In the name of God ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
What a joy it is to see each of you on this holy night. There’s something about the Midnight Mass that is magical, perhaps because it taps into the majesty of that first Christmas when the angel announced the good news of great joy that the Messiah has come. This good news calls us out of our usual evening routines to this sacred place. One of the things that I find so interesting about the Midnight Mass is that I have no idea who about half of you are. Each Christmas Eve, I’ve noticed that we are blessed with people who don’t ordinarily come to St. Luke’s. Perhaps it’s that Christmas is the only day that makes any religious sense to you. Perhaps you’re here visiting family or friends. Maybe you’re not even sure how much you believe, but you have fond memories of attending Midnight Mass from when you were growing up, and you’ve come for the nostalgia. Whatever brings you here tonight, it is our joy to have you here. So in the name of Christ, welcome to each of you. Let us all journey in heart and mind to Bethlehem to adore the newborn King.
Joy is one of the central themes of Christmas, and we’ll proclaim that later in tonight’s liturgy when we sing “Joy to the World.” How many times have you already heard that song this year? 5? 10? 20? Whether it’s in the malls, on a Christmas music station, or on your home stereo system, we’ve all heard that song of joy many times already.
That first Christmas was actually quite subversive – the Messiah coming in the form of a baby, being born in the small town of Bethlehem, and having this birth announced to shepherds on a night watch. The fact that as people are shopping for gifts in malls or driving in traffic listening to Christmas music and have the words “Joy to the world! the Lord is come: let earth receive her King; let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing” enter their consciousness is also subversive. Just as Christ snuck into this world under the nose of Herod and Rome, so too does Christ sneak into our world through Christmas music stations.
There’s a deep-seeded reason why a largely secular culture in the midst of a consumeristic holiday keeps these religious aspects of the tradition. Christmas is embraced by people who typically don’t pay much attention to religion. People of other faiths and of no faith still put up Christmas trees, exchange gifts, and listen to songs that proclaim the Messiah’s birth. It would be easy to rebrand Christmas as the Winter Festival and strip all references to Christianity from it. But that hasn’t happened, and it’s no accident. It’s because we all, deep down, want Christmas to be true.
We want to trust that death is not that end, that no matter what we are loved, that we were created on purpose and have a purpose, that we are not alone in the universe, that peace is possible, that justice will eventually come. The soul of even the staunchest atheist longs for Christmas to be true. We all hope that “in the dark streets shineth the everlasting Light” and we yearn for “the hopes and fears of all the years” to be met. This is what has called us out late on a December night to hear ancient stories, to sing hymns of praise, and to partake of a holy meal. We don’t really want a new sweater, a new phone, or a gift card, we want joy. It’s not that any of us chose to be here tonight, but rather that the longing of our souls drew us towards the joy of the eternal and loving Word of God made flesh.
Joy is not the same as happiness or contentment, but joy is found in trusting and knowing the peace of God which passes all understanding. Joy is about knowing, in the words of Julian of Norwich, that all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well. And that sort of joy is what our society is so diligently searching for. It’s an existential crisis – why am I here, what is my purpose, who am I? We search for answers all over the place – in jobs, in fame, in possessions, in hobbies. But it is an endless search unless we journey to the manger. The Christian story is one of joy – the joy of our loving Creation, the joy of God’s solidarity with us in his coming to us in Jesus, the joy of Resurrection. It is impossible to understand Christianity without joy.
The joy of Christmas is rooted in the Incarnation of the Lord, the creator of all that is. There is something unique about the Christian claim of God becoming human. What we celebrate isn’t that God merely visited us, but rather that God became one of us. This is where the joy of Christmas is found – in the mercy of God. One theologian has defined mercy as “entering into the chaos of another” and that is exactly what God did on Christmas.
When Isaiah wrote of the promise of the coming of the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” it was a dark time for Israel. Jerusalem had fallen to those tramping warriors and the people were in exile in Babylon. The people were confused as to what this meant for God’s promise for them. How could they worship God and make the required sacrifices when the Temple had been destroyed? One scholar has said that exile is the loss of the known world, and that’s the chaos the people were experiencing – they had lost their homes, their land, and their religion. And yet, God promises to enter into that chaos to save them.
Chaos is all around Mary and Joseph in the passage from Luke. Mary is an unwed woman who is 8 months pregnant when the order comes that all the world should be registered. There was only one reason in the ancient world, just as there is only one reason in the modern world, to call for a census – and that is to extract money through taxation. You can’t be taxed if you haven’t been counted. Israel is no longer in exile in Babylon, but they are in a sort of exile in their own land, as they are occupied by Rome. So not only are Mary and Joseph in a precarious social situation, they live under political persecution. On top of that, they then have to travel the 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem by foot and cannot find an inn when they arrive. It was sheer chaos. The mercy of God is seen in that God enters fully into this chaos to be born among us.
And, of course, our world is not without chaos. Each of us has some personal chaos that we’re dealing with – maybe it’s a medical issue, financial stress, aging parents, issues with children, addiction, depression. The pace and callousness of our society is chaotic. We then layer our personal chaos with that of our society – of bitter partisanship, of economic uncertainty, of environmental degradation, of the threat of nuclear war. This is a chaotic time in the world. But here we are, gathered to catch a glimpse of the light that shines in the darkness.
God’s mercy is seen in that God came to the chaos of Isaiah’s world, of Mary’s world, and our world, and that is where we find our joy, our trust in knowing that all shall be well. We can be joyful in the midst of chaos because the Lord is come
So often when we hear this Christmas story, we try to enter into the story through the characters. We imagine what it would be like to be a shepherd hearing the good news from the angels and going to the manger to see the babe lying there. We ponder what it must have been like for Mary or Joseph. In fact, this is what we do with our crèches, we want to see what it was like. We do this with Christmas pageants, asking children to take on the identity of an angel or shepherd.
But these things miss the point of Christmas. Christmas is not about us putting ourselves into the story of the nativity, rather Christmas is about God entering into our story. And this where our joy is found. We are never, never alone. We never have to question whether or not God loves us. We never have to wonder if God is with us. God takes on flesh to enter into our chaos in order to bring joy to the world.
And notice how this all plays out – God comes in small and unexpected ways. God does not come with imperial fanfare, but through a refugee family in a town that would be nothing more than a historical footnote if it were not for his birth there. As the reading from Titus notes, “For the grace of God has appeared.” But this grace of God didn’t come in the way that any of us would have ever imagined. What is so amazing and joyful about the Christmas story is that it shows us that God can get much out of a little and something out of anything.
Maybe you think you can’t believe enough to make faith a part of your life. Maybe you’ve always doubted yourself. Maybe you’re afraid of failing so you prefer to play things safe. Maybe you think that you can’t change your chaotic ways. But Christmas says to each of us – you are enough. On Christmas, God gives us the gift we didn’t know that we needed to transform us into the person that we didn’t know we could be.
“Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king.” This is the work of Christmas, to receive with joy our king who comes into the chaos of our world. Joy isn’t something to analyze, rather it is something to enter into. Those of you who have held a newborn baby know the joy of that experience. So tonight, as we celebrate the sacred meal in which heaven and earth meet as they did on that most holy night in Bethlehem, imagine yourself holding the Christ child. When we sing “Silent Night” later, think of it as singing a lullaby to our newborn king. Receive him with joy into your heart and be transformed by his merciful love.
And as you receive him, imagining that you are holding the Christ child, remember that it is actually he who holds you in mercy. He comes into the chaos of our lives and our world to proclaim God’s love for us and to show us a better way. This is what our souls long for – to know and be known by our loving Creator. And that is the joy of Christmas – it is the proclamation of the good news of great joy that the Lord has come, that the things that we have hoped are true actually are, that all shall be well. So repeat this sounding joy: Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
