Gracious God, give us hearts to be enchanted by
your love on this most holy night ☩ in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tonight is about enchantment. By enchantment, I mean an openness to trust that there is more to the world than meets the senses. That there is a truth, goodness, and beauty that surrounds us that is waiting to be discovered and is making itself known to us. This is a truth that our ancestors knew in their bones – that instead of us being the masters of creation, we are very much a part of it and are susceptible to forces beyond us. Sometimes these forces were called spirits, sometimes they came through incantations, sometimes through the actions of God. But we live in what some have called a buffered world – a world that has been disenchanted by rationalism, closed off from possibilities beyond what we can imagine or make for ourselves. On Christmas though, we are enchanted by Good News that a child has been born for us, a son given to us, and that he is Christ the Lord.
Christmas
Eve is always enchanting because on this most holy night, we join in story and
song that has sounded throughout the ages. There is something special about
this night that makes it alive with possibility. Whether it’s tracking flying
reindeer via satellites, leaving out milk and cookies for a nocturnal gift
giver, or the tears that come to our eyes as we sing hymns that remind us of
Christmases past, there are things about tonight that will give us goosebumps –
those are the marks of enchantment.
And
it should be no surprise that enchantment happens best in the dark. Something
happens when the sun goes down that opens us to possibilities that simply don’t
exist in the light. Births always happen as a baby emerges from the darkness of
the womb and seeds always sprout from the darkness of the earth. In film and
literature, magicians wear dark clothing and magical things happen at night,
not in broad daylight. The darkness of night is a time of stillness, of
unknowing, of creativity. Whether or not Jesus was born at night, we don’t know
– but it was night when the Good News was announced to the shepherds. Somehow,
that news that the Messiah has been born is more believable in the dark,
because it is out of the darkness that light shines forth.
This
is what the prophet Isaiah recounts – that those who walked in darkness have
seen a great light. Isaiah prophesied in a time of warfare and despair, Jesus
was born under imperial oppression and into poverty, and we gather this night
when we are in a time of personal struggles, political strife, and global
crises. In these dark moments, our enchanting God brings forth the light of
hope, the light of grace, the light of love. And whether it was 2,500 years ago
for Isaiah, 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, or this very night, this enchanting
salvation is best described using the same words: For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given: and authority shall rest upon his shoulders; and his
name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Our world has been forever been enchanted and opened by the gift of God among
us in Jesus.
The
way in which Luke records the coming of this light is full of enchantment, full
of God making a way out of no way. It began with a census – an act of imperial
control. A census had three functions: to remind you who was in charge, to
extract more taxes from you, and to count how large of an army would be sent to
crush you. In a disenchanted world, the only result of such a census is
disempowerment and resignation. Empires, tyrants, and evil will do what they do
– crush the opposition and devour the vulnerable. When we are facing problems
bigger than ourselves, and it could be problems such as addiction, or
depression, or racism, or broken relationships, we can be tempted to be disillusioned
and disenchanted, seeing no hope for salvation, no way for something new to
happen.
But
we have seen a great light. We know that God has possibilities that we cannot
yet fathom. All of Israel was being counted, and yet God is making moves that
the emperor in all his might could not see. This is because, as we heard in
tonight’s Psalm, the Lord is King!
We are not bound by the limitations of our sinfulness and mortality because we
live in an enchanted world, a world in which every bush is afire with God.
The
light of God coming into the world comes as it always has – through God’s steadfast
love and commitment to the people of God. From God’s first blessing of humanity
in the Garden, the call to bless all the earth through the promise made to
Abraham, to God’s salvation in the Exodus, and to the kingship of David, God
has shepherded the people towards abundance, even when we protest and choose
our own paths of scarcity.
Luke
makes it clear that the light comes through this faithful lineage of people who
have come and seen God’s abundant grace throughout the generations – people like
Noah, Ruth, David, and now Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family goes to the City of
David, Bethlehem; city that reminds us of God’s unwavering grace and love. It
does not matter that no one expected the Messiah to come this way, it does not
matter that humanity had not yet cleaned up its act and deserved a Messiah, for
it is God’s grace that shines throughout eternity on this most holy night. As
we heard in the reading from Titus, the “goodness and loving kindness of God
our Savior appeared and saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that
we had done, but according to his mercy.”
Though
we are not always faithful, God is, and the promise made to David is fulfilled
in Jesus, meaning that our limits do not limit God, our doubts do not hinder
God, our sins do not block the way of the Lord, our blindness to what God is
doing does not thwart God’s action in our lives. The world remains enchanted
because God is continuing to fulfill the promise made to Abraham and Sarah, to
David and to Mary, that God will bless the whole of Creation.
The
way this light shimmers in our world though is not always as we would expect
it. No one expected the Messiah to be God Almighty in the flesh, and certainly
not to be born to a poor, unwed Jewish couple from the backwaters of an
occupied Roman territory. We have become so used to the Christmas story that we
sometimes think of it as a sweet sort of moment – but it was not. As I’ve
already mentioned, a census is an imperial edict. If there was a soundtrack to
go along with the nativity of Jesus, it would be that sound from Isaiah, of “the
boots of the tramping warriors.” And imagine the anxiety of going into labor in
a village that is not home – needing to find a place of refuge and not knowing
where to go. Then the child is born, but there is no place to lay him – no crib.
The best they could find is a manger, which lest we forget, is what animals eat
out of it. The Creator of the Cosmos is born in human flesh and rests in a feed
trough.
What
a God! We can talk about the Lord taking
on our flesh all we want, but we will never fully understand just how profound
and amazing this is. Jesus is not born a warrior, ruler, or priest, but as a
poor and needy child. This defies explanation and reason, and yet it is the
source of this night’s enchantment – that out of love for us, love was born in
a way that we can receive him. There is just joy and wonder in the birth of a
child, how much more that when, as Christina Rossetti puts it in a great
Christmas poem, that “love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, Love
divine.” Because God was born as an infant and laid in a manger in Bethlehem,
it means that God is not beyond coming to us however it takes for us to get the
message: we are the beloved of God and love is the way.
The
dawning of this great light is then shown and announced to the shepherds by God’s
messengers, often call angels. We tend to think of angels in the way that the
children of this Parish portrayed them earlier today at the pageant – as creatures
with wings, halos, and harps. But the word “angel” simply means “messenger” and
God continues to send messengers to us today bringing us tidings of great joy.
Indeed, for us is born a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.
Joy
is something that we enter into, something we participate in, not something we manufacture.
Joy is a gift. Joy takes us deeper than happiness, beyond circumstances to a
peace that passes all understanding, to the sort of contentment that we can
only find in the love of God, to the trust that all shall be well. This joy
comes to us on Christmas and it is more than simply news, it is the reality in
which we live our lives. The joy of Christmas, the enchantment of this night is
not something that comes around only once a year, but is the foundation upon
which our lives rest.
God’s
messengers, who are sometimes disguised as children, as therapists, as
preachers, as beggars, as friends, and as enemies still announce this good news
of great joy to us – that a child has been born for us, a son given to us, and
that authority rests on his shoulders. Another way of saying that is that God’s
got the whole world in his hands, and so there is always the possibility for
more than we can ask for or imagine. This joy is a gift that comes beyond us, enchanting
us with hope even when we are unsure, with faith when we are afraid, with
forgiveness in our guilt, and Resurrection life in death.
As
Mary received this enchanting light and joy, Luke notes that she treasured and
pondered these words of grace in her heart. That word “ponder,” it doesn’t quite
mean that she thought deep thoughts, but the word means that Mary was bringing
together, connecting these things. This is the response for us all at Christmas
– to connect this Good News of great joy to our lives, to have this light grow
out of the darkness. Christmas is meant to connect the dots of faith – that God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that we might have life in him.
This means that love is the music by which we live our lives, it is the canvas
on which our lives are painted, the currency with which we are given to spend.
Christmas tells the story to us that love is on the move, that love is always
coming towards us, always going with us, always awaiting us for love came down
at Christmas.
When
we connect this great love that was born for us with our lives we see the enchanting
power of Christmas. Again quote Rossetti, “Love shall be our token; love be
yours and love be mine; love to God and others, love for plea and gift and
sign.” We pray for the light of love to shine in our hearts and world. We
receive love as the gift of Christmas which enchants and gives direction and
meaning to our lives. Through the birth, life, death, and Resurrection of Love
Incarnate, Jesus Christ, we have the sign of God’s love shining on us this
night and into eternity.
