Homily from service on 24 December, 2021 – Christmas Eve
Homily preached by The Rev. Dr. Richard Burden
Sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. Richard Burden
Below is a DRAFT text of the homily. It may vary considerably from the recorded version. Please excuse typos and grammatical errors, and do not cite without permission.
This is NOT what I had planned.
This isn’t the Christmas Eve that any of us was expecting…It’s still wonderful…still beautiful, but it’s certainly different than the Christmas Eves of our memories…and probably different from the one we were hoping for. Better than last year…remember that? When everyone was stuck at home…with still just the promise of a vaccine in the new year. But we are still in the midst of the pandemic, aren’t we? And like I said, it’s not what I had planned.
Your program says that the Rev. Tammy Hobbs Miracky is supposed to be up here preaching but obviously that’s not true…See, one of her kids came down with something last weekend…and they did what you do…took him to the doctor…got a test…and it came back positive for COVID on Thursday…so their whole family is now in quarantine. They are all vaccinated, and those who can have received booster shots…so no one is terribly sick, thanks be to God and modern medicine. But it’s still sad, and disappointing, and frustrating…because it scrambled another set of carefully laid plans. It’s a familiar story isn’t it…? …But we keep learning more, we keep getting better at managing the pandemic with additional boosters…and rapid tests…continued masking…
And the miracle is…Christmas came anyway. Here it is. It does that every year, doesn’t it?
And that’s really the message tonight…babies don’t really care if we’re ready for them…they are come when then they come. Likewise, God doesn’t really care if we’re ready…And God doesn’t wait for everything to be perfectly in place…in order to show up…God doesn’t wait for us…God acts…God enters the world…just like babies do…fully and completely…and whether we’re ready or not.
There is a lot that is wrong in our world. But the world that Jesus was born into was even more disheartening… much more impoverished than ours, way more disease ridden, considerably more violent…but God came anyway…Jesus was born…Christmas came.
God enters the chaos of the world with this amazing vulnerability. Have you ever seen a newborn? Talk about vulnerable…and in need of so much care and attention. Babies actually require others to take care of them…they can’t do it themselves…
And that’s part of what’s so miraculous about it…God came into the world…as a tiny baby and immediately began to invite others into the work of bringing about change…
The invitation started with this young woman, Mary,…who thankfully said, “yes.” Then a not-quite-sure-about-it-all father…then shepherds…and wisemen…and later fishermen…tax-collectors…women and men many thought of as “outsiders”…still later the invitation extended to Pharisees, and rulers…saints and martyrs…and eventually you and me. God invites all of us into this work…
The world was not ready for it, but Christmas came.…The world still isn’t ready for it…but Christmas still comes.
Every year Christmas arrives to reminds us that God entered the world…and keeps entering the world no matter what is going on…God enters and continually invites us to help…to do our part…to bring peace…do justice…love mercy…walk humbly with one another, and with God.
So, once again, this is not the Christmas Eve we might have hoped for…or planned for…And yes, there is still an awful lot that is wrong in our world…
But the real message of Christmas is that God enters this broken, damaged world full of tragic beauty and unspeakable grace whether we are ready or not…God enters this world as we all do…with vulnerability…with hope…with innocence and trust…God enters the world and invites us to join in this great work of redemption…to walk the way of love along side Jesus…to be salt and light…and yeast…to shine a light…to scatter darkness…to prepare the way…to bring peace and declare Good News.
And so, be of good cheer, because ready or not…Christmas is here. Amen.