Christmas Eve
Text: Luke 2:1-20
Pastor Jean M. Hansen
Christmas greetings to each one of you! Perhaps you’ve noticed that Christmases come and go so quickly that, looking back, it’s difficult to distinguish one from another unless something significant happens, like an unexpected visit from a loved one, or receiving an amazing gift, or the occurrence of an especially joyful or challenging event. If any one of those things is the case, then it may be possible to recall a particular year.
It might even be something rather insignificant, but that made an impression that distinguishes a particular year. For example, I remember seeing, one year ago, a photo of a unique nativity scene that is at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, which is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of Palestine. A doll representing the Baby Jesus is lying in a bed of rubble, a reminder that even in the midst of (or especially in the midst of) war, Jesus arrives and is God-with-us.
Again, this year there is no celebrating in Bethlehem among the Palestinian Christians who make up about 10 percent of the population. They fear that the vicious war in Gaza will extend to the West Bank, and that it will never end. But the baby in the rubble is still there, and the candle nearby is lit, as has been the case continually for the past year.
Tonight, we too will light candles; it’s more than a heart-warming tradition, but a sign that in a world filled with darkness, the light of Christ shines, and Christians can resist the dark. As Giovanni Giacondo once wrote, “There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look.” (1) Look for the light, for God-with-us.
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow expressed this well in his poem, “Christmas Bells, which was put to music by John Calkin in 1872 about 10 years after it was written. Do you know it? The first verse is, “I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old, familiar carols play, and wild and sweet, the words repat, of peace on earth, good-will to men.”
At the time the poet wrote the poem he had lost two wives to death between 1843-1861, and his son was wounded in the Civil War not long after that. In the midst of the war, dealing with so much loss, he wrote the song on Christmas morning. We do not often hear the 4th and 5th verses: “Then from each black, accursed mouth, the cannon thundered in the south, and with the sound, the carols drowned of peace on earth, good-will to men. It was as if an earthquake rent, the hearth-stone of a continent, and made forlorn, the households born, of peace on earth, good-will to men.”
Even at Christmas, was all lost? It seemed so as the poet wrote, “And in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth’, I said; ‘For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men.” Indeed, it does seem as if hate mocks the angelic chorus announcing Jesus’ birth, singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” But even in such darkness, light shines, or as Mr. Longfellow expressed it, “Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: ‘God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.”
Tonight, we celebrate the incarnation; God became flesh, condescending to our human, earthly level, arriving to an impoverished corner of the earth as a vulnerable, poor and powerless infant. Jesus’ life and death announce that “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.” He was and is the light that overcomes the darkness of sin and evil with sacrificial love, bringing goodness and grace first to us, and then by the power of the Holy Spirit, through us, to a hurting world.
As the Gospel writer John proclaims, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life (Jesus) was the light to all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Jesus is there, in the rubble of our lives; tonight’s candles remind us of his unquenchable presence. So, I say again, “There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look.” Look for the light; God-with-us. AMEN
“James Howell’s Weekly Preaching Notions: What Can We Say Come Christmas Eve”, December 4, 2023, www.revjameshowell.com