(Thanks to Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Rev. Alisa
Lasater Wailoo and Rev. Karoline Lewis)
(begin by lighting a candle from the Advent Wreathe and hold up)
Grace and peace, to you (yes, you), from God who
became one of us to show us how grace and peace can change the world. Amen.
The world is burning. We know this. From trucks
plowing through crowds buying Christmas gifts to bombs falling on hospitals to
young men shooting people while they pray, we know this.
The world is burning.
When it was time
to birth our Lord, when Mary laid down on her back, pulled her knees up and
groaned in pain the world was burning then, too. Young men were hung on crosses
for minor crimes, nations were being toppled and peoples were being enslaved.
All the world seemed dark and all seemed lost.
Yet, God incarnate broke from the darkness of Mary’s
womb out into the world to be the light that no darkness could overcome. It is
no coincidence that Jesus was born in the desert, in the dark night.
This night we have come together to sing into the
night a cool word of hope that will stop the burning. We have come together to
pray and lift up all those whose hope is lost, that we may be that hope to
them. We have come together this night to hear the story again, the story that
has changed us, has molded us, has urged us to be good news in a world that
needs goodness. We have come together this night around the table of fellowship
to eat and drink and be filled again with the embodiment of love. This love
nourishing our souls, this love encouraging our thirst for righteousness. This
love that came into the world just like you.
As Joseph’s first born son burst into this world,
Mary screamed out, as all mothers have over millennia, her hope and love for
this child. As that child was swaddled and placed at Mary’s breast, our God
drank the milk of love and hope and Mary sang her love song to him. The love song
that became the work of her Son.
God chose to become one of us to show us that this
world matters, that our bodies matter. God became embodied to remind us that
other bodies matter. God broke into our world to teach us that what God created
matters. That you matter. That we all matter. Not one of us, Jew, Muslim,
Atheist, black, white, native, immigrant, poor, lost, homeless, addicted,
grieving, or whomever is outside of this love of God.
To say otherwise is
to speak against the Holy Spirit.
You see this night is about God becoming one of us.
And the question must be asked, what is our response? What is the right
response to this love being poured out upon us all?
(Begin walking down aisle lighting parishioner's candles)
Part of the answer lies in this story itself. Was
God born in the world’s best state of the art hospital? Was God brought into
this world in a sanitary, white room, free from virus or bacteria? Was God born
to a powerful family? To a rich family?
No God came into the world in a small house full of
noise and people and animals, and dirty straw. God came into the world to an
unwed mother and a poor family that had no power, no influence. This is how God
chose to change the world.
And our response? As Bonhoeffer wrote: Whoever
finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all
arrogance, all individualism beside the manger celebrates correctly this
Christmas gift.
(Begin turning down lights)
This world needs all of you to lay down your power,
your honor, your reputation, your vanity, your arrogance, your individualism,
right here beside the manger, so that we might stop the burning and be the
light in the still, silent night.
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