old old story (sermon Sunday, 23 Dec 2018)
Gospel from Luke 1. Luke 1:39-45(46-55)
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
You may be seated.
Merry Christmas, it’s Mary Sunday, for the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus’ holy mother, whom the church honors as first among saints of God. In fact, Mary is so adored that (I remember when), a generation ago, the Pope was considering recognizing Mother Mary as co-Redemptrix with Jesus Redeemer.
And recently I read that that possibility for Mary may be on the Roman table again in 2019. Would this modify the Early Church Fathers and the General Councils who, in the bloody Christian wars* of the first few centuries AD, devised the Nicene Creed of Holy Trinity? I don’t know, I don't think so! Would our holy symbols change from triangles to squares?! With squares and triangles and the Creed in mind, I leave to your contemplation and imagination - - as Christmas (when God was born an earthling) moves into Epiphany (when God is self-revealing to the rest of us earthlings) - - the question “Is God subjectively what we piously define God to be - - or is God objectively, what God reveals of God's own self?!”
From those violent Christian wars of the early church, Is God what we say and disagree and fight about, and the Christian bishop with the most powerful Christian army wins as was once the case* - - or is God what God reveals in divine silence from the heavens, silence and the occasional voice, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Angels from the realms of glory singing to shepherds in the fields. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God." Epiphany: God’s theophany in Word, Light, deed and song, Bread and Wine.
When after my sermon we sit momentarily, we will stand again and recite the Nicene Creed, that’s our tradition. You could write your own creed, and how close to the Nicene Creed would yours be? Not likely very close
Not likely very close at all! And over against a theologically complex Creed, the truth is quite plain: Love came down at Christmas, Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is theophany, God’s manifestation of God’s own self, not a human credal formula that’s part Scripture and part Tradition. Don’t worry what the church insists you stand and say as a creed, because God is not a creed, and Christmas is not a creed, Christmas is God with you, Jesus with you.
As I sometimes say to small children when I hand them the Communion Wafer, “this Bread means Jesus loves you” (and if you look real close, there’s a picture of a Lamb on it). Complex eucharistic theology aside, Jesus loves you: that’s precisely what the Bread means. Moreover, it’s exactly, just and only, what Christmas means: Love came down; God loves you; Jesus loves you.
I remember in my Christmas Eve sermon maybe thirty years ago, saying, “Christmas is not about Santa Claus!” and Andrew, a little boy who was one of my acolytes that evening, Andrew jumping to his feet and looking at me horrified, then looking out, aghast, at his mother in the congregation. Andrew was seven or eight, maybe nine or ten. I guess he’s forty now. And I realize that I was wrong that night, I was wrong because Christmas IS about Santa, IS about St. Nicholas who, as is so clear on our Sunday with St. Nicholas here at Holy Nativity, Santa Claus, St. Nick is about love, and that’s ALL he’s about. Sure, we get eager, excited, even grabby and greedy tearing open our Christmas presents, but we know the story of St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa Claus, because we tell and hear it at Holy Nativity on that Sunday every year, and we know the Christmas gifts are about love, and that’s ALL they’re about; not about what anyone deserves or has earned or is entitled to, it’s about love, because “All you need is Love! Love, Love, Love is all you need!”
Christmas is NOT a theological formula, it’s down to earth, earthy and dirty - - a pregnant girl (some worried daddy’s beloved daughter, far from home and terrified about what’s happening to her), pregnancy, bloody birth, placenta, shepherds, dirt. A diaper, the baby’s swaddling cloth, needs changing. Down in the stable, remember (because there was no room for them upstairs in the καταλύμα, the guest chamber, as Luke has it**), so, sheep and goats and the barnyard smell of dung, watch where you step. Then it’s downhill from there: no sooner does Mary start to raise and adore him than she finds out a jealous king is out to find and murder her little son; but LOVE wins out because that's the Christmas story and song. I love to tell the story, of Jesus and his love.
Christmas means Jesus loves you, God loves you so much as to come show you what God in human form is like so you can try to be like that, like Jesus: love personified. And the more you become like Jesus, the more Christmas comes true again and again forever.
Yes, Andrew, Christmas IS about Santa Claus.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,
Merry Christmas. Jesus loves you. Spread the word!
* John Phillip Jenkins, "Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years"
** Luke 2:7 kataluma, guest room
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
You may be seated.
Merry Christmas, it’s Mary Sunday, for the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus’ holy mother, whom the church honors as first among saints of God. In fact, Mary is so adored that (I remember when), a generation ago, the Pope was considering recognizing Mother Mary as co-Redemptrix with Jesus Redeemer.
And recently I read that that possibility for Mary may be on the Roman table again in 2019. Would this modify the Early Church Fathers and the General Councils who, in the bloody Christian wars* of the first few centuries AD, devised the Nicene Creed of Holy Trinity? I don’t know, I don't think so! Would our holy symbols change from triangles to squares?! With squares and triangles and the Creed in mind, I leave to your contemplation and imagination - - as Christmas (when God was born an earthling) moves into Epiphany (when God is self-revealing to the rest of us earthlings) - - the question “Is God subjectively what we piously define God to be - - or is God objectively, what God reveals of God's own self?!”
From those violent Christian wars of the early church, Is God what we say and disagree and fight about, and the Christian bishop with the most powerful Christian army wins as was once the case* - - or is God what God reveals in divine silence from the heavens, silence and the occasional voice, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Angels from the realms of glory singing to shepherds in the fields. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God." Epiphany: God’s theophany in Word, Light, deed and song, Bread and Wine.
When after my sermon we sit momentarily, we will stand again and recite the Nicene Creed, that’s our tradition. You could write your own creed, and how close to the Nicene Creed would yours be? Not likely very close
Not likely very close at all! And over against a theologically complex Creed, the truth is quite plain: Love came down at Christmas, Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is theophany, God’s manifestation of God’s own self, not a human credal formula that’s part Scripture and part Tradition. Don’t worry what the church insists you stand and say as a creed, because God is not a creed, and Christmas is not a creed, Christmas is God with you, Jesus with you.
As I sometimes say to small children when I hand them the Communion Wafer, “this Bread means Jesus loves you” (and if you look real close, there’s a picture of a Lamb on it). Complex eucharistic theology aside, Jesus loves you: that’s precisely what the Bread means. Moreover, it’s exactly, just and only, what Christmas means: Love came down; God loves you; Jesus loves you.
I remember in my Christmas Eve sermon maybe thirty years ago, saying, “Christmas is not about Santa Claus!” and Andrew, a little boy who was one of my acolytes that evening, Andrew jumping to his feet and looking at me horrified, then looking out, aghast, at his mother in the congregation. Andrew was seven or eight, maybe nine or ten. I guess he’s forty now. And I realize that I was wrong that night, I was wrong because Christmas IS about Santa, IS about St. Nicholas who, as is so clear on our Sunday with St. Nicholas here at Holy Nativity, Santa Claus, St. Nick is about love, and that’s ALL he’s about. Sure, we get eager, excited, even grabby and greedy tearing open our Christmas presents, but we know the story of St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa Claus, because we tell and hear it at Holy Nativity on that Sunday every year, and we know the Christmas gifts are about love, and that’s ALL they’re about; not about what anyone deserves or has earned or is entitled to, it’s about love, because “All you need is Love! Love, Love, Love is all you need!”
Christmas is NOT a theological formula, it’s down to earth, earthy and dirty - - a pregnant girl (some worried daddy’s beloved daughter, far from home and terrified about what’s happening to her), pregnancy, bloody birth, placenta, shepherds, dirt. A diaper, the baby’s swaddling cloth, needs changing. Down in the stable, remember (because there was no room for them upstairs in the καταλύμα, the guest chamber, as Luke has it**), so, sheep and goats and the barnyard smell of dung, watch where you step. Then it’s downhill from there: no sooner does Mary start to raise and adore him than she finds out a jealous king is out to find and murder her little son; but LOVE wins out because that's the Christmas story and song. I love to tell the story, of Jesus and his love.
Christmas means Jesus loves you, God loves you so much as to come show you what God in human form is like so you can try to be like that, like Jesus: love personified. And the more you become like Jesus, the more Christmas comes true again and again forever.
Yes, Andrew, Christmas IS about Santa Claus.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,
Merry Christmas. Jesus loves you. Spread the word!
* John Phillip Jenkins, "Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years"
** Luke 2:7 kataluma, guest room