Sermon Archive
Readings for Christmas Eve 2006
Christmas Eve Midnight Eucharist
Year C
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. .
The Rev. Jack Zamboni
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder .. of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end…. and he will establish justice from this time forth, forever more.
In nomine..
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder . So says Isaiah. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder -- and behold! – the shoulder is that of a baby! At one time or another, surely, all of us have marveled at how small everything on a newborn baby is -- the tiny fingers barely long enough to grasp an adult’s pinkie; the minute feet, so carefully formed, but so utterly unable to bear weight; the limbs that, when fully extended, remain smaller than our grown-up hands; a shoulder that may be no bigger than my thumb. It is an infant’s miniature shoulder that Isaiah -- to his surprise, no doubt, as to ours -- proclaims as strong enough to carry the government of the world, to fight against the foes of God’s people in combat against the powers of evil and to bring in God’s reign in triumph with peace and justice that shall never end. As Mary asks of the Gabriel, we do well to wonder, “How can this be?” How can this tiny, helpless creature, at once the most precious and fragile of human beings, how can an infant conquer the powers of evil and bring peace and justice to the earth?
In Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols” that the choir sang before this service, there is an old text that holds the answer to our question of how a baby can fight and conquer evil:
Is come to rifle Satan’s fold.
All Hell doth at his presence quake,
Though he himself for cold do shake.
For in this weak unarmed wise,
The gates of Hell he will surprise.
These old words fairly revel in the paradox before us, and indeed, see in that paradox its own answer: “For in this weak unarmed wise, The gates of Hell he will surprise.” The powers of evil are just as unprepared for God’s conquering Messiah to be a weak and helpless baby as we are.
Coming as a tiny baby, slipping through the watch of Herod’s guards and Rome’s legions is only the beginning. God’s surprising way of dealing with evil runs throughout Jesus’ career. The normal human way of dealing with someone evil is to point fingers and condemn the wrong; if necessary, to cast the wrongdoer out of the community; and if really necessary to get enough physical power together to strike the evil-doer harder than he or she can strike back. When nations or ethnic or religious groups do that to each other, we call it war. And we only have to look as far as Iraq or Lebanon or Israel and Palestine to know that when people do that to each other, a self-reinforcing cycle of violence gets going and it is very hard to stop. This way of fighting evil does not work.
And that’s not how Jesus goes about fighting evil. Instead of pointing fingers or condemning, he forgives; instead of casting out, he welcomes the outcast; instead of attacking evil-doers, he offers himself to die on their-- and our -- behalf.
Evil simply does not know what to make of this. Hell is utterly surprised by the weak unarmed wise of fighting God’s battles with evil. And not only is it surprised by the seeming weakness of this divine tactic, it is defeated by it. Evil thrives on the retaliatory violence that gives tit for tat, insult for insult, blow for blow, shot for shot, bomb for bomb. But evil dies when its worst actions are met by the “weakness” of forgiving love. “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” That is how God’s government works, that is how God brings peace and justice to the earth; that is how the Reign of God begins.
If it seems that I am talking as much about Jesus’ ministry and death as of his birth, there is a reason for that. Much as we are entranced by the joy and beauty of this birth and the desire to contemplate it on its own, we can never forget that this birth only means to us what it does because of the victory over evil accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection that flowed from it. And the means of that victory are foreshadowed already in that birth, in that weak unarmed infant, prepared to do battle with all the evil forces of this world.
If you look closely at the figure of the infant Jesus in the crèche in front of the altar, you will see that he lies there with his tiny arms outstretched -- outstretched as they would be again on the Cross. There, on the cross, this weak unarmed babe, now a man, stretched out his arms in the power of love. Tonight, tiny and helpless, this weak unarmed infant stretches out his arms in the crèche, embracing us and the world in the power of lover; the only power that can ever defeat evil and bring the Reign of God’s peace and justice to the earth.
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