CHRISTMAS I

December 24, 2023, 5 pm

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Warwick, R. I.

 

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 firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

 

Then the narrative switches immediately to the shepherds in the field, keeping watch over their flock 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 am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people …” Here, the verb translated as “to bring good news” is exactly the same verb that Luke and the other New Testament writers use for “preach the Gospel” when writing of Jesus and the apostles. The angel’s message is thus a proclamation of the good news of God’s salvation.

 

The angel continues: “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, 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, Messiah, and Lord—signify unmistakably that this birth is no ordinary royal birth, but none other than that of the Christ, God’s anointed one.

 

Then the angel gives a sign: "you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." In the Bible, the purpose of signs accompanying messages is to provide a means of verification, so that the recipient may know that the message is true, and not a hallucination or deception.

 

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 used as a makeshift cradle. The gift of new life is always a joyful and awesome event. At the same time, however, it’s a common enough occurrence.

 

At the same time, the sign is distinctive enough that as soon as the shepherds see it, they’ll recognize exactly what the angel told them to look for. So, the announcement interprets the birth as that of "a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” And, reciprocally, the birth’s unusual circumstances—“a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger”—confirm that the announcement is true.

 

Once the angel finishes speaking, the shepherds are granted a glimpse into heaven itself, of the angelic host worshiping God and singing: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” 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—and what could be more natural than a newborn infant? But that 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 the birth of Jesus not only glorifies God in heaven, but also brings peace on earth. But what does “peace on earth” mean? 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 meant to be an 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”—like the Latin pax and the Greek eirene—harks 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, reconciliation, forgiveness, unity, and harmony.

 

And I’d like to suggest that the peace 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, the 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, resurrection, and ascension.

 

Then comes peace with one another. Christians are called to be peacemakers. Because Christ has reconciled us with God, we’re obligated to be reconciled with one another. 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, that only Christ can bestow, to forgive and be at peace.

 

Last but not least is peace within ourselves: “the peace of God, which passes all understanding.” In what seems a curious contradiction of the angels’ proclamation, In a later part of Saint Luke’s Gospel, Jesus 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 only Christ can give in our hearts, that equips us 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 heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

 

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 in 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.