Luke 2:1-14 - December 24, 2023 - Christmas Eve

There sure are a lot of characters in the Christmas story, aren’t there? We included a good number of them in that impromptu Christmas pageant we just assembled, but I am sure you are running through the list of characters I “forgot” to include. Sorry if I left out your favorite. 

But there is often this thing we do with the Christmas story where we try to picture ourselves as one of the characters. We try to connect with one of those aforementioned characters, see which one we feel like or which one fits our life, our calling, our situation. 

For example, one common Christmas Eve sermon analogy is that we are like the shepherds. We’re just minding our own everyday business when we hear this great news about a Savior. So, we drop everything - we’re compelled to come and worship - and then we are sent out to glorify and praise God for all we have heard and seen. 

Makes sense, I guess. But… we’re not a whole lot like the shepherds, bodily odors aside. First, we already know what we are coming to see - so much so that we have expectations about tonight and traditions that must be upheld. No angels appeared to us, at least not to most of us. And when this is all over, we hurriedly depart Christmas Eve worship - maybe with a smile, possibly with a photo by the tree, but rarely do we leave “glorifying and praising God” for all we have heard and seen. That’d be one heck of a sermon, huh? 

So, if we’re not that much like the shepherds, then which other character in the story fits us better? 

Maybe someone like Mary. You know, the virgin pregnancy and relatable things like that. But she also had an angel show up. She got answers to her questions and had tremendous favor upon her - to the point that her cousin Elizabeth called her “blessed” - blessed because of what God was going to do through her. And while I generally trust God to work in the world and am pretty nice most of the time, rarely does anyone say to me, “Blessed are you who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord.” 

OK, so not Shepherds. Not Mary. Joseph? The guy who hauled his 9-months-pregant-but-not-by-him fiancee about 70 miles through the desert to pay some taxes? No, I don’t quite relate. 

Are we the innkeeper who turned away a really, really pregnant lady and made her sleep in a barn with a bunch of animals? I guess the argument could be made that we turn Jesus away all the time, but I’d like to think that I would do all I could within my innkeeper abilities to ensure warmth and safety for a woman whose water is about to break. 

Magi and Wise Men? They’re not even in this story!
Angels? Who am I kidding?
Animals in the stable? The donkey Mary rode in on? Who are we?! 

Well, we’re… us. I’m me, and you’re you. 

We’re none of those characters in the story. None of us fit those molds. Which may not sound like a very Christmas-y message. In fact, that’s pretty much the same thing we hear every other day of our lives: that we don’t fit. It’s us vs. them. We’re told the story of division and exclusivity, the haves and the have-nots. We’re told the story of who is in and who’s out, and what we need to do to make sure we are IN and NOT OUT. That’s a story that shapes us more than we care to admit. 

So, on the surface, we may feel left out. It certainly looks that way. That story is simply something that happened to a bunch of people a long time ago in a country far, far away. 

But that story isn’t the Christmas story. Christmas tells us something very, very different. 

Sure, we’re us. And they are them. But the Good News is that Jesus is born for us, too. The angel announces, “I am bringing Good News of great joy for ALL people: to YOU is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Jesus is born for us, for YOU.
You, in all your particularities, in all your characteristics, in all your attributes and annoyances and anomalies… Jesus is born for you.
Whoever you are, whoever you really are, Christ is born for you.
You don’t need to be as blessed as the mother Mary; you don’t need to be from the house and family of the greatest king of Israel like Joseph; you don’t have to be angelic or wise or shepherd-sih. You may even stink a little. Still, Jesus is born for you. 

God shows up, even in our lives. The Incarnate One comes to us, is born to us, as regular and un-biblical as our lives may seem. God isn’t reserved for the exclusive; instead, God embraces our regular, our normal, even our painful - entering our human community without having to sanitize everything first. 

Because, when you think about it, Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds… all of them were pretty regular until God showed up in their lives. Christ was born for them, and that made all the difference. Christ is born for you, and that makes all the difference. 

God shows up in our stories. Christ is born… born for you. And that means, born for you is grace. Born for you is life. Born for you is God’s presence. For you is forgiveness. For you is community and love and redemption. For you, there is a place in the story, a place with God, a place at the table. Right here, right now. Christ is born for you. 

No matter where we find ourselves in the story,
No matter the joys or sorrows of our own personal story,
No matter if we feel special, sentimental, so-so, or sad,
On Christmas, Christ is born for you. 

And that story is Good News of great joy for all the people. Merry Christmas. Amen.