St. Margaret's Sermon Archive
Christmas Eve / Advent IV - Susan N. Blue 12/24/06
“…The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.” Isaiah 9:2
And
“…What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…” John 1:4-5
This most holy night we celebrate the miracle of God’s love…a love so incredible that it is incomprehensible on a pragmatic level. God loved the world and we human creatures of the world so very much, that the Creator of all became one of us, that we might learn how to live with God and one another. God came in profoundly humble circumstances, born as a human baby of a young frightened mother in a grimy, cold stable. We often hear Jesus referred to as the “light of the world,” and so he is. The reality of the incarnation goes further to say that Jesus is the light in the midst of the darkness of the world. Jesus, God incarnate, came 2000 plus years ago and comes today to dispel the darkness of our unbelief, our fear, our pain and our dying.
Through Jesus, God as human, we can begin to understand that God is not “out there” but within and around us. God’s love seeks relationship with us and comes to reconcile our relationships with one another. The relationship that God calls us to is one of mutuality, of respect, of union…one that insists that we are a part of one another, that when any person or groups of persons are excluded we cease to be whole.
God came to earth in the person of Jesus, fully human yet fully divine, to live and work as one of us, to show us in a most concrete manner how we are to love one another as a reflection of the love God has for us.
Oemig has said: “”…the exquisiteness of the Incarnation must be discovered – this Truth above all truth. It must be experienced in the depths of our lives, not simply on the level of surface celebration or acknowledgment… “(Synthesis December 25, 2006, page 4)
There is an old Christmas story called “The Burglar’s Christmas.” It tells of a man who is totally down on his luck –he had lived a wild life, cut himself off from his family and was in total despair. He had no food, no friends, and was suicidal. His last ditch attempt at survival was to attempt to burgle a home on Christmas Eve. He broke into the home but, in the process, awakened the owners. To everyone’s surprise, it was his own parents’ home – they had recently moved to Chicago. He confessed to his parents and prepared to leave. His mother says: “Please stay, we can make things right.” He replied: “I wonder if you know how much you pardon?” She answered: “My poor boy, much or little doesn’t matter. Have you wandered so far and paid such a bitter price for knowledge and not yet learned that love has nothing to do with pardon or forgiveness, that it only loves, and loves and loves.”
That is “Emmanuel, God with us.” (Copied: From Christmas Tales: Celebrated Authors in the Magic of the Season.)
Think of the story of the little boy who developed cancer. As the result of the chemo, he lost his hair. On the day he was to return to school he and his mother agonized as to what he would wear. They finally decided upon a baseball cap. However, when he arrived at school, he found that his classmates had shaved their heads. That is “Emmanuel, God with us.”
Henry Carter was a pastor whose church also had a home for emotionally disturbed children, and Christmas was particularly hard for them, especially those who had no place to go that day. He was struggling with his sermon when the floor mother came to him to say young Tommy had crawled under a bed and refused to come out. Henry, frustrated with having no sermon, nevertheless went to Tommy’s room, stood by the bed and began to talk, addressing the cowboys on the spread. There was no answer. Finally, having exhausted all options, he got down on the floor and scooted slowly on his stomach toward the little boy. He lay there beside him, with his cheek pressed to the floor, talking about the wreath over the altar and the candles in the windows. Finally, having run out of things to say, Henry simply waited beside him. As he waited, a small, chilled hand crept into his. Henry said: “You know, Tommy, its kind of close quarters under here. Let’s you and me go out where we can stand up.” And so they did, but slowly, in no hurry. All pressure was gone for Henry, for he had his Christmas sermon. Flattened there on the floor he realized that he had been given a new glimpse of the mystery of the season. (copied) That is “Emmanuel, God with us.”
God loves us so very much that, in Jesus, he crawls under the bed and lies close to us, waiting. God joined heaven and earth, not to make us pain-free but to be present with us in our pain, and to help us work to relieve the pain of others. God came not to make us happy, but to assure us that we’re never alone. God came not to give us all the good things in the world that we believe we deserve, but to assure us that what is truly life-giving is pouring out for others. As in the final verse of that beloved hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” we, too cry out:
“O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.”
(Philips Brooks, Lewis H. Redner)
Let us pray:
Emmanuel, God with us, come, get down under the bed, in the dark and hidden loneliness of our hearts. Hold our hands and make us know that with the coming of your son, Jesus Christ, we are safe, saved and yours. AMEN
ADVENT IV - Susan N. Blue December 24, 2006
“…And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord…”
We live in a time when anxiety is high throughout the world and, in this country, it is almost palpable. Our illusions of invulnerability and being ‘the chosen’ were shattered by the disaster of 9/11 and were dealt a death blow by the radical societal changes that have happened over the past thirty-some years. Many are left longing for yesterday, for the supposed serenity and predictability of the fifties. The neoconservative movement in the church, in politics and in everyday life has been spawned by that longing.
A first pregnancy for any woman creates myriad feelings due both to the enormity of the experience and the hormonal and physical changes in her body. When one couples these feelings with high anxiety around the pregnancy we can begin to have some understanding of the tension in which both Elizabeth and Mary were living.
Elizabeth was elderly, and, probably the object of pity by the people in her community as she was barren. This was a far more serious issue for a Jewish woman for immortality and continued existence in the Hebrew community was predicated upon progeny and land. Elizabeth must have had to endure gossip and derision throughout the years and now, pregnant at an advanced age, some amusement and speculation. Further, she must have had some fear that she could even carry the child to term given her age.
Mary was very young, of low status in the community and unmarried. She too would be the object of speculation and scorn. Earlier in Luke we read that Joseph had the option of putting her aside, as he knew he was not the father of her child. Mary must have been frightened and anxious as to what the future would hold.
Both Mary and Elizabeth, however, had accepted with profound obedience, the pregnancies that they had been given. Both understood that God was totally present for each. Elizabeth would bear John, a man who was to be the last of the prophets. Mary would bear Jesus, the son of God, who would usher in the new reality of God’s kingdom. Both lived in hope for their unborn sons, just as both carried anxiety and fear for them.
Judy Buck Glen has said that: “Mary and Elizabeth meet in this place between anxiety and hope, this place in which we recognize ourselves and our own situation. Yet, so powerful is their trust in the expectation of what God intends, so pregnant are they with expectation, that what most abounds between them in their meeting is joy and deep blessing. They set anxiety all to one side. The signs of new life stir within them. And what flows in and through and surrounds them both is the boundless, tender, parental love of God.” (Homily Service, Volume 40, Number 1, 12/06, Year B, pp 44-46, Judy Buck Glen.)
Mary and Elizabeth are icons of the profoundly human tension facing Christians as we live between the anxiety of the world and our hope for the coming of Christ. Let us, like them, allow the anxiety to be set aside and be filled with hope as we await with eager expectation the coming of Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer.
And
“…What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…” John 1:4-5
This most holy night we celebrate the miracle of God’s love…a love so incredible that it is incomprehensible on a pragmatic level. God loved the world and we human creatures of the world so very much, that the Creator of all became one of us, that we might learn how to live with God and one another. God came in profoundly humble circumstances, born as a human baby of a young frightened mother in a grimy, cold stable. We often hear Jesus referred to as the “light of the world,” and so he is. The reality of the incarnation goes further to say that Jesus is the light in the midst of the darkness of the world. Jesus, God incarnate, came 2000 plus years ago and comes today to dispel the darkness of our unbelief, our fear, our pain and our dying.
Through Jesus, God as human, we can begin to understand that God is not “out there” but within and around us. God’s love seeks relationship with us and comes to reconcile our relationships with one another. The relationship that God calls us to is one of mutuality, of respect, of union…one that insists that we are a part of one another, that when any person or groups of persons are excluded we cease to be whole.
God came to earth in the person of Jesus, fully human yet fully divine, to live and work as one of us, to show us in a most concrete manner how we are to love one another as a reflection of the love God has for us.
Oemig has said: “”…the exquisiteness of the Incarnation must be discovered – this Truth above all truth. It must be experienced in the depths of our lives, not simply on the level of surface celebration or acknowledgment… “(Synthesis December 25, 2006, page 4)
There is an old Christmas story called “The Burglar’s Christmas.” It tells of a man who is totally down on his luck –he had lived a wild life, cut himself off from his family and was in total despair. He had no food, no friends, and was suicidal. His last ditch attempt at survival was to attempt to burgle a home on Christmas Eve. He broke into the home but, in the process, awakened the owners. To everyone’s surprise, it was his own parents’ home – they had recently moved to Chicago. He confessed to his parents and prepared to leave. His mother says: “Please stay, we can make things right.” He replied: “I wonder if you know how much you pardon?” She answered: “My poor boy, much or little doesn’t matter. Have you wandered so far and paid such a bitter price for knowledge and not yet learned that love has nothing to do with pardon or forgiveness, that it only loves, and loves and loves.”
That is “Emmanuel, God with us.” (Copied: From Christmas Tales: Celebrated Authors in the Magic of the Season.)
Think of the story of the little boy who developed cancer. As the result of the chemo, he lost his hair. On the day he was to return to school he and his mother agonized as to what he would wear. They finally decided upon a baseball cap. However, when he arrived at school, he found that his classmates had shaved their heads. That is “Emmanuel, God with us.”
Henry Carter was a pastor whose church also had a home for emotionally disturbed children, and Christmas was particularly hard for them, especially those who had no place to go that day. He was struggling with his sermon when the floor mother came to him to say young Tommy had crawled under a bed and refused to come out. Henry, frustrated with having no sermon, nevertheless went to Tommy’s room, stood by the bed and began to talk, addressing the cowboys on the spread. There was no answer. Finally, having exhausted all options, he got down on the floor and scooted slowly on his stomach toward the little boy. He lay there beside him, with his cheek pressed to the floor, talking about the wreath over the altar and the candles in the windows. Finally, having run out of things to say, Henry simply waited beside him. As he waited, a small, chilled hand crept into his. Henry said: “You know, Tommy, its kind of close quarters under here. Let’s you and me go out where we can stand up.” And so they did, but slowly, in no hurry. All pressure was gone for Henry, for he had his Christmas sermon. Flattened there on the floor he realized that he had been given a new glimpse of the mystery of the season. (copied) That is “Emmanuel, God with us.”
God loves us so very much that, in Jesus, he crawls under the bed and lies close to us, waiting. God joined heaven and earth, not to make us pain-free but to be present with us in our pain, and to help us work to relieve the pain of others. God came not to make us happy, but to assure us that we’re never alone. God came not to give us all the good things in the world that we believe we deserve, but to assure us that what is truly life-giving is pouring out for others. As in the final verse of that beloved hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” we, too cry out:
“O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.”
(Philips Brooks, Lewis H. Redner)
Let us pray:
Emmanuel, God with us, come, get down under the bed, in the dark and hidden loneliness of our hearts. Hold our hands and make us know that with the coming of your son, Jesus Christ, we are safe, saved and yours. AMEN
ADVENT IV - Susan N. Blue December 24, 2006
“…And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord…”
We live in a time when anxiety is high throughout the world and, in this country, it is almost palpable. Our illusions of invulnerability and being ‘the chosen’ were shattered by the disaster of 9/11 and were dealt a death blow by the radical societal changes that have happened over the past thirty-some years. Many are left longing for yesterday, for the supposed serenity and predictability of the fifties. The neoconservative movement in the church, in politics and in everyday life has been spawned by that longing.
A first pregnancy for any woman creates myriad feelings due both to the enormity of the experience and the hormonal and physical changes in her body. When one couples these feelings with high anxiety around the pregnancy we can begin to have some understanding of the tension in which both Elizabeth and Mary were living.
Elizabeth was elderly, and, probably the object of pity by the people in her community as she was barren. This was a far more serious issue for a Jewish woman for immortality and continued existence in the Hebrew community was predicated upon progeny and land. Elizabeth must have had to endure gossip and derision throughout the years and now, pregnant at an advanced age, some amusement and speculation. Further, she must have had some fear that she could even carry the child to term given her age.
Mary was very young, of low status in the community and unmarried. She too would be the object of speculation and scorn. Earlier in Luke we read that Joseph had the option of putting her aside, as he knew he was not the father of her child. Mary must have been frightened and anxious as to what the future would hold.
Both Mary and Elizabeth, however, had accepted with profound obedience, the pregnancies that they had been given. Both understood that God was totally present for each. Elizabeth would bear John, a man who was to be the last of the prophets. Mary would bear Jesus, the son of God, who would usher in the new reality of God’s kingdom. Both lived in hope for their unborn sons, just as both carried anxiety and fear for them.
Judy Buck Glen has said that: “Mary and Elizabeth meet in this place between anxiety and hope, this place in which we recognize ourselves and our own situation. Yet, so powerful is their trust in the expectation of what God intends, so pregnant are they with expectation, that what most abounds between them in their meeting is joy and deep blessing. They set anxiety all to one side. The signs of new life stir within them. And what flows in and through and surrounds them both is the boundless, tender, parental love of God.” (Homily Service, Volume 40, Number 1, 12/06, Year B, pp 44-46, Judy Buck Glen.)
Mary and Elizabeth are icons of the profoundly human tension facing Christians as we live between the anxiety of the world and our hope for the coming of Christ. Let us, like them, allow the anxiety to be set aside and be filled with hope as we await with eager expectation the coming of Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer.