Umbilical God

Christmas Eve

Isaiah 9:2-7

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Psalm 96

Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless the name of the Lord; proclaim God’s salvation from day to day. Declare God’s glory among the nations and God’s wonders among all peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, more to be feared than all gods. As for all the gods of the nations, they are but idols; but you, O Lord, have made the heavens. Majesty and magnificence are in your presence; power and splendor are in your sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD, you families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD honor and power. Ascribe to the LORD the honor due the holy name; bring offerings and enter the courts of the LORD. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; tremble before the LORD, all the earth. Tell it out among the nations: “The LORD is king! The one who made the world so firm that it cannot be moved will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea thunder and all that is in it; let the field be joyful and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy at your coming, O LORD, for you come to judge the earth. You will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with your truth.

Titus 2:11-14

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

Luke 2:1-20

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day int he city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

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Christ Mass. Feast of the Incarnation. The first time I preached for this holiday, I was living on the west coast for my internship, and winter was rough. Actually, the weather was pretty similar to what we’re having, except the rain started in late summer and didn’t stop until spring. Instead of snow for winter, it just rains in the Pacific Northwest. I figured it would be nice, after growing up in the midwest, with freezing water mains breaking on campus in college, lake effect snow in Chicago, to do away with snow for a season… but it was miserable. There was something about the grey, the sameness, the not quite winter cold, the damp, that made it really hard to get out of bed. And on top of the seasonal affective melancholy, I was two thousand miles away from Ohio, where my only remaining grandparent had just died, and I couldn’t afford the last minute tickets to fly back for her funeral over the holiday season. So there I was, on the holiday that is all about family gathering together, pretty well cut off from family and wondering what the point of Christmas really was for people like me, for people who were alone.

Then again, I’ve had a good track record for being alone in a crowd, too. Maybe you know that feeling. When everyone else seems to be doing just fine, and you’re full of questions and just can’t get comfortable, but you can’t be “Debbie Downer” by bringing up your own melancholy. For example, has anybody here seen the film “Inside Out”? It’s a great trip through a kid’s emotions, who are all personified and running around inside her head, trying to help her make good memories and function well in the world, and Joy, all bubbly and voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, keeps trying to keep Sadness, blue and lethargic, out of the way. The stress of life leads both Joy and Sadness on an adventure, but in the meantime all of the emotions shut down and the poor kid just gets overwhelmed and stops feeling.

But - you might be saying - it’s Christmas! We’re supposed to be happy! We’ve gotta be joyful, the angels said so! And you’d be right, though being happy isn’t the same as being joyful. But, by a show of hands, how many of us have been present to see or experience someone giving birth, going through labor, pushing out a living little human? It’s joyful, to be sure, but painful, too. Every year on my birthday I call my mother to wish her a happy “labor day” and she reminds me how long that labor was, just so I know how much I owe her. Yet somehow every time we have a Christmas manger scene, those swaddling cloths wrapped around the baby Jesus are clean, the mess of animals is swept away, and Mary just looks lovely and put together. Birth is not clean. Nor are animals. And Mary might have been bathed in the relief of having just survived giving birth, but Jesus was 100% human, and Mary’s body had just been broken open to bring his body into the world, squalling and sacred as it is.

Because Jesus doesn’t come to earth to replace us with some ‘better,’ ‘perfect’ version of ourselves, he comes to resurrect us, the real flesh and blood us, the us who fail and need forgiveness. Which means he comes to us in our very own blood and tears, even while he is bringing joy. No amount of isolation, no distance between family members, no emotional burnout, can keep God from being Incarnate among us. He comes to us in darkness, first from Mary’s womb, then in the oppression of Roman occupation, to the hard hearts of those who make scapegoats of each other, all the way through the darkness of death and the tomb. That’s an important word, “through.” He doesn’t avoid any part of the pain of living, nor the joy. He lives as fully human as humanity was made to live. He is born in flesh like ours, in particular, Palestinian flesh, in first century flesh, in mortal flesh.

There are many stories of the ancient gods taking on the appearance of human or animal form in order to seduce human women just for kicks. But this humanity which our God takes on in Jesus is more than simply a disguise, it’s the real deal, not a power play of seduction the way Zeus just wanted to have his way with women whenever and however he chose. It’s AGAPE love, completely self-giving, in vulnerable human flesh. Our God has been known as a God of vengeance for so long, we call on God to rain down fire on our enemies, but tonight God calls on Mary for breast milk. Our God has been known as a God of harsh judgment for so long, but tonight we see God laid in the manger and can’t blame a baby for natural disasters. Our God has been called distant and aloof for so long, but tonight we hear a baby cry and the angels turn their heavenly chorus toward earth, where God has not only seen and heard all of our needs, but if the infant lives past the first week of his life he can now catch the flu and be betrayed by childhood friends.

Christmas is risky. It is dangerous. If God were not already intimately connected to us by virtue of speaking us into existence, God now has an umbilical cord and shares a placenta with a human woman called Mary. This is the stuff of life and death, tied irrevocably to the One who is the source of life, and God does this to set us free from all that isolates us. In becoming incarnate, Jesus is God who can not only feel our pain, but who can bleed and die. And he will, all too soon. It won’t be under the slaughter of innocents, which Herod will soon commit in an attempt to hold onto to his power, but it will be very public, and it will be as commonplace as mass shootings in America. Jesus will die a death that ties up all of our deaths in the promise, the faithful promise, of new life and resurrection. But first, he will live the ordinary life of an oppressed people. He will learn of politics and religion at their best and worst. He will learn of his faith at the family table and in the synagogue. He will weep at the death of his friend Lazarus, he will tell stories, he will play and grow as every other Palestinian child of his age, he will heal and feed and dance and ask questions. He will live his life for others, and he will give his life for the world.

Christmas is risky business for God, which means it’s also dangerous for us. If God can be found in human flesh, can call on human Mary to carry salvation in her stretch marks and sorrows, God can be found even here among us. God Incarnate even in the jail cell of Sandra Bland, Jesus alive in the gatherings of Christians and Muslims protecting one another as they worship, salvation come even in the homes of folks who only come to church on Christmas and Easter, or even not at all. If God can become flesh, vulnerable and dirty, mortal and deemed expendable by his own government and fans, than everyone who has ever been expendable carries holiness, every dirty child is sacred, every vulnerable and fleshy person precious to God as Jesus was precious to Mary. So look on him, and see how he loves you.

O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.