December 24, 2017, Midnight "Christ Is Come"

Matthew 3: 1-3, 13-17 Luke 2: 1-20 The most beautiful and painful part of this night, is our giving over control to God. Advent was all about our preparations, our lighting the Candles, getting in the mood, our decorating the Tree, wrapping the gifts, cooking the feast, our singing the Carols. But to tell the Gospel truth, similar to being congratulated for having a Birthday, we had very little choice and little to do with Christmas happening. We began this night “Joy to the World”, the message from Heaven, the message to the world this night. We respond to the Scriptures and Sermon, by joining together singing “O Come All Ye Faithful”, sharing Communion, passing Christ’ light of “Silent Night, Holy Night.” Different from other Christmases, where we have read from Isaiah, this evening we also read a passage from Matthew, not of Jesus’ Genealogy or Joseph’s story of the birth. The Gospel at a different beginning time in Jesus’ life, also describing Jesus being announced to the world and a voice from Heaven. The point being, that while we can be filled with the warm glow of the Nativity story, as we have received it from the Evangelists Luke, Bing and Mariah Carey; Christmas, in both of these Gospels, Announces from Heaven and throughout the World that Jesus Christ is COME, the Immortal, Eternal, Incarnation of God present in Human History. As your Pastor, I have a Christological Pet-Peeve. In large part, Christianity in the 21st Century has forgotten all about the Trinity. We replaced Faith in God, with Worshipping Jesus, and the Holy Spirit does not enter into our imagination. If God cannot be God, then there is no reason for Jesus… The beauty of the Trinity, is the Spiritual Mysticism, the claims of Transcendence over what is tangible. God is still God, the Creator of reality, time and space, who chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; who as Savior entered into the History of Egypt during the building of the Pyramids, becoming Law Giver to Moses. The Holy Spirit continues to brood over the face of the waters, blowing upon the Church, inspiring ideas we never would have imagined. No Where, in all of Scripture, does Jesus invite us to worship Him as God. Repeatedly, Jesus announced that his purpose is to bring people into covenant relationship with God. THAT itself is monumental! Philosophy, Science, Other Religions, never approach declaring an Incarnation. Judaism continues to await the coming of the Anointed Messiah sent from God. Islam claimed The Great Prophet Mohammed was transported to Heaven to return. Philosophy separated the mind and pure thought, from reality of life’s aches/ pains. Only Christianity describes God the Creator and Sustenance of Life, entering in to save us. Faith requires a kind of Quantum Physics, that God was/is and will be, and can be in all places and also in the particular life of Jesus of Nazareth born at Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph. In the early Church, there was a great division between the more Mystic emphasis of the Eastern world, and the more Rational of the Western. The Holy Roman Empire following Emperor Constantine looked to the Crucifixion, the Suffering and Death and Resurrection as being the Central Core of Christian Faith because Constantine’s Mother Helena was a Roman Christian. As the Protestant Church arising in the Enlightenment, we required understanding to be part of faith. While the Eastern Church, recognized a change in Reality, in Time and Space, in History. God Almighty, the Creator and Judge, had entered into our lives. For the Eastern Church, this emphasis is just as real, and just as much about the challenge of Christ to the world. as the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Western Church, but Christ in the Eastern Church is not focused on understanding Jesus “Becoming” the Christ, he has been the Anointed one from the very beginning of time and space. Making the Angels’ message to Shepherds, the same as John the Baptist’s announcement, that we need to “Repent”, to stop and reflect upon who we are and what we are doing in life, whether God is in our lives or not. Whether we have any room for JOY and WONDER whether all that matters to us: is winning? Our Christmas story has been heavily influenced by our Western Europe Ancestors. At the time of the Crusades, in Europe they celebrated Madrigal plays, as we did my 2nd Christmas here years ago with a Boar’s Head Feast, with everyone dressed up as Lords and Ladies gathered, when a troupe of local people and children with a Burro and Lamb acted out the story of Joseph and Mary being told there was No room for them at the Inn. Ironically, as we read the story over this night, there was no Inn, and No Inn Keeper. The question is whether there is any room in Us, in imagination for God to be in us? The difficulty with our proving Christmas, is historically, during the era of Herod, there never was a Census during the era of Emperor Caesar Augustus. Had there been, women would not have been counted as persons, so there would have been no need for Mary to make the journey. Instead, where Augustus Caesar was acclaimed to be the Prince of Peace in the enforced Pax Romana, Jesus is recognized as being the True Prince of Peace for all the world. Having been to Israel this year, there are few trees, mainly Olive and Fig Trees and Myrtle, so the Manger would not have been made of Wood but of Rock. Joseph being a Carpenter meant he worked in both Wood and Stone. How much more stark an image, that instead of the infant sleeping on clean straw in a wooden trough, the Newborn is laid in a cold stone feed trough. A Feed Trough, representing both the humility of simple poverty; but also, the Manger is the first Communion Table, the Altar of God holding the Bread of Heaven for all to see. Christmas is our recognition that there is more to this life than the harsh brutality we so often focus upon. There is Divinity in our midst. What if, we realized we are The Missing Link! The link between Humanity and God? What if we looked at every person we met, our children Christmas morning, our Spouse, our Parents, Neighbors and Friends, Strangers, the guys at the Transfer Station and Fire Department, and Mail Delivery, as having God in them. How differently we might regard one another, if we saw the Divine in each person. If we believed God is God, Christ has Come for us to STOP our MerrygoRound, and that the Holy Spirit continues to inspire and blow our minds. But also, while Jesus is the Messiah Sent from God, the Perfect Union fully Divine and Fully Human, so also as Followers of Christ, are we.