Loving God, you continue to surprise us with the gift of yourself, inviting us into your love and your light as we gather this holy night.  Help us both to see and to be the light in the darkness, growing up into the image of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    How well do you know God?  Is it a buddy-buddy, sit down by the fire and have a chat kind of relationship?  Is it a nodding acquaintance based on intermittent contact whenever you feel the need?  Is it an arm’s length kind of deal because of all of the people who seem to represent God so poorly?  Or, is it an ever deepening relationship where you continue to be surprised by the things that God does?  After all, God does some pretty unexpected things!

    I’m not talking about the twisted things that people come up with and then blame God afterwards.  No - I’m talking about some of the choices that God has made in how to enter into human history.  For one thing, it was not an arm’s length kind of thing where God sits up there somewhere and moves the chess pieces around.  Our God would have none of that!

    Instead, our God decided to actually come and live among us – not as a fully developed adult who could defend himself, but as a helpless little baby.  Talk about getting right in there and experiencing all of human life!  Consider, too, how trustworthy God considered Mary and Joseph to be – chosen to care for Jesus from the cradle to the grave.  Consider, too, their station in life – not powerful or kingly or rich, but ordinary people of ordinary means.

    However, then comes another choice: How do you let people know that the Saviour has been born?  Do you go to the closest synagogue or church?  Do you go straight to the religious authorities and the government?  Do you make a big announcement in the Temple at Jerusalem?  None of these options are even close to what God decides to do.

    Our God does not go to the powerful or to the religious people or to the academics.  Instead, God goes to the ones who need Jesus the most – the ones who are outcasts and sinners – the ones who are stereotyped as thieves and liars – the ones who are out in the fields, and never in the synagogue or temple.  Our God sends an angel out to a nearby hillside and startles some shepherds with heavenly light and good news.

    If you were God, why would you pick the ones who are out of the loop and mistrusted by many?  Why would you pick the ones who always break the Sabbath and are perpetually unclean?  Why would you pick the ones who aren’t even allowed to testify in court?  Perhaps, if you were God, you would have a concern to seek out and to save the lost.  Perhaps you would want to show yourself first to those who do not even believe that you care about them.

    While people continue to try and domesticate God and turn God into a being that has the same values as us, the true God continues to surprise us.  In fact, if angels were to appear tonight to announce the coming of the Saviour, it is highly unlikely that they would appear here.  I say this, not because angels have anything against churches, but because those who need Jesus the most are not here.

    This is not to say that we do not need a Saviour – for all of us do, and Jesus came for all of us.  However, our God would continue to go and seek out those who would never set foot inside a church – those who have given up on God, or on themselves, and who have never encountered Jesus.

    It would have surprised the shepherds beyond belief that they actually mattered to God.  And once they saw that they angel’s message was true, they simply couldn’t keep it to themselves, regardless of whether others would believe them or not.

    In the birth of Jesus Christ, God tells us that we matter, as well.  We matter to God, and we are loved by God, and we have been saved and redeemed by God.  May God’s Spirit allow this tremendous gift of salvation to sink deep within our hearts tonight, even as God sends us out to let others know that they matter, too.  Amen.

The Nativity of Our Lord - Christmas Eve                Luke 2:1-20
December 24, 2012
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2012 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved