“The Christmas Meditation”

A meditation for Christmas Eve by the Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett

Preached at Pleasantville UCC, December 24, 2008

Isaiah 9:2-7; Isaiah 52:7-10; Luke 2:1-20

 “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.”
(Luke 2:8-9, KJV)

They were minding their own business when it happened.  They were doing what shepherds do.  They were abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  They were standing guard; keeping watch; making sure that no wild animal would invade the flock and do them a harm.

Those shepherds – just doing their job -- were hardly expecting the veil between the worlds to be torn back that night so that a heavenly host could peer down from heaven, bringing them good news of great joy for all people.

The Bible is full of stories of people being caught unawares.  Here they are, minding their own business, when all of a sudden God shows up and demands something from them.

Sarah was old and beyond the time of bearing children when God showed up and told her that she would give birth to a nation.  There she was, just making dinner, and the book of Genesis tells us that when she heard God’s plan, Sarah laughed.  Who wouldn’t laugh? 

Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was at work when God told him that his wife, Elizabeth – despite being too old and having never before been able to become pregnant – that she would conceive and bear a son – and that son would turn the hearts of many to the Lord their God.  Zechariah didn’t believe it at first.  Would you?

The young boy, Samuel, was lying in his bed, just trying to fall asleep, when God whispered in his ear and called him to become a great prophet.  It took a while for Samuel to realize that it was God’s voice he was hearing that night.  He didn’t recognize it at first.

Sarah, Zechariah, Samuel – they were just minding their own business when God showed up and laid claim to their lives.  So I guess Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night shouldn’t have been too surprised when God did the same thing to them.

The thing is: the chances are good that most of these people had other plans at the time.  Most of them probably had an idea in mind of how their life was going to turn out.  And then, God showed up and interrupted those plans, and messed with the life they had come to know and the one they expected to unfold.

Tonight we hear a story that is thousands of years old…

- about a woman, named Mary, whose plans for herself were interrupted by the God who made heaven and earth.

- about a man named Joseph, whose plans for himself were interrupted by the God who was so intent on being with his people that he came to be born among us.

- about shepherds, keeping watch over their flock by night, whose plans for themselves were interrupted one night, by the One who brings good tidings of great joy for all people.

Perhaps the real lesson to be learned at Christmas is that, if we are going to live a life of faith, we must allow God to interrupt us.[1]  And the truth is, most of us are not all that interested in being interrupted – by God, or by anyone else for that matter.

There are a lot of characters in this story.  There’s Caesar Augustus and Cyrenius, the Governor of Syria, there’s Joseph – who has to travel from Nazareth in the north to Bethlehem in the south to be counted in the census, and there’s Mary, his wife, who is great with child.  There are the angels and the shepherds and later on the wise men from the East.  But among this throng, there is one character that stands out – even though he can’t stand at all yet.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord.  And…Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

Doesn’t it ever make you wonder why God would choose to become flesh in the form of a babe lying in a manger?  Don’t you ever wonder why God didn’t become human in the form of a strong and powerful man -- fully grown and ready to take on the world?

When I was in my early twenties, I was enrolled in theological seminary, studying and preparing to become a parish minister.  I was good friends with two women who were also training to become ministers.  Sarah and Ruth were my closest friends in seminary, and they were also incredibly competitive with one another.  They even made a competition out of getting pregnant.  Both of them had carefully calculated the best time to give birth so it was the least disruptive for their studies.  And when both of them showed up pregnant one fall semester, it became a point of contention when their respective due dates would be.  Ruth, it seemed, was to deliver first.

But life being what it is, and babies being what they are, some things can rarely be controlled.  Not even due dates.  And so, Sarah went into labor before Ruth, delivering a healthy baby girl – 5 weeks early.  And once we were certain that baby Hannah was perfectly healthy, albeit a little small, we could all laugh at the way it all turned out.  We could at ourselves and how often our best laid plans rarely work out as we think.

Perhaps that is why God came to be born into this world.  Because there is nothing like a baby to remind us that we are not really in as much control as we like to think.  Perhaps what we are to be reminded of each and every Christmas is, that if you want to risk having the Christ-child born in your heart, it is probably going to mess with your life.  It is probably going to shake up your priorities.  It is probably going to rearrange your plans.  And if it does, you will find yourself in good company.

O Come all ye faithful.  Come and sing glad tiding of great joy.  For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given, and these glad tidings are sure to bring us a lifetime of interruptions – if we are willing to listen, to watch, and to go to Bethlehem and see this thing which the Lord has made known to us.

May it be so, and may your life be filled with God-blessed interruptions because of it!  Amen.