December
24, 2014
First
Congregational United Church of Christ – Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
“When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn–
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.”
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn–
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.”
Madeleine L’Engele
wrote these words in 1974. Forty years later, things don’t seem much different.
The world is still torn by war and hate. It’s been a particularly rough year,
it seems to me….story after story of violence – both here and abroad, rampant
disease, betrayals by those we have entrusted with authority, and, as always,
continued poverty, discrimination, fear.
It’s enough to make
you wonder, “How on earth could Christ be born into a mess of a world like
this?”
Until we remember,
of course, that Christ was born into a mess of a world in the first place.
Mary and Joseph,
traveling across the land on a donkey (and I thought my five minute ride to the
hospital in car was uncomfortable!). They are headed to Bethlehem, not because
they’ve carefully interviewed all the best midwives in the area and selected
Bethlehem University Hospital as their top pick. No, they are headed to
Bethlehem because they have to be counted.
They have to be
counted – given a number, and taxed, and treated like property, and controlled.
The Roman Empire wants to make sure every adult and child is accounted for
because they are assets to the Empire. Human capital in the Great Pax Romana –
which wasn’t, of course, very peaceful at all. At least not if you were someone
like Mary or Joseph.
The Pax Romana was
the kind of peace that only comes when Empire rules the day. The kind of peace
that says, “Sit down. Shut up. Take a number. Get counted. Don’t cause
trouble.”
And I’m sure Mary
and Joseph had no desire to cause trouble. They probably would have been
perfectly happy to have lived out their lives as nobodies, just trying to get
by.
But God, of course,
had other plans. Plans to bring a baby into the world. Babies are always
trouble – at least in a very practical sense, am I right? They make a lot of
work for their parents. Changing diapers, feedings around the clock. They
shatter life completely – and then require that their parents find a way to put
everything back together again….only nothing is quite the same again. Ever.
Jesus was no
different, it seems. Born to a young woman who was more than a little surprised
to discover she was pregnant. Born in a barn, far from friends and family, it
would seem. I always wonder, was there a midwife at the birth? I mean, it would
have been so commonplace that perhaps the midwife and her assistant simply
weren’t mentioned. Or perhaps there was no midwife. Perhaps it really was just
Mary there all alone, perhaps with Joseph looking on, trying to stay calm,
completely out of his element and terrified. We just don’t know.
And I always wonder
– at what point in time did Mary realize that today was the day for her child
to be born? Due dates are just suggestions, you know. I remember when I was
pregnant, both times, wise friends and older women who had given birth before
told me, “Oh, when the time comes, you’ll know. You’ll just know.”
Does it make me a
bad mother to say that both times, until I was well into it, I really just
wasn’t sure? Maybe in a bit of denial? Maybe just so scared and in awe of the
whole thing that I wasn’t really sure if the time was at hand?
I wonder how Mary
felt. A young girl, we would call her a teenager. All alone – no older women to
guide her, no mother to mother her. Did she know that that day was the day?
At some point
during labor, though, you KNOW. You KNOW. And there is no running from it. I
have such a firm memory of giving birth and feeling 100% responsible for everything
that was happening and 100% out-of-control.
I felt as if,
“Well, it is my job to bring this child into the world safely. And there is
nothing – nothing! – that is more important right now than that task.” 100%
responsible.
But, at the same
time, “I have no idea what is happening right now. I seem to have lost all
control of my body and this is all just happening to me.” 100% out-of-control.
We’ve all seen the
funny moments on TV or in the movies. The laboring woman is struggling to get
to the hospital and someone tells her, “Wait! Just wait! Don’t push yet!” and
she either laughs or curses or both because….well, telling a laboring woman to
stop her labor is a bit of joke. Babies come when they come. They come on the
side of the road or in the elevator or in the stable. There’s no stopping a
baby who is ready to make their debut.
And isn’t it the
same with the Christ Child? Isn’t the Advent of Christ each year the same? It
doesn’t matter if we’re ready or not. It doesn’t matter if the world seems entirely
too unsavory for Jesus to arrive as a houseguest on the planet Earth. It
doesn’t matter if we’re even paying attention. The Christ Child is born again
each December….ready or not, here he comes!
This is one of the
reasons the whole “Keep Christ is Christmas” thing annoys me. We could no more
ignore or stop the arrival of Christ than a laboring woman could tell her baby,
“Hold on a minute, I’m not quite ready for you to be born.” Whether the crib is
ready or not, whether the car seat has been installed or not, whether we make
it to the hospital or the midwife arrives or not….the baby is coming. Christ is
present each and every Christmas and it seems to me that Jesus is not waiting
for our permission to be born.
We are, all of us,
I think – bearers of the Christ Child each Christmas. I can’t speak for you,
but I know that at this time of year I feel 100% responsible and 100%
out-of-control as I labor together with the rest creation to bring Jesus to the
world once again.
I feel as if I need
to pay attention, bring myself fully to the stable in Bethlehem, and make sure
I am ready for the Advent of Christ – 100% responsible.
But also – totally
aware that Christ is coming regardless of what I say or do. Christ will come
even if there is no room in my heart. Christ will come even if I sleep through
Christmas. Christ will come even if I cannot bear it. 100% out-of-control.
And when Jesus does
come, it’s just like it is with any other baby. Life is never the same. When a
baby is born it’s more than just sleepless nights and endless worrying. It’s a
complete rearrangement of every tiny thing in the parents’ lives. They are no
longer the same people; the world is no longer the same place. Everything is
irrevocably altered. And it is no different with Jesus. He is, after all the
one come to scatter the proud, bring down the powerful from their thrones. He
is the one anointed to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the
captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.
When Jesus is born,
everything changes.
And we are given
the honor of being present at his birth, laboring alongside Mary to bring
Christ into the world once again.
What a gift. Merry
Christmas.
