Year B
 Isaiah 62:6-12
 Psalm 97
 Titus 3:4-7
 Luke 2:8-20

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

It’s not yet midnight…  it’s not yet December 25th…  but we can still say…  can still legitimately say…  Merry Christmas… that’s because based on the Jewish calendar…  Christmas actually began at 5:13 this afternoon… you see… according to the Jewish calendar… it’s not only Jewish holidays… but every day… that begins at sunset…  and this understanding is based on the creation story in Genesis 1:5… when the text says… and there was evening… and there was morning… the first day… because before God created light…  there was darkness… darkness and then light…  and by mentioning evening before morning… the Torah describes a day as beginning with the evening…  followed by the morning…

And so…  as we begin Christmastide… let us pray… Holy God… may the light of this new day shine around us… and not only shine around us… but percolate through us… infuse our bodies and our being with its luster… that we become so steeped in the light of Christ… that it cannot help but shine forth from us… and guide our way into grace… and peace…  perfecting us…  making us whole…  and inviting forth our authentic selves…  in Jesus’ Holy name… Amen…

That’s a lot to ask for… that seems like a lot to ask for…  but it’s not asking for more than God already has in store  for us… ]  we know that one candle loses nothing of its own light by lighting another candle… we know that lamps don’t go under bushel baskets but are put on lamp stands… we know that light shines in the darkness and that darkness doesn’t overcome it… we know the song This Little Light of Mine…  we associate light with being lighthearted and emotionally available… with not taking ourselves too seriously… and that being vulnerable… is disarming… that being real with others… endears us to them…  and when we let go of our ego’s heaviness… when we share our stories of not quite having it all together… and when we’re the first to say I’m sorry… it becomes easier to be forgiven…  and to forgive…  ]  I remember well…  that when my brother and I used to get in trouble…  and rushed to tell our dad how we managed to do that…  as soon as he walked through the door…  it always went better for us… than if our mom was the first to tell him …

But even though the angels… and Jesus… say… Do Not be Afraid… we are still…  far too often afraid… afraid of disappointing… of not measuring up… of not being enough… of being seen as weak… of being exposed… of being found out… ]  and so in order to not risk feeling that… we move from here [heart] to here [head]… and we’ve gotten very good at discounting our feelings… at becoming human doings…   instead of human beings…  it’s almost as though we figure that since emotions… have little currency…  why bother with them…  and we may even begin to amend our stories and our truths…  with versions that we believe to be socially acceptable or politically expedient…

David Keck… Chaplain at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University writes… that someone’s harsh words can stick with us… with disproportionate power…  we may remember criticisms spoken in one heated moment…  more than we remember the loving and appreciative words which family and friends have expressed over years…

And there are many reasons why someone might be afraid…  some might be where they worship…  or the vocation they choose…  or how they vote…  or where they shop…  or who they love… ] but we know that this is ultimately unfounded and myopic… because all of these fears… are the same fear… the fear of being rejected…  we all desire to be accepted for who we are… by those we love… and by those who love us… and especially by God…

Do not be afraid… and sentiments like it… appear more than fifty times in the Bible… most frequently when a divine being… speaks to a human being…  but far too often… we are fearful… afraid that God will judge us for thinking what we think… for feeling how we feel… for being who we are…  but our emotions are not our weakness… our emotions are our strength…

Jesus had feelings… Jesus expressed emotions… he loved… he grieved…  he wept… he got angry… and no one ever called Jesus weak… God emptied God-self into a fragile human body… God incarnated as one of us… and no human being was ever as powerful… as authentic… probably because no human being ever knew themselves as fully… as perfectly… as Jesus did…

Do not be afraid… I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people… for to you is born… this day… in the city of David… a Savior… who is the Messiah…  and in that announcement… creation moved from chronos… human time… into kairos…  God’s timelessness…  the eternal now merged into the here and now…

But it’s only when we hang on to our own conditional love… in our short-sightedness…  that we sell God short… because Isaiah 66 tells us that God will comfort us like a mother… Ps. 139 tells us that God was there when we were knit together in our mother’s womb… Ps. 56 tells us that God collects our tears in a bottle… Luke 12 tells us that God knows how many hairs are on our heads… and Proverbs 9:10 tells us that reverence for and knowledge of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom… so knowing God… knowing who God is… knowing God’s immeasurable love… radical grace… and unmerited forgiveness…  is to know ourselves as well…

Charles Campbell writes… the political powers… in both Jesus’ day and in our own… play on fear to get their way… whether it be the fear of the Emperor… the fear of terrorists… the fear of the other… or the fear of death…  but those days are over… because this night of light… is here…  and because we are loved so completely and unconditionally by God… that there is nothing we could ever do that could make God love us any more…  and there is nothing we could ever do that could make God love us any less…

And we can honestly say that even though God loves us just exactly… precisely… the way we are now… in this day… on this night…  that God is not yet finished with us…  and that seems to imply that we’re not enough…  but maybe it’s more than that…  maybe it’s that we’re not yet finished with God…  that as we grow into the Mind of Christ…  we’re capable of expressing even more of God’s light and peace and forgiveness and justice…  not only in our own lives…  but in the lives of our neighbors… ]  and this may express a truth…  that like Mary…  we might treasure… and ponder in our hearts… Do not be afraid… and Merry Christmas!