The Second
Sunday after Christmas
Holy Communion
LaHave,
Crousetown and Vogler’s Cove January 4, 2008
Isaiah 9:2f
St. Luke 2:15f
"All they
that heard it wondered at those things
which were
told them by the shepherds. But Mary
kept all
these things and pondered them in her heart.
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Our
celebration of this great feast of Christmas continues. We have
given and received gifts. I suspect that you have opened the
gifts that you received, and that you are hoping that others who
received gifts from you have opened them and are enjoying the
benefits of those gifts.
This gift giving
at Christmas is a response to the generosity God first showed to us
in giving the gift of His Son. Will our hearts be open to receiving
the Gift of God and the benefits that He brings? God wills it, will
we allow Christ Himself to be born in us?
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Our lesson today
is from the prophet Isaiah. God spoke to the people of Israel many
years before He appeared to us in the flesh. God spoke both to warn
Israel of the exile that was going to come to them in the 6th
century before Christ, but also to give them hope that salvation
would come to them from that exile in Babylon.
But the message
of God through the prophet was not just a message to one
people at a particular time, but speaks to the universal experience
of humanity in every age.
We all know the
experience of exile – we lose sight of God and wander about in
spiritual darkness, lost, following our own inclinations, our own
ideas of what is right and become bound further and further in
darkness.
The people that walked in darkness…
they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death…
This land of
darkness is a place of deep inner confusion. For us it may be
a place of anger expressed openly or hidden in our hearts, or a
place of despair, of utter hopelessness. Life can feel like we are
in a battle – with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood.
We seem to be fighting with others around us, and the battle we
discover is also within our own souls. We don’t enjoy a deep
inner peace and so we cannot share that peace with others.
Into this land,
that is, the state of every person born into this world, God sends
the Christmas message of hope, and more than a message, He sends His
Son.
THE people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has
light shined. [see the El Greco painting of the Nativity]
And the message
to us is not of the bringing in of a heavenly kingdom in the way
that earthly kingdoms are often established – by war – with
confused noise and garments rolled in blood. The kingdom God
brings about is a kingdom with burning and fuel of fire:
it is a kingdom of light – founded on Truth; and, it is a
kingdom of heat – founded on the kindling and purifying of the fire
of love.
But God’s
kingdom is brought about in our midst and within us in a hidden way
at first as in the day of Midian. Isaiah is referring here
to the time of the Judges (12th century BC) when a small
Israelite army led by Gideon carried trumpets and flaming torches
hidden in clay pots. Under cover of darkness they snuck up and
surrounded the much larger Midianite army that was encamped in a
valley at night. Suddenly they shattered the pots and blew trumpets
to reveal themselves openly. The Midianites were not overcome by
force but by being surprised by the sudden sound and light. They
were thrown into confusion, and, assuming a much larger army
surrounded them, they ran away.
Just so, God,
the Light of Light, appears hidden to us in clay, in the flesh of
the baby Jesus in a manger. The appearance of this child was
accompanied by miraculous signs: the message of angels and a star in
the heavens. Yet who Jesus is was revealed and our salvation
brought about fully, only when the clay vessel, his flesh, was
shattered – when Christ died on the Cross and rose again for us –
then he was revealed as God of God, Light of Light, True God of True
God. And all God’s enemies are scattered and overcome at the
revealing of Christ.
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Will this gift
of Christmas be received by us, will God’s kingdom, will Christ
Himself be established in our hearts?
Our Gospel
today, suggests something that is necessary for us to fully realize
this gift.
The shepherds
responded to the message of angels and went to Bethlehem to see the
Christ child. We are told that
when they had
seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them
concerning this child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were
told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things in her
heart.
Something is
different about Mary’s response compared with the many in Israel who
heard the wondrous news from the shepherds but then forgot it as
quickly as they heard it. Mary kept all these things in her
heart. It was a kind of continual meditation, a holding on to
the knowledge of the goodness of God, a remembering of all the
circumstances surrounding his birth (the message of an angel, the
appearance of the star and the visits of strangers) and his life.
She fed upon the hope that God gives us in this Christmas message.
But how quickly
our minds, would cover over the wondrous, the divine. Christ is
dwelling in us in a hidden way at first – as in the day of Midian,
before the clay pots were shattered. He dwells in us through our
baptism and through faith. But many people are baptized; not all
know the miraculous gift of their baptism. Many people hear the
teachings of Christ, but not all take them to heart. Great things
are happening in our lives all the time, divine gifts, moments of
the revelation of God’s Kingdom, the breaking through our darkness
by the kingdom of light and of love. Do we recognize them for what
they are? Do we remember them?
We are to be
like Mary, to ponder the miraculous circumstances of Christ’s birth
and also of His birth in our hearts – in our Baptism and as we feed
on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving. We found our lives
not upon our attempts to be self sufficient, but upon Christ
dwelling in us, the hope of glory.
This is really
all that the Church’s suggested spiritual disciplines – weekly
church attendance; daily prayer, Bible reading and contemplation –
this is all that these disciplines are meant to accomplish: to keep
us pondering in our hearts Christ’s gift of Himself to us and within
us, the gift of Christmas. It is to really think on Jesus as
Wonderful, to really trust him as our Counselor, to see
him for who he really is, the Almighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace.
When we
leave this life on earth, when our bodies, these clay pots, are
shattered, will our lives reveal, as in the day of Midian, the fire
of the love of Christ so that all may see what motivated us, Who
motivated us?
Will that divine
fire dwelling in us begin to shine out through the cracks in our
mortal lives, our clay, even today?
Jesus says to
each of us,
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under a
bushel, but on a stand; and it gives light unto all that are in the
house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Amen.
