Christmas Eve 2021
Merry Christmas 2021. For those of you keeping score, this is the 110th Christmas for West Park and the 132nd Christmas for this building. And for me personally here , 26th. We are carrying on a tradition. Though I wish we could be in the sanctuary, nevertheless, we are here.
Where does Christmas 2021 find us? We are living through our second Corona Christmas. Just when we’re beginning to feel a little freer, a little more normal, along comes Omicron, sounding like some Transformer movie character but wily enough for breakthrough infections with already vaccinated people.
The airlines have cancelled over 2000 flights globally. The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes’ season has come to an unanticipated end. Our neighbor SPSA has gone to virtual only tonight. In Bethlehem, the Palestinians depend on an annual influx of Christmas pilgrims for economic survival. Israel has banned all tourism. Holiday parties cancelled left and right. And two members of my family now have breakthrough so our plans have all fallen through. And don’t get me started on the state of politics in our country and the serious division between us that many don’t even want to heal.
A little later we will sing “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright…” Well, not exactly….
Tonight we read the old familiar story in Luke. About the census that gets everyone moving. Fun fact…as near as scholars can tell, this census took place in 6CE. So Jesus was born six years after his birth date. Doesn’t matter.
What does matter is context. This census is taking place because Herod, the appointed ethnarc, has screwed up so badly that Rome is going to take direct control over Judea. And impose taxation directly to Rome. The occupation the people live under is about to get even more oppressive. They will be under the appointed ruler of Syria.
This is the context into which Jesus is born. A people living under an oppressive foreign occupation. Jesus is always born in the midst of difficult situations. We are not politically occupied but we are certainly occupied by a virus.
Luke goes into all these details because he wants us to know that God’s desire to enter into our world, to live in our midst, experience life like one of us…can only take place in a specific time and place with its own particular socio economic political realities.
Note Luke’s other particularities. Jesus is born to a working class family. The poor cousins to Elizabeth and Zechariah. Then. And is born in a stable among animals because there is “no room at the inn..” (How many of our fellow New Yorkers will find no place tonight?)
Matthew brings us kings, but Luke, Luke has the first witnesses be shepherds. (If you were to go there tonight, you would still find Palestinian shepherds in that very field. ). In those days, shepherds were the only ones to sleep outside the city gate. As romantic as our images of shepherds is, in Jesus’ day they were looked on as ah, kinda seedy and crude at best and more likely suspicious. It is to such as these that God chooses to first reveal Godself. Not in St. John the Divine. Not in St. Patrick’s Cathedral or Fifth Avenue Presbyterian. But in a small town barn with shepherds nearby. And so it is. God chooses to reveal Godeslf tonight within the battered walls of little West Park church to a gathering of what Sly Stone called everyday people, everyday New York people. That’s what tonight is about…God choosing to take up residence in the midst of our humanity. Our humanity.
What are the consequences of that? How we live. How we care for each other. See if God is in our midst, there is that of God in each of us. That needs to be seen, recognized, respected and loved. What we do here tonight is important. The sharing of a potluck meal is important. Breaking bread with one another. Here in the 1970’s, after Christmas Eve services, people would gather upstairs in McAlpin Hall for a bowl of hot soup. Congregation members, peace activists, aging neighborhood leftists, homeless people would all come together to break bread. And share soup. We continue that tradition tonight in our own unique way. Some of us a community that gathers every Friday for sharing music…and so much more….
I felt the need to add a little to the scripture tonight. Earlier in Luke, when Mary is told what it is she will be called on to do, at first she is taken aback. She’s young. She’s working class. And most of all, she’s not even married. To walk down this road will lead to all kinds of issues. After she questions all this, the angel gives an answer that is not really an answer. And Mary responds with these words….Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
In all honesty, there are more hard days ahead. You know the serenity prayer:
God, grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change...Courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.
And Angela Davis’ response “ Help me to change the things I can’t accept..”
We gotta take care of each other out there. And to not stress about what we can’t change. As they say..
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
This year saw the release of the documentary, Get Back…about the making of the Beatles (last) album Let It Be…
It took me awhile to realize that the lyrics of that song are a riff on Luke, the Magnificat …the lonely people, the broken hearted and what comes immediately before….Let it be…to me…
So in the days to come, as we walk through this second covid winter, let’s take care of each other, be gentle with one another, and be able to just let it be …just let it be…
Immanuel….God is with us….
Gospel Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
1In 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.
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