Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:8-20. The Perfection of Christmas

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1 1 Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church Asheville, North Carolina 27 December 2015 Sermon: The Perfection of Christmas Cam Murchison Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:8-20 The Perfection of Christmas Isaiah 9:2-7 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-- on them light has shined. {3} You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. {4} For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. {5} For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. {6} For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. {7} His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. Luke 2:8-20 {8} In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. {9} Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. {10} But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see- -I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: {11} to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. {12} This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." {13} And 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!" {15} When 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." {16} So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. {17} When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; {18} and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. {19} But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. {20} The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. Reenactments of the story, a portion of which we just read from Luke, are one of the most remarkable features of the way Christmas is celebrated. There is something about the story and its characters that makes thespians of us all. Scene 1 has Mary and Joseph enroute to his

2 2 ancestral city, rejected at the preferred places of lodging, staying in a manger at the time for the baby to be delivered. Scene 2 shifts to shepherds in the fields, who have the angelic announcement of the marvelous birth taking place in Bethlehem. And Scene 3 returns with the shepherds to the manger scene who interpret this inconvenient birth as the very gift of God. This is the succinct story that Christians have never been content simply to read or to tell. They have always tried to dramatize it perhaps because such dramatization is a more vivid re-presentation of the fulfillment, the perfection of Christmas. I But there is another remarkable thing about Christians' reenactment of this Christmas story it is almost always done amidst considerable confusion, consternation, and often moderate to major chaos. If you have ever been involved in a Christmas pageant indeed if you were here for the 5 p.m. service on Christmas Eve you know what I am talking about. But to get the whole matter into focus, consider the Christmas Pageant which is recounted by Pastor Dave in The Good News from North Haven. He tells us that 47 years ago, someone had asked Alvina Johnson to do the Christmas pageant at Second Presbyterian Church in North Haven, Minnesota. They failed to ask her if she would do the pageant "this year." Being a literalist, Alvina took them to mean forever. And being a woman of her word, she had directed the pageant for lo these 47 years. Probably the most disquieting feature of her stewardship over the pageant had been her precision: there were always exactly nine character: 1 Mary, 1 Joseph, 3 Wise Men, 2 Shepherds, 1 Angel, and 1 Narrator. Auditions for the 9 parts were always held the last Sunday in October, and rehearsals for the successful applicants were held for the next 5 Sunday afternoons. Pastor Dave tells us that "Alvina's goal was nothing less than perfection in Christmas

3 3 pageantry: perfect lines, perfect pacing, blocking, enunciation, perfect everything, which is not easily achieved with little children, even nine carefully selected ones. Critics said that Alvina would have preferred working with nine midget actors, if she could have gotten away with it." 1 Over the past 46 years this emphasis on perfectly reenacting the perfection of Christmas wore thin, especially among parents whose children were not among the favored 9. Finally, one year a group of young mothers on the Christian Education Committee wrested control from Alvina by passing the following resolution: "Resolved: All children who wish to be in the Christmas pageant may do so. Parts will be found." 2 The next morning Alvina was in Pastor Dave's office, resigning as director of the pageant. Dave suspected that she would have resigned the church and become a Methodist, except that she wanted to be around when the young mothers fell flat on their faces. Well, they didn't but things were certainly different. In fact, they turned out to look a lot more like how things happen at Grace Covenant on Christmas Eve. II Pastor Dave continues the story: "There must have been a dozen shepherds and ten angels (a veritable heavenly host). Then there were the sheep, a couple dozen three-, four-, and fiveyear-olds who had on woolly, fake-sheepskin vests with woolly hoods and their dads' black socks pulled up on their arms and legs. The Pageant was a lot of things, but smooth it wasn't. And one of the chief problems was these very sheep. Now, in suburban Christmas Pageants, I imagine sheep are well behaved and fairly quiet, but suburban kids have seldom seen real sheep. The only sheep most suburban kids have ever seen are on the front of Sunday church bulletin covers: peaceful, grazing sheep who just stand there and look cute and cuddly. 3 But this was not the case in North Haven: "Half of the kids here live on farms Pastor

4 4 Dave observed. They've seen real sheep, many of them. They know that sheep don't just stand there. They know that sheep don't often follow directions. They know that sheep are dumb. They know that all sheep want to do is eat. "So, when the young mothers casually instructed the two dozen sheep to act like sheep, they really should have known better. Some of the sheep started to do a remarkable imitation of grazing behind the communion table. Some wandered over by the choir to graze, and others went down the center aisle. Some of them had donuts they found in the church parlor to make their grazing look even more realistic. When one of the shepherds tried to herd them a bit with his shepherd's crook, some of the sheep spooked and started to scatter just like real sheep do. Everybody knows that's how sheep act. It was, in fact, a remarkable imitation of sheep behavior, even though a bit out of the ordinary for a Christmas Pageant." 4 As the pageant progressed, however, the sheep became less extraordinary, especially as Mary and Joseph came on the scene. The narrator was supposed to read this line: "And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem... to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child." "At least this is what the Narrator was supposed to read. It was what the Narrator had read at the rehearsal. But a few hours before the performance, one of the young mothers had observed that none of the children could much understand King James English, so they voted in their ongoing mood of revolutionary fervor, to switch to the Good News translation of the Bible for the performance. 'What kid knows what "great with child" means?' they asked. "The Good News translation is much more direct at this point. So, as Mary and Joseph entered, the Narrator read, "Joseph went to register with Mary who was promised in marriage to him. She was pregnant.

5 5 "As that last word echoed from the Narrator through the PA system into the full church, our little Joseph, hearing it, froze in his tracks, gave Mary an incredulous look, peered out at the congregation, and said, 'Pregnant? What do you mean, pregnant?' This, of course, brought down the house. Pastor Dave added, My wife, wiping tears from her eyes, leaned over to me and said, 'You know, that may well be just what Joseph actually said.' Dave continues the story: "Alvina [Johnson, seated in the back pew] was now wearing a look that simply broadcast I told you so. But as the Pageant wound into its closing tableaux and the church lights were dimmed for the singing of "Silent Night," a couple of magical I would allow, miraculous things happened. The sheep, when they had finished with their part, bleated their way down the aisle to sit in the last couple of pews to watch the end of the Pageant. Alvina was in the last pew and she suddenly found herself surrounded by a little herd of three-, four-, and five-year-olds in sheep outfits. "It was late, the church was warm, and the sheep were drowsy. [Pastor Dave] glanced over to Alvina as the Wise Men were exiting and the organ softly playing the melody of "Silent Night." The sheep in the pew on either side of Alvina had fallen asleep and were resting their fake-wool heads on her shoulders, something they would feel comfortable doing with any grown-up in the church. As the church went dark for the singing of "Silent Night," we could see what had been happening outside for the last hour. The first real snow of the winter was falling. Big, fat flakes floated down and covered everything with a white, uniform perfection. As we little kids and grown-ups saw it, there was a spontaneous and corporate 'ahh.' Pastor Dave concludes: "We sang: 'Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright.' It was very softly that we sang and all the sheep were quiet, even the ones who were awake, and

6 6 everybody looked at the snow. It was as if flakes of grace were falling, falling free out of heaven and blessing the muddy earth with purity, a whiteness covering the dirt and the shoddiness with perfection. When the carol was finished, no one stirred for along time. It wasn't planned, but we all just sat there and watched. "It seemed like an eternity, but it was maybe two minutes. Minnie MacDowell broke the spell. She's hard of hearing and always talks too loud. She meant to whisper to her husband, but everybody heard. 'Perfect,' she said, 'just perfect.'" 5 Conclusion Pastor Dave responds to Minnie's overloud observation this way: "And so it was not perfect in the way Alvina's Pageant tried to make things perfect, but perfect in the way God makes things perfect. God accepts our fumbling attempts at performance, at love and fairness, and then covers them with grace." 6 I think Pastor Dave s observation may set us to wondering if God has planned Christmas deliberately to inspire us to performances which will always be full of gaffs and minor to major chaos, just so we can glimpse that what Christmas truly brings is a love which accepts our fumbling attempts not just at performance, but at life itself and covers them with grace. Amen. D. Cameron Murchison Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church December 27, Lindvall, Michael, The Good News from North Haven, p Ibid., p Ibid., p Ibid., pp Ibid., pp Ibid., p. 16