This is the Christmas Eve sermon of Rev. Christine Ng
December 24, 2013
Based on John 1:1-5, 10-14
Why?
Why all this?
Why the baby? Why the manger? Why the shepherds?
Why did God do all this?
Why are we here?
Tonight?
For once,
I have an answer.
I don’t have many answers.
Mine is more a faith
Of living in the questions.
But tonight,
I have an answer.
And the answer is . . .
Love.
Just that.
Love.
People like to say,
“Jesus” or “Christ” –
“is the reason for the season.”
And I agree.
But the reason for Jesus Christ
Is
Love.
God wanted us to know
That we are loved.
All of us.
Each of us.
And this love is ours,
Not because we “deserve” it
Not because we’ve been “good” or “nice”
Like God is Santa Claus
“making a list, and checking it twice”
No
This love is ours –
Period.
This love is ours –
Simply because we are.
We are born of God.
We are full of life.
We are born of light.
Our very being is sacred.
All of us.
The messy, fleshy, physical parts.
The parts we don’t like
when we look in the mirror.
The parts we don’t like
When we look at our lives.
The parts that need to be fed.
that need to be cleaned up.
The parts that cry.
as a baby cries,
the parts that smile,
that laugh with glee,
And sing with joy,
And curl up in contentment
And peace.
All of us,
our very being,
is sacred.
And Jesus, God-with-us, in the flesh,
Is proof.
But the problem,
As John writes in his gospel,
The problem is that we don’t recognize it.
All through the Bible,
In story after story,
God tries to tell us that we are loved.
And in story after story,
We human beings keep turning away.
Keep hiding.
Keep running from God.
There is something in us,
That holds tight to the fear
That if God really saw us,
Really knew us,
All of us,
God would reject us.
That our sin, whatever we perceive it to be,
Is too great to be forgiven.
And so we cling
To our own particular darkness.
But in story after story in the Bible,
No matter what we humans do,
God keeps coming back.
Trying again and again.
In love. In forgiveness.
Hoping that this time
This time we’ll get it.
We are worthy.
We are beloved.
Jesus is that message and the messenger.
The Word made flesh.
The Word that is life.
Life with all it’s mess and beauty,
Like the mess of a stable,
And the beauty of starlight.
Life,
With all its mistakes and joys.
Wrong roads taken,
And new life begun.
Life. All life.
Because everything that comes into being, we are told,
Comes into being through the Word.
Everything. Everyone. You. Me. Sacred.
The Word comes to us, each Christmas.
The Word that is light.
Light for all people.
All people. Not just some.
Jesus is that message and the messenger.
To you.
No matter who you are.
No matter what darkness you cling to.
No matter what fear holds you back.
No matter if others may try
to define or exclude you.
The Light is for you.
The Light is you.
You are a sacred being too.
Why Christmas?
Why did God send Jesus?
So we could always know that we,
We humans,
each of us,
We are God’s children.
Not just Jesus. Each of us.
We are loved.
You are beloved.
You.
Jesus, the Word,
Not just spoken,
But sung,
As angels sung to announce the holy birth,
Spreading the good news,
Spreading the message,
Spreading the Word.
As we sing,
Each Christmas.
Or as one writer puts it,*
Jesus is “God’s love song,
Singing life into the world’s babble,
Chaos, and voices of death.”
And what a difference it makes,
If we really believe that.
If we hear the angels sing,
And understand that they sing for us.
If we really believe the miracle of Christmas.
Love.
Love that comes into the world,
In human form.
Love that comes into the world,
In us, through us.
It changes how we see ourselves.
It changes how we see each other.
It changes how we see God.
It changes everything.
If we, like Jesus, really believe
the message of Christmas,
The we are loved,
Born of God,
Then we too become
The message and the messenger.
To others in our world
who need that message too,
But have forgotten God’s love song,
Full of grace and truth.
The song of love,
sung at their birth.
Or those who still can't hear
The angels sing
for them.
And that’s why we're here.
Tonight.
To be reminded.
In a world
Where the messages to us
too often are words
of despair, and cynicism,
And pain,
we need that Word,
that love song.
We can’t hear it too much.
We need to hear again
that we matter.
That what happens to us matters.
That we are loved.
And we need to share that message
With others.
Jesus is God’s love song to us.
His very Sacred Being
Sings to our sacred being.
This Christmas,
Let the Word that is life
Sing into your heart.
Listen, hear the angels sing.
Know
That they sing for you.
Child born of God.
Beloved.
And when you hear,
Sing along.
Amen.
*Thanks to Craig Satterlee
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