“Fear & Great Joy”

Luke 2:8-15

December 24, 2009 + Christmas Eve

Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

400 Glenwood Drive

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404

Picture, for a moment, the experience of entering a movie theater? ¹ Perhaps, if you are like I am, you get there early as the lights are going down. You hear the sound system crackle to life as the screen before you begins to brighten with titles. You have come to see a feature film. But right away you recognize that what you are viewing are not scenes from the film you have come to see. Rather, they are bits and pieces of films that will be shown there soon. They are usually flashing images, now a beautiful woman, now a scene of what promises to be a thrilling car chase, now an ominous scene with weapons glinting in the darkness. In a few weeks, should you come back to this theater, you might see the entire movie of which you have just now seen a few parts. And when those few familiar scenes flash on the screen, you may say silently to yourself, “Ah, so that’s what that was about!”

In a similar way the gospel of Luke contains the story of Jesus’ birth, so familiar and so loved by all of us, loved even by people who are in no way connected with the faith of the church. It is a beautiful story in its own right, but it is nonetheless much like those flashing previews of things to come that we might see at the theater. Christmas is only a preview of coming attractions.

If tonight or tomorrow we were to read the gospel of Luke in its entirety – which I recommend we do at least once a year – we would remember, perhaps with surprise, that these events from the story of Jesus’ birth fit well into the total “feature”. When we cast our eyes a few pages further on and hear the disciples’ cry, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! ² as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, our minds may be touched by a memory of multitudes of angels shouting similar words that are now spoken by countless multitudes of believers in lands we have never seen, in languages we do not understand.

Then we may begin to see that the hymn sung by the angels was just a preview. This glorious song of Christmas Eve points to events yet to come. This child of Mary will indeed bring peace on earth and glory to God in the highest, but it will be accomplished through his death. One of my teachers, Helmut Thielicke, a well-known German preacher and pastor once said, “Crib and cross are the same wood.” ³ But we don’t usually see that, do we?

Annie Dillard – a favorite author of mine – once wrote, warning about our inclination to trust too much the words into which we put our stories about awesome events:

. . . lenses of telescopes and cameras can no more cover the breadth and scale of visual array than language can cover the breadth of . . . experience. Lenses enlarge the sight . . . and make of it a pretty and sensible picture, like something on a Christmas card. I assure you, if you send any shepherd a Christmas card on which is printed a three-by-three photograph of the angel of the Lord, and a multitude of heavenly host, they will not be sore afraid. ⁴

Nor, I suspect, will we. We have so sanitized and domesticated and infantalized Christmas that the notion of being afraid at Christmas seems bizarre. What is there to fear?

Simply this: as we celebrate Christmas Eve tonight we must remember that the babe of Bethlehem we invite into our church and homes will not leave our lives untouched or unchanged. Things will never be the same again once we have opened our hearts and lives to him. And that can be a fearful thing. If we have truly come to the manger tonight we must also be willing to follow him tomorrow. Babe of Bethlehem man of Nazareth.To worship Christ rightly is to be willing to take up our cross and serve him in all the places of hurt and injustice and pain and need in our world.

So tonight is only a preview of coming attractions for those who want to see and be part of the rest of the story. Tonight is just the beginning. We who gather at a cave stable to worship the newborn king must make ourselves ready to gather one day at the foot of the cross, so that on another day we may gather at a cave tomb which is empty and hear another word from angels telling us there is no need to be afraid anymore. For the Christ who is born tonight is risen and we join in the eternal song:

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace and good will to all people.”

Merry Christmas!

1- Thanks to Thomas G. Long for this image, from his article in Word and Witness, December 24/25, 1989 Vol. 14, No. 2.

2- Luke 19:42.

3- Helmut Thielicke, Being A Christian When the Chips Are Down, Fortress Press.

4- Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk, Harper and Row.