God can’t do this without you because there is no “this” without you.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Eve of the Nativity of Our Lord
Texts: Luke 2:1-20; Isaiah 9:2-7
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
If you look carefully tonight, you’ll see signs of what God is really doing.
You’ll see ordinary people, living in the fields where they work. You’ll see ordinary villagers, engaged to be married like millions of others, anticipating their coming life together.
You’ll see another family of villagers inviting this pregnant couple into their home, but, with no room in their guest room on the roof, having them settle in on the main floor amongst the rest of the family and the family’s animals.
You’ll see a perfectly normal human birth, with the cries of the mother in pain, and blood and mess, and with an experienced aunt as midwife, the tension and release back and forth, leading up to the final arrival.
When the Magi looked for this child, they went straight to the seat of power, Herod’s court. As well as they could read the sky and stars, they missed these other details. They missed that, for God, the plan from the beginning was always about ordinary people.
There’s no secret to what the Triune God is hoping for with this birth.
Peace on earth to all of God’s people, those working shepherds were told. A Prince of Peace, Isaiah says, who will establish endless peace, a reign of justice and righteousness. A light to shine in the darkest shadows of this world, Isaiah says.
From the beginning, our Scriptures say, this was always God’s dream: a creation living in peace and harmony, with humans in charge of caring for the garden and each other and all God’s creatures. Everything God tries to do with all humanity, and eventually the chosen people, throughout the Hebrew Bible, is to get people back to this original dream and hope of God’s.
Coming as an ordinary human being, a poor one in an oppressed country, was just the next step of this plan. To live among us and show us the path that had been laid out since the beginning. Love God and love neighbor. Share the abundance of this creation so all are filled and safe and the creation blooms.
And God’s plan only works if everyone, all God’s children, are a part of it. Including you.
We sometimes think the whole point of God’s coming in Christ was to forgive us.
Certainly, the Son of God made it clear that you are forever loved and forgiven by God. Clearly, in Jesus’ death and resurrection you have the promise of that forgiveness and restoration. A love is revealed that will not stop until all are found and brought home in grace.
But forgiveness happens throughout the Scriptures long before Jesus’ death and resurrection. God repeatedly forgives God’s people, again and again, individually and collectively. God didn’t need to be born as a human being to forgive you, or me. The Scriptures are clear about that.
That’s what you need to understand tonight: God’s plan all hinges on what God can do and what God can’t do. God can and does forgive. All the time.
What God can’t do is make you love.
Force you be a peacemaker. Make you care for others and this creation. God’s greatest hope and dream depends on you, and me, and everyone, choosing to obey, to love, to walk the path of God.
Start in Genesis and keep going, and you’ll see. God always reaches out to ordinary people and calls them to follow, to care for strangers, to end oppression and poverty, to love God and neighbor. But God’s whole dream is that people do this willingly. So God has to wait and see who will.
Now you see why ordinary people are key to tonight’s story.
The shepherds likely weren’t expecting God to do much to fix the world. They just lived and worked their lives. But it was to them, not the royal court, that God sent heavenly messengers. And after seeing, they returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God” for all they’d heard and seen. Telling others. The message got to the people God needed, ordinary people who’d come to find the path of peace and love and walk it. And tell others.
The same for Mary and Joseph, their family in Bethlehem and their family in Nazareth. Coming amongst common folks meant that the plan from the beginning remained: God would not use power over anyone to force love. So it’s no surprise God avoids Herod’s power and starts a love insurgency from the ground up, with an ordinary but holy child. It’s the only way God will do it.
Ultimately, it’s the only way true peace on earth will ever happen.
Isaiah promises tonight that in this coming peace of God, “all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.”
But if God’s not planning a bigger army to destroy the warring armies of this world, which Scripture clearly says God will not do, how will army boots and bloody uniforms become fuel for furnaces to keep people warm?
Only when the soldiers themselves take off their own boots and uniforms and toss them onto the burn pile. This peace God dreams of, this world of justice and mercy, will only happen, can only happen with the consent and participation of all God’s people. When we all put down our weapons and throw our violence onto the burn pile and start loving God and neighbor as God always dreamed we would.
God can’t do this without you because there is no “this” without you.
That’s the joy of God’s coming for you tonight. The shepherds were critical because they, too, were God’s children, and needed to be invited and called. But the only answer God needs here tonight is ours. Yours. Mine. Peace on earth to all God’s beloved, that’s the plan. You are critical to it.
So, should we go to Bethlehem and see this thing God has done for us and for the world? It might change you. In fact, God’s counting on that.
But let’s go.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
