Christmas Eve
Luke 2:1-20
Twining F. Campbell III
Westminster
Dec. 24, 2012
Our family has accumulated a lot of Christmas CDs over the years. I
imagine some of you have the same experience. Some CDs will stay in
the player for long periods, others are just played once, remembered,
and then put back on the shelf. Going through our shelf this year I
found an album I’d bought over ten years ago by The Squirrel Nut
Zippers. The Squirrel Nut Zippers were popular during the 1990’s
swing revival, which certainly influenced the band, but their music also
incorporates blues, gypsy jazz, even klezmer. It’s certainly not like most
Christmas carols but it is fun music to listen to.
Now, I’m one of those people who reads liner notes and this is what
Tom Maxwell said on Christmas Caravan: “Of course Christmas means
different things to different people. To some it is the birth of Christ, a
true moment of promise and celebration. To others it takes a more
secular role, a time for gathering together for fellowship’s sake…
“My own perception of Christmas has altered noticeably as I’ve grown
older. I was lucky enough to experience the delirium and bliss of
Christmas day as a child, as well as the live wire of insomnia that was
Christmas Eve. I remember how the tinsel gave our cat a peculiar kind
of madness and how the Christmas tree lights looked when I took off
my thick glasses. It’s funny how these memories become iconic: my
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Dad reading ‘The Night Before Christmas,’ the annual playing of my
Mom’s squeaky and beautiful music box, my brothers and I redefining
what ‘getting up at a decent hour’ really meant.
Later, after I got older and left home, Christmas started sneaking up on
me. It meant a couple of nice days with the family, but there was no
huge buildup or overwhelming anticipation. I started to wonder why
my folk still put up our stockings, even though I was comforted by the
togetherness. But the hype and consumerism of the season had become
an irritant and I half-burned out on it by the time I got to the good part
of looking for a tree or pulling into my parents’ driveway.” (Maxwell, T.
CD: Squirrel Nut Zippers: Christmas Caravan. (Mammoth Records: 1998)
It seems to me that this happens to everyone. Over time the joy just
seems to go away even though it’s still a nice time. That’s how the
majority of people in the world today feel. Perhaps it has happened to
you and you’re here because you’re hoping, that maybe, this will make a
difference.
That first Christmas was the same way. There were a lot of nice times
but there wasn’t a lot of joy. You worked, you lived, if you were blessed
- you loved. But the days were all the same, except when the
government needed you to do something – even then you still had to
get all your work done.
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Then one night, an angel appears to some shepherds watching their
sheep (not the most exciting of jobs – in fact a belittled job) with news
that was hard to comprehend. But then all of heaven opens up, the sky
is filled with angels, praising God for what he is doing. They say to
each other, “Let’s go check this out!” Sure enough, they find Mary,
Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. They tell them how they knew
to find them and then go back to watching the sheep – but now, now
they know what joy is.
“I think I know what I want for Christmas.
“I don’t want a Christmas that you can buy.
“I don’t want a Christmas that you can make.
“What I want is Christmas that you hold.
“A Christmas that holds me, remakes me, revives me.
“I want a Christmas that whispers – Jesus.
“I want a Christmas that lives and breathes and moves in Jesus Christ.
“I want for the God in the manger who makes Himself bread…
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“For the Savior in swaddlings who makes Himself our robe of
righteousness.
“For that Christ who makes precisely what none of us can – Christmas.
It is only Christ alone who can make Christmas.
[Now we realize] “That’s what all those stories in the Old Testament
were telling us – He’s coming, He’s coming.
[Tonight, as we listen; as we sing; as we allow ourselves to be at peace]
“We’ll feel the divine breaking into here and we see the light shattering
dark and we’ll find what we’ve looked hard for, everything we’ve ever
yearned for –
“Christ –
“and we’ll bend and we’ll whisper – We have beheld and are held.”
(Voskamp, A. I Think I Know What I Want for Christmas. (2012)
www.aholyexperience.com)
Remember Tom Maxwell, of the Squirrel Nut Zippers? He said,
“Things changed again when I became an uncle. The half-remembered
thrill of childhood was reborn in my nephew’s eyes the first time he was
old enough to ‘get’ Christmas. Grown-up’s eyes seldom get that big and
only the very young can be so unashamedly excited and antsy. …It is
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really something to behold. Man he is all about it, and will be for a few
more years… but what he can’t understand now is that all the candy
and toys are just ornaments, and that the plain old tree is the most
beautiful because of the abiding love it represents. But that is an
understanding that can only come with time.” (Maxell, T. Squirrel Nut
Zippers: Christmas Caravan)
Unfortunately, not everyone gets it over time. Unless folks do
something different the joy goes out of Christmas as they begin to try to
find their own way. Something has to change. The change is in
knowing that Jesus is what Christmas is all about. Once you know that,
to quote another preacher, “Christ is born, glorify Him. Christ from
heaven, go out to meet Him. Christ on earth, be exalted. Sing to the
Lord… let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad. Again the
darkness is past; again, the Light is made… The people who sat in the
darkness of ignorance, let them see the great light of knowledge. Old
things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. …This is
our present festival; it this which we are celebrating today, the Coming
of God to [us].” (Gregory of Nazianzus, 380 AD)
It begins tonight. In a few minutes we will surround this room, light
candles and sing carols. “Once upon a time there was a man who lived
in a deep dark cave---which had no exit. All his life, he was cold, damp,
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and miserable. The cave was so dark that he couldn’t see; and he was
consumed with sorrow. The man had a candle---but he had no fire, so
the candle was totally useless.
One day, in his desperation, the man cried out to the Lord, asking for
help. Much to his surprise, an angel appeared and lit his candle with a
flame of fire. Well, he was overjoyed. His candle gave him warmth. His
candle gave him light. His candle gave him companionship. And his
candle made him happy.
However, the following day another cave dweller appeared in the man’s
life. The cave dweller was a woman, and she was cold, damp, and
frightened. She, too, had a candle---but she had no fire. Now the
woman became attracted to the man’s candle, and crept closely to him.
She loved the warmth ---the light---the security. However, as she
approached-- the man saw her and turned his back upon her---blocking
her from the light.
Summoning up her courage, the woman dared to speak to him. “Kind
sir,” she said, “Would you please light my candle, for I have no light?”
At the sound of her voice, the man walked away, leaving her in the
darkness. He didn’t know this woman---but more than that, you see, he
was afraid. He was afraid that if he lit the stranger’s candle—that his
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might accidentally blow out---and that once again, he’d be left in the
darkness. So, the man took his candle and walked in the opposite
direction---hurrying to safety.
Meanwhile, the angel of the Lord had not yet left the cave, and had seen
all that had transpired. The angel was filled with a rage towards the
man’s selfishness. So, he flew over to the man, blowing out his candle;
and then the angel gave the light to the woman. Once again, the man
was left in the darkness. Oh, the woman tried to light his candle for
him---but each time she tried, his candle went out. (Donnelly, J.
Sermon: Share the Light, or Lose It. (St. Michael’s, Wayne, NJ: Dec. 2003)
The light isn’t made just for jus. We have to share it because we
remember what it was like to be in the dark, without joy on this special
night but we found it when we came here.
In closing, I think God uses those dark times to help us see his light.
Linda Dove, one of our members and the poet laureate of Altadena,
writes a Christmas poem every year. This is the one she is releasing
tomorrow based on Luke 2:19 – “But Mary kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart” – it’s called “Keeping.”
Silence in the night, no mate, no
skin touching skin. She is alone
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and yet her heart sparks to learn
what she has learned. The truth
has wings. It arrives on a morning
when she is busy with morning
things. She is not expecting
to lose herself to the wind of what
is coming. It comes and she falls
to the ponderous weight of change,
which strikes her soul wide open,
which is how the light gets in.” (Dove, L. Keeping. (2012))
You may be going through dark times, or know someone going through
dark times, going it alone, and wondering if the joy you remember or
see in others is real. The weight of it will make you fall, make you kneel
and strike your soul wide open, but that’s how the light gets in. That’s
when you will come here; that’s when you will know: God has come to
us in Jesus. Jesus has come to you.
Let us pray,
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