Christmas Eve

 

I have a handwritten cook book at home, and on several recipes in a row there are a lot of stains and oil marks.  They are all cookie recipes, and if you were to guess you’d likely say that they were much beloved, likely baked on a weekly basis by the look of the stains.  However, it would be deceiving because these particular cookies are only baked once a year.  In volume, make no mistake, but you will only taste those particular recipes at Christmas. 

Each of us have those traditions, those things which set the season of Christmas apart. Christmas trees, stockings, Charlie Brown’s Christmas special, the wonderful foods and coming to church on Christmas eve.  Perhaps the only time some of us get to church is this night and we come …because tonight is special.

            Everyone who came here tonight have many things they could be otherwise doing … finishing touches and last minute gift wrapping.  But you are here, because tonight is special…this time is sacred. 

Here in this parish amidst the candle light, the ancient prayers and the sacred symbols …time is set aside.  Here we pause and take our breath, here we rest in a time set apart… because this is the last pregnant pause before the birth Christmas day.

Tonight, along with Mary we wait… as we imagine she waited, caught amidst the fear and the hope that creating new life brings…with Joseph by her side… strong and vulnerable…waiting in the darkness for the coming Son.

A baby who was born thousands of years ago, whose birth we await now symbolically and whose return is much anticipated.  Tonight, we experience time as extra ordinary. 

This is the time for miracles…when the way things normally happen gets set aside and God does wondrous and miraculous things in everyday and ordinary circumstances.

The miracle of the Christmas is found not in angels speaking to shepherds or in the kindness of shelter given to a couple in need…though these things are greatly to be praised.  But the miracle of Christmas is in the incredible devotion, what Titus calls the loving kindness, that God has shown in the incarnation.  The miracle of God become flesh.

Tonight we witness the miraculous divestment of power…the miraculous humility of the One who created all things… the Milky way, universes and everything in them… condescending to become a single cell, split and growing into full term, eager to emerge.  

            Like the moment pain transformed into joy as a newborn is placed in her parent’s arms…time stands still, there is a holiness about that brief moment when all the darkness of pain and fear is banished by the light and life that has miraculously came to be.

 When the Word became flesh, God created a sacred space, a place where God and humanity could reach one another, where the common and the holy could co-exist. 

And not merely co-exist, but become one. 

A time has been set apart for all of us to become more then the sum of our parts.  In the midst of our inner darkness, our shames and insecurities….the dark places we hide from ourselves, Christ’s light shines…bright and true.  A light that will illuminate the dark places and will transform the time of waiting into a time of joy. 

 

 

 

In this sacred time…we reflect on the promises given, to hope of a future yet to be, the birth of a time of peace, justice and reconciliation.

We await the birth of Christ.

We wait and we gather together in this church of St Andrew.  A place made Holy not by virtue of name or even its purpose, but by the people and the experiences that have taken place here.  We gather in a building made sacred by the work and presence of God within it, manifested in each one who has ministered and worshiped here.  It is the sacred act of worship that has sanctified these walls.

Not unlike the stable Mary and Joseph laboured in, a common place made holy by the experience that took place there.  When human and divine touched and the divide between God and Humanity disappeared.  A sacred place, a holy experience, a miracle unlike any before and any after.  A place that we emulate with our own mangers scene here at church and a time we remember as we set up our own manger scenes in our homes and families.  Symbols of the miracle that took place Christmas morning. 

And as we leave this church, this sacred place…as we begin to head back home it is tempting to leave behind that sense of sacredness…that time we set aside to be here and be sucked into the rush and the panic of Christmas chaos. 

To be absorbed into the cooking and unwrapping and eating that will take over so much in the next few days.  Yet, we are called to remember that miracle of Christmas is not limited to stables long ago, nor churches bathed in candle light.

 The miracle we await this night is one whose light touches all aspects of our lives and has the power to transform darkness into light, pain into joy, strife into peace.  And the miracle to make the everyday… holy.

            As we leave this place I invite you to seek the peace that is given, that we find here this night.            So that in the midst of tomorrow’s joyful chaos…of families, dinners and way too much sugar…you can see Christ’s light shining and the peace that he brings. 

The miracle that touches each aspect of our lives and changes the common day to day experiences into something holy. 

The miracle that brought God into human life in ways never before known, so that we can know Christ in human experience.  And so that human experience is enlightened by Christ.  

            I pray that as you go through your days, tomorrow and each day, you can see time set aside, sacred space all around you and know the miracle of the incarnation.  Experiencing the divine light in midst of any darkness and divine joy in the midst of your every day.

            God bless this time apart, and help us to carry it with us as we go out this night.