Sermon Art: John Giuliani, Guatemalan Nativity, 1990s.
Bless the Years is a worship service that we hold for our eldest elders and their friends and families. It’s shorter than a typical worship service and followed by lunch, giving folks a chance to connect with longtime friends that they no longer see weekly.
Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on December 14, 2023
[sermon begins after the Bible reading that’s a little long but stick with it, it’s one of the best ones]
Luke 2:1-20 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
[sermon begins]
Babies have a way of being themselves from the get-go. They sleep when they should be awake and they’re awake when they should be sleeping. They eat on their own schedule. They look like themselves even though we try to connect them with who they might favor – parent, grandparent, sibling, or cousin. The Christmas baby is no different although possibly more himself from the get-go, if there’s even such a thing as being more himself. My friends who are older than me have taught me a lot about being yourself because it’s really all that you have anyway. I’ve had more than one conversation that includes an older friend telling me that they feel the same on the inside as they did when they were younger. Their bodies changing, skin softening, hair lightening, while they continue to feel like themselves as they’ve been all along life’s way.
The baby in the manger, wrapped in bands of cloth, is no different from us in many ways. Born from a mother’s body, whatever dramatic labor story takes place, is how we all begin even if we’re raised in an adoptive family. Babies demand attention because their very lives are at stake, dependent on their parents for food and protection. It turns out that our Savior is no different, utterly dependent and vulnerable. It’s really quite an odd plan for saving the world. Newly birthed and lying in a manger, wrapped in bands of cloth, his parents at the ready although exhausted by their travel to Bethlehem and the birth that changed not only their world but the whole world. Even if people don’t believe in Jesus as the son of God, there is general agreement that Jesus arriving on the scene impacted life on this planet as Jesus followers alternately do dunderheaded, painful things to the world and its people; and also do unbelievably good, powerful things with and for our fellow human travelers.
While we may feel the same inside as we always have, this baby means that we are not. When God slipped on skin in solidarity with us, dropping into time and sharing human experiences with us, this baby showed us a different way to be human together. And the shepherds were not only the first ones outside of his family to see him, they were also the first people to preach about him. That took some guts and a hefty dose of angel inspiration for them to turn up in Bethlehem at the baby’s manger-side and tell HIS PARENTS a thing or two about THEIR newborn – as if Jesus’ parents weren’t already a bit awestruck by the appearance of an angel to Joseph about Mary’s pregnancy, and the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary before she even became pregnant.
When I was diagnosed with lymphoma this past March, I made the decision to hear people’s comments as messages of love from them. We don’t always know what to say when people are sick or struggling so we often say the first thing that comes to mind. In any given moment, our comments can be helpful or not at all helpful. But my experience of people’s comments felt like a love language unto itself, no matter what people actually said.
The only time I responded with an alternative view was when people would say, “God has a plan,” or “Everything happens for a reason.” I would reply to those two comments with something like this, “I know that some people find that comforting, but for me, it’s more helpful to think about how God’s love is revealed in my very human struggle right now…I don’t think that God has given me cancer but God’s love can be revealed in my story.” Now that I’ve been in remission for four months, I’m even more convinced that people’s comments received as a love language was even more important than I knew at the time. More important partly because thinking about folks as messengers of God’s love no matter their faith tradition or no tradition, is how God’s love shows up in the world.
Along that line, when it comes to the Christmas story, I’ve wondered what it might be like to have an angel visitation. Angel means messenger. Since their first words are often, “Do not be afraid,” I assume that being visited by an angel must be terrifying. I’ve probably seen one too many paintings of shepherds and angels floating in the air over them because I feel like it’s the first time that I noticed that the angel stood in front of the shepherds. The angel stood on their level to tell them the good news of great joy, shining the glory of the Lord around them in that dark field, fully embraced by light that shines in the darkness.
The good news that the shepherds heard and preached is the same good news that we hear preached. That God meets our vulnerability, our fragile bodies, and our fickle natures by first arriving in a baby’s body – just about as fragile and vulnerable of a body as can be had. And from this baby’s body grew the Jesus who showed us how much we are loved by God and the lengths to which God goes to help us love ourselves and to help us love our neighbors. I’m not sure why it’s so difficult to live in love. Perhaps it’s because it’s easier to be afraid of each other or angry with each other than it is to love each other. It’s easier to put ourselves and others down, than it is to see what God sees when God looks at us through Jesus’ eyes. We are broken and beloved humans. We get to take this Christmas message to other people just like the shepherds did.
We’re not going to say the right things and get this message perfectly communicated. But we can try to talk about the love that God has for us and what’s it means to us. At the end of the day and at the end of our lives, that’s what we get. The good news of the Christmas baby is that we are loved beyond measure by a God who keeps trying to get our attention. What better way to get our attention than to show up in a baby. Babies are hard to ignore and remind of us of the care we all need at various times in our lives. We’ve received the greatest gift of all in the tiny child, Jesus. A baby in a manger wrapped in bands of cloth, a message of love wrapped in skin and solidarity, reminding us that God’s love is good news of great joy for all the people – loving us for ourselves, just as we are. There is nothing we can do or not do to make God love us any more or any less. Merry Christmas everyone.