What I Preached at St. Andrew's (The congregation where I am privileged to be a pastor): Christmas Eve

I am grateful to my senior pastor, Gretchen Freeese, who invited me to both preach and presde on Christmas Eve, since a knee injury prevented me from standing at the altar in December. When the senior pastor is gracious, it is a joy to be a consulting (assistant) pastor!

"Be Not Afraid!”

Luke 2:1-20
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among all with whom God is pleased!"

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

The angel said to the shepherds, "Be not afraid.” Imagine that! A multitude of the heavenly host is streaming from heaven. The glory of the Lord is shining around the shepherds. An angel is speaking, and the shepherds aren’t supposed to be afraid. Truth be told, the shepherds had good reason to be scared of an angel of the Lord. Though we have lovely, romantic images of shepherds – kids dressed up in Christmas pageants. Though great men of faith such as Abraham, Moses, and David are all described as keeping sheep, by the time of Jesus, shepherding had become a profession most likely to be filled by people who couldn’t find decent work. Society stereotyped shepherds as liars, degenerates, and thieves. The testimony of shepherds was not admissible in court, and many towns had ordinances barring shepherds from coming inside the city limits. The religious establishment, what we would call the church, took a particularly dim view of shepherds since keeping sheep kept them from keeping the Sabbath and made them ritually unclean. The Pharisees lumped shepherds with tax collectors and prostitutes, persons who were "sinners" because of their job. For an angel of the Lord to appear to these guys, who know that society, the church, and even God hate them, would be scary stuff. I imagine the shepherds expected God’s angel to blast them out of their boots. But, no. Instead, the angel says, “Be not afraid.”


I sense that lots of us are scared this Christmas. I feel the fear myself. We’re in a bit of a mess. This year, letters to Santa aren’t asking for Nintendo Wii or Apple iPod Touch. “Help my mom find a job.” “Don’t let us lose our home.” “My family needs food for Christmas dinner.” Many of us are scared about our health. Many more of us are scared about the ultuimate cost of our government loaning billions to bail out corporations that seem to have brought their problems upon themselves. How do you suppose Rod Blagojevich and Bernie Madoff would repond if an angel of the Lord appeared to them this Christmas Eve. Do you think they’d think they have some explaining to do? And what if an angel of the Lord appeared to us? Would we fear that the angel wants to talk about what humanity has done to God’s creation, what we are doing with our lives, how the Church is serving ourselves rather than the world, or thoughts, regrets, sins and desires that are only known to us?

This Christmas, the angel of the Lord comes to all who are afraid. The angel of the Lord comes to all who have good reason to be scared. To us, the angel says, “Be not afraid!” “Be not afraid!” Rather than fear, the angel says, be filled with great joy. For the good news that the angel brings us is that, no matter what kind of mess we are in, no matter what kind of mess we bring upon ourselves, God in Christ is with us “wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” Jesus is flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, sharing our fate, bringing God’s promised future.

Now, Christ’s coming does not mean that all the reasons we have to be afraid will simply disappear. God’s promised future won’t come instantly, like turning on a Christmas tree. And God’s promised future won’t come painlessly, as surely as this season is not without pain. The babe lying in a manger will spend his life allaying people’s fears. But people that think those who bring problems on themselves should get what they deserve will object. They will rally the forces of fear by nailing Jesus to a tree. And on the cross, Jesus will conquer all fear, including our fear of God, our fear of the future, our fear of death, our fear of forgiving others as we wish to be forgiven.

In Christ, the babe born in Bethlehem, we have nothing to fear. And so, more than not being afraid, we can dare to be brave. We can dare to be brave. Like the shepherds, we can let go of our need for proof. We can say, "Let's go and see!" We can look for signs of Christ coming to us, Christ in the mess with us, Christ relieving our fear. And then we can tell what we hear and see. And we become Christmas angels, members of the heavenly host, who come to those with good reason to be scared and tell them, “Be not afraid!”