Christmas 2008
Scripture Lessons: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, Psalm 89:1-4,19-26, Romans 16:25-27
O Jesus, make each of us receptive to your fresh coming among us here tonight…and help us discover more about your gift of hope, through the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Many of us come to worship on Christmas Eve seeking a renewal of hope. As you think about the past year and the coming years…what gives you hope?
Over the past decade, hope has been eroded for many in our country and around the world. In the past few months, many people who placed the hope of their lives in their homes, their jobs and their retirement investments have lost everything.
Fewer people have hope that even the best military and diplomatic actions of the United States and the United Nations will be able to bring peace amid all the conflicts and terrorism across our violent and war torn world.
We have a new president–elect who inspires hope in this country and around the world…and we all hope that he and his team will make a positive difference in the policies of our nation and in our relationship with the rest of the world. But do you really have confidence that even the brightest and best American president, from any political party, has the ability to fix all the systems that are broken in this country and in all the nations of the world, especially in a time of major global economic recession?
This short list reminds us of why it is difficult for many people in this country and around the world to live with hope. We may put on a Christmas smile and offer pleasant greetings, but in reality, like the leaders of our financial markets, we often live in denial of the serious threats to the future of our economy, of our country and of this planet.
About now, you may be wondering when I’m going to stop talking about problems and start giving a positive message about Christmas. The truth is, if we as Christians are going to be of any help to people of our generation who are dragged down by the weight of despair and hopelessness then we have to open our hearts to feel their dark and painful experiences…and not just quickly turn our attention to more pleasant thoughts. Sometimes we have to be honest about the enormity and unmanageability of our challenges before we can discover where genuine hope is to be found.
We have a great gift to offer to our despairing neighbors when we tell the story how God came to help the human race through Jesus’ birth into a context much like our own. Mary and Joseph were living in a world filled with dark and threatening realities. On that first Christmas, the Roman armies were policing Israel. The Roman Empire was overextended and having difficulty supporting its standard of living and its military actions around the world.
So Caesar’s solution was to raise taxes. But the local economy was reeling from the new taxes imposed by Rome. It was getting more and more difficult to make a living. And on the back roads of the country, away from the cities occupied by the soldiers, thugs were terrorizing travelers. Joseph and Mary must have worried about being physically attacked as they took the long journey to Bethlehem to register for the new taxes.
Mary was young and pregnant. Many women died in childbirth in those days. While Mary must have been excited about the birth of her first child, she must also have had her fears…will I live through the birth of this child? Then, in the days before she was to give birth, she had to travel 70 miles, about a three-day walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem. What a rigorous and uncomfortable journey for a pregnant girl about to give birth. In those days before hospitals, pregnant women depended on their mothers and the familiar village midwives to help deliver their babies. But Mary would be alone, a long way from the comforts of home.
And if Mary had hoped for a nice room in the local inn, her hope was crushed. There was no room in the inn. The only place they could find to sleep and give birth was an animal stable. And soon after the birth of her child, she and Joseph had to flee like homeless immigrants to Egypt so that Herod, the ruthless local ruler who had his wife and three of his sons killed, would not kill her child.
Do you see why external circumstances did not fill Mary and Joseph with much hope? In fact, contrary to our happy thoughts and songs about Christmas, Mary and Joseph had many reasons to be anxious, fearful and discouraged.
For the past 170 years, people have gathered here at Christ Church to worship on Christmas Eve. There have been many bleak and difficult years in this city, this country and the world when people, sitting right where you are, have been filled with anxiety, fear and discouragement. Think of people gathering here on Christmas Eve during two World Wars and the Great Depression. Think of people gathering here during the Viet Nam War and when the armory was shut down and the jobs began to leave the city.
Those who have gone before us in this place are watching us now, as we face our contemporary version of challenging times. So let me ask again, what gives you hope amid all the enormous problems that surround us?
I can tell you what gave Mary and Joseph hope. God had spoken to them about the birth of Jesus and about Jesus’ mission to bring hope and healing to the human race. God’s presence, God’s word, God’s promise to be with them- gave them hope. It was not just hearing stories about what God had done in the past that gave them hope. It was their personal experience of God coming into their lives, in unexpected ways, which gave them hope.
Of course, their response was also important. Both Mary and Joseph could have said “no” to God’s guidance. Are you really aware of the power God has given us? We can refuse to follow God’s guidance. But Mary and Joseph listened to God…and were willing to say “yes” to God, to follow God’s guidance even when they did not fully understand.
This past summer, Rebecca and I met some extraordinary people of “hope in God” at the Lambeth Conference. We listened to women and men who had suffered, people whose lives are in constant danger from poverty, violence and disease. Many have no realistic hope that their governments can be trusted to help them. In fact, many are persecuted by their governments.
And yet, under these devastating circumstances, we met people who were genuinely joyful, loving, and filled with hope in God. Their hope is not that they can significantly change their circumstances. They are very aware of their powerlessness. But they have unshakable hope in God who walks with them. They know God. Jesus Christ lives in and through them as they courageously bring new life and hope to people living in the worst situations on the planet.
One bishop from the Sudan, who normally eats only one meal a day, told stories of how God has sustained him often while bullets screamed around him during guerrilla wars, sustained him through years in refugee camps, through times of sickness without medical care, through long periods without regular food or shelter. He knows God intimately. To look in his face and hear his stories, you know that it is God who gives hope and confidence to his life. It is God who keeps this old man walking miles every day to fulfill his mission to help his people.
So what gives you hope? Putting on a happy face in denial of the realities that haunt our nation and world will not ground your life in hope. What we learn from Mary and Joseph and from our Anglican sisters and brothers around the world… genuine hope comes from God. There is no other trustworthy source of hope.
Just believing that God exists may not lead us to hope. Belief that God exists can be simply a theory in our heads. Hope becomes authentic when we discover how to live each day in relationship with Christ, in conversation with God, guided by Spirit, saying “yes” to God’s daily invitations to love and serve God and our neighbors in need.
There was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn. Is there room in your daily schedule to listen for God’s guidance in your life? When you get anxious, is there room in your life to talk with God about your fears? As you make plans for your future, is there room for God to guide your plans, or are you so much in control, that there is no practical space for God in your life?
Our world desperately needs hope…not the superficial hope of positive thinking which is often a denial of reality. Our world needs the deeper hope that comes from knowing and trusting God to guide in situations that are humanly unmanageable.
On this Christmas Eve, Christ comes to be with us again, in the middle of all the challenges surrounding us. Christ is longing to bring hope to our world through people who are willing to open their lives to his guidance day by day. Are you willing to let God make you one of his ambassadors of hope in this coming year?
Let us close our eyes and be still in the loving presence Christ who is her among us now.
What changes is God inviting you to make in your life in this coming year…so that you can be more connected with Jesus throughout each day? What changes could you make so that God’s Holy Spirit is given more freedom to guide your attitudes, words and actions? What changes is God inviting us all to make as a community of “Jesus followers” so that we can actually live as people of “hope in God” in the midst of the difficult realities of our world?
I close with a prayer from St Paul: May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.