Keeping Christmas Well (Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24th, 2016)

Bible Reference(s): Luke 2:1-20

Sermon by Rev. Terri Thorn

Each year as I begin to prepare the Christmas Eve service, I ask myself, "What will you say that hasn't already been said? What message could you possibly offer that might begin to capture the significance of this night? Not to mention, there are no words that could ever have as powerful of an impact as the music and the scripture does, nor would any capture attention the way the NORAD Santa tracker does!"

And every year I come to the same conclusion...perhaps this night is mostly about keeping our traditions intact. After all, there is tremendous comfort in tradition. We all have those things in our life that we say, Christmas isn't Christmas without them. For some folks Christmas isn't Christmas without a trip around the county to look at the lights, or until you've attended the Christmas Cantata, or when you've finally signed, sealed and mailed your annual Christmas letter. And, for many people, in my family it tends to be the men, Christmas isn't Christmas until you've last minute shopped on Christmas Eve morning. Whatever they may be, we all have those traditions that make Christmas, Christmas. Remaining faithful to these things is one of the ways we might say we keep Christmas well.

The idea of keeping Christmas well is actually lifted from the final lines of the classic, A Christmas Carol, which has been the parallel story for our worship these past four weeks of Advent. Referring to the newly redeemed Scrooge, Dickens wrote: and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well. In other words, Scrooge went from being one who viewed Christmas as an inconvenient disruption to his work schedule to one who understood it to have significant transformative implications for his life. In one night, he experienced the miracle of Christmas and was forever changed by it.

Now I'm going to assume that most of you know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge. Miserable miser. Lonely. Heartless. No compassion. Only purpose and meaning in life is the accumulation wealth. No time for relationships. Remember that guy? Then, along comes these ghostly visits...first from his dead business partner Jacob Marley, followed by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come...each offering a truth that Scrooge could accept or reject.

First, Jacob Marley showed Scrooge the chains of his own life...the heavy burdens that Marley's choices and priorities had created when he was alive and that he was now forced to carry forever into the afterlife. Marley warned Scrooge that there would be no peace unless he changed his ways and avoided making the same mistakes.

The Ghost of the Past revealed to Scrooge a different perspective on his own past - forcing him to look at the memories he had stifled, the hurts he had suffered, and the losses he had experienced. The Ghost helped Scrooge see how they had contributed to his misery, and more importantly, his visit gave Scrooge a glimmer of hope that grace could heal his wounds.

The Ghost of the Present led Scrooge on a journey to acknowledge how his own choices and lack of compassion contributed to the pain and suffering of others. At the same time Scrooge witnessed how, in the presence of love, suffering did not rob people of their Christmas joy.

Finally, the Ghost of Yet to Come, helped him see the ugly consequences of staying on the same dark and lonely path he was currently on. There would be no joy in his living and no grieving at his dying if he continued along his selfish journey.

When you think about it...these ghosts showed Scrooge truths not all unlike those Jesus came to reveal to the world.

Thankfully, as the story goes, in the light of Christmas morning, we learn that Scrooge willingly responded to these lessons of mercy and grace...through them he was transformed into a different man. He rejoiced at his second chance. His heart was filled with love and compassion. He was eager to reconcile and connect with his broken relationships....to celebrate and share the good news with everyone. Scrooge lived differently because Christmas made him different. Ever after, it is how he kept Christmas well.

Interestingly, in the Dickens manuscript, there is a follow-up sentence to the statement that Scrooge knew how to keep Christmas well...it reads: May that be truly said of us, and all of us!

"May it be said of all of us" gives us reason to pause on this Christmas Eve night and wonder what does it mean for us to keep Christmas well? Will we live differently tomorrow because Christmas has made us different tonight?

Folks, the Dickens' classic is fantastic, story-with-a-moral...but at the end of the day, it is just a story. A really good story made up to make a really good point. A valid point...a life lesson worth learning. In essence, Dickens reveals a glimpse of God's truth in a work of fiction.

But this story, the Christmas story that Mary Piper read for us and that we've been singing about, is a true story...and it is much more than a moral, or a valid point, or a good lesson. It is a miracle story in which the past, the present, and the future converge...not as ghosts to be reckoned with...but as a tiny baby boy born into poverty, fear and oppression, yet born to be the Savior of the world. This is the story that brings the fulfillment of past prophecy into a real and present incarnation of God to give the world hope for God's peaceable future. All of this...to us...and for us.

But it's not even the whole story. As one unknown source put it, "Jesus is not part of the Christmas story...Christmas is part of Jesus' story." Without the whole of Jesus' story...the faith stories from the Old Testament...the prophecy...the birth...Mary, Joseph...the shepherds....the angels...Jesus' life, death, and resurrection...well without it all, tonight is just a sentimental birth story. That's why, as strange as it may seem, we have this communion meal and the manger both before us on Christmas Eve...because only when we weave them together - the birth and the death - do we begin to capture the significance of the miracle we celebrate tonight.

Still, Christmas Eve is mostly about the birth...the baby boy...the Incarnate Word of God, through whom unconditional love came into the world. Light entered the darkness. Even now, Christmas reminds us that the light of God's love is among us, despite all the darkness in our lives...despite all the troubles and the suffering of the world...despite all that would lead us to become our own version of Scrooge.

And not that I want to be Scrooge...but there's a lot of darkness..and fear...and suffering...and pain...in our world. We don't have to look beyond the pews of this church to see it, to know it, to feel it. Yet, for this one night, we gather to wrap ourselves in the safety and comfort of our traditions...where we feel God's holy presence...and we experience all that the light of these Advent candles represent.

We have hope in the moment; we experience the peace of God's mercy upon us; we can feel the love that surrounds us. We rejoice in the promise. Right now, along with millions of Christians around the world, we gather in worship and at the table, to keep Christmas well.

The question, though, before we leave here tonight is this, how will we keep it well tomorrow...and the next day...and the next? How will we be light in the darkness that awaits..literally and figuratively...right outside these doors? How will we take the light of these Advent candles, and all that they represent, into the world that so desperately needs it?

In his book, The Redemption of Scrooge, Matthew Rawles answers the question this way: Christmas is an invitation into a relationship with God, through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ is born so that God might have ears to hear our wants, eyes to see our needs, hands to outstretch on the cross in order to clothe us in his resurrection, and lips to speak the story of good news, that we might share it with the world.

Friends, keeping Christmas well is a matter of carrying the good news of great joy...the birth of Emmanuel, God with us, the news that we celebrate tonight...taking that out into the world...not just tonight...not just in song...not just in Christmas traditions...but by living our transformed lives...tonight, tomorrow and ever after.

Keeping Christmas well means we choose the redemptive hope of Christ, even when the world spews anxiety and tempts us to fear.

Keeping Christmas well means we choose the peace of forgiveness for ourselves and offer it to others.

Keeping Christmas well means we choose to love, even and especially those who seem unlovable, unwelcome, or undesirable...including ourselves and those with whom we disagree.

Keeping Christmas well means we choose to rest in the joy of God's promises, even when it seems foolish to do so.

Keeping Christmas well means that the birth we celebrate tonight transforms how we live all our tomorrows.

I would like to close with a writing by theologian and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman. He calls it the Work of Christmas...I call it Keeping Christmas Well.

When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart.

May this be the year the world learns to Keep Christmas Well. Amen.