Christmas Eve 2015
Psalm 96; Luke 2:1-20
(Or watch here: https://youtu.be/5ki6WfDpSew)
Many of you learned this past fall that I am a lifelong
Kansas City Royals fan. I was born in
Kansas City, and even though my family moved away when I was five years old, I
stayed loyal to the team. When the
Royals won the World Series this year, the best quote I saw on social media was
one the Royals posted themselves. It
said, “It’s been 30 years, you need a new wardrobe.” The last time the Royals won the World Series
was exactly 30 years ago, in 1985, and even if any Royals fan had any World
Series shirts leftover from then, there’s no way they could be in good
condition; you need a new wardrobe.
(Now, as a side note, I realize it’s been thirty-two years since the Orioles
won the World Series, and some of you learned this past summer that I will root
for the O’s, as long as they’re not playing my team.) Either way, whether it’s 30 years or 32
years, the point is you shouldn’t be wearing the same clothes now that you did
then. I realize there are may be a few
timeless pieces, or perhaps a wool sweater that holds up against the test of
time. And I realize that some items from
the 80’s have made a come-back, like leggings and big glasses. However, the bulk of your wardrobe should not
be the same as it was 30 years ago. It’s
been 30 years, you need a new wardrobe.
The psalm that was chosen for Christmas Eve by the wise
people who created the lectionary begins by telling us to “Sing to the Lord a
new song!” And yet, then we read Luke 2:1-20, every year. It’s not like we ever change things up and
read Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth one year, and well, neither Mark nor
John really have a birth narrative. Every
Christmas we read Luke 2, just like every Christmas we sing the same carols and
we decorate the sanctuary in the same way.
Christmas is a time when we like things to stay the same. We want to see the same ornaments on our
trees, we want to bake our holiday cookies, I want to hear John Denver and the
Muppets Christmas album. The one year I
was in Nicaragua a friend advised me to make Christmas really different, since
it was already going to be different.
But I didn’t want to make Christmas drastically different, and so I
stayed with a local family, instead, and joined in their family gathering and
festivities. At Christmas we like things
to stay the same. Our Christmas Eve
service has to end with singing “Silent Night” while juggling a candle and a
hymnal.
And yet our psalm tells us to sing to the Lord a new
song. It’s an old, familiar story, and
yet we’re supposed to sing a new song. We sing a new song because the truth is
that there have been changes since last year. You may have new ornaments on your tree this
year or bought a Christmas present for someone you never bought one for
before. You may have changed your
Christmas decorations slightly from previous year. I remember the year my mom stopped putting
garland on our Christmas tree. After the
lights and before the ornaments every year growing up we put on silver
garland. And then mom decided the
garland needed to be retired. It hadn’t
been 30 years, but maybe 15 or 20, and that was long enough for a life span of
garland. It was time to decorate the
tree in a new way, without garland. There
are other changes since last year that may not be so trivial, like the absence
of someone who has passed. You sing a
different song, or the same song in a different way, after you lose someone you
love. In the past two months I have
presided at three funerals and attended two more viewings of folks in our
community who have passed. Those
families are experiencing Christmas in a different way this year. It’s the same holiday, but this year it’s
different.
In addition to external changes, there are also internal
ones within each of us. We sing a new song because we are not who
we were last year. I now have a
year under my belt of serving here. My
son, who was an infant last Christmas, is now walking and starting to
talk! You are not the same person you
were last Christmas, and others have changed as well. That’s one of the hardest parts of being a
pastor, actually, in that I’m only here for a season. I only know you as you are now, whether it’s
an early season or a late-in-life season.
It’s one of the things that’s been strangest for my mom with her pastor;
she only knows my mom as an empty nester, and not as a mom when any of us kids
were home. Who we are now is not who we
used to be. I was five the last time the
Royals won the World Series. That’s why
it’s time for a new wardrobe, one that’s appropriate for this season of
life. Our church is not the same as a
year ago, either, and that’s okay.
Either we change and we grow, or we don’t change and we stagnate and
wither away and die.
God, however, God chooses change and new
life instead of death, and that’s why we sing a new song. A professor
in seminary once pointed the irony of complaining about materialism at
Christmastime. Commercialism, yes. Consumerism, yes. But materialism, God becoming material, taking
on flesh and blood and bone, is what Christmas is all about. Yes, the Bible tells us that “God is the same
yesterday, today, and forever,”[1]
and yet, there are also instances of where God changes his mind and places
where God does a new thing. Jesus
Christ, God taking human form, was one of those new things. God wanted to offer life to his people, a way
out of death, and so he sent his only son into the world. God doesn’t change, who he is, the substance
of who God is, doesn’t change. Yet God
became human, he changed his form, in order to save his people from stagnation
and death. The angel tells the
shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy, your savior is born
today.” God doesn’t change, yet God is
still speaking and revealing himself to us in new ways. As God reveals himself in new ways, we sing
new songs. Your understanding of God
should not be the same as it was thirty years ago. Your faith is something that should also grow
and change over time. A stagnant faith
is one that’s going to fade. So, perhaps
a better question to ask while looking back on this year isn’t what’s changed,
but what is your new song? How has God
been at work in your life this year?
What new thing has God done? How
has God changed you? Not how has life
changed you, or how have your circumstances changed you, or how have you
changed yourself, but which changes were the ones that were brought about by
God’s hand? And have you sung your new
song yet?
Sometimes
we miss who we were, and we grieve for who we used to be. Other times we don’t, because it’s been a good,
needed change, like rehab or weight loss or new marriage or new baby. We’re not who we used to be, and Christmas, a
time when we like things to stay the same, throws into sharp relief what is different. Luke 2, the story of Jesus’ birth is the
same. It hasn’t changed. But you have changed since the last time you
heard it. And so rather than us reading
Scripture, we let God’s Word read us, and interpret us, and it tells us to sing
a new song, along with the angels and the shepherds. Nostalgia is normal, but if it’s been 30
years, or even 5 years, you need a new wardrobe. Grieve and remember for a time the changes, just
don’t stay there – there’s a baby to welcome! God changed, “the Word took on
flesh”[2],
and so we are to sing a new song.
(P.S. Go
Royals!)
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