Here’s the Christmas Eve sermon I preached, well, on Christmas Eve.  Actually, I didn’t feel particularly good about how it was received.  Though the congregation was huge, they were mostly visitors or rare attenders so the atmosphere felt less like a friendly congregation worshiping and more like a gathering of folks seeing a concert.  I could say more, but I’m off to Christmas lunch.  Cheers.

Food Trough Festivities

Luke 2:1-20

How many of your know the television show Sesame Street? I used to love that show–still do, in fact (though Megan doesn’t like me to watch it). I’m a big Ernie fan. I find Elmo hilarious. And every time I watch it I learn something new. One of my favorite parts of Sesame Street is a segment in which they give the viewers a little quiz.

Four items will appear on the screen, each in a different corner. And then someone will sing the song:

Three of these things belong together
Three of these things are kind of the same
Can you guess which one of these doesn’t belong here?
Now it’s time to play our game (time to play our game).

And you’re supposed to guess which item of the four doesn’t belong. I’d like to play a few rounds with you this evening. So, since Tom refused to install a big screen TV in the pulpit, I brought along some low-tech sheets that will have to do.

Here’s four things, which one of them doesn’t belong with the others?

red, yellow, blue, hedgehog
Christmas tree, knife, fork, spoon
Chicken, goose, dinosaur, duck
Apple, the color blue, fish supper, mince pie
Rangers, Celtic, Nibs, Heaven (laugh, drop card, woops how did that get in there?)
Washington, D.C., Nebraska, Georgia, Oregon
7, 19, 16, 43
Matthew, Jeremiah, Mark, John
Biblical teaching, scandal, Christmas carols, disciples of Christ

That’s right, we don’t expect scandal in Church. And we certainly don’t usually think of scandal and God. Here’s one more to consider.

Jesus, food trough, extreme poverty, backwater village, savior of the world, defenseless baby, illegitimate child

Scandal.

As we immerse ourselves in the comforts of Christmas–family and friends, fires and festive food, lights and presents–it may be a bit unsettling to consider the scandal of that first Christmas. God, the savior of the world, as a dirty baby in a barn.

What a scandal. What was the innkeeper thinking? Couldn’t Joseph have tried somewhere else? What an inappropriate setting for the savior of the world. Among the animals. No crown for his head. A manger for a crib.

And Luke writes that the news was first shared with, not kings and queens, armies or politicians, but with shepherds. Shepherds–those who watched dirty animals with sticks–those at the bottom of the social ladder, shepherds who didn’t know a thing about Christmas.

Luke writes, an angel appeared before the shepherds, and they were terrified. “Don’t freak out,” the angel said, “for I bring you good news of a great joy for everyone. Today the Messiah is born. Our savior. The Lord.”

And then more angels appeared. They praised God and said, “Glory to God, and peace.”

And the text says, after they were gone, the shepherds spoke to each other. Eventually, the shepherds decided to go investigate for themselves to go find the baby. Who knows, maybe they argued over whether or not the angel’s announcement was true. Was the Messiah truly born in Bethlehem, or did the clever sheep-watchers think baaah humbug?

The shepherds went quickly, and found Jesus there, wrapped in bands of cloth, as was the custom, and lying in, of all things, a food trough.

And there it was: the scandal that should rule our lives.

God, born, in a real place (Palestine), in a political world (during a census), in an economic structure (a barn and a manger), to real fallible parents (Mary and Joseph), to save us from ourselves.

As Shirley Guthrie writes, God invading our “real world where we live all year long–a world where there is political unrest and injustice, poverty, hatred, jealousy, and both the fear and the longing that things could be different.”

God living in manger. Born to an unmarried teenager, engaged to a common laborer. “What an inappropriate way for God Almighty to come to us” (Guthrie). It’s a scandal.

And so, 2000 years later, we must try to respond to this scandal, however inadequately.

Perhaps we should sing hymns, and give presents, and tuck in the turkey, but that’s not responding fully.
Perhaps we should spend time with family, celebrate with friends, remember those departed. But that’s not enough.
Perhaps we should read the Bible, practice the faith, pray for guidance. But it’s only a start.

There is plenty of work for us Christians to do. As long as God’s peaceable kingdom is not yet realized, there is work to be done. Still today…

There are those who do not know the hymns: we can teach them.
There are those who receive no presents: we can include them.
There are those who are starving: we can feed them.
There are those with no family and few friends: we can love them.
There are those who are ill: we can heal them.
There are those with no faith, no trust, no hope: we can guide them.

Friends in Christ, we believe in a scandalous God. We are members of a scandalous faith. But are we living scandalous lives for God?

Surely not. Surely not.

*[pause, change]

But Christ came for us, wrapped in bands of cloth.
The savior was born for us, and laid in a manger.
The Lord entered the world for us, as a humble baby.

Thanks be to God.