The Revised
Common Lectionary lists a boatload of texts, “propers,” etc. The epistle and Isaiah readings are
interesting enough. The sequence of
three Psalms (96, 97, 98) are actually cool for a homily. Lots of singing, ascribing glory to God,
probing the theme of the Lord’s kingship.
Not a bad season to explore what “praise” is. We are so utilitarian about God, asking if
prayer works or how God will help me.
But praise just focuses on who God is, how amazing God is – and if we
look to the birth of Jesus, we have no takeaways or lessons or action
items. We are just awestruck, and thus
joyful.
I like Walter Brueggemann’s way
of stating it (in Israel’s Praise): “All of life exists for the sake of God. Praise articulates
and embodies our capacity to yield, submit, and abandon ourselves in trust and
gratitude to the One whose we are. God is addressed not because we have need,
but simply because God is God.” Joy to
the World seems to ring from these Psalms.
I love our Christmas Eve service. If you want to watch/listen, we have a great rendition of "O Holy Night," great choir and the beauty of raised candles during "Silent Night." What a lovely
pair of days we who love and serve Jesus have before us.
This leads us to
the Gospel readings. For us, we’ll use Luke
2:1-20 on Christmas Eve, and John 1:1-14 on Christmas Day. What a pair.
Narrative, and then the highest theological reflection. Little details in Luke’s birth story are
worth lingering over. I love that it was
Augustus who was Caesar when God came to reign on earth. Not just any Caesar, and not a weakling. The greatest of all the caesars (in the same
way that God delivered Israel from Egypt under not just any pharaoh, but
Rameses II, the greatest of them all)!
It’s intriguing to me how God uses a political decision made in total
ignorance of the true God to get Mary and Joseph where they need to be. The David/Bethlehem background is endlessly
fascinating, especially the way David was chosen there (as he was the smallest
of Jesse’s sons, but “the Lord does not see as we see” – 1 Sam 16:7). A manger – a feeding trough for animals;
Jesus is the bread of life.
No room at
the inn – I just love Frederick Buechner’s
little reflection (in The Magnificent
Defeat, and also in Secrets in the
Dark) on the regret of the innkeeper…
I’d be tempted just to read this story, maybe with minimal personal
reflection.
Storytelling/story-reading
isn’t bad for such days. Our family’s
favorite Christmas Book (for all ages), Why
the Chimes Rang, has been my sermon on several Christmas Eves.
The shepherds of
course are interested. I find myself
pausing over and being stirred by the simple closing of the story: “Mary kept
all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
This is a season for quiet, for pondering – and I strive for a sermon
that feels more like pondering than anything else.
John 1:1-14 is
one to ponder over. High poetry, almost
requiring no explanation, like a symphony or a work of art. Just reading the text slowly is powerful. It needs no illustration, no jokes, no “points.” I’m tempted to try to counter the Da Vinci
Code version of early Christianity – that Jesus was just a man, and Constantine
fabricated the divinity stuff centuries later.
How much higher of a view of this child born in Bethlehem could there be
than John 1’s? We light candles, each
one replicating that “light that shines in the darkness.” The “Word became flesh,” very full, even
overflowing with grace and truth – in a culture that increasingly thinks there’s
no such thing as truth (with fake news, ideology, etc.), and in a world where
grace/mercy just never happen.
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