Homily For Christmas Eve
There is a scene in the movie, Talladega Nights, where the main character, Ricky Bobby, is asking the blessing. He addresses our Lord as Baby Jesus and thanks him for the food, his sons, his wife, his friend and father-in-law. He petitions “dear Baby Jesus” to heal his father in law’s leg. Ricky’s wife interrupts the prayer to say, “You know sweetie, Jesus did grow up.” His father in law adds “He was a man. He had a beard.” To all of this, Ricky responds, “I just like the Christmas Jesus best.” Ricky worshipped the “tiny newborn infant Jesus”, who gave Ricky the strength to win “21.2 million in total prize winnings.” That Jesus in the manger is the one that he wanted. We think it absurd that someone would pray in that fashion, to be so transparent about what that Jesus means to him. That Jesus is safe, that Jesus gives all the good things in life. Ricky Bobby’s version of Jesus brings success and this is one thing that our society longs for, worships. Indeed, it has been said, our society can be best described as an achievement society; one obsessed with success. We are focused, committed to doing, acting. In earlier centuries, humanity harnessed the power of steam and steel to radically increase production, speed up commerce and generate enormous wealth. Machines worked for man. “Now, man has progressed from utilizing machines to becoming a machine, ensuring maximal production and success. … It is not an exaggeration “to say that society is obsessed with work (production). It shapes our identities (I am what I produce), forces structure upon our lives (work/production orients our time), and steers us toward our purpose in life (gaining back time to truly live). Work is who we are. Our achievements and productivity define us and pave the way for success and happiness,” and promises us some version of salvation.
But we are reminded this evening of the beauty of the Good News of Jesus that is not content to make us better machines, to remain confined in our selfish desires of what we need, of what we believe is true success. We celebrate tonight the fact that God brought eternal life through His son, humiliating himself to become man to save us from our sin and brokenness.
Our Gospel for tonight is found in the Second Chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel. It’s the most detailed and comprehensive account and most familiar of the Gospel accounts of our Lord’s birth. Here, we read that Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, demanded that all the empire should return to the city and towns of their origin. They did not do so for a family reunion or a vacation. They went home so that Rome could get the tax assessment right. Make sure that the conquered Jews knew who was in control through the power of the tax. Yet, God was at work; God is always at work to accomplish his purposes.
The Gentile power, with its own motives, brought about the fulfillment of God’s promises - Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the Messiah. Joseph, being of the household of David, went back to Bethlehem. There, we read that our Lord was born. In God’s wisdom, he determined that the long-awaited Messiah should be born in a stable and not a palace. To be born to holy but poor people. Born of the Virgin Mary in fulfillment of his promises in Isaiah 7 of the virgin bringing forth a son who will be Emmanuel God with us. Bethlehem was crowded, no room in the inn for the holy couple. Instead, the witnesses to his birth were farmyard animals. His first bed was the manager for the cattle and donkey. Bethlehem, meaning the house of bread, received the bread of heaven into the feeding trough of the lowest of his creation.
In our estimation, the first visitors should have been Caesar and Herod - casting down their crowns before the newborn king.
His first visitors were instead the outcasts of Jewish society - the shepherds. Those who had a reputation for being thieves, those whose reputation made them unable to testify in court, the shepherds whose work kept them from participating often in the synagogue. They received the testimony from the angels; they left their flocks and went to the manger to worship this new born king. So, we do indeed have a sweet baby Jesus in the manger; it is a fact but the fullness of the Gospel will not allow us to keep him there. As we read at the end of Chapter 2, “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” He grew into full manhood and was eager to be completely obedient to the Father’s will and offer himself for a sacrifice for sin so through his resurrection and ascension we might be reconciled with God. Have renewed communion with God.
He was sweet baby Jesus in his humble first coming but Jesus is the true King and judge coming with glory and power in his second advent.
St. Paul in our Epistle for tonight is calling people to live the reality of the future as though it is in the present. St. Paul directs us to the truth that every human heart longs for, the restoration of what was broken by man’s sin. Communion with God restored; hope and peace between God and other people. We read in our Epistle THE grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
There, St. Paul says that “The grace of God”, which is God’s unearned favor, truly, his spontaneous goodness by which he intervenes in human history for man’s good. This grace of God brings salvation. It brings the deepest longings of the human heart. It was promised immediately after the Fall in the Garden where God promised Eve a descendant, a man, who would destroy the Serpent. God in the fullness of time sent forth his son. This salvation promised from the very beginnings of our story as mankind is fulfilled by Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. Jesus came at Christmas to offer to God the perfect acts that we should give to God but are unable to do so because of our sin. Not only is the light that bring salvation seen in Christ’s birth and perfect life. Salvation appeared through Christ’s death on the cross. The perfect sacrifice for sin that brings peace between us and God.
This salvation is made known to all men. All mankind may partake freely of Christ’s work. It isn’t just for his own people, the Jews. Rather, the grace and the salvation of Christ is for everyone, each and every one. Because we believe in Jesus, as we have received the grace of God, we are called to live as though it is true. Live as though Christ is reigning, even as we celebrate the miracle of his first coming.
St. Paul tells us this grace causes us to say no to the values, the impulses of this world. That which is contrary to God’s will and then teaches us instead to be self-controlled, people of integrity and godliness in the present. Jesus did not come to be an abstract fact, a formula for how to enjoy your life better in the present. He came to be the perfection, the righteousness that we need so that we might , by God’s grace, renounce our sinful independence and give ourselves to complete obedience to His will.
God’s will turns us away from self-centeredness to self control and from the deceitful practices of our present world to integrity that characterized our Lord’s earthly ministry.
There are two advents of Jesus, both just as real as the other. Christ came first in humility, he came in lowliness to achieve salvation for all mankind. To announce God’s unmerited favor for all of us sinners. He was among us on the stage of history but for a short moment.
St. Paul reminds us in the Epistle that there is a second advent of Jesus, when he will come to reign, to rule to majesty and glory. His royal power will be known for all eternity. What the Apostle calls “the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.” Jesus “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” This passage is full of Old Testament imagery.
Jesus sacrificed himself for us, calling to mind the Passover Lamb, the unblemished sacrifice. He did so to redeem us from all sin - recalling Israel’s release from slavery in Egypt. To create for himself a new people, a chosen people - bringing to mind the covenant on Mount Sinai where Israel was declared to be God’s “treasured possession". The salvation of God by grace brings us into fellowship with God where we are his redeemed people. When we consider our salvation, the full extent of what Christ has done for us. We will be eager to do what is pleasing to God.
So tonight, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, we are careful to remember that this same Jesus will come back in glorious majesty to consummate his kingdom, to judge both the living and the dead. The Christ born at bethlehem, of whom the angels sang, of whom the shepherds marvelled. This child born in a manager, among the common animals. He is now reigning as king.
In his first advent, he proclaimed salvation, he proclaimed the kingdom of God coming. He brings salvation for all who turn to him. To him, we will give an account of all our thoughts and actions.; our intentions. Our wicked deeds that we have done and all the kindness that we failed to do. He is coming and now is the time to make preparation. To receive him truly at Christmas is to receive him as ruler of one’s life, to take Jesus into our lives by faith. For those of us who have received him, we are now to live accordingly. To give ourselves completely in obedience to His word; not to earn our salvation but rather the outworking of the grace of God in our lives. The grace of God that brings salvation, the grace of God coming to us at Christmas, transforms us.
So, tonight, we have a choice to make. It’s the Jesus of Ricky Bobby, of our culture of achievement or the Lord of St. Paul and the saints of God. It’s one or the other.
The cosmic gift giver made in our own image, our own desires or the true Lord who rules and reigns now and will require an account everyone? The Jesus of success, of Ricky Bobby or the Jesus Christ the ascended the true, risen and reigning King? So, amidst the true sweetness and joy of Christ coming in the manger, we must avoid the temptation of our culture and embrace the risen Lord, as he truly is. Let us receive him with true joy, true faith and be transformed by this truth into the people that God called us to be.
I know no better concluding prayer, than the collect appointed for tonight - where we say “OGOD, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thine only Son Jesus Christ; Grant that as we joyfully receive him for our Redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him when he shall come to be our Judge, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.”