Christmas Eve 2009

         When I was a sophomore at Carolina, I took an Old Testament course.  I didn’t take it because I was the deeply religious person that now stands before you.  I took it because it fulfilled a humanities requirement and because Fletcher Smyth Adams who was wicked smart and exceedingly handsome told me I should.  As we know, God uses all manner of messengers to advance his purpose.  So, to my good fortune, I was persuaded by the smooth Mr. Adams.  As the result, I received instruction from the incomparable Dr. Boyd.  Bernard Boyd was a Presbyterian Minister, a former Army Chaplain in WWII and a biblical scholar of note.  The man could also teach.  He had a compelling turn of phrase and intriguing insights.  One morning he came to the podium of the large lecture hall and said, “I’ve been married to my wife for forty seven years.  Every morning I wake up thinking that this will be the day I tell her I love her and I’ll get it right.  Every day, before I leave the house, I think about the images, the similes, the possible comparisons I can use to describe the ocean depth of my feelings, the attraction, the passion, the respect and regard I have for this woman.  I think, I am a blessed man with intellect and education, surely I can summon the words to say how much she has enriched my life and made me a better person, how through our years together she has given me so much joy and sense of well-being.  I want to offer the full and true expression of my heart to this person who I love so profoundly.  Each day I think I have it.  I say the words and she smiles and I know that I have failed yet again.  As good as my thought is it is sadly inadequate.  This morning, I came close but alas, it still was not quite right.  I’ll try again tomorrow.

         Rows and rows of nineteen and twenty year olds stared at the wizened old man with jaws dropped.  Who talks like this?  What sort of man with such acclaim and reputation speaks of his inability and inadequacies?  Who volunteers disappointment in failing to plumb the depths of one’s emotional being to retrieve the personal truth he longs to share?  We sat transfixed and moved for we knew he spoke the truth.  When humans love deeply they cannot completely, wholly, entirely give accurate voice to their devotion.  The bravest of us make the bold attempt.  The rest of us give up and send presents.  Dr. Boyd’s dilemma with his highly favored wife reminds me of faithful people gathered across the globe this night.

         Dear friends, before us stands the greatest love story of all time.  It is an account we know well.  From a very early age we’ve heard the telling.  We know the place and the time.  We know the characters, the archetypes and the action.  We know this story and we think we understand its full meaning but when we attempt to express its import, when we try to articulate its far reaching consequences, we are humbled.  Every year we want to make pleasing adoration of the Christmas event but the gift is too grand and too generous to take in.  So, we make an annual pledge to recall and reassess the cosmic experience.  From the account just read, we know that in some form or fashion Almighty God came to the Evangelist Luke and said, I have a great secret to tell you which I want you to share with the whole world.  Some will hear, believe and be moved to new life, others will not be persuaded.  That is not your concern.  Your directive is to tell the salvation history of my most highly prized creation.  In the beginning I made the earth and all that is in it.  I made humankind and gave them intellect and free will.  I gave them the capacity to choose for themselves whether to live under my rule or their own.  They chose poorly and put themselves in my place and the paradise I envisioned for them was instantly corrupted.  I knew immediately that they were incapable of restoring my original dream for them.  I knew my direct intervention was required.  I knew I myself would have to become real and present to them in order to lead them back to their intended place and purpose.  But I am God and I cannot be contained in the world I created so I will have to send my essence in my emissary.  I must send my Son.  He will go for me and he will come into the world as a true human.  He will restore, return, and reunite me with my dearly loved children. 

         But they are not yet ready.  They are a new species.  They are young and silly and inexperienced.  If I send him now they will not understand his mission or his identity.  I will wait and prepare them.  When they have lived in the world long enough, I will establish a covenant with Abraham.  I will teach humans about promises made and kept.  When they are mature enough, I will send Moses to draw them out of their bondage brought on by their determined waywardness.  Later, I will send prophets so they will learn to recognize my voice in the messengers I send.  And when at last they are ready, I will break open the heavens and do what I have never done before and will do only once again.  I will send to the earth myself in the person of my Son. 

         And God said to Luke, tell the story of what I did for love, for love of my people.  Tell them how I found a young woman and a stoic man to take on this impossible feat.  Tell the world how I gave this couple courage and patience and deep faith, faith enough to sustain them through all manner of mess.  Write it down.  Record the account of how these two humble thoughtful believers brought the hope of all humanity to life.  Take down the details.  Write it clear and true.  Tell how they showed their son, my son how to live the human experience.  Tell how he took those early lessons and melded them with my vision.  Make sure your report expresses his full humanity, how he felt all emotions, joy, anger, frustration, compassion, sadness, and especially love.  Speak to his physicality, how he ate and slept and grew weary.  They must understand that he lived exactly as they live so they can trust his example.  What he demands of them for my sake is absolutely doable.  They have what they need to be the creatures they were made to be.  They have what they need to bring the reign I envisioned to life.

         As you continue your story, be sure to include the important lessons.  Remember the Good Samaritan, the Sermon on the Plain, the loaves and fishes, the parable of the rich young man.  Don’t forget the Lord’s Prayer, the words about the cost of discipleship or the Parable of the Forgiving Father.  They’ll get the name wrong later on and call it the Prodigal Son, but you start it out right in the record.  The Great Commandment must go in of course.  In your descriptions of Jesus, in what he says and how he treats his friends and women, children and rowdy fisherman, kings and paupers, enemies and thick-headed clods, the world will see how to live with one another.  They will come to recognize their common heritage and their everlasting bond to one another.

         When my Son has said everything that needs to be said and demonstrated the manner of life giving relationships, he will commit the final restoration requirement.  In order to bring the kingdom I imagined for earth into reality, the brokenness and despair of humanity’s sin must be reversed.  This reversal cannot be accomplished by human will or endeavor.  It is too great a feat.  It is beyond their ability.  They are not God.  They can break the world.  They can not create the world.  So, my Son carrying my divine nature within himself will take on all humanity’s sin, all bad choices, all wicked thoughts and actions for all time - past, present and future.  He will take that darkness on and sacrifice himself to it in order to redeem the paradise I created and make it pure and right and healthy.  He who was perfect in his love for me and his love of humankind will die for their willful pride and folly.  He will sacrifice himself for love of them and in optimistic hope that they will claim the second chance he offers.

         This is the revelation God gave to Luke.  This is the story Luke wrote down and this is the story that has been passed on to us.  From beginning to end it is a love story in the finest noblest tradition.  It is about commitment and sacrifice and hope and promise and joy and passion and optimism and the assurance of those things that make us secure and inspired.  God being God found a way to express completely, fully and tangibly the full measure of his love for us.  When the time was right, when humankind was evolved enough to hear the good news, Emmanuel arrived.  “God with Us” came to us.  The earth was stilled, the heavens cracked open, the mythic angelic choir appeared, the unpretentious, unsentimental, shepherds at first transfixed were later moved.  And so the love story began.

         The question before us tonight is what chapter do we write next?  Love has been offered, how will we respond?  What do we say, what do we do, what do we give in return for the in breaking of God to our broken world?  For our God humbled into human form, manifested in a baby born in a stable, laid in a manger, raised in a tradesman’s rooms, consigned to preach in the streets, hung on a cross, what do we give?  How do we express our feelings and depth of emotion?  The hymn we sang prior to Luke’s passage gives one answer. In the bleak midwinter, a euphemism for anytime in the world of man where we are separated from God’s plan, the caroler recognizes her disadvantage.  A great gift has been bestowed.  She cannot reciprocate in kind.  Were she a shepherd, she would offer a lamb, a costly token and a clear sign of devotion.  Were she a Wise Man she would bring even more costly gifts and serve as a herald to the news.  But far removed from the stable scene and lacking the perfect turn of phrase, the perfect platform to announce the full extent of her gratitude, she offers her heart. 

         Dear ones, this is the response that is wanted.  Our love expressed in the way and measure we can muster is pleasing and utterly sufficient.  God gave his Son, we give our hearts and a relationship is born.  The best love of our lives ensues.  Rejoice. Rejoice.  For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given and authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  His authority shall grow continually, and we shall give our hearts.

         And then every day, every day we will try to express our love better.  Amen.