Hope on Christmas Eve: God Will Not Be Kept Out

Michael Card renders the story of the incarnation in the following manner: A sign shall be given. A virgin will conceive. A human baby bearing, Undiminished deity. The glory of the nations. A light for all to see. That hope for all who will embrace, His warm reality. For all those who live in the shadow of death, A glorious light has dawned. For all those who stumble in the darkness, Behold your light has come. Immanuel, Our God is with us. And if God is with us, Who could stand against us? Our God is with us, Immanuel.

When I lived in Medellin, Colombia, city wide power outages were a regular part of our life there. We'd be sitting in our apartment, chatting, reading, or watching TV when in an instant, the lights would flicker and seconds later, all would go dark. We'd stumble around, searching for candles to light, seeking to illuminate our dark surroundings. It's really, really dark when every power source in an entire city is cut. You can barely see the hand in front of your face. And in those cases, when the darkness fell, it was up to us to find some light.

In many ways, the incarnation of Christ is the exact opposite of what happens during a power outage. I suppose we could say that spiritually speaking, we started in the dark and through the power of God's desire to bring light into our world, Jesus came and chased away the darkness. But that source of light came on its own merits, ordained by God. We are not the ones who have to go and find a source to illuminate our spiritual darkness. God has taken the initiative and brought the light to us.

For me, at Christmas, the core of the gospel revolves around God coming to us. The light that shines in our spiritual darkness is a light that is given to us, not one that we have to search endlessly for. It is given to us because God never tires of bringing it. At Christmas, we must never forget that Jesus came to us. Not because we deserved it or because we even knew that we needed it. He came to us because he knew that, on our own, we couldn't come to him. It is God's initiative in our lives and in our world that allows the light of Christ to shine. And that is why it can never be snuffed out...no one has the power to stop God's initiative to bring light to our lives through the person of Jesus Christ. No one can impede the love of God in Christ from reaching us. God's love can and will overcome all obstacles. And what is really quite amazing is that God creatively seeks out ways to reveal himself to us. He adjusts and changes the manner in which we might see him, so deep is his desire for us to have an abiding relationship with him. This image of God coming to us, of entering our world, of adjusting his appearance so that we might more easily meet him is beautifully illustrated by Soren Kierkegaard, a wise, Danish theologian. It's the story of a king and a maiden. “The king was the wealthiest, most powerful respected king in all the land. No one dared oppose him or speak a word against him. Now, as powerful and as respected as he was, he had one problem. He had fallen in love with a maiden who was a peasant. How could he show her his love? The fact that he was rich and powerful and famous was actually a barrier. He thought about allowing his knights to escort him to her humble cottage and demand by his authority that she marry him. But that wouldn't do. He wanted a wife, not a slave. He wanted someone to love him and share her life with him, someone who was happy and eager to be along his side. He also thought he could shower her with gifts and jewels and robes, but no, he didn't want to buy her either. He wanted her to know that his love was free. And well, like anyone else, he also wanted to know that her love for him was freely given back. So how was the king going to find a way that his love could grow between him and this peasant woman? Well here's the amazing thing. He didn't disguise himself as a poor man, he actually became poor. He loved her so much that he denounced his throne, stepped aside from his wealth and his kingly power and came adorned in the clothes of humility and of love. And so it is for us, that this is how we know that God loves us as he does. What we celebrate in the incarnation of Jesus is that our great king also set aside his power and his authority and came to us in the person of Jesus Christ, as a tiny little baby, lying in a manger, that we might know his great love for us.”

The key for me is that God comes to us. And he comes to us on our terms, so that we might choose to love him and accept him as our lord and savior, not because we have to, but rather because we can and want to. God does not want to enslave us or lure us to him with riches and wealth. Likewise, He will not demand that we follow him and prioritize him. He will allow us to walk away, to choose another, to reject his presence and his lordship. He will allow us to choose a pathway of destruction, perhaps even evil at times. But those are our choices, not his. And our choices do not ever stop his choice to come after us. That is why when God chose to send his son into the world he did so by stooping low so that no matter our situation in life, we will always be able to meet him face to face. The light that is Christ is a hovering light. It follows our darkness with a longing to burst forth at any moment. So while there are many things in life that we perhaps chase, the light of Christ is the one thing that perpetually chases us. We do not have to search for the light that is Christ. It is constantly present because God has taken the initiative to send his light to our world and no one nor no thing can thwart that mission.

I suppose for me, that is why, the conversation about keeping Christ in Christmas is one that I am not overly fond of. The very language of keep implies that somehow God could actually be excluded from the event. If we buy into this notion that if somehow by saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, we're kicking God out of his own event, we've given ourselves far too much power. Are we really so shallow to believe that God is so fragile that his very presence can be blocked by our actions? Have we forgotten what God overcame 2000 years ago when Jesus came into our world? Remember, it was virgin who bore a son. It was a Jew who showed up in the Roman empire. It was a barn where the king of the universe was born. It was shepherds who saw the light and ran to pay homage and a powerful king who saw a star and took measures to start a slaughter. And even so, the incarnate Christ lived on. Why do we think we can actually keep Christ out of Christmas through our puny actions?

Of course, we wonder a bit, don't we, where the light of Christ shines when country-men kill one another in civil wars, when angry young men shoot innocent children, when “acts of God” pillage and rampage poor communities with fire, flood, and earthquake. But in the midst of tragedy do we not always see acts of kindness and love, graces abounding even in the most gruesome situations? To decide that the darkness that tragedy casts on our earth is a reason to claim that God is absent is to miss the fullness of why he sent his light into the darkness in the first place. God saw the darkness of humankind and knew that we needed a savior. God saw the hopelessness embedded in tragedy and thus decided to come into this world to provide a way of peace, a thread of hope, the promise of joy, and a love that lasts to break the dark monotony of the things this world continually produces. So perhaps instead of asking where God is in the midst of human tragedy, why not cry out with a loud voice of Thanksgiving to God that he choose to leave his throne above and enter this dark world with the light of lights so that we don't have to stumble around in the darkness of this world without his peace, joy, hope and love to accompany us? Imagine how tragic the world would be without the hope of the incarnation.

And that is why I believe with my whole heart that God cannot be kept out. God cannot be left out. God will find a way, as he has always found a way, to take the initiative, to be the bearer of light, to chase us with his unrelenting love, to show up in the most unexpected places of our world. One of the most moving accounts of Christmas I have ever read was a rendering of a prisoner of war's experience in an enemy prison where he had been tortured and where the future of his life was uncertain every single day. He began, “On Christmas night we held our simple, moving service. We began with the Lord's Prayer, after which a choir sang carols. We all joined in the singing, nervous and furtive at first, fearing the guards would disrupt the service if we sang too loudly. With each hymn, however, we grew bolder, and our voices rose with emotion. Between each hymn, I read a portion of the story of Christ's birth from the pages of the Bible I had copied. "'And the Angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.'" The night air was cold, and we shivered from its effect and from the fever that still plagued some of us. The sickest among us, unable to stand, sat on the raised concrete sleeping platform in the middle of the room, blankets around their quivering shoulders. Many others, stooped by years of torture, or crippled from injuries sustained during their shoot down, stood, some on makeshift crutches, as the service proceeded. The light bulbs hanging from the ceiling illuminated our gaunt, unshaven, dirty, and generally wretched congregation. But for a moment we all had the absolutely exquisite feeling that our burdens had been lifted. This was our service, the only one we had ever been allowed to hold. It was more sacred to me than any service I had attended in the past, or any service I have attended since. We gave prayers of thanks for the Christ child, for our families and homes, for our country. We half expected the guards to barge in and force us to conclude the service. Every now and then we glanced up at the windows to see if they were watching us. But when I looked up at the bars that evening, I actually wished the guards had been looking in. I wanted them to see us-- faithful, joyful, triumphant. The last hymn sung was "Silent Night." Many of us wept.” 

God cannot be kept out. Not by the evil action of humanity, not by prison walls, not by sorrow, not by death. His coming means that these things do not get the last word. His light will relentlessly break the darkness because it is central to his identity to reach for us. God cannot NOT love us and therefore there is nothing we can ultimately do to prevent God from dwelling among us for if God's presence is dependent upon our righteous actions, he would've left the earth long ago...in fact, it is likely that he would never have come at all. We are not righteous. We are in need of a Savior. We all stumble in the darkness whether it be from a wrong doing we have committed or a wrong doing done to us...it matters not, we cannot overcome the darkness of humanity by the power of our own will...only God can and thank God he does!

Author Rachel Held shared this good news last week. “God can be wherever God wants to be. God needs no formal invitation. We couldn’t “systematically remove” God if we tried. If the incarnation teaches us anything, it’s that God can be found everywhere: in a cattle trough, on a throne, among the poor, with the sick, on a donkey, in a fishing boat, with the junkie, with the prostitute, with the hypocrite, with the forgotten, in places of power, in places of oppression, in poverty, in wealth, where God’s name is known, where it is unknown, with our friends, with our enemies, in our convictions, in our doubts, in life, in death, at the table, on the cross, and in every kindergarten classroom from Sandy Hook to Shanghai.  God cannot be kept out.”

So this Christmas let's celebrate the reality that the Christ of Christmas is here to stay. Let's rejoice that the Christ of Christmas came into this world and dwells among us. Let us praise our loving and gracious God who always relentlessly pursues us and our world. Let us give thanks that the light of Christ will always find a way.

Friends, as we prepare to light our Christmas candles from the Christ candle, as symbol of our desire to join God in his desire to see his world flooded with his light, let us remember that the very name of our church, Immanuel, it means God with Us. And let us remember that there's not a thing that we or anyone else on this earth can do to alter that reality. God is with us. Today. Tomorrow. And always. Amen.

Christmas Eve Sermon: Hachnasat Orchim

     This Christmas I’ve been thinking a lot about hospitality and what it means to pursue an open, welcoming and warm way of being.  Writer Lauren Winner explains that “In the Jewish tradition, hospitality has a special name:  Hachnasat Orchim.  In Hebrew, this literally means ‘the bringing in of guests’.  In the Old Testament, we see that more than once God instructs his people to welcome the stranger for they were once strangers.”  We see that providing hospitality is not really an option for the Jewish people and is even seen as more important than prayer.  The root of the value of hospitality comes from God himself, for God has offered hospitality to all of humanity by establishing a home for all.  To practice hospitality is to respond with gratitude to the God who made a home for us.  Additionally, just as the invitation to make our home with God means giving our lives to him, the invitation that we extend to one another when we offer hospitality is not simply an invitation to come into our lives or sit at our table, rather it is an invitation to enter our lives as well.  God sending Jesus into our world is an amazing act of hospitality, for through this action, we are invited into a warm and welcoming relationship with God himself.  We are invited to a transformed life through the salvation that the baby Jesus will ultimately bring to us.

My thoughts have been on hospitality quite a lot because as I pondered what things are important to me during this Advent and Christmas seasons, I realized that acts of hospitality are important to me, things like decorating our house and having people over. 

The table set for a Fika with friends.

Of course, when Doug broke his leg just before the first of advent, I was concerned about how the season would unfold.  Would we be able to do the things that we usually do?  How would I get the house decorated without Doug’s help?  Would I be able to shop and bake and cook the foods that I enjoy?  Could we still invite the groups of people in that we always love having?  Would I have enough time and energy to get everything done knowing that my right hand man was down to one left leg? 

     All of these concerns led me to think about the role of hospitality, that is, of creating a warm and welcoming place for people, and how important that tradition is for me in celebrating the season.  And now on Christmas Eve, I can say that for the most part, with a bit of help from many friends, I’ve been able to enjoy most of our traditions, and we’re ready to welcome you to our Open House tomorrow evening so please, come on over and enjoy the fun.

     But if I am going to be totally honest with you tonight, there have also been a few times when it has felt like too much, that I am not going to make it and I’ve even wondered why I feel such a compulsion to invite people over, make things from scratch and make my house look all cozy for Christmas.  Yes, at times, it has felt exhausting.

    And then last week, Doug and I were watching a cute television show called The Middle.  It is about a typical American family just trying to do life together.  This episode was all about getting ready for Christmas and the mother was totally stressed out about getting everything done.  She says to her husband, “It’s Christmas, it’s the most stressful holiday of the year.”  To which her cool and calm husband replies, “Don’t worry, I”ll take care of everything this year.”  She proceeded to laugh at him and announce, “You have no idea what it involves.  There is shopping, wrapping, baking, visiting, and decorating.”  He calmly says, “I’ll make lists.  I have this covered.”  We had to pause the recording because we could see our lives beginning to unfold before us!  The show hit even closer to home as the dad began to accomplish the Christmas “to do” list, things like putting up the tree and building the snowman.  But the wife, instead of being happy, was sad because she loves putting up the tree and building the snowman.  This went on and on…the dad seeking to be helpful to get some things off the mom’s list, the mom being sad because everything he did, was her favorite thing to do at Christmas.  To add insult to injury, some of the time he did things in a manner that was totally different than the wife’s! This really set her on edge!  Doug and I were laughing about this because it’s a bit like us.  I need help but I hate to miss out on something.  I want things to be just so, but sometimes it’s hard to find the time and the energy to make it just so. 

But the other night I was interested in baking so I said to Doug, “I’m going to go make some candy and bake some cookies.” 

Homemade pumpkin bread, chocolate chip cookies and toffee.

Doug replies, “Why?  Can’t you just buy all that stuff?”  "Well, of course I can buy it but what’s fun and special about that?"  To which Doug replies, “Yeah, but it seems to stress you out so much.”  And it does, a little, but I also know that deep down inside of me, it brings me great joy too. And there it was, the great paradox of Christmas: hospitality brings me great joy and it is stressful.  At that moment I realized that the key to making it all work is in making sure the stress does not overpower the joy.

     At the end of the TV show, the parents conclude that yes, Christmas is hard.  There’s no two ways about it, it’s stressful, but then the celebrations begin and it’s great and wonderful and the best Christmas ever.  The mom says, “It’s like giving birth, you forget all the pain and you can’t wait to do it again.”   And I have to agree with this.  Sure, it would be easier to not decorate the house and it would be a lot less stressful to buy everything from the store already prepared, and the house would surely stay cleaner if no one ever came over, but then we’d miss out on spending time with the teenagers getting to know them a little bit better and taking delight in their consuming 6 liters of homemade hot cider and over 50 home baked cookies.  And what a treat it was to see what a vibrant and lovely group our young adults are.  And well, Christmas in Stockholm wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have the Christmas party on Christmas day.  Yes, it’s stressful to provide hospitality sometimes, but always, when you bring joy to others through your efforts, it’s never regrettable.  And that’s why making room for the things that add stress but also bring incredible joy to our lives and to others is part of our calling as God’s people.  For what greater way is there to show others the love of God than to reach out for them with tangible expressions of love? 

     I think the theme of hospitality holds center stage at Christmas.  Could it be that by practicing hospitality, which at Christmas might include decorating, and making foods from scratch and having more than the usual amount of people in for a visit, we are positioning ourselves to undertake the ultimate act of hospitality, which is to welcome Jesus more fully into our lives?  Here, the juxtaposition of stress and joy come full circle because welcoming Jesus into our lives more fully is surely a bit stressful but it is also filled with unspeakable joy.  And maybe it is by welcoming others into our lives that we are most able to welcome Jesus because through welcoming others into our lives, we are able to display God’s love to them in tangible ways…ways that perhaps they’ve never seen or experienced before.  And isn’t having the ability to show another person the love of God the ultimate act of hospitality? 

     In my humble opinion, I think the supreme act of hospitality was exhibited by Mary as she allowed her body to become a dwelling place for the Son of God.  Mary is being asked to assume an important role in God’s plan.  She is being asked to provide a dwelling place for the Son of God, to create a hospitable environment, with her body, so that God could become incarnate through her.  Many books about pregnancy have been written with a primary focus on helping women create a hospitable dwelling place for the child that is developing in their womb.  The responsibility of carrying a baby to term is enormous.  Everything the mother eats, her habits, her life style, the amount of stress she exposes herself to, the kind of risks she takes, every choice she makes has a profound effect on the child she’s carrying.  Mary is not exempt from this reality.  On a strictly biological level, Mary was called to create a healthy dwelling place for God’s son, our savior, to be nurtured into a full term baby that would be born and subsequently change our lives forever.  And as joyous as this experience was for Mary, it is likely that it was filled with stress as well.  I’m sure, at times, it just felt exhausting.  But Mary was able to allow the joy to overcome the stress and decided that birthing the baby, in spite of all the hardship, all the pain, all the sacrifice, all the stress was worth it…because then the world would have a savior and she wanted to do her part in allowing that plan to unfold.  God sending his son into the world is the greatest gift of love.  Mary’s allowing God to use her as dwelling place for the most high delivered that act of love to us.  Now we are called to carry on the ministry of hospitality in order to continue to reveal the love of God in Christ to others.  And Jesus-style love is the opposite of the world's power-based, accomplishment-equals-importance viewpoint. Christian love means putting the other person first, seeking the other person's well being regardless of what it costs.  But don’t be fooled, it does cost.  But the challenge is in making sure that the cost never outweighs the joy and we do this by keeping our eyes on what God has done for us instead of what we are doing for others.

     Author Henrietta Mears writes, “Love when you expect no love in return. Do good without expecting thanks. Lend when you do not hope for a return. This will make us act like the sons and daughters of the Most High.”   And isn’t mostly what we want at Christmas is to have the opportunity to act like sons and daughters of the Most High.

     Author and Clergyman Henry Van Dyke asks these questions: “Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children; to remember the weaknesses and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and to ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open?”  He then says, “If so, you are ready to keep Christmas.”  I agree with this old poem because all of the things he mentions are acts of love and hospitality that point us to the love and hospitality that God offers to us through Jesus.  And don’t we get to a place where hospitality becomes a deep seated desire rather than a nagging obligation through practicing it, either with those whom we love and treasure or with strangers who are in need of tangible evidence of God’s love?

       Friends…throughout this Christmas season, my thoughts have turned to the ministry of hospitality because I love practicing it but admittedly, at times, it also causes stress.  But I have intentionally sought to allow the joy to overcome the stress through understanding that one of the finest ways to reveal the love of God in Christ is by giving others tangible ways to feel welcomed and loved.  And the energy to show others the love of God comes through experiencing the love of God as well.  I feel inspired to continue to be a warm and welcoming presence because I’ve been the grateful recipient of warm and welcoming hospitality as well.  As a church, I think we practice Hachnasat Orchim: The ministry of the bringing in the guests very well.  I am blessed and encouraged on a regular basis by the warmth and the love that our community exhibits to one another.  What I am most blessed by however, is knowing that our love for one another is a reflection of God’s love for us, a love that calls us to love him with whole lives and then reflect that love to others around us.

     Perhaps the greater question for us this Christmas Eve is how willing we are to invite Jesus to dwell more fully in our lives.  Mary showed a willingness to allow the Son of the most high to inhabit her life, no matter the stress, no matter the cost.  We know there was pain but we also know there was unspeakable joy.  And so are we ready to allow Jesus to dwell more fully in our lives…to allow him not just a seat at our table but full entrée into every aspect of our being?

     One of the more profound realities of Jesus being born in a simple, dirty, common stable is that it shows us that He will come to us in whatever state we find our lives.  We don’t have to have spotless lives in order for Jesus to come into them.  To the contrary, he’s interested in joining us no matter what the condition of our lives.  It’s a bit like learning the art of balancing the stress and the joy of having people in.  If we do it right, is not an imposition, because we are not meant to rearrange our lives for our guests.  We are meant to invite our guests into our lives as we are and for them to bring their lives, as they are.  So if the house isn’t spotless or there are dishes in the sink, so what…the company will be warm and the welcome appreciated.  The same if true for Jesus…whatever messiness your life is mired in at the moment, no matter what loose ends are making you a bit unnerved, no matter how untidy your relationships may be, Jesus says, it’s OK, I want to come into your life, just as you are, and bring salvation, comfort, and peace. 

     Our days of preparation are over.  What’s done is done, what’s not is not.  We are ready for Hachnasat Orchim, the inviting in of the guests. Are you also ready to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life, just the way you are, so you can share in the warmth and the welcome that God has given to us?  Remember, the root of the value of hospitality comes from God himself, for God has offered hospitality to all of humanity by establishing a home for all through the giving of his Son Jesus Christ. The invitation has been issued.  Say yes to God’s hospitality.  Say yes and invite Jesus to come and join you on your life journey.  Then you will be able to experience the unspeakable joy that overcomes even the greatest of stressors.  Amen.

And this was the blessing that with which I ended the service:

 God grant you the light at Christmas which is faith

The warmth of Christmas which is love

The radiance of Christmas which is purity

The righteousness of Christmas which is justice

The belief in Christmas which is truth

The all of Christmas which is Christ.