It Was Worth It
By The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
December 23, 2012
Text: Luke 2:1-14
When all the hype is removed, all the demands and stresses and tensions pushed to one side, when all the theologies have been espoused and all the doctrines affirmed, when all the songs have been sung and the carols have been raised, essentially, Christmas is about one thing: it is a love story. We see this love story unfolding in the words that we find in our passage today. We have prepared ourselves for this love story. Over Advent, we have heard that it is Good News. We have heard that it is light in our darkness, that it is a form of a change in ourselves and the world.
Now, it is as if Luke's story, that we have read over-and-over-and-over again over the centuries and the decades and the years, comes back to us requiring us to make a decision. It is a story that embraces us and confronts us, and requires a response. Luke is magnificent in his Gospel! He is also unique in the way that he told the story that David read for us beautifully this morning. It is because what Luke does is unique in the sense that he begins, as he often does, as an historian. He likes to give the date and the time and the place. He wants us to know when things occurred, how they occurred, where they occurred, and even though at times his numbers might not always coincide with all the calendars and records in history, nevertheless, Luke wants us to know when this took place, as a historian, and to show that it actually happened.
Luke is not just an historian; he is a theologian. He wants us to understand what God has done and is doing in this story. He wants us to understand how this can be interpreted. As he did with the account of the Annunciation to Mary that we looked at last week, so too now again angels enter the scene, and it is the angels who speak the words of interpretation of what is taking place. It is the angels talking to the shepherds that declared the meaning of what takes place: that it is Good News and that God is going to do something great, and that a Saviour has arrived, and there will be peace on earth and good will to all. The angels do the interpreting. They tell us what the story is about.
Luke also gives us a sense of the transformation that takes place in this Christmas story. I mean, after all, Bethlehem is a relatively insignificant place even in earlier biblical literature, associated with David, but hardly a place that would be known on the map for centuries and millenniums to come. On the contrary, what we have here is the story of a transformation of a small, insignificant town that becomes mysterious and powerful, and roles off the lips of Canadians in 2012. What we have here is a transformation of a place that was overrun by a foreign government, that had imposed unjust taxes, that was known as being the outpost of an empire that cared little for its wellbeing, and it is turned into the place where the Saviour of the world was born. It is magnificent! It is incredible! It is history! It is the Word of God.
In an incredible way, Luke speaks to us through this, and he says, “I want you now, having heard this story and the love that is manifested in this story, to make a decision. I want you to decide for yourselves whether or not this love is for you?” John put it much more cogently in his Gospel in that famous John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son.” There it is! Christmas is about love. But, is it love that you respond to? This is because the response is as essential as the news itself. It requires, it demands something of you. You need to make a decision.
I don't know about you, but at Christmastime, I always have memories about what happens at Christmas relating to many years back in my life, and stories that would otherwise be readily forgotten are somehow recalled, because they are associated with Christmas. There was one incident when I was a freshman at Mount Allison University when a very good friend of mine fell hopelessly and madly in love with a young woman in one of the residences opposite us.
Everything that he talked about involved this young woman. We could be talking about football, and we would end up talking about her! We would be talk about Christmas dinner, and we would end up talking about her! We would talk about exams, and we would end up talking about her! He was completely, utterly, totally besotted with her!
Realizing that only after a few dates, they were now going to be separated for the first time over Christmas, he felt that he needed to make some grand gesture to let her know that she would be in his thoughts over the Christmas period, so he decided to buy her a gift. We went into the town of Sackville - and frankly, in Sackville you can't find anything to buy! So he says, “Come on, let's get in your car, Andrew, and let's drive to Moncton to buy something.”
We go to Moncton, and he wants me to pull in to a Canadian Tire. I said, “What are you going to buy her - a goalie mask and some ratchets and screws? You aren't going to buy her anything at Canadian Tire, you fool! You need to go to a jewellery store if you are going to do this properly!” So, we go to Charm Jewellery Store in one of the malls in Moncton - I will never forget this! We walk in, and the sales clerk's eyes open wide like saucers. She sees the love in this guy's eyes, and she sees a pushover coming! So, she steers him into the diamond section.
Meanwhile, I am at the other end of the store crying out to him, “Costume jewellery! Costume jewellery!” She is frowning at me, this sales clerk. Finally, he turns over the tags, and thinks costume jewellery is just great. He goes to the other side and he finally alights on a gift, buys it, has it boxed, and we drive back to Sackville. He is so excited, so excited in fact that he doesn't want to stop. He wants to go immediately to her dorm to present this gift of undying love.
I sit in the car, ready for a long wait. He goes in, and about a minute later he comes back out. He is carrying the gift in his hand. He comes into the car and he frowns. I said, “What happened?”
He said, “Well, not a lot really. But, she did say something, and I suppose she is right. She said that if she accepted this gift, it would change everything in our relationship.” She was a wise girl! By January, he had forgotten about her completely. He had given the gift to his aunt for Christmas. But, at the moment, it just seemed so important to him.
It is the same with the Christmas gift: the gift of Christ comes to us, and if we receive it, it changes everything. The relationship alters. It is no longer just the Jesus of history or the Jesus of intellectual inquiry. He no longer is just the Jesus of mystery; he becomes Lord and Saviour for us. But, where do we find this Jesus? Or, maybe ultimately, where don't we find this Jesus in order that we can have his love and respond?
You will not find this Jesus in temples or in inns or in fancy places. You would think that if he was the Messiah, it would be in a great temple that he would be born and presented. You would think that if he was famous, the Son of the Most High God, at least it would be a wonderful inn with turkey and cranberry and tarts! You would think that if he was the great “I am” the wonderful creator of it all, he would land somewhere lavish and beautiful and worshipful.
It was not so! We find him on the road, as Dr. Culpepper said, in a barn, where his manger is a feeding trough. Be not confused! Luke does not add this as some kind of historic moment to pad the story; he does this for a reason. He knows that the place where Jesus is born is important, for it would speak for two thousand, three thousand millenniums more, or precisely what God is like, and what the love of God is like: in the ordinary, in the broken, on the road, in a barn. That is where find him! You find him in all humility. It makes a difference. It makes a huge difference.
The great theologian, and the one I quote the most, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was in prison facing execution on December 23, 1944. He had been arrested by the Nazis and had been imprisoned for a long time. He wrote a letter to his sister, Sabina. This is what he wrote (and you will see the barn means something):
From the Christian point of view there is no special problem about Christmas in a prison cell. For many people in this building it will probably be a more sincere and genuine occasion than in places where nothing but the name is kept. That misery, suffering, poverty, loneliness, helplessness and guilt means something quite different in the eyes of God from what they mean in the judgement of humans: that God will approach where men and women turn away; that Christ was born in a stable, because there was no room for him at the inn. These are things that a prisoner can understand better than other people, for they really are glad tidings, and that faith gives him a part in the Communion of Saints, a Christian fellowship breaking the bonds of time and space, and reducing the months of confinement here to insignificance.
The manger in the barn with no place at an inn gave a prisoner's last Christmas a sense of hope!
Is that not what Christmas is all about? Is not the love of Christ coming to us in the places that we are rather than the places where we think we ought to be what Christmas is all about? Is it not the fact that Christ was born on the road in a barn comfort to those who have to spend it in hospital this Christmas? Is it not a comfort to those who find themselves in war-torn places and famine and floods? Is it not a comfort to those who are in wayward places with nothing over their heads that even they can experience the love of Christ forever?
You will not find this Christ amongst the self-righteous. The self-righteous will always see a saviour as excess to requirements. They will always say that they determine their own levels of righteousness and are comfortable with who and what they are. They will become smug in their self-righteousness. They will become haughty and even vengeful from their self-righteousness. That is not where you find the Messiah and the love of God. You find him amongst the lost and the seekers. You find him amongst the sinners and the penitent. You see him amongst those who feel that they have no hope and goodness within them. You find him in those who are judged viciously by the world, because Christ came to save them. That is where you find him.
You will not find him with the busy, with those who are always on a tear, those who have organized their lives so neatly, including the lives and the agendas of their children, who are more like projects than people, and have a busyness to their agenda that makes even their social action and all their good works seem as if it is just another cog in the wheel of busyness in the madness of our world and the frenetic pace at which we live, where busyness is adored, and where the sign of being busy is praised. In busyness, you often do not find the love of Christ. You find him in contemplation. You find him when there is time. You find him in the middle of the night. You find him when you are alone.
That is why Ron Sider, the great theologian, who I have admired for years because of his social passion and concern but also his Evangelical fervour and zeal, suggests that at Christmas, one of the main stories that should be read is the one that I read a few moments ago from Luke 10:38-41 of Martha and Mary. Dear Martha, she had invited Jesus to her house. She had been gracious and kind. She was working hard. She was laudable and full of praise, but it was Mary who understood the value of what she had in her presence. She knew she had the presence of God with her, and she saw that as the most important thing in her life. Jesus says, “Martha, Martha, why have you spent your time on these other things? Mary had it right. While I am with you, experience my love.” We need, as busy people, to have that time set aside.
You will not find Jesus amongst those who are overly filled or overly fulfilled, those who find that there is no place for anything else in their lives. They have it all! They have every food that they want, they have toys to play with, and they have everything that is available to them and pleasing to their eyes. Those who are fulfilled feel that everything is wonderful within them, but often it is those who are hungry who understand the power of love. I don't mean just hungry for physical food, but I mean hungry for the things of God and to know that their lives are not taken up and filled and have no room for anything other than the world that is around them. They know that they need something more. What they need is God. It is hard when your life is so full of other things that you just don't see the need for something greater.
My parents, God bless their souls, are no longer with us, my parents used to tell a story about their first year of marriage when they went to a church, my father being the new minister and a teacher in the local grammar school. My mother and father were eager to make an impression as a newly married couple in a new pastoral charge, but when they arrived there they were somewhat naive.
Just before Christmas, one of the deacons of the church went to my father and said, “You know, as this is your first Christmas, I would like you to come and have Christmas dinner at our house at 3 pm. Would you let Mrs. Stirling know, and the two of you can come.”
My father said, “We will gladly take that invitation! We will look forward to seeing you.” That very same morning, another deacon approached my mother. He said, “You know, this is your first Christmas here, and we are wondering if you would like to spend Christmas dinner with us at 4 o'clock. Invite your husband to come along.”
My mother said, “We would be delighted to accept your invitation. I will let him know.”
My dear parents conferred on Christmas Eve and realized they had a Christmas dinner at 3 p.m. and a Christmas dinner at 4 p.m. with two very important elders in their first Christmas in their new congregation. What are they to do? So, they went to the first one and they ate very quickly, and then they went to the second one, and ate very slowly. I asked my parents when they told me this story “Which meal over the Christmas period did you like the best?”
My father said, “Breakfast, the day after Boxing Day.” He was so full from the two dinners, there was no joy left in his life. Sometimes, we fill our lives with so many things that we do not have time for the most important thing that has ever been given us and ever will be given us from time immemorial: the love of God in his Son, Jesus Christ. Take time for Him!
There is one other place that you will not find him: you will not find him with those who are the power-filled. By the power-filled, I mean those who have such power to influence the lives of others, such force of arms, such an ability to change the direction and the fate of others that they see no need to be accountable to one greater than themselves. How far in contrast this is to the story of Christmas, where the angels announce there will be peace on earth and goodwill towards all! In a world that often sees the use of force and violence to promote power or the use of force to take lives, it seems the message of Christmas is ever more poignant and ever more real.
It is not always those who are the power-filled who use force, but how strange it is that there are some that feel that the use of more violence and more force is the way to bring peace. There comes a point where you realize that what the world really needs is right beneath their eyes at Christmas: Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
In an article in The Toronto Star on Monday, Rosie DiManno gave the account of one of the fathers of one of the children who was shot in Newtown, Robbie Parker, whose six-year-old daughter, Emilie, was mowed down. She recounts his speech on that day. The father, and it has been covered widely, but it is worth repeating that he opened his heart on the weekend to the Lanza family, the family of the young man who evidently did the shooting: he opened his heart for their agony! He said: “I can't imagine how hard this experience must be for you. I want you to know that our family and our love and our support go out to you as well. Among the wreckage and the darkness you see, there are pin-pricks of light luminous.” The father went on to say:
“As we move on from what happened here, what happened to so many people, let it turn into something that defines us.” Instead: “As something that inspires us to be better, to be more compassionate and more humble people. Let us please keep the sentiments of love that we feel for our families and the compassion we feel for others, even complete strangers, and keep them with us at all times, not just in times of sorrow and tragedy.”
DiManno ends her article with one word: “Amen.” Amen it is!
It seems that the Prince of Peace calls throughout the eons and says, “I want you to love me more than these. I want you to love one another as I have loved you.” From a manger in a barn on the road, amongst the lost, amongst those who are hungry, amongst those who are at peace, he speaks to us, and he asks us, “Do you love me as much as I love you?” That is Christmas! Amen.