will be to celebrate it; some will observe it; some will endure it. We’re all on a journey between birth and death and so we’re always faced with the question of “where do we go from here?”

The Christmas story found in the bible is as old as the Roman ruins and as new as tomorrow’s news flash. The characters in the story had to come to terms with events – some of which they controlled and some of which they could only respond to.

Mary was a young woman who was told that she would become pregnant. Her first response was the natural one – “How can this be? I am a virgin!?” Meaning – I have no husband. She wasn’t just concerned about the mechanics of the event, but of the consequences. She was a female living in a tribal society. Women were put to death for that sort of thing.

She likely thought about the possible outcomes and she chose to take a step into the great unknown – saying in effect, “I hope it turns out the way you say it will.”

Joseph was Mary’s husband in the sense that they were pledged to be married. We can think of Joseph as the patron saint of changed plans. What choice did he have when he discovered his intended wife was pregnant? How would that sort of news affect his sense of pride and dignity? He was from a long line of people who might have called themselves “Children of Abraham,” but their heritage depended upon having a Jewish mother because their father could sometimes be anyone.

Since he was described as an honorable man, he decided to act on honor. He would have her put away quietly. No public shame – but send her off quietly; avoid the extreme reactions that scandal might give excuse for. But send her off to what or where? As is the case with many “honorable” choices, a ruined life – but an honorable choice.

He was convinced to take a different path when he had a dream in which an angel explained the situation. Sometimes when we sleep our mind is free to consider other possibilities. And for those who tend to be more logical and clear headed about life, which some would say is hard-headed – God sometimes waits for our imagination to be set free in sleep to present us with the alternatives. Joseph awoke to a new pathway – not the path of misplaced honor, but the path of truth.

As a couple Mary and Joseph were presented with a choice that was no choice – go to your ancestral village for a census. Sometimes the census is to count heads. Fill out the forms and send them in. Sometimes the census is to find out who is where so that when it comes time to round people up, they are easy to find. A census decreed by Rome to a people under its oppressive rule would be closer to the latter. They had no choice but to obey.

When the time came for the baby to be born there was no room in the inn or guest room and so they had to make do with the common quarters, like sleeping on the couch. The baby’s bed was an animal’s feeding trough; which when you think about it implies a crowded in situation more than crowded out.

Shepherds out in their fields were told by a sky-full of angels to go and have a look at their newborn king. They wouldn’t find him in a palace, but look through the village until you find a baby laying in a manger. They could have stayed put, but they chose to act on the curiosity of it, or maybe the hope of what the angels said.

And later on, wise men from the east – star gazers who read the signs in the sky and determined that a new king was born in Bethlehem. They showed up at the king’s palace because that is where royalty tended to be born. They soon realized their mistake when the king said, “Let me know where you find him, so that I might worship him too.” They chose to go home by a different route.

And King Herod made the choice that despotic rulers always make – self-preservation – which meant sending in the troops to slaughter any possible threats to his rule.

That leaves us with just one person in the story – the baby Jesus. What choice did he have? This is where the story comes home to us. Jesus didn’t choose to be born, just like all of us have no choice in our own birth. We all start out the same.

He might not have had a choice, but God had a purpose: To become one of us, maybe as a way of saying, “If I really want to understand them then I need to walk in their pathways. I need to see from the inside out what struggles they live with.” So the choice began in utter helplessness, in complete dependence on humankind. Thus began his journey.

We take our Christmas spirit with us today and travel on the pathway before us, with whatever degree of choosing we have in our grasp. What lies before us remains mostly unseen for now.

Whatever the path we travel – we know that God has journeyed before us, God journeys ahead of us and most importantly, God journeys with us. Amen.