Christmas Eve

We are in between...

The baby who comes to comfort us in our pain

The savior who is yet to come who confronts and challenges us…knocks us off our thrones so he can take his seat in his own throne

For what do we seek comfort for our pain? Death, war, loss, hurtful words, broken relationships, a life passing us by, behaviors we want to change in ourselves and in which we feel trapped, behavior in others we want to change and we know we can’t. Bodies that ache. Heads that ache. Tears that flow. Love that doesn’t grow or expand. Anger that keeps bubbling up. Expectations from the world which never seem to come to fruitition. Feeling that the world hasn’t given us our due. Being stuck year after year in the mourning of a loved one who has died. Losing a church. Having to seek spiritual life in new places. Seeing children who are hungry, who can’t or won’t learn. Addictions of alcohol, drugs, work, eating, sex, gambling, and trying to take care of other people’s lives. For what do we seek comfort for our pain? For the shepherds, it was a long cold winter’s night. They had been in the fields for weeks. They were the lowest of the low in their culture. Uneducated. No skills for jobs. All they were good for was to go off in the spring to have the sheep graze. When they returned after grazing season, no one wanted to be around them. They smelled. They had nothing good to talk about. And imagine…this is the model of whom Jesus put upon himself when he was older, as the good shepherd!

We all hurt, ache, and feel pain. God comes to us as a blessed infant to take away the sin of the world.

Isaiah 40

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. ²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

Luke 2

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ¹⁴‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!’

But then, he is coming again to confront us. He has seen how we have become stuck in expecting him to mainly if not only to save us. To comfort us. That his main mission is us. Once we find our comfort then the rest of the world can have their piece of him.

Jeremiah 6

¹⁰To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? See, their ears are closed, they cannot listen. The word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it. ¹¹But I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary of holding it in. Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the gatherings of young men as well; both husband and wife shall be taken, the old folk and the very aged. ¹²Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD. ¹³For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. ¹⁴They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. ¹⁵They acted shamefully, they committed abomination; yet they were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.

Amos 5

¹⁸Alas for you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you want the day of the LORD? It is darkness, not light; ¹⁹as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. ²⁰Is not the day of the LORD darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

21 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. ²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

He comes to remove us from the thrones of our own self-made empires. Our own worlds of self-centeredness. He comes to remove all the human rulers of the world, like Caesar Augustus, who presume to sit on his throne. Augustus was the most successful of Roman emporers to unite the empire, to create the pax romana or the peace of Rome. He was called the Son of God. The Savior of the World. And in human historical terms, he achieved what we still seek to achieve today in Iraq, in the Ukraine, on the Korean peninsula, in the Sudan, in Columbia, and in and through the United States. We are still trying to create the peace of the world through human power and intent. Yet, people are still starving to death from poverty and hunger in our own country as well as around the world. People are dying from diseases that we though long since eradicated like measles let alone new ones with the monster of them all AIDS. We have tried to create and cry peace, peace, when there is no peace. And the coming Savior of the world confronts, challenges, and condemns us with his….love! Yes, with his love. By his stripes we are healed. By his love we are condemned to death and then raised again to the pax of heaven. The peace of heaven. The only true empire that can offer what it promises. And Jesus Christ comes again to make all of this come true.

Isaiah 11:6
⁶The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

We love the Christmas of the infant, soft and cuddly who takes away the pain of the world. A few months ago someone told me I was harassing the old people from the pulpit with my sermons. As I pondered that, I saw it as a confirmation that I was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For we have come to assume that God only or first brings peace for us. All ages have become coddled by the pax church where we assume that we will find peace away from the rest of the world. We come to church expecting to find peace and comfort for the ache of our life. Jesus comes for that! He surely does. But we don’t recognize it or feel it, because we fail also to see how he challenges and confronts all the self-seeking unfulfilling peace seekers who want to control the word of God and even God himself.

Yes, he comes. He has come. He is coming now in these moments. And he is yet to come. It makes no sense. But then God sending a savior to save us when we do not deserve makes no sense. That is why we rejoice and celebrate! For the peace of the heavenly empire can now be seen! It is all around us. It is inside of us. If we truly seek the Prince of Peace of the sovereign rule/emporer/president/prime minister of all time, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Lord and Savior of the world!

Revelation 22

¹²‘See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ ¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. ¹⁶‘It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’ ¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. ¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; ¹⁹if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

20 The one who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! ²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.