CHRISTMAS I

December 24, 2022, 7 pm

Christ Church, Woodbury, N. J.

 

St. Luke 2:1-14

 

A striking feature of the Nativity story in Saint Luke’s Gospel is its focus on the shepherds. More than one commentator has remarked that Luke disposes of Our Lord’s actual birth in one sentence: “And [Mary] gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

 

Then the narrative switches immediately to the shepherds in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Totally unexpectedly, an angel appears to the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord—the supernatural light that characteristically accompanies God’s presence—shines round about them. As in almost all such biblical accounts of appearances of heavenly messengers, the shepherds’ initial reaction is one of sheer terror. Angels are frightening to behold! For this reason, their first words are almost invariably, “Fear not,” or “Be not afraid.”

 

The angel then proceeds to deliver the announcement: “I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people …” Here, the verb translated as “to bring good news” is the same verb that Luke will later use for “preach the Gospel” when writing of Jesus and the apostles. The angel’s message to the shepherds thus sets in motion the proclamation of the good news of God’s salvation.

 

The angel continues: “For to you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Here the angelic proclamation takes a form resembling that of a court herald announcing the birth of an heir to the throne in an earthly kingdom. But the three titles—Savior, Christ, and Lord—signify unmistakably that this birth is no ordinary royal birth, but none other than that of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah, God’s anointed one.

 

Then the angel gives a sign. In the Bible, signs accompanying messages from God have the purpose of providing a means of verification, so that the recipient may know that the message is true, and not a hallucination or deception. So, for the shepherds, the sign confirming the angel’s message is “a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

 

Without having heard the angels’ message, onlookers and passersby in Bethlehem might not find anything much remarkable in the event itself: an infant born to a traveling couple in makeshift lodgings lying in a feeding trough converted into a makeshift cradle. The gift of new life is almost always a joyful and awesome event. At the same time, however, it’s a common enough occurrence.

 

Still, babies aren’t usually born in grottoes used to shelter animals. The sign is thus sufficiently distinctive that as soon as they see it the shepherds will recognize exactly what the angel told them to look for. So, the announcement interprets the birth as that of "a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And, reciprocally, the birth’s distinctive circumstances—“a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger”—confirm that the announcement is true.

 

Having heard the angelic messenger's words, the shepherds are then granted a glimpse into heaven itself, of the angelic host worshiping God and singing: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased.” The shepherds’ experience that night thus combines into one the heavenly and the earthly: on one hand, a miraculous supernatural vision; on the other hand, a plainly natural scene—for what could be more natural than a newborn infant in his parents’ company? But such is the deepest meaning of the Incarnation: God comes down to earth from heaven; the Word is made flesh and dwells among us.

 

The angels proclaim that Christ’s birth not only glorifies God in heaven, but also brings peace on earth. But what does “peace on earth” mean in this context? Clearly, the world’s history in the two millennia since Christ’s birth has not been marked by what we normally think of as peace. On the contrary, it’s been a sad chronicle of conflict, war, revolution, massacre, and genocide. If God’s reign of justice, love, and peace is a historical reality, its realization is clearly not yet.

 

The New Testament nonetheless uses the word “peace” 92 times: most often to describe a gift of God available to us here and now. In Bible translations, the English word “peace,” the Latin pax, and the Greek eirēnē all hark back to the Hebrew shalom. And shalom signifies far more than what usually passes for peace in our world—namely, the absence of active hostilities or a state of armed truce. Instead, shalom implies a state of communal wholeness, well-being, flourishing, reconciliation, forgiveness, unity, and harmony.

 

It seems to me that the peace, the shalom, that Christ brings has three dimensions: namely peace with God; peace with one another; and peace within ourselves.

 

Peace with God comes first. In the biblical understanding, our basic human predicament is that we’re not at peace with God. Our first and greatest need is for God’s forgiveness. And at Bethlehem Christ comes into the world precisely to reconcile us with God by means of his death and resurrection.

 

Then comes peace with one another. Christians are called to be peacemakers. Because Christ has reconciled us with God, we’re under a positive obligation to be reconciled with one another. Let me be clear. I’m not saying that those who do wrong shouldn’t be held accountable, or that those who commit crimes shouldn’t face justice. Nor am I saying that we shouldn’t take appropriate steps to protect ourselves from those who threaten our safety and wellbeing. What I am saying is that nothing is more destructive to our souls than harboring resentments and bearing grudges. So, if we have anything against anyone, we need to pray for the grace, which only Christ can give us, to forgive and be at peace.

 

Last but not least is peace within ourselves: “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” In what seems a curious contradiction of the angels’ proclamation, Jesus later says “Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No I tell you, but rather division …” He then goes on to foretell the persecution and sufferings that his disciples must undergo on his account. Still, it’s the peace within, the peace that Christ gives in our hearts, that enables his disciples to withstand all turmoil, conflict, and persecution without.

 

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.’” Even while peace remains conspicuously lacking in the world around us, Christ’s birth in Bethlehem brings us peace with God, peace with one another, and peace within ourselves. One of my favorite hymns, “They cast their nets in Galilee,” concludes with this verse: 

 

The peace of God, it is no peace, 

But strife closed in the sod; 

Yet let us pray for but one thing: 

The marvelous peace of God.