This sermon was proclaimed in the community of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Taylorsville, UT, on Christmas Eve, Dec 24, 2023. Sermons are aural and oral events, please view it on our YouTube and Facebook pages. The texts were: Isaiah 9: 2-7, Psalm 96, Titus 2: 11-14 and Luke 2: 1-20.
Young Friends Message: The Christmas Story Stocking: This is a children’s time I wrote a few years back but haven’t revisited in over a decade! I decided to use it this year. Please go to https://faithformationjourneys.org/christmas-eve-year-b-luke-21-20-childrens-sermon/
to check it out!
Is it me or does it seem that everything is “breaking news” anymore? It used to be, now kids listen up, that “breaking news” meant something extremely significant had happened, and if we’re honest, it usually wasn’t good, but occasionally it could be. Some breaking news events I remember were when President Reagan was shot, John Lennon was killed, the Challenger explosion, and of course 9/11. Events that affected more than my immediate community. And I can tell you where I was when I heard those breaking news stories, and I bet you can too. Those are stories that we have in common and can retell together. But now, I’ve noticed everything is breaking news, from a car crash on I-15, to a politician saying something insensitive. (The latter one should be rare, but here we are.) When the breaking news alert is flashed on tv or now on my phone, my adrenalin goes up, I think “oh no, what now?” and I brace for the bad news about to hit. Rarely does my day get interrupted by some good news. Everyone has won the lottery and peace has broken out all over the world!
Even if it’s not breaking news, the news events reported to us daily cannot be categorized as “good” either. The news of our day is challenging and hard to hear: wars, homophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homeless and poverty on the rise, the rich getting richer at the sacrifice of the poor and middle class, diversity being called evil and we long to hear something good. Cue up Chaka Khan and Rufus singing the 1974 hit “Tell Me Something Good.” I will admit that good news seems so scarce these days that when I DO hear something that is well, even just not bad, I’m suspicious. Is it good? Is it good for everyone? Or just some? This I’ve got to see.
It turns out that good news was hard to come by two thousand years ago in a region we know today as Palestine, or the Middle East. The people and land were under Roman occupation: heavily taxed, monitored, controlled and marginalized. As much as we hear about Pax Romana, peace was a myth for anyone not at the top, not in power, and not in control. There was not much good news for ordinary people in their day-to-day lives. Hunger, poverty and violence ruled for a majority of people. The opening words of our gospel story tonight offer us insight into that reality. In those days…the people under the command of a long list of rulers, needed to be accounted for, in order to be taxed by these same rulers. In other words, the people of this region were nothing more than commodities to be inventoried and leveraged for the power of the Roman Emperor and his cronies, not that different from today. So, the gospel writer Luke has Mary and Joseph participating in this geopolitical story. Now you and I might say, humph, I just would refuse to go if I was nine months pregnant, but opposition wasn’t a viable option for those most vulnerable, for folks with everything to lose. While this wouldn’t be good news, worse news would be the punishment for evading a Roman decree.
Now, there were some folks who attempted to hide in plain sight from the bad news flowing from the Roman Empire, such as the shepherds. They lived as nomads, intentionally being hard to pin down, hard to count and harder to control. Living with animals, with no permanent address, as well as being considered outcasts and dangerous, was a small price to pay for a small taste of freedom. The shepherds probably hadn’t heard much of any news, good or bad, in some time and that was just fine with them, thank you very much. No news was good news.
We can only imagine their shock of the Angel appearing with breaking news: I interrupt your silent night with sheep for the following report: I have good news! The Messiah that you’ve been reading about in the prophets, well, he’s here! This is the news that the whole world has been waiting for and you can go see! This would be terrifying indeed, for one thing, someone found them, and I’m guessing that like me, the shepherds adrenaline shot up and they were skeptical of this “good news.” But just as we’re all wired to lookyloo at a car crash, the shepherds couldn’t resist. They took the risk of being seen in town and went to the baby Jesus, the love of God breaking into the world. And just as we can all recall important breaking news from our lives and retell the story, the shepherds did the same, reporting to everyone the good news they had seen and heard.
This is why we gather to retell the story of when this good news of God’s love made flesh broke into the world, 2000 years ago and in our lives today. God’s good news breaks in to report that the bad news of the world won’t and can’t dominate forever. God’s good news breaks in to report that you are not a commodity in God’s kingdom, you are holy, you have worth as you and not what you do or buy. God’s good news breaks in to report that you are created in God’s divine image of love, period. God’s good news breaks in to report that love has found you, found me, us all and will never let go. God’s good news breaks into our lives, every moment, every breath, to proclaim that God’s good news of great joy in the person of Jesus Christ, God’s Shalom, hope, mercy, grace and love, is our good news to report, our good news to live, and is the good news reconciling the world on this day and every day. Amen. Merry Christmas!
A Lutheran Says What? 