December 24, 2007 – Christmas Eve
Luke 2:1-20
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It was the summer of 1944 – a young woman, supervising children on the school playground, spied older boys approaching. One of the young men, too old to be part of her charge, just wanted to shoot some hoops with some of his buddies. He had caught her eye right away, so when he tossed her his wallet to hold, (which somehow fell open) she looked down to see what his name was: Fred Henry Langhauser, Jr. “I’d never marry someone with a name that long!” she proclaimed, and snapped the wallet shut. They courted for a few weeks, and then he was gone with the Army Air Corps to fight in the war. They wrote, but he was gone for a long time, and she got engaged to someone else. But when “Freddie” came home from the war, he went to her family home, where my Nana told him exactly where to find my mom. That night he swept her off her feet, and, as the story goes, she took that other boy’s engagement ring off her finger, and never looked back.
My sister and I loved to hear the story of how our parents met. We especially liked the part about our mother taking off that other boy’s ring, because we (not surprisingly) preferred Fred Henry Langhauser, Jr. to be our dad, rather than the boy Willis, who had become a dentist. And every time the story was told, there was a light in our mother’s eye – the light of love that said no matter what she had been planning, what she did for love was infinitely better. She had discovered that Love can make you change your plans.
Tonight we are hearing a similar story, a love story, although it is one that is many generations older. Not surprisingly (just as if we had asked my Dad to tell his version of the story,) tonight’s is told quite differently in the three accounts we have from the Gospels. Luke tells us about Mary, and her visit with Gabriel. He gives us details of the trip to Bethlehem, the birth of her child, the manger. Luke includes the details of shepherds and an angel, and heavenly hosts saying (not singing!) “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth.” But Luke says nothing of Herod and those wise men…
Matthew, on the other hand, concentrates on Joseph, his quandary about what to do with a pregnant fiancé, his visitations by angels in dreams. Matthew tells of the birth of the child in Bethlehem with no travel involved, and the political intrigue between the Jewish King and some visitors from the east. But Matthew tells no story of shepherds…
John’s account is completely different, cosmic in scope with creation swirling and God and the Word being together with the Spirit “in the beginning…” John is theological, the “book of faith” some say, and John lets you know who Jesus is from the very first word.
Mark is silent on the whole event.
You know, everybody loves a good love story – so we tend to take all the details we know and piece them together in a way that we like to hear it. Tonight I wonder why we have been captured for so long by this particular story, regardless of the details of the Christmas event. Is it the timelessness of falling in love, or the profound human experience of having a child? Is it the fulfillment of a promise, finally, after so much time, or simply the annual event of coming together to hear it? After all, some of our most important things happen here in this sacred space: Baptisms and weddings and funerals and Christmas and Easter, for each of these we gather together to hear the stories and be together. It’s as if we are somehow drawn here, drawn “home” by the light in the window – and THE STORY being told again. During this time we take a journey of the heart, into our past, into our family history, into our very core, to find once again that “spirit of Christmas,” that sense of something bigger than ourselves.
The magic of this night and this place is that somehow we allow ourselves to “give in” to that something bigger than ourselves – we allow ourselves to actually lose control, if only for a moment. Perhaps it is simply that this is a time of raw emotion: of joy and depression, of grief and contentment, of stress and silence. Because somewhere inside every human heart, either so near the surface you need only a word to see it, or buried so deep inside that it take years to uncover, there’s a longing, a dreaming, a yearning for…what?
LOVE. And it’s all because in our controlled, buttoned down, prepared-for existence, Love can make you change your plans. In fact, Love is probably one of the only things that can…
This year there seems to be a lot of pushback on using the greeting, “Happy Holidays!” It’s as if Christians must somehow proclaim and protect the greeting of “Merry Christmas!” or it will be forever lost. But I say that whether or not folks say, “Merry Christmas” really doesn’t matter because the symbols of Christmas are all around us, and they are more powerful than any greeting:
Gifts being given – because God came down to give us ultimate love
Songs being sung – because Angels sang at Jesus’ birth
Candles being lighted – for the Light that shines in the darkness, the light of Christ
Food – at your tables with family and friends, and at the Lord’s table
And Time to share it all. It’s been said that you can always make more money – but you will never make more time. So relax, tonight is where Time stops – we sit in the candles’ glow and breathe - and hear once again how God is with us – Emmanuel. As we teach our preschool children in the song, “Wherever Love is, God is there, too.” So if you are feeling the love tonight, then God is most certainly here.
Here on this night, “when heaven is wedded to earth,” God’s courtship of us goes on. Because God knows that Love can make you change your plans.
May you have a blessed Christmas. Amen.