Christmas Eve: Midnight Mass

Christmas Eve: Midnight Mass
“Heaven and Nature Sing”
Luke 2:10-12
Vicar Darren Harbaugh

Intro: “Good Grief! Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”
Sometimes we look around at what Christmas has become in our country: sales at the mall, office parties, a man dressed up in a red suit with a red nosed reindeer and we are tempted to cry: “Good Grief! Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” “What about ‘A great joy that will come to all people?’ “What about ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace goodwill, toward men?’” A good cure for the Christmas blues is to remember the message the angels gave to the shepherds in Luke chapter 2. To quote one of my favorite theologian’s comments on Luke 2: “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
I. The Angel’s Message (Luke 2:10-12)
A. The angel preaches the Gospel Good News of great joy. (Luke 2:10)
Linus got it right. In Luke 2, the angels proclaim good news of great joy for all the people. That “all” includes us. That message, given over 2000 years ago, is still “Gospel good news of great joy” for all of you out in the pews keeping watch over your hymnals by night, just as it was Gospel good news for those shepherds sitting in the fields of the Judean countryside so long ago.
1. The Gospel Good News is “for all people”
The angel told the shepherds: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” The Gospel good news of the angel was for all people, of every time and place, of every nation and race, rich and poor, old and young, tall and short. Everyone is included. Even the people you don’t like. Even the people that don’t like you. Even you, with all your hurts and hang-ups with all your problems, even you are included in this Gospel Good News. No matter who you are and what you’ve done, or what you’re still doing; there is good news for you. And there is true joy, pure joy, 200 proof joy that will knock your socks off and is far far better than the passing pleasures of this world.
2. The Gospel Good News means an end to fear. (John 3:16; 1 John 4:18)
The angel then told the shepherds: “Fear not!” Remember the Christmas Carol? “Silent Night! Holy Night! Shepherds quake at the sight” These shepherds had every reason be afraid. The angels are later described as an enormous company of the heavenly army. Think Green Berets, Army Rangers. Navy SEALs. These are imposing creatures. They are not fat babies with wings.
There is nothing more terrifying than being a sinful creature standing before a holy God. Because of our sin, we have every reason to be frightened, but we are covered by God’s love. You see, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear and replaces it with joy.
B. The Angel gives the reason for good news and great joy. (Luke 2:11)
1. The spontaneous eruption of a new reality within history.
The angel then tells the shepherds the reason for the good news and great joy. Something has happened. The angel’s message was no mere tabloid gossip or local news report. It was Gospel Good News - a breaking news flash
Every once in a while there is an event that shakes the nation and you remember where you were when you first heard the news. For me, it was 9/11. I have heard others talk the same way about the day JFK was shot. Perhaps there are personal events in your life that have had the same effect. We remember when we hear terrible news that dramatically affects us. But the angels were announcing wonderful good news that dramatically affects not just us or our nation, but which impacts all creation.
As Dr. Arthur Just says, this news brought with it a “spontaneous eruption of a new reality within history.” The angel is reporting an event that has disrupted the space/time continuum, which has pierced every dimension that will ever be discovered. An event which has rocked the earth to its core, and will cut to the core of every creature on this planet including you and everyone you will ever meet.
2. Heaven confirms for creation the historical fact that the Creator has come as a creature.
This news is a transmission direct from Heaven to earth. It is Heaven confirming for creation the historical fact that the Creator had come as a creature. God is Creator; we are creatures. God is God and we are not. But God became man. What does this mean? We just sang about it: “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity! Pleased as Man with man to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel!” “ Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.” This news means that salvation has come to us.
3. Today (!) salvation has come (Luke 4:21, 19:5-9, 23:43)
The angel told the shepherds, “For unto you is born this day (Today!) in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.” Every time there is a today, Salvation has come for you. That’s how Jesus works. In Luke 19, Jesus told Zacheeus, “Today, salvation has come to this house.” In Luke 23, Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today, you shall be will me in paradise.” And right now, Jesus tells you, “Today, the Savior comes bringing salvation to your house, so that you may join me in paradise.”
C. The Angel gives a sign. (Luke 2:12)
1. Quite an ordinary sign
After proclaiming the savior’s arrival, the angel gave the shepherds a sign. It was quite an ordinary sign. We might even be tempted to think that it is a boring sign. Moses was given the sign of a burning bush; the children of Israel were given the parting of the Red Sea. The shepherds were given…the sign of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
The medieval theologian the Venerable Bede comments that this is not how we would expect the king, the creator, the savior of the universe to come. Jesus was not wrapped in fine silk, but in rough strips of cloth. He was not lying in an ornate golden bed, but in a manger - a feeding tray for animals.
2. The Great Reversal: Christ became poor that we might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
This is the Great reversal. Jesus did not just take upon himself our lowly humanity, but for our sake took upon himself even the clothing of the poor. As it says in 2 Corinthians 8, “though He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor so that by His poverty we might become rich.” The sign is that the Lord of Heaven has descended to earth in such lowliness and humility. The incarnation of God, the real presence of God, in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger is God’s ultimate reversal. It is a sign greater than any that came before.
4. The manger is the mirror of the cross. (Luke 23:53)
As Dr. Just says, this is a sign that pierces the heart and points to the reason this child was born. This baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, would 33 years later, be wrapped in a linen shroud and laid in a tomb. The manger is the mirror of the cross. In the humility of his birth, Christ was already preaching the lesson He would preach on Calvary. The Nativity is the prelude to Good Friday. Christmas points to the Crucifixion. We will sing of this later on in the service: Why lies He in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian fear; for sinners here The silent Word is pleading. Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, The cross be bourne for me, for you. Because of Christ’s birth, his life, his death and his resurrection, God and sinner have been reconciled. All your sins - your fears, your selfishness, your trust in wealth and possessions, your neglect of God and his word – have been forgiven. You have been reconciled with God through Christ.
II. Like the Shepherds, we believe and respond (Luke 2:15-20)
Good Grief! This is what Christmas is all about!; the proclamation of the good news of Jesus’ birth and receiving this news in faith. The shepherds saw the angels, people heard their news, and Mary pondered it in her heart. Seeing, hearing and pondering are our responses of faith as well, as we worship God. The Christmas gospel empowers us to share this Good news; it evokes faith, and creates worship of the Christ Child, who is himself the presence of God, the Word made flesh.
Like the shepherds, we receive a divine revelation in faith. Here, in this place, divine gifts are revealed through Word and Sacrament and we respond in faith like the shepherds, glorifying and praising God, proclaiming what He has done. With our eyes, ears, and heart and also with our mouth, our hands and all our being let us join heaven and nature in praising God for his gift of the lowly infant, whose birth promises us peace on earth and eternal glory in heaven. Amen