| Christmas Eve 2011 "Come Closer - God is the Constant" |
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“Come Closer – God is the Constant” Christmas Eve 2011 The Rev. Carole Wageman Trinity Episcopal Church, Shelburne, VT Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1:1-4; John 1: 1-14
Good evening – it is good to see you all. For those of you who are visiting for the first or second time or who come only occasionally, I hope we will see you again because the Episcopal Church’s open door always offers welcome to the stranger and respect for who you are. Like the stable entrance that welcomed weary travelers as well as startled shepherds and resplendent magi, there is something here you need to take a look at – something waiting for you to unwrap that might surprise you with the simplicity and vulnerability of a newborn infant that nestles within its humanity, a matchless spark of Divine Love. An Exquisite Friendship with a power beyond ourselves that enters our world as one of us with a determined purpose to encounter humankind with the radical hospitality, unconditional love and persistent faithfulness of a Creator with His creation. It is a wondrous thing that cries in the cradle on this night. He will be searching until he finds you for you are the reason he came into being. It is sometimes hard to find that sense of surprise and wonder during the secular Christmas culture overload that appears to have become an important financial indicator upon which our national economy depends. I doubt Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds or Wise Men ever realized that as they gathered with awe at what was taking place right in the center of their lives. When you find yourself in the middle of God unfolding part of His story in you, it is enough to just hold on for the ride. But this part of God’s Story is just beginning. As we know from the writings in Scripture, the Story doesn’t end with the tender scene of a glowing baby surrounded by all these adoring adults. That baby grows up and responds to God’s Call. He travels around teaching, preaching, healing. He is faithful to his Jewish heritage...some even call him “Rabbi”. Some people are very drawn to follow him because he touches some deep emptiness and yearning in their own hearts. His grasp of the ancient prophetic teachings goes deeper than surface interpretation and he applies their lessons to speak out for justice, dignity, peace, healing. This babe challenges the status quo and as a result, he eventually is arrested, tortured and crucified and his body hurriedly placed in a nearby tomb since the weekly holy day of Sabbath was coming. But – why talk about these things on this night when we might want to forget about the troubles of the world for a while. Well, Christmas and Easter are part of the same story – God’s Story. We can’t really comprehend the significance of Jesus’ birth if we don’t hold it together with the force of Jesus’ resurrection. They are part of the same story. God’s Story was going on long before Jesus was born and God’s Story continued on after Jesus died and God’s Story – in Jesus’ resurrection - revealed that God is bigger than even death. God’s Story is right here in our midst on this beautiful evening and is knocking on your door. This tiny child came here for you because you are worth it. No matter how bad you might feel about yourself – or how disappointed you might be in how life is treating you right now, God understands because he lived among us as one of us --- because you are worth it ---- because you are the one God waits for and hopes for and yearns for. You will find you have only to take one step closer and say “yes” to God for God to welcome you home with rejoicing. I want to conclude with a story about an important lesson I learned one Christmas Day about twelve years ago. This was before I was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. Christmas Day dawned sunny and bright. I decided to take a walk down to the center of Montpelier where we lived at the time. The day before I had also been in town and the sidewalks were crowded with shoppers hurrying to find their last minute stocking stuffers or that gift they didn’t realize they would need for Aunt Tilly’s unexpected arrival. But this day – Christmas Day – was astonishing. The main streets of this busy and thriving town were totally deserted. There wasn’t one car or person in sight the entire time I was there. The stores were all closed up and the festive window decorations looked rather tired and worn out from a season of glitter and glitz. In some cases, you could see where something had been removed from the display and most likely sold to a determined shopper. And as I walked through town, I wondered: “Where did it all go? Where did Christmas go? Where did the energy and noise and drive and sense of purpose disappear to? How could it be that things seemed so alive the day before and yet here --- in less than 24 hours it all seemed so finished? How could that be? What did that mean?” And it was in the stunning silence of that ghost town, I sensed something singing in the air – like the bewilderingly persistent song of an angel whisper announcing itself to shepherds from long ago: “God is the Constant. God is the Constant.” That single golden thread that wove itself through all human history had been there all along as it had been for generations upon generations. Regardless of the spiritual and secular clutter I might load onto this season, that strand blazed tenaciously and relentlessly through the darkness of each age. “God is the Constant. God is the Constant.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness [does] not overcome it...To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14) So, come a little closer...there is something in this manger you need to see that has been waiting for you to take a peek.
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