Darkness and Joy - Christmas 2015
What a joyful story this Christmas story is!
Angels announcing the birth of the Christ child to a group of shepherds –
shepherds, who in 1st century Palestine were treated as
untouchables, who were despised and excluded, who were dirty and smelly, but
who still are the ones to whom God announces the birth of the child. And it is these shepherds who then run off to...
where? Let’s see the text says about that: Well all it says is that Jesus is to
be found laying in a manger – that is a feeding trough. And feeding trough are to be found where
there are animals; and animals, actually goats to be exact, were usually
secured in the many caves that can be found throughout the hills outside of
Bethlehem. Why goats? There was no need
to put sheep in there because sheep have nice wool coats that enable them to
withstand the bitter cold nights, but goats have no coats so would freeze to
death if left outside over night. So,
these low-life, despised, dirty shepherds run off and find Jesus and his mother
and Joseph in one of these dark and really smelly caves surrounded by goats and
the text tells us that then, they worshiped him, they honored him. Despite the location and the circumstances
and the fact that these men were thieves and well, all kinds of other things –
they were still overcome by the experience enough to pause to worship! It is in that where we find the joy of
Christmas. It is not happiness – there
is nothing in this story that is particularly happy – Roman oppression,
destructive taxation, enforced travel, only able to find shelter with the goats
in a cave and then giving birth in that environment, and finally visited by the
dregs of 1st century Palestinian humanity - there is nothing happy in
this story.
But it is still a joyful story and we can
nevertheless still confidently assert that Christmas is about Joy. The joy that comes with the birth of the
Christ child who is God enfleshed, incarnate – Emmanuel – God with us; the joy
of receiving the unexpected and amazing gift of God’s unconditional love and
grace; the joy of knowing that no matter what, we are loved and accepted and
cared for; and the joy of knowing that through the birth of this Christ child
in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago God has brought about our salvation and
ushered in the new kingdom. Joy to the World the Lord has come, let
earth receive her king! But yet at
the same time we are still a people who sit in darkness; we still wait for the
culmination of God's promise to fully bring about the kingdom; we still wait in
Joyful expectation of the light that will not only shine in the darkness but
will completely overcome the darkness!
And so, we assert - Christmas calls forth
from us a joyful response – Rejoice, rejoice – Immanuel (God with Us) has come
to us to ransom, to release those who are captive to the darkness! But still, I suspect that some of us here tonight
may feel that this joy that I am talking about is perhaps a nice idea, but in
reality it seems to be so illusive and hard to grasp. While many of us undoubtedly feel somewhat happy
and excited tonight, at the same time I am certain that there are also many of
us who are struggling with mixed feelings; that for some of us our feelings of
joy are mixed together with feelings of sadness, loss and even fear and
uncertainty. Perhaps we're remembering
Christmases past with friends or loved ones who are no longer with us; perhaps
we're struggling with an important relationship and feeling some pain and hurt;
perhaps we're feeling lonely or exhausted or maybe even hopeless. And we come together tonight at the close of
a very difficult year in our world and nation – terrorism, political inaction
and division, cruelty, exclusion, increased poverty and homelessness, violence
everywhere we look and an overwhelming sense of fear seems to be settling upon
us. On the face of it the darkness feels
like it is overwhelming. What is there
to be joyful about?
So, let us take a moment to stop and look
carefully at exactly what it is that we're celebrating tonight. Christmas - the celebration of the birth of
Jesus of Nazareth. And who is this Jesus
of Nazareth? Jesus is Emmanuel - God With Us.
The Angels tells the shepherds that this baby Jesus is a Savior – a
savior who has not come to fish us OUT of our humanity but rather a savior who
enters INTO our humanity – into the darkness of our humanity. There is such a tendency to whitewash this
story of Jesus’ birth; we clean it up and take away the dirt and the pain and
the stench and we add all kinds of things to make the story more spectacular
and heart-warming. But if we can see
past all of the escapist glitter and pomp and circumstance that are so popular
in our culture, then what we are left with is the birth of an child to a rather
ordinary peasant girl in absolutely miserable circumstances; we are left with
the announcement of this birth by the angels to the most dirty, dishonest and
unsavory bunch of lowlifes in Palestine; and we are left with the proclamation
this this child is none other than God enfleshed – God incarnate – God who is
born into our world out of incomprehensible love!
And in that is where we find the joy of this
story and the joy of this season! It's not because of the angels, or the chorus
or the quaint pastoral scene at the manger - it's because at Christmastime we
celebrate the event whereby God plunges God’s self into the depths of the human
experience. God doesn't ease into this; but
rather God jumps into the deep end of the human experience. At Christmas we celebrate that through Jesus
the Christ God chooses to get involved in our lives. Not just during the good times or the happy
times or the times when we feel confident and at peace - but also and more
importantly God chooses to get involved with us and to remain by our sides
during the dark times, the bad times - the times of grief and death and
struggle and anger and loneliness and exhaustion and sadness and fear and
abandonment and, yes, even during times of doubt and hopelessness. At Christmas we celebrate that God will never
abandon us, God is with us, Emmanuel. At
Christmas we celebrate that even in the face of hopelessness there IS reason to
hope and that reason is God's immersion into the human experience through the
birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
This is what we have to rejoice about
tonight. This is why Christmas is about
joy - not happiness but joy! May each of
you here experience the Joy of God with Us this Christmas; the joy of God's
presence in the midst of your lives now and always. Christ is Born - Joy to the World! AMEN! 
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