Xmas Eve Sermon

 

CHRISTMAS EVE 2023

          OK, what can I say on Christmas Eve that hasn’t been said hundreds and thousands of time before any of us was born?

          It’s talked out….

          I’ll let the music tonight tell you that wondrous story of the birth of Jesus.

          I’ll just reflect of what is going on tonight.

          Two major wars are going on—one of them in the land where Jesus was born.

          Israelites and Palestinians have very close DNA. And yet they are killing each other in disturbing fashion.

          Likewise, Russians and Ukrainians are closely related. Yet their conflict continues.

          Besides that—members of our United States Congress are trying to deny immigrants from coming into our country.

          Beloved, unless you are a Native American, you are immigrants to this land.

          Mass shootings are frequent in our country.

        So much is wrong as we wait for the Babe to be born in Bethlehem.

          The ‘have’s’ and the ‘have-nots’ in our nation and around the world continue to become more separated.

          Racial discrimination against people of color is rampant in the U.S.

          States are taking away women’s rights to have a say over their own bodies.

          And the Christian church is being torn apart by theological and social disagreement.

          Tonight is not a ‘silent night/ Holy night’.

          It is a night full of turmoil.

          But a fiend of mine sent me a poem called “Sharon’s Christmas Prayer” by John Shea that put all that behind me and brought me to the creche on bended knee and in tears of joy.

          Let me share it with you.

          This is my Christmas gift to you.

SHARON’S CHRISTMAS PRAYER

          She was five,

          Sure of the facts,

          And recited them

          With slow solemnity

          Convinced every word

Was revelation.

          She said

They were so poor

They had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

To eat

And they went a long way from home

Without getting lost. The lady rode

On a donkey, the man walked, and the baby

Was inside the lady.

They had to stay in a stable

With an ox and an ass (hee-hee)

But Three Rich men found them

Because a star lit the roof

Shepherds came and you could

Pet the sheep but not feed them

Then the baby was born

And do you know who he was?

          Her quarter eyes inflated

          To silver dollars.

The Baby was God.

                   And she jumped in the air

                   Whirled round, dove into the sofa

                   And buried her head under the cushion

                   Which is the only proper response

                   To the Good News of the Incarnation.

 

          Be five years old again and dive into the sofa over the Good News of the Incarnation.

          Merry Christmas and Amen.