Meditation for Christmas Eve 2012 What Child is This? Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Each one of us has come tonight to this Christmas Eve service for many different reasons. Perhaps you have come because you like to sing Christmas carols, or perhaps you have come because you feel obligated to, it s part of your responsibility or duty to attend a Christmas Eve service, or perhaps you have come because you realize that Christmas is more than just about presents, it is about the birth of Christ and so you want to honor and worship Jesus. Perhaps you just feel some strange tugging on your heart to be here and you are not sure why you ve come. We come for many reasons, but what I hope we can each take away from tonight as we hear and see and touch and taste God s Word is that it doesn t matter why you are here, as much as it matters what you will do about Christmas every day of your life. God is glad we can be here to celebrate his Son s birth, but what God is more interested in is what this child means for every day of our lives. How does a child born in a manger 2000 years ago change every day of our lives? The essential message of Christmas is Emmanuel God with and for us. But such a message prompts questions Who is this God and how is God with us? 1
Perhaps such questions are uppermost in our minds and hearts especially because of Newtown, CT and what took place there, or because we feel overwhelmed by what seem impossible and unsolvable problems either in our personal lives, our family lives, our work lives or in our communities. So we gather tonight and this question is like a bass note that keeps sounding as we listen once again to the ancient sacred story: We know this question because it is the title of a well-known and well loved English Christmas hymn whose melody harkens all the way back to King Henry the VIII but whose words were written by William Chatterton Dix. William Chatterton Dix was an insurance man by trade but he was a poet at heart. Chances are, however, that we might never have heard of this man nor of any of his poems had it not been for a near-fatal illness that struck him while relatively young in life. As his strength was robbed of him and he was confined to bed for many months, lying near death, he often reflected on his faith. Reading his Bible and studying the works of respected theologians, William Dix reaffirmed his belief in not only Christ as Savior but in the power of God to move in his own life. Not long after regaining his strength, Dix produced some of the wonderful songs we still sing to this day. While many around him ignored Christmas altogether, William Dix set out during the Christmas of 1865 to write of the first Christmas. At first, he did not share his poem with his friends and family 2
a poem which was quickly written in a single session. His original title was The Manger Throne, and the song s words presented a unique view of the birth of Christ. Dix imagined that the visitors to the humble manger were wondering who the child was who lay there. Using this approach, he then wove a story of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. Dix understood that when all is said and done It s not about the baby. When Luke has Mary testify to what Jesus life (and death) will mean, it has little to do with cradles and creches and Christmas angels, and everything to do with the human misuse of power and those who are vulnerable and poor: He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. The Christ of Christmas turns everything upside down and knocks everything sideways (like tables in the Temple and our own tendency toward a safe, soft, sentimental faith). It s also not even about Christmas. Easter is the Church s primary feast, the festival on which hangs the hopes and fears of all the years. Christmas is about God the creator of all that is seen and unseen, coming down to us for us and for salvation, to be born of Mary and becoming truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. 3
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures. As we ponder the question, and gaze at the crèche be sure not to kneel at the wrong tree that is, don t kneel beneath the Christmas tree (lovely as it is!) kneel at the right tree the cross which towers over the Christmas tree and the crèche, and open your hearts and mind to the light of the resurrection behind the Cross which so that its shadow is cast over us all. I hope awe is awakened for you tonight in hearing the essentials about this baby Jesus child-- who comes into the world naked, homeless, and vulnerable, this child is the Christ who comes to each of us in our own places of godforsakenness. And we know this not because of the cradle but because of the cross and because of his resurrection. For unto you is born this day... a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This child was born for you and for me. Will you kneel in your hearts beneath the cross and pray with me this Christmas Prayer from the Iona Christian community in Scotland When the world was dark and the city was quiet, you came. You crept in beside us. And no one knew. Only the few who dared to believe that God might do something different. 4
Will you do the same this Christmas, Lord? Will you come into the darkness of tonight/today's world; not the friendly darkness as when sleep rescues us from tiredness, but the fearful darkness, in which people have stopped believing that war will end or that food will come or that a government will change or that the Church cares? Will you come into that darkness and do something different to save your people from death and despair? Will you come into the quietness of this town, not the friendly quietness as when lovers hold hands, but the fearful silence when the phone has not rung, the letter has not come, the friendly voice no longer speaks, the doctor's face says it all? Will you come into that darkness, and do something different, not to distract, but to embrace your people? And will you come into the dark corners and the quiet places of our lives? We ask this not because we are guilt-ridden or want to be, but because the fullness of our lives long for, 5
depends on us being as open and vulnerable to you as you were to us when you came, wearing no more than diapers, and trusting human hands to hold their maker. Will you come into our lives, if we open them to you and do something different? When the world was dark and the city was quiet you came. You crept in beside us. Do the same this Christmas, Lord. Do the same this Christmas. Amen. God give us grace to make room for Christ Not just in our Christmas celebration today, but in our hearts and minds every day from now and ever more. 6