Emmanuel

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

December 24, 2017

Christmas Eve

          A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, such as New Jersey in the 1960’s, one of the highlights of our year was the viewing of “The Wizard of Oz.”  Unlike our current media situation where we can watch whatever we want, whenever we want, many of us remember a time when movies like “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Sound of Music,” and “Cinderella” were shown on television once a year.  If we missed that viewing, we had to wait another whole year before we would have the opportunity again.  So the anticipation leading up to the special night was huge.  Plans were made around the viewing and time stopped to allow us to enter another world for a couple of hours.  This was a world with ruby red slippers and monkeys who could fly, good witches and bad witches, and friends like a lion with no courage, a tin man with no heart, and a scarecrow with no brain.  Every year we would shriek with fear at the flying monkeys, and laugh with delight when the wicked witch said “I’m melting….” as if we had never seen the movie before.  We were transported for a time out of our own mundane world into another world where the unexpected was normal.

          Christmas Eve feels very similar.   The anticipation and build up to Christmas is full of plans of one sort or another that often begin as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey cools, or sooner.  We look forward to escaping our ordinary world for a brief time, to dwell in a world where an angel speaks to shepherds, the glory of the Lord is visible, and the night skies are lit up with the song of the heavenly hosts.  For an hour here today/tonight, we are transported to a magical place where a baby is born who will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Our ordinary lives will be waiting for us after Christmas, but for this moment, time stands still in the wonder of the Christmas story (the beauty of the music, and the mystery of the candles).

          On Christmas Eve, however, as much as we may feel transported to a magical place where extraordinary things happen, the truth is that on Christmas Eve, God is transported into the midst of our every day ordinary lives.  Mary and Joseph were going about an ordinary, if highly inconvenient task, and registering for the census.  The two were engaged, and Mary was expecting a baby, who would hopefully wait to arrive until the two returned home. But, as often happens, the baby chose a less than convenient time to be born.  Getting a room in Bethlehem when so many people were traveling for the census would be about like getting a last minute room in Minneapolis for the Super Bowl.  So, Jesus was born in an inconvenient place at an inconvenient time, to two worn out and probably stressed out parents who were hoping for some sleep when they placed Jesus in the manger.

          What looked to be a fairly ordinary birth was transformed by the announcement of the angel, which began with the words “Do not be afraid,” and continued by telling the shepherds of “a savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  Then the whole heavens burst into song and the shepherds left their flocks and went with haste to Bethlehem to tell the new family and everyone else about the message of the angel.  And Mary treasured their words and pondered them in her heart.

          Rather than transport us for a moment to a magical place that exists only in our imaginations, Christmas Eve is our yearly reminder that in the baby Jesus, God enters our lives.  God chooses to interrupt our everyday ordinary lives not to take us somewhere else, but to live among us, making our ordinary lives holy.  Is God’s interruption always convenient?  Ask Mary and Joseph.  Does God’s interruption sometimes surprise and startle us?  Ask the shepherds.  Does God’s interruption sometimes cause us to break into songs of praise?  Ask the angels.   The presence of God in our lives does not always make life easy or transport us out of the difficult times.  But when God chose to become human in the person of Jesus, God chose to make the ordinary holy.

          If all the Christmas story did was to transport us out of our own world for a couple of hours, or a few days, then set us back down again, we would have gained a respite from the ordinary, perhaps, but then the impact of Christmas would be over.  Instead, the Christmas story reminds us that God became human as the infant Jesus in order to enter the story of each of us, and take the joys, sorrows, gifts and challenges of our lives and make them holy-not necessarily good or painless or easy, but holy.  When the angel says to the shepherds “Do not be afraid,” the angel is not issuing platitudes.  We can trust the angel and live life unafraid because, in Jesus, God entered our lives in a unique way and promises to be Emmanuel, God with us always. 

                                                                                Amen.