Christmas Eve 08 Luke 2:1-20, John 1:1-14

Luke starts the Christmas story in a political frame. T would be like saying that this Christmas is the last year of the Bush presidency, the year of the re-election of Gov. Daniels. Quirinius the Roman bureaucrat had a busy day. He wrote a report to Augustus on the census, Christmas Day-He gave the usual data about crops, expected taxes coming, population estimates, political gossip and rumor. He called Augustus all the right titles: son of the divine, prince of peace, savior. No notice at all was given to a birth in Bethlehem.

It was just an ordinary day in Israel, just an ordinary day in Bethlehem. Within the ordinary, under the surface, God was working a miracle. Almost acting undercover, God was at work, with no one noticing. Maybe that’s why some want snow at Christmas, as it covers with a fresh blanket. Christmas alters our perspective. Even angry people are happy that they get to complain about long lines and seeing family.

Christmas is just another day to mark on the calendar. Babies are born every day. Silent Night is just another song. Maybe angels do sing with every birth. We sing, “let every heart, prepare him room.” Tell me that God doesn’t light up a bit when people push money into a Cheer fund can. Kathy Bennett told me a true story of a small child just starting to get the idea of giving to charity. She understood the Cheer Fund but was upset that she thought the man ringing the bell needed help. She asked who was with the man and was told his father. “You mean he’s in trouble and needs help too?” She later offered to trade in her fruit roll up if her mother would give her the cash so she could help them by putting money into their buckets.

Of course, it is not every day that the logos, what we translate as word, God’s own logic, enters a human life. Luther famously said that God became small at Christmas. Yes, small enough to fit into every crevice of human life. God’s love is big enough to become small if that’s what we require to grasp God’s intentions for us. I think that the Incarnation means that God was not only deeply involved in that solitary life of Jesus, but became more embedded into the flow of every human life. Christmas is sentimental, but it gives us spiritual cavities if if it allowed to be only sweetness. Christmas shows that God is concerned with more than only the spiritual side. The Incarnation is about Jesus living out his name, God saves; God delivers; God helps in our needs here and now, while it does point to heaven beyond. That may be a reason for why Jesus was born in less than ideal circumstances. In those times when we are not at our best, God is in the middle of it, helping us to bring Christmas reconciliation, Christmas peace.

It is not every night that we can sing Silent Night and mean it. This is the night we light the Christ Candle. It is not every night that a choir of angels sings. Maybe they sang loud enough for everyone to hear, but everyone else was asleep. This may well be the one time of year that we open our ears to the voices of Christmas. This may be the one time of year that our eyes are opened to the beauties that lie beneath the everyday. We dust off our memories, maybe even dust off our hearts, too long tucked away for safe keeping, We take off the defensive wrappings and open our arms wide that presents scattered around on Christmas morning. When you open your packages try o see each other presents to decorate your life.