"What Brings Us Here Tonight"

A Christmas Eve Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

Well, it’s finally here. Christmas! Christmas! To all of you who have come -- friends and family, church members and visitors, neighbors and out-of-towners -- to all we say welcome. No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here and invited to celebrate the birth of the One we call Jesus, the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, God with us.

You have found your way here tonight, in the midst of all your holiday activities and busyness, and I suspect it’s not just to see people you know, or to be bathed in candlelight, or to sing your favorite carols.

Rather, there is something about this night, something about the story of the baby born in Bethlehem that has brought you here, brought us all. It is a story about faith and grace and love; a story about new beginnings, about God with us, and we have gathered that we might worship together and hear once again the story that touches our hearts to the very core.

The poetry of this night belongs to everyone, no matter who we are or the level of our faith, and it connects us with generations across the centuries who have gathered year after year, just as we have tonight, to be moved once again by that singular moment in history when God comes to us as one of us, made of the same fragile, earthy fabric we are.

There is a power in this story – it is the power of eternity touching a moment in time. And so, whatever brings you here tonight, I invite you to follow the star and come to the manger. Each person we meet in that humble stable has a story, a different reason for what brings them tonight to the place where God the Creator becomes a baby held in his mother’s arms.

At the manger, we join Mary. What brings her here tonight? Mary has received the greatest honor God can give: to be the mother to God’s son. But how does Mary feel when the angel Gabriel comes to her and says, “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you… You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus”? The Gospel of Luke tells us she was “perplexed,” and we can imagine she was also afraid, confused, perhaps even a little skeptical. Mary knows she has done nothing to deserve such favor.

And yet, she responds unhesitatingly. “Here am I, servant of the Lord,” she she says; “Let it be with me according to your word” [Luke 1:38]. Our story of Christian faith begins when an ordinary young girl, with no credentials except the love of God and a willing heart, trusts an angel’s message to become an extraordinary conduit for God’s love. Faith in God brings Mary to the manger tonight.

At the manger, we join Joseph. What brings him here tonight? When Joseph learns that his fiancée Mary is bearing another’s child, he must have felt deep heartache. He considers divorcing her. But, in a dream, an angel of the Lord comes to Joseph and instructs him to stay with Mary, for her child is from God. Joseph is called by God to courage over convention, to love over fear, and to faith over righteousness. Following with that faith, Joseph dares to believe, even though he does not understand, even though the path will be difficult. We can imagine that there are many reasons that have brought Joseph to the manger tonight – duty, honor, compassion, love – but most of all, Joseph knows that by Mary’s side is where God has called him to be.

At the manger, we join the angels. What brings them here tonight? Scripture tells us that it is not just a select few who are singing at Jesus’ birth but a multitude, a “host,” who join in the chorus giving glory to God in the highest. All of heaven’s angels come to the manger tonight to sing praises to God.

At the manger, we join the shepherds. What brings them here tonight? While watching their flocks, the angels announce the Good News that the Messiah has been born. The Gospel of Luke tells us that the shepherds are terrified; they may also be curious and excited, for they and all the people of Israel have long awaited the Messiah. Could this baby be God’s Promised One? Hope in their hearts brings the shepherds to the manger tonight.

And tradition tells us that soon the wise men join the others at the manger. They are visitors from the East, strangers in a strange land who have followed the star to the baby who has been born for all people. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that they come to pay homage to the newborn king. With reverence and honor, the magi come to the manger to bring their gifts to God.

And what brings you here tonight? Perhaps, like Mary, it is your faith, and there is nowhere else you could imagine being on this holiest of nights than in church worshipping the Savior of the World. Maybe, like Joseph, you know this is the place God has called you to be. Perhaps, like the angels, you have come to sing your praises to God; or like, the shepherds, you have come with hope in your heart; or like, the Wise Men, you have come to give God your offerings.

Or – maybe instead you are wary, skeptical of the hope that God can be heard in a newborn’s cry. Maybe what brings you here tonight is your need for some meaning, some peace, some answers, some transcendence from God, a miracle. And if your joy this season is tempered by loneliness or loss, then perhaps you come to tonight’s celebration hoping to ease the ache in your heavy heart, and praying that your pain-soaked places will be filled with joy.

Yet, it was especially for those among us with hurting hearts that Jesus came. In Jesus, God took on our frailty and weakness, and became open to hurt, disappointment, even loss. Before Jesus’ earthly life was over, God would know what it meant to be human in every dimension, from life’s extraordinary joys and laughter, to the depths of abandonment, suffering and death.

Tonight, God knocks on the door of humankind and presents Godself as a person, God with a human face. Christmas is not about the “God up there,” distant as the farthest star. Christmas is about God as a living, breathing person who comes to us in the midst of our fears and the shadows of our shame to touch our pain and heal it, to fill our emptiness, to move us to reconciliation, and to bring us new hope, new life, and a new beginning.

Whether you walk daily in faith, whether you are one who slips in and out of belief, or whether you have yet to be convinced of God’s existence, what happened on that long-ago night was for you. And so, no matter what brings each of us here tonight, let us all go to the manger; whether we are hope-filled and jubilant, wounded and wary, or full of doubt and fear and pain, let us kneel with the shepherds and kings. There is space for each one of us in that stable, for it is a place of reunion and peace and joy, where the glow of human love meets the warmth of heavenly compassion. It is there we can come to be comforted and sheltered; it is there we lay down the burdens of our lives, that we might experience God’s love and grace. And it is where, enveloped in God’s divine embrace, we find healing in the midst of pain, light in the shadows of our soul, and peace in our anxious hearts.

Whatever brings you here tonight, we welcome you. And may you depart from this place, filled with love, joy, and hope through the One we celebrate tonight: Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.