The Lights of Christmas
The first Christmas Eve was a long, dark night. Bethlehem
was stuffed to the gills with people who came to town to be recorded by the
Roman Census. Each family probably had extra people crammed into their already
tight living spaces. Moms and aunts and grannies and cousins and the kids were
nestled all snug in their beds, although visions of sugar-plums probably didn’t
dance in their heads…perhaps visions of baklava danced in their heads. People
who traveled long distances were exhausted and sleeping off the strain of their
journeys.
O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie!
The shepherds were resting next to a warm fire and taking
turns staying alert to potential sheep predators. They alternated resting and watching, resting
and watching, and poked at the fire to keep its flame bright.
King Herod was comfortably sleeping in his palace – he
didn’t yet know the messiah was about to be born. He didn’t yet know his tenuous hold over the
heart and minds of the people of Israel would soon be at risk. All of the fancy
people and the modest people were resting…not a creature was stirring, not even
a mouse.
Above thy deep and dreamless
sleep the silent stars go by;
Mary and Joseph, another road-weary couple, spent the day
searching for a room or a place to rest in an inn. But, since all the inns were full, they made
due by resting in a stable along with the goats and the cows and the
donkeys. In the midst of the quiet
night, Mary’s labor began. And in the
middle of a long dark night, the savior of the world was born.
yet in thy dark streets
shineth the everlasting light.
When the baby entered the world, everything changed. As John said: “The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Jesus, the light of
the world, came into the world. The
darkness is interrupted by the light. All the problems of the people of the
world, all of the sin, all of the pain, is reconciled. Jesus was here to meet us, teach us, love us,
and forgive us.
The hopes and fears of all the
years are met in thee tonight.
Friends,
we gather tonight to pause and focus on the story of our faith. Tonight, we
recall the events of that night. We recall that God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life. We recall the truth
that the light of the world came to earth in the form of fragile, tiny baby. A
vulnerable infant born to a poor family, at risk like all poor babies – hunger,
disease, and political turmoil could have been his downfall. Yet, that baby
grew up to be the savior of the world. In him was life, and that life was
the light of all mankind.
Let
us now listen to the story of that birth. Let us listen to the story of our
faith. And believe.
May
it be so. Amen.
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