"Christmas Meditation"

Luke 2:1-20

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.”

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.