Christmas
Eve 2018
“Sleep
in Heavenly Peace” (Luke 2:1-16)
The song “Silent Night” is 200 years old this year. Most of us are familiar with only three
stanzas of that song, but did you know there are actually six? We’ll be singing all 6 verses later tonight …
three with our candles lit, and then three after the benediction. On the back of the service folder is an
article that tells you more about the history of the song. I’ll let you read about it later.
As sweet and lovely and beloved as that song is, I
really don’t think it was a very silent night when Jesus was born. Bethlehem was not a large village in those
days. Its population was probably around
300, give or take a 100, maybe. However,
given that Caesar had issued a decree that everyone had to return to their
ancestral homes to register for the purposes of taxation, the population of the
little town would have swelled considerably.
That explains why there was no room in the inn and why the only place
available for the young couple from Nazareth was the stable in the back. It also gives one reason to believe that all
the travelers would have caused quite the stir, with families reunited,
catching up into long hours of the night, and shopkeepers selling food to the
new arrivals and to residents wanting to feed their visiting relatives. Although the song says that Jesus was able to
“sleep in heavenly peace,” I wonder if the rest of the town was able to do so.
It wasn’t a silent night when I visited Bethlehem
last month. It was midafternoon when we
arrived in Manger Square, a large open area outside the Church of the Nativity. Nor was it silent. Quite the contrary. Tourists and pilgrims from all over the world
were milling around, adding to the current population around 25,000. Cars and taxi cabs were zooming by, honking
their horns. People were queuing up to crouch
down and pass through the tiny entrance to the church, modified that way years
ago to stop looters from coming in with their carts and forcing riders on
horseback to dismount before going in.
Although it’s expected that you act reverently
when you go in, there is still an excited chatter all around you as everyone
waits in line to see the shrine marking the place where it is presumed that
Jesus was born. You climb down a set of
stairs that take you below the altar of the church, and there you see a marble
slab with a hole surrounded by a silver star marking the sacred location. Some people gaze with wonder. Many kneel down and kiss the spot. And you can bet that many take out their
smartphones and cameras to take photographs and selfies. At the same time, a man is standing there … I
don’t know if he was a priest or church official or a member of the ministry of
tourism … but whatever his position, he was loudly rushing everyone along so
that others who had stood in line for two hours could lay their eyes on the location.
When we finally exited the building, it was
dusk. Lights along the outside of the
church were turned on and beautifully illuminated the walls. We stood there, waiting for our group to
gather together and reunite with our tour guide. And while we did, the sound of the Muslim
call to prayer from the nearby mosque filled the square, an odd contrast having
just come from the birthplace of the One whom Islam reveres as a prophet but
rejects as God in the Flesh and the Redeemer of the World.
It certainly wasn’t a silent night. Although we didn’t see any immediate conflict
during our trip, there were signs of it.
In order to get to Bethlehem, which lies in the West Bank, you have to
pass through a security checkpoint, and you can see the huge wall topped with
barbed wire that separates many portions of the West Bank from Israel. While we were there, rockets were being fired
into southern Israel from Gaza. The
birthplace of the Prince of Peace and its surrounding regions have had many
days when the people have not been able to “sleep in heavenly peace.”
And the conflict is not only between Jews and
Muslims. Sadly, there is conflict
between Christians, too. It happens in
places like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built over the
places where Jesus was crucifed, was buried, and rose again. Various Christian denominations have
jurisdiction over sections of the church … Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian,
Coptic, and others … and once in a while the priests and monks get into
scuffles and even violent fist fights over the use of each area.
But you don’t have to travel to Israel to see
examples of this. We have our own
divisions here. The Christian Church is
divided into countless denominations. Other
religions are divided against Christianity and against each other. Races are divided. Political parties and persuasions are
divided. People are divided over
personal offenses and long-held grudges.
And we are each divided within ourselves and against God because of our
sinful natures. The good we know we
should be doing, we don’t do. What we should
shun and avoid, we often plunge right into.
There is a part of us that is hostile to God and all that he stands for
and all that he wants us to do and be.
This is why the Son of God was born for us. To be the Prince of Peace. We are at war with God because of our
disobedience to him. We deserve nothing
but punishment. But God, in his infinite
love and mercy sent his Son to be born as a baby, to live under God’s own holy
Law, to grow up and live in perfect obedience to his Heavenly Father, so that
he would be the perfect, holy sacrifice for the sins of the world at the cross. Through his death and resurrection, he would
destroy the power of the devil, be a blessing to all nations, and rule and
reign for the good of all who trust in him.
This is why the angel could say to the shepherds,
“Fear not.” There is no need to be afraid
that God might not love you or forgive you.
You have a Savior.
This is why the angel called the birth of Christ
“good news of great joy.” The promise
that God’s people had been waiting for since the Fall into sin in the Garden of
Eden was fulfilled in the birth of Christ Jesus. God does love you. He kept his promise to send a Savior for you.
This is why the angel said that it is “for all the
people.” No one is excluded from this
promise. It is for all people … every
race, every tribe, every nation, every language, every size and shape. Through faith in Christ Jesus, no one is
excluded from God’s love and mercy.
And this is why the angel choir sang, “Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is
pleased!” Jesus came to bring peace
between God and Man through his death on the cross. All of your sins and my sins and the sins of
everyone who ever lived were credited to Jesus.
And by baptism and faith in Jesus, his perfection, his righteousness,
his holiness, is credited to you. God is
at peace with you. You are at peace with
God. You can sleep well at night knowing
you are loved by God and forgiven. You
can sleep in heavenly peace.
But what about all those other conflicts that are
going on outside of us? The Prince of
Peace has come, and yet there is still not much peace in the world. Jesus said this would happen. He warned that there will be “wars and rumors
of war … nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt.
24:6-7). There’s not much we can do
about whatever is going on around the world.
But what we can do is work for peace right where we are. Since God is reconciled to us, we can seek to
reconcile with others with whom we are at odds.
Offer the peace of Christ to them.
Be merciful and compassionate.
Reflect the peace that will one day arrive when Jesus returns as he
promised. On that day, in the new heaven
and new earth that will accompany the return of our Lord, the prophet Isaiah pictures
the peace of the Jesus this way: “The
wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young
goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little
child shall lead them.” All those who
were common enemies will be friends once again.
Above all else, God in Christ Jesus is friends
again with you. Trust in the Little Child
of Bethlehem. Let him lead you so that no
matter what is going on in your life, you can sleep in heavenly peace.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment