Luke 2:1-20 “Signs of God”
Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2007 By Rev. Kathy McDowell
Christmas Eve. Here at last.
But the signs of Christmas -
at least the holiday we have come to associate with Christmas trees and Santa
Claus and sales to
If you are a child, these
weeks leading up to Christmas
probably seem like an
eternity.
For adults, the weeks before
Christmas seem to fly by
as we pack our days with
lists, and schedules, and things to do.
Are you ready for Christmas?
is the subject of nearly every conversation.
Ready or not, here we are on
Christmas Eve.
Some of us may need to take a
deep breath,
breathe in God’s spirit, ask
that spirit to
remind us of the reason for
the season. (Do this)
It’s easy enough to get
caught up in our cultural Christmas
so much that we give only
scant attention to the meaning of this day.
But here in worship on
Christmas Eve, we can do something different.
We can set aside the visions
of sugarplums and
stockings hung by the fire
with care,
and for these few minutes look for the signs of God in
the Christmas story.
We have just heard the story
of the birth of Jesus from the scriptures,
which is so central to our
faith.
This is the story of
Emmanuel, which means God with us.
There are so many in this
story, so many
who are looking for the sign
of the Savior, the Messiah.
Angels and shepherds. Joseph and Mary. Kings and rulers.
It truly is as if “all earth
is waiting to see the promised one”
in the words of an Advent
hymn.
And what was the sign of God’s saving love?
In a single verse from Luke’s
Gospel, ch. 2, v. 12, we read:
“This will be a sign for you;
you will find a child
wrapped in bands of cloth and
lying in a manger.”
The sign of the Messiah, Emmanuel,
is a newborn baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a
feedbox for animals?
What kind of sign is this?
This sign is very
ordinary. Insignificant. Seemingly unimportant.
But it was through this very
ordinary, insignificant,
seemingly unimportant event
that God chose to enter human history.
There is something quite
unexpected about this sign --
about the way God chose to
reveal his Great Love.
Quite unexpectedly, God chose
to put on our humanity
and wear it as an ordinary
man in a town called
During his lifetime, he
healed the sick and sick at heart.
He taught a new commandment -
that we love one another.
He confronted the powers of
religious hypocrisy.
His death on the cross was the
ultimate sign
showing us that God so loved
the world
that he sent his only son to
be God with us - Emmanuel.
His resurrection reveals to
us that love is the strongest thing in the world -
stronger than hate, stronger
than evil, stronger than death. (Henry Van Dyke
Jesus - his birth, life, death, and resurrection - has
made God’s love real.
The theological word for the
Christmas story is incarnation -
the astonishing reality that
God chooses to be God with us - Emmanuel.
The word of God made flesh
and dwelling among us,
as the writer of John’s
Gospel tells us.
And this God is not a God of
power and might,
of kingdoms and dynasties, of
principalities and powers.
Our God comes to us as a
completely helpless newborn,
visited by shepherds from the
fields.
One of my favorite poets, Ann
Weems,
has written about this most
holy night in a poem called “Unexpected.”
She writes:
“Even now, we simply do not
expect to find a deity in a stable.
Somehow the setting is all
wrong:
The swaddling clothes too
plain, the manger too common for the likes of a Savior,
The straw inelegant, the
animals, reeking and noisy,
The whole scene too ordinary
for our taste.
And the cast of characters is
no better.
With the possible exception
of the kings, who among them is fit for this night?
The shepherds? Certainly too crude, the carpenter too rough,
the girl too young.
And the baby! Whoever expected a baby?
Whoever expected the advent
of God in a helpless child?
Had the Messiah arrived in
the blazing light of the glory
of a legion of angels
wielding golden swords,
the whole world could have
been conquered for Christ right then and there.
And we in the church -- to
say nothing of the world! --
wouldn’t have so much trouble
today.
Even now we simply do not expect to face the world
armed with love.”
Love may not have been the
sign we were expecting.
But love is the sign of God’s
presence, God with us, Emmanuel.
God sent Jesus as a sign of God’s love
so that we could learn to be a sign of that love to
each other.
Jesus has made God’s love real -
It’s up to us to carry that out into the world.
St. Teresa of
Christ has no body now on
earth but yours;
No hands but yours;
No feet but yours;
Yours are the eyes
Through which Christ’s
compassion
Looks out to the world;
Yours are the feet
With which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands
With which he is bless now.
We gather here on Christmas
Eve to celebrate God with us - Emmanuel.
Jesus has made God’s love
real -
My prayer for us this
Christmas is that we will make that love real to others.
Let us pray:
Gracious God, you who are God
with us - Emmanuel -
We thank you this night for
the great gift of your Son Jesus Christ
who has made your love
real.
Let this sign of your love
form and shape us into signs of your love for each other.
We pray in the name of
Jesus. Amen.