Here is my midnight mass homily, if you are interested:
A SERMON FOR CHRISTMAS 2009
During the four weeks of the advent season we have been reminded that we are part of a human race that too often finds itself in a land of deep darkness. In the words of Isaiah, we have longed for a great light, a saviour from God to break the rod of the oppressor and bring us peace. But in what form does this saviour come to us? I can already hear the answer on your lips: as a vulnerable and helpless infant: that is the familiar story of Christmas retold to us in the words of Luke’s gospel which we have just heard.
We will return to that story in a moment, but note the saviour in Isaiah also comes as a child: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us, who is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”. The one who is born a helpless infant will mature as a human being, and his mission will be to usher in endless peace. These words can be applied to Jesus.
Thus Isaiah’s words naturally lead us into the story told by Luke. That story covers the whole range of human experience, from poverty, marginalization and fragility, to glory, peace and joy. Joseph and Mary lived in a land of oppression, and they had to submit to the harsh Roman edict which forced them to undertake a perilous journey they would have avoided, especially because the birth of Mary’s child was imminent. Excluded from the inn, they ended up in a shelter for domestic animals, and their child, once born, was laid in a feeding trough which they had cleaned out, lined with fresh straw, so that it might serve as a crib.
But this birth was bathed in an extraordinary atmosphere of serenity, joy, love, and trust in the marvelous workings of God. These virtues are at the heart of the human quest for liberation and world peace. The emperor Caesar Augustus, mentioned at the beginning of this gospel reading, ushered in a period of peace through warlike means, but this period of peace was soon shattered by renewed conflict and violence in the Roman Empire, which eventually broke down. The peace we seek and which Jesus provides for us is a lasting peace, which is possible only because he has turned our hearts towards God.
As we reflect on Luke’s story, let us pay special attention today to the shepherds living in the fields and keeping watch over their flocks by night.
First, together with Mary and Zechariah, they were the recipients of an angelic visitation. In the first two cases, the visitor was the Angel Gabriel. In this case the Angel is without name. These angels are bearers of good news, of an event which, in the case of Mary and Zechariah, will take place, of an event which, in the case of the shepherds, is now taking place. In all three visitations the Angel offered a sign to prove that their message is true. The sign for the shepherds was the unexpected event of finding a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
This sign is most appropriate. If we go by what most Jews of Jesus’ time longed for and imagined, the Saviour should have appeared as a powerful warrior heading an invincible army that would rout the Romans, or as a noble person of wisdom acclaimed for his clever pronouncements by the intellectuals of the day. But what did the shepherds find? A tiny child born in utter destitution, kept warm by the breath of the domestic animals huddled in the shelter, fragile, vulnerable, but yet tenderly loved by his mother and foster father. A tiny child laid in a manger, a feeding trough, which reminds us that his flesh would become food for the life of the world.
The choice of shepherds to be the first recipients of the good news that the Saviour is born this day is most appropriate as well. We easily romanticize the shepherds of first century Judaea. They are quite unlike the shepherds which are part of the decor of our Christmas cribs. These sculpted shepherds are dressed in their Sunday best, and one imagines that they took a bath before appearing before the Christ Child, and made sure that the sheep they brought along with them were properly groomed, like dogs entered in a dog show. But in reality their clothing was ragged and dirty, their odor a combination of ripe body sweat and the pungent smell of the sheep they cared for. Like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in the animal shelter, they were deprived of a comfortable place to stay, spending day and night in the fields. Who would have a similar experience in our own time? We can imagine farmers eking out a living in parts of Africa often devastated by drought, or refugees living in primitive camps with inadequate food, shelter, or sanitation, waiting for their chance to find a new home, maybe after many years, maybe never. These are the shepherds who today would be chosen to receive the message of Jesus’ birth and to be present as he began his infant life.
When the time comes for God to make known the presence of the Saviour, the first to know is not King Herod, or the scribes and pharisees, religious leaders well versed in religious doctrine, but these shepherds. Salvation comes to those who experience poverty, who are not burdened with riches which take up all the space in their hearts and leave no room for Jesus to be born for them.
Before going to the manger to discover their newly born Saviour, the shepherds witnessed yet another manifestation of God’s loving power. Together with the Angel, a multitude of the heavenly host sang out “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he favours.” Not the empty glory of tanks, jet fighters, military bravado, not the empty glory of the false abundance which clutters up our Christmas celebration, with so many deprived of basic essentials, not the empty glory of those media stars whose message to us is superficial and even misleading, but the glory which arises when love is fully manifest. It is not a glory which we bestow upon ourselves, as some political leaders try to do upon themselves. It is the glory of God’s favour and the peace which God brings through his Son, who is indeed the Prince of Peace.
The song of the angels is a privileged moment which reveals God’s glory. So often in our lives, marked by frustration and struggle, this glory is hidden from us, but when we celebrate Eucharist and together sing “Glory to God in the highest”, we know that glory is secretly at work in our hearts, our lives, our communities, that it will burst forth in fulness when Jesus returns to bring us to the house of our Heavenly Father.
0 comments:
Post a Comment