Christmas Eve 2009

Luke 2: 1-20

 

Have you ever seen a healthy newborn infant in the first moments of its life?

Probably most all of us have.

Your own child…a new brother or sister…a new niece or nephew…

a newborn child of a close friend that may have become your godchild…

 

If you have, you can remember this image:

Smooth flawless skin that is silky-soft to the touch

Dark hazy eyes with lids that open and close

in that slow dreamy way of newborns

Downy tufts of hair covering that little soft spot on the top of its head.

 

As you look down at the baby it purses its mouth

and its lips rhythmically move in and out as it sucks for milk in its sleep.

Tiny hands, fingers and nails so perfectly, completely, formed,

curl around your finger as you press in it the little palm.

Arms flail back in startled response if there is a quick motion or touch.

Chubby legs and feet bent and curved in a bit,

still conforming to the womb.

 

The first moments of a human being in the journey

through this life that will be lived out on this earth.

 

As you look down, mesmerized, you may be the father of that newborn.

You are in a state-of-the-art maternity ward

with the buzz of electricity and technology all around you;

efficient medical staff coming and going, weighing the baby, recording data.

 

You may be the grandmother of this tiny miracle.

After the midwife and relatives have moved quickly

to fetch water and help your daughter deliver her child,

you crouch down in a dim lit third world hut,

cooing at the baby and stroking the mother’s hair

as they lie together on a mat.

And you tell her what a fine job she has done.

 

Or, you may be a young man who herds sheep in the hill country.

As you make your way through the little town,

you slip into the courtyard of the inn where the animals are kept.

You smell the animals, and your nose starts

at the stench from the soiled hay on the ground.

Spicy aromas of the food being cooked

waft into the courtyard from the kitchen.

The smoke from oil lamps makes your eyes water.

You make your way over to an animal stall that is lit with such a lamp;

and in the golden flicker of the lamp,

you look in on a newborn baby

nested down in the hay in a feeding trough.

You startle the reclining mother and watchful father

because you are a shepherd.

People are comfortable with you

when you stay out in the hills with your sheep.

But when you come into town,

people avoid you because you don’t bathe and your clothes are raggy,

and you cause trouble.

You want to reach in and touch the child,

but you keep your distance

and the parents let you look…without dropping their guard.

 

A newborn baby,

born into the best of modern medical care;

born into a little hut filled with love;

born in a cattle stall to itinerant parents

who are far from the love and support of their community.

 

No matter where it is born, or under what circumstances,

a newborn baby, some say,

is always a miracle, a window to heaven,

an invitation that beckons us to wonder at our humanity.

 

 

 

 

Some say that we are born with original sin.

A baby is immersed in the waters of its mother’s womb.

Then, as soon as it is born, even with all the love that can be offered,

it is immersed into a world filled with obstacles.

There can be no sin in this tiny miracle

that in the inkling of its first breath fills us with wonder.

But, sadly, there is the capacity for that clean, pure, empty slate

to be marred and distorted from the very first breath,

or perhaps even before.

 

Some say that we are born as original blessing,

that here is hope for the world each time a baby is born…

the God-given capacity in each new life

to grow in grace to the fullness of its potential.

 

I think that in the infant Jesus,

we are given a way back to ourselves as God created us.

With our hindsight of the pure and perfect love

that showed forth in his human life, his ministry, his self-emptying love,

and his being filled with God’s life giving Spirit,

 

yes, we are given the way back to ourselves as God created us.

 

He became human in order to make us divine

is an oft-cited quote from Thomas Aquinas.

At Christmas we are invited to bring our life

and all the obstacles we have met

back to the infant,

to receive anew his perfect love placed in us.

 

And in the pure, clean slate of our own infancy,

allow God to restore us, though Christ, to our original blessing.

 

As we return to the holy infant,

in a renewed communion with God

Divine Promise is restored.

You can believe again in your Christ-given capacity

to live your life fully, without fear,

and you can move with hope and vision into your future.

 

We come to the child in the dimness of a smoking oil lamp

And, having already known the living Christ,

we can see in that child the light of glory,

the glory that calls all creation to attend to his presence

and for all humanity to let God reclaim us to our blessed beginnings.

 

I hope this night that you will meet again the Christ child.

And that you will be fed with his presence.

He was born in a feeding trough

in a town which means house of bread – Bethlehem.

It is for you, and every child of God that he came.

 

Come, let us adore him.