Christmas Eve Homily - 2011

I'm a little behind in my blog posting. How is it that life can be so very busy? Well, I am now trying to catch up. Here you go...

A Sermon for Christmas Eve (RCL Year B) 12-24-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              Isaiah 62:6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:1-20

Title:               Behold What You Are

Well, it has finally arrived, my dear friends. The sun has set on December 24, and our long Advent season of waiting has come to an end. And now our feast has begun!

Who here is excited that Christmas has arrived?

There is a nearly palpable feeling of hope and joy in the air during these days. It is a magical time of year and it feels easy to get swept up into the feeling. That is, if - of course – you are able to avoid the miles of traffic leading to the malls and the long lines at all of the cashiers in the grocery stores!

There can be no question that our Christmas celebration has been overtaken by advertisers and retailers in their frantic effort to make as much money as possible. Just watch the television commercials and anyone can see that what they are selling has nothing at all to do with the Christ Child in the manger in Bethlehem.

What began with St. Nicholas sharing some of his inheritance with poor girls in his town in order to save them from a life of shame and degradation has now blossomed into a frenzied rush of shoppers searching for the best deals and the perfect gifts.

This is unfortunate, and it is right for us in the church to distance ourselves from all of that consumerism, to hold it at arms length as we re-capture the true essence of our Christmas feast.

But it is true and right that Christmas is in fact all about gift-giving.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.”

Tonight, we receive once again the most perfect gift of all: Emmanuel, God with us.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, there is the Abbey of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. These Episcopal monks are commonly known as the Cowley Fathers, because their order was begun in an English town named Cowley. Oftentimes, when these men celebrate the Holy Eucharist, the consecrated Bread and Wine are presented to the gathered community as the presiding priest says, “Behold what you are!” To which all those gathered respond, “May we become what we receive.”

We will do the same tonight, and throughout the seasons of Christmas and Epiphany. The words are printed in your bulletin in the order of service, just after the Lord’s Prayer. Do you see them? Let’s practice it once together now:

            “Behold what you are!

            May we become what we receive!”

The Body of Christ was given birth by blessed Mary, and this is what we celebrate now.

But we also receive that same Body of Christ here at the Altar.
And the reason why we receive this Body is so that we might become that Body!

For by the grace of God, we are the Body of Christ! Us! Here! Can you believe it?

We are the Body of Christ active and working in the world today.

In the beginning of John’s Gospel, we hear the amazing summary of the Incarnation: “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

There is a trajectory in the Scriptures, a macro-movement of God’s interaction with the world, of word becoming flesh.

Once God spoke from above, a voice out of the dark cloud filled with fire and lightning.

But here we see God living among us, a baby crying and hungry and being soothed with his mother’s milk.

This is still the direction of God’s action in the world – taking the ideas, the hopes and dreams of God and making them real in flesh-and-blood human beings.

The Body of Christ here today. We embody that movement today. We are the ones who are called to take this amazing good news of Emmanuel – God with us in love and compassion and mercy – to take this news and to make it a reality in our daily lives.

Not just now, not just in December and January during this special season. But also in March and in July and in September. In every day in which the sun rises over us.

So now it’s time for us to give our gifts.

Our gift back to Jesus is to become what we receive!

After all, it is Jesus’ birthday! Give him the gift of letting his Word become flesh in you.

Give him the gift of becoming what you truly are! The Body of Christ taken, blessed, broken and given in order to love your enemies, to feed the hungry, to visit the prisoners, to set the captives free.

Trust me when I tell you that giving this gift to Jesus is also the perfect gift that you can give to your loved ones as well.

When we become the Body of Christ alive today, we become a channel of God’ grace and compassion and forgiveness and love to those around us.

Tonight, tomorrow, during these 12 days of celebration and joy, as you look into the manger, as you look to the Child who is born as the Prince of Peace, slow down and behold what you are!

And may we all become what we receive from his grace and love!

O come, let us adore him. Amen.