Sunday, December 24th - Christmas Eve
Deborah Laforet - Sermon for 10pm
Luke 1:26-38, 2:1-7
Born In Me
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
If you’ve been with us the past four Sundays, you’ll know that we have been celebrating the season of Advent. Advent is a time in the church of expectation and anticipation. Which makes sense, right? We are heading towards Christmas, the birth of the Christ child, Santa Claus, gifts, family gatherings, and time off from work and school. During Advent, we hang the holly, put up lights, bake and shop, all in anticipation of that coming day of Christmas.
But the season of Advent began long, long ago - long before many of the traditions we celebrate today. Advent was never about gifts, and shopping and baking and decorating. It was about anticipating the coming of the Christ, and I mean that in a literal way. It wasn’t about expecting an upcoming birthday, where we celebrate a past event. People believed Christ, in his physical body, would come again, and Advent was the season when people would pray for that coming and long for that event, anticipating Christ bringing justice to this world, wiping away every tear, and uniting all nations under one god, creating a new heaven and a new earth.
After 2000 years, there are a few who still believe in this second coming, but most believe that early Christians got it wrong, that the apostle Paul and others who followed, got their signals crossed and that this anticipated arrival was never going to happen, no matter how much they longed for it, no matter how many prophecies and predictions told us of its coming.
Many now aren’t even aware that this is what Advent and Christmas are about - this small child born once again to bring compassion and justice to the world, or ascending from heaven with a heavy hand of justice on those who have sinned against their neighbour and God’s creation. Most anticipated a time of judgement and justice - in the retributive sense or punishment sense and the restorative sense. People believed that Christ would save the innocent of the world, end suffering, and bring about a world of peace and harmony.
Mostly though, people have forgotten these hopes. They no longer believe Christ will return and make the world a better place. But maybe that isn’t what a second coming is supposed to look like, or has looked like. Maybe Christ has already had a second coming - and a third coming, and a fourth coming, and a fifth coming - and we’ve missed it because we’ve misinterpreted what it is to look like.
I’ve been listening to a song the past few Christmases called “Born In Me,” sung by Francesca Battistelli. It’s a song sung from the point of view of Mary. It starts with this visit from the angel. She says:
Everything inside me cries for order,
everything inside me wants to hide.
Is this shadow an angel or a warrior?
If God is pleased with me, why am I so terrified?
She’s scared. Can you imagine having an angel come to you, telling you that you are chosen. Why you? Why now? What comes next? Am I in danger? Will my child be in danger? But Mary, an exceptional person, accepts what is given to her. She doesn’t turn away. She takes the risk. In the song, she humbly says:
I am not brave. I’ll never be.
The only thing my heart can offer is a vacancy.
I'm just a girl, nothing more,
but I am willing; I am yours.
So what do we do when angels approach us? What? You’ve never had an angel visit you? I actually don’t believe that. I think at some time in our lives, we receive messages, whether it be from God, from angels, from the Universe, but it’s not always easy to recognize them. We have multiple stories in our bible, where people hear the message and say no, where people hear the message and don’t believe it, or where people hear the message over and over before they actually become aware of it. If you’re here tonight, you believe we’re not alone in this universe, that there is something beyond us, something beyond the physical - not the opposite of science, but in synchronicity with it. Whatever this is, however you choose to name it, if you name it, it’s on our side and wants what’s best for this world, wants this world to be healed, wants it full of love and peace, wants us to be whole and complete. So sometimes we get messages - sometimes message of love, sometimes messages of assurance, sometimes gifts, and sometimes a swift kick in the pants to get us moving.
In the song, Mary says, “Be born in me.” How many of us can open ourselves up so completely? It’s probably why she was chosen. We might never receive a visit from an angel telling us we will give birth to the son of God, but I do believe we may be invited to bring Christ into our bodies, that Christ can be born into each one of us - into our minds, into our hearts, into our lives, that divine love can fill us, making us feel valued, wanted, cared for, while at the same time inspiring us to share that divine love, helping others to feel valued, wanted, and cared for.
Maybe that’s how we look towards Christmas with anticipation. We use the season of Advent to prepare our hearts for this invitation to receive Christ. Yes, we participate in the season of giving. Generosity is important, but what else might we do to prepare our hearts, our minds, our lives for the coming of Christ? How do we slow down and become more aware of messages that come our way? How do we stop and listen to the whisperings of the angels? How do we create a life that leaves room for the unexpected?
I am not brave. I’ll never be.
The only thing my heart can offer is a vacancy
I'm just a girl, nothing more,
but I am willing; I am yours.
Be born in me.
Be born in me.
Trembling heart, somehow I believe,
that you chose me.
Each one of us is chosen. Each one of us can receive the miracle of an angel. Each one of us can be open to this gift, open to the birth of Christ within us. Christ can be born again, in each of our lives, and can continue to make a difference in our world, can actually do what those early Christians hoped for when they longed for the return of their Saviour - bring justice to this world, wipe away every tear, unite all nations, and create a new heaven and a new earth - but that will only happen through us, through how we live our lives, how we care for this world, how we share our love and compassion for this beautiful and awesome world in which we live.
Christmas starts tonight, the first of twelve days of Christmas. The season of Christmas actually begins at 12:01. My encouragement is to celebrate Christmas in a different way, to celebrate the birth of the child then, and to celebrate the birth of Christ now, in our own lives, in the lives of others, on this very planet, on this very day, and every day. We are the hands and feet of Christ. Christ lives again, through us. That inclusive love and thirst for justice that we admire in the stories of Jesus can be lived out today, through each one of us. May it be so. Amen.