Christmas Eve
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
St. David's Episcopal Church, DeWitt NY
The Rev. James C. Bresnahan, Interim Rector
“Manger and Eucharist”

It's an unusual cast of characters that St. Luke has assembled to tell the Christmas story in the first Christmas pageant ever.

First, there's Mary, all of 15 years old and bursting at the seams waiting to deliver, with no nurse or midwife to help.

There's her husband, Joseph, still confused, no doubt, over where this child came from. He doesn't have much to say.

And there are shepherds - in fields where they have been watching over their flock by night. What a smelly job that is! And when they visit the stable, they bring that smell with them.

If you did not know otherwise, you would not want to have been there. For, there is nothing glorious for eyes to see there, only a struggling family and a child in unfortunate circumstance.

If you want something glorious to see, then in Jesus' day, you need to walk upwards to atop high hills where Herod's palaces looked down on a world below, where a ruler lacked for nothing and lived in opulence, and where those born of royalty were honored, and slaves were made to sing their praises. There you will find this world's glitter and glory.

But not so here down below, not at the stable, not at the manger, where all is lowly, and a glorious God seems, to the eyes, to be so far away.

But angels know otherwise. They sing a song the first Christmas night for hearts to hear and for faith join in. It is a song of peace and goodwill, not just for some people, but for all people. And they speak an invitation to go to the manger, where God's solidarity with the poor and all humankind is revealed.

For two thousand years now Christians of all nations have been hearing that song in their hearts. They have journeyed to the stable to experience God not in the heights but in the depths, not in an easy life, but in a good life, not in hoarding and excessiveness but in generosity and kindness, not in opulence and pomposity but in charity and love. Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas, deus ibi est: Where there is charity and love, there is God.

And for many years of our life, we have gone to the stable too, beckoned by angels, and seeing with the eyes of faith a love so broad, a love so wide, beyond all thought and fantasy.

But, as it has been for others, so also for us, each Christmas Day passes. The stable is put away. And the memory of the old year passes.

But not so the expression of it all!

For every Eucharist of every Sunday re-creates the manger. To each Eucharist we come, as shepherds did to the stable, longing for the revelation of God in our life and yearning for transformation. With the two eyes we were born with we see nothing more than ordinary bread and ordinary wine. But beneath it all, to hearts awakened by faith, the living presence of Christ is revealed.

Here transformation happens.

Here we learn that it is not how much our hands can hold that matters, but our willingness to share.

Here we learn that we are not strangers, unrelated to each other, but sisters and brothers in and through Christ.

Here we learn to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Here we are assured, through Christ who died and rose again, that nothing in life and nothing in death can separate us from the love of God - not illness, not adversity, not failure.

Here we join the song of angels and archangels and all the company of heaven in singing, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Alleluia!”

Here we are drawn into a life of gratitude, thanksgiving and praise.

How could it be otherwise when the host of the meal and the food of the meal is Christ himself, who lived and died as the one for others, forgave his enemies, gave thanks in every circumstance, blessed, not cursed, trusted God in his dying, and who was vindicated and raised up by God.

In coming to this meal, then, we are coming to the manger, where faith, hope, and love are born and ears hear and hearts comprehend what eyes cannot see – Christ in the manger that is now bread, Christ in the straw that is now wine, for everyone's sake, for the good of all together, for the peace of the world.

Come then to this Eucharist as to the manger to feed on Christ hidden in bread and wine but revealed as the food that transforms us into a community of love. Feast on him in your hearts by faith.

And then, let is all go out as God's angels, God's messengers in the world, which you are, to proclaim peace and God's good will eoward everyone. For that is our calling. That is the work of every Christian.