Exeter, New Hampshire
We gather on this holy night for our annual celebration of the birth of Jesus. It was the angel that proclaimed to shepherds in the fields: (Luke 2:10-11) “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. The world needs good news. We need good news. And Christmas comes each year and offers us a way to believe again in hope, peace and joy.
God saves -- a good thing, right? Someone who has fallen overboard is thrown a life
preserver to save them. A hiker losses
their way in the forest and search parties are quickly organized to search and
save her. We admire the heroism of a first responder who
runs into a burning building to save those trapped inside.
You may have heard that this
past week Dr. Henry Heimlich died at the age of 96. Dr. Heimlich is credited with saving
thousands of people from choking to death, thanks to the method he invented in
1974. The good doctor actually used the
maneuver at his retirement home this past year when a woman began choking.
People helping and trying to
save others from harm or distress makes sense.
How about God saving us?
Why then does the phrase “God
saves” carry with it so much weight and baggage? For me it goes to my years I spent in the
South in my college years -- at the very edge of the Bible Belt --that taught me
to be on guard and ready to defend myself if anyone asked me if were “saved.” Because
I knew what they were really asking. “Are
you saved? Born Again? Do you believe the Bible to be literal and true? Do you
know Jesus the way we know Jesus?” Is he
your personal Lord and Savior? It always felt more like a test than a genuine
question.
On the subject of saving, let
me try to save you from something else this evening. My source is the blog post
by Lutheran pastor Erik Parker entitled “11 Christmas Eve sermons that often
get preached, but we don’t want to hear.”
Parker contends that before the
congregation “can hold the candles and sing Silent Night, the pastor is going
to ramble on for a while. What is the preacher going to say this year?” people
wonder.
So as I ramble on these are
the sermons Parker suggests I avoid. There is the “come to church sermon and
the come back to church sermon.” This is the risky strategy of targeting the less
frequent churchgoer into checking in more often. Trust me: not a good idea. There’s the “Jesus is the reason, so Santa is
not” sermon – the sermon that, makes a person feel bad for even mentioning poor
Santa’s name around children. It’s O.K.
Santa is fine by me. And then there’s
the “magic of Christmas” sermon. This
one suggests that this night is all about feelings and nostalgia, painting a
cozy picture of a Norman Rockwell Christmas with perhaps a story thrown in from
the preacher’s childhood. There’s the lecture sermon with a lot a religious words,
and then there is the anti-consumerism sermon that leaves everyone feeling
ashamed for buying any gifts at all.
Such pressure. Christmas
Eve sermons should be simple yet
meaningful, relevant and timeless, inspire but not be too heavy or
depressing.
What
is the message tonight then? God saves.
It
starts by looking where we least expect things to happen in our lives. God continues to show up unannounced and in
surprising ways to stop us in our tracks and make us reconsider the gift that
is our lives.
In Isaiah’s time God made
this promise: the yoke of the people’s burden, the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressors, would be broken.
But how? For those long ago
who thought God would send down armies more powerful than those that occupied
Bethlehem the night Jesus was born, they would be disappointed. For those who hoped for a revolution from
within to topple the powerful, they too would be disappointed.
In the Christmas story,
shepherds are given front row seats to the event that changed everything. And yet they were people who had no power or
influence in Jesus’ day. They were at the bottom of the ladder of success, yet they
were given a prized view.
The Apostle Paul wrote: But
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is
weak in the world to shame the strong. God
chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to
nothing things that are. 1 Corinthians 1:27-28
God chose a different way to
save us and show the world out of darkness.
Out of exile back home. Out of
the shadows into the light. Out of loneliness into community. Out of sin into healing. Out of death into life.
The way out and the way
forward comes through a child. Isaiah
9:6 And a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon
his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace.
To be saved, we are invited
to make room and space in our lives for the power of weakness, service,
humility, tenderness, innocence, vulnerability, compassion, openness,
forgiveness and trust.
Our world has many
challenges, as it did on the night Jesus was born. Our work – and it is work -- is not to
overcome by them, or depressed at turns of events, or hopeless at the news of
endless wars or tragedies. Certainly we
cannot afford to check out and ignore what is going on beyond our families, homes
and comfortable communities.
Once we believe in our hearts
that we are worthy of God’s saving, we are asked to lend a hand. To heal and mend the world.
So let us join the Light that
overcomes all darkness. And may God save
us all.
The Rev. Mark B. Pendleton
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