Right Into the Middle of It All

LNPC Christmas Eve 2012

Luke 2:1-20

I need to hear the Christmas story this year, to remember that God crept in beside us, that this world is shot through with love and hope. I’m craving the good news of great joy for all the people.

But there’s a line in the Christmas story that has always bothered me.  It’s when the choir of angels sing, “On earth peace among those whom he favors” – it’s also been said, “Peace on earth to men of good will,” or “peace on earth to those who please God.”  

 

Of course, we human beings are divisive and exclusionary, it’s sin’s hold on us, the way of fear that has us always competing and comparing, always striving to be good enough, and deciding who isn’t good enough. So translating it this way fits our distorted projection of who God is and what God must be up to.  

 

But it doesn’t fit what we know about the Kingdom of God, and who God really is and what God is really up to in the world, particularly at Christmas, when God comes into this life to save us.  And I’ve learned over the years that wherever we make the message of Jesus Christ narrow and obstructive we’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way and it’s worth retracing our steps.  

 

So, I did some digging into the Greek this week. And it turns out that the word “favors” means pleased in, delighted by. It’s the same word God speaks over Jesus at his baptism; This is my beloved child, in whom I am deeply pleased.

So when those ecstatic angels who cannot contain themselves blast their joy into the faces of the terrified shepherds, they are singing, Glory to God in the highest heavens! And on earth, peace to the humans, in whom God is utterly delighted! Y’all humans are God’s favorite! Glory to God and bottomless connection between God’s very own beloved children!

 

God is so utterly committed to us that God came right in with us to share it all, so that we might never again be separated by death, so that the end of this story is decided once and for all.  Christ has come to free us all from the bondage, judgment and suffering we inflict on ourselves and others, and bring us into peace.  God’s peace is not just for a few, for those who earn it or deserve it or claim it.  God has come for whole earth, and every person here belongs to God and to the rest of us. There is no pain or suffering of a single one of God’s beloved human beings any place on this wide planet that God is not intimately bearing with and tending to. There is no human joy that God is not celebrating.  

 

Each of our lives get to be part of glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, our lives get to be for peace between all beloved human beings on this whole wide earth. God is doing this, it has begun and will continue until it is complete.  

 

Right now everything feels hard, we’re weary and strained, the future is unclear, the present is not simple, the world is aching, and life and death are close to the surface. So what better time is there to tell each other again about God coming in as a tiny, vulnerable human baby, born incognito, in the middle of unfortunately-timed road trip, to a teenage girl and the man who agreed to be the child's daddy? 

These two beloved, overwhelmed humans were living in the midst of great unknown and upheaval, making do with whatever they had, and welcoming God into the world, right into the middle of it all.  

Beloved human, God is utterly smitten with you, and with every person on this planet.  And God is here with us all. So we will tell each other the story again, and welcome God into the world, right into the middle of it all.  

May you go into your Christmas, whatever it looks like and whatever it holds, with your heart open to whatever cocktail of joy and grief, love and disappointment, hope and longing may be bubbling within you tonight. God comes in to be with you just as you are, and to bring us all peace. 

Christ has come; the world belongs to God.  Christ is here; we are not alone.  Christ is coming; the future is God’s.

Amen.