Scripture: Luke 2:1-12; Ezekiel 1:5-7 Series: 2021
A Christmas Eve sermon on Luke 2:1-12 built around the recurring human question ‘Why now?’ Drawing on a personal story of Israeli airport security interrogating his wife Alina, Pruitt traces ‘why now?’ through Mary, Joseph, the oppressed Hebrew people, and the weary night-shepherds. He argues that love and sacrifice are inconvenient, and that God answered our question by coming not in burning glory (which would consume us as it nearly did Moses) but in the most humble form, a sticky newborn. The incarnation means now is the time for something new: forgiveness, grace, mercy, and freedom claimed by faith, as the shepherds claimed it by going at once to Bethlehem.
Illustrations: alina-israeli-security-why-now, augustine-chaste-but-not-yet, new-years-2022-fresh-start, dr-matt-sheep-are-stupid, dont-freak-out-warning, newborn-baby-on-off-communication, moses-glory-would-burn
Christmas Eve
Luke 2:1-12
In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guest-room. Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:1-12
My wife, Alina, grew up in Israel. Her family had immigrated, when she was two-years-old from Bucharest, Romania to Israel. It’s a long and fascinating story. She’s an amazing, wonderful person. She spent many years in Israel, went to elementary school in Israel, and then her family immigrated to the United States, but she still has an uncle and cousins in Israel. Soon after we were married, I traveled with Alina and her Dad to the Holy Land for the first time. I had never been on a tour there and was super excited. At seminary, I studied the region in depth, but I was also looking forward to meeting the family. And if you’ve ever flown to Israel from anywhere in the world, you have gone through Israeli security. Israel doesn’t have their own version of TSA agents. They have, IDF officers and soldiers at every airport in the world that flies to Israel. These are people who are fluent in multiple languages. They are mostly officers. It is a priority posting.
I’m very American looking with an American name, passport, etc. I went through security pretty easily. My father-in-law, Yoni, is an IDF veteran. He fought in the Lebanon conflict. And he still had his Israeli passport, so it was pretty simple for him to go through. And then there was my wonderful wife, Alina. They had sterner questions for her. Like, “why didn’t you serve your country? Why did you leave?” You know, all these kinds of things. But one of the questions they asked that stuck out to us, that we had never heard traveling before was: why now?” Alina said something to the effect of, “I just got married and I want my family to meet my husband.” Why now? It’s hard to convey the sternness of he tone which this IDF officer used on Alina, but it is a good, good question. There are many times in life, many places in life where we should be asking that question. Why now? 2000 years ago, when a man named Joseph, a carpenter, was to marry a young girl named Mary, when he heard news of her pregnancy, he may have been asking, “why now?” Mary definitely asked, when confronted by the angel Gabriel, why now? “Why me? Why now? Why not later when I’m married? Like this is not a good time. God, it’s not a good time!” The Hebrew people, oppressed under Roman occupation, having been exiled to Babylon and Assyria, asked again and again, “why not now? Oh God, why not? Now would be great. Life is hard. Can’t you come soon?”
Christmas Eve
Today is Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve happens every year. It’s easy to know when Christmas is going to be. It’s not as easy to know when Easter is going to be. That is a trickier one. It has to do with the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring Equinox. It is hard to remember. It is also different from the Eastern Orthodox Easter, which is more timed with Passover. The root word of computer actually comes from people trying to figure out when to celebrate Easter, it is that complicated, but we know when Christmas Eve will be. We are not surprised when December 24 rolls around. That being said, Joseph and Mary did not expect a holiday to come from their trip south. They came from Nazareth to a town called Bethlehem; the city of David. They could not find space. They may have thought, “why now, God? Why can’t we do this somewhere more comfortable? Why can’t we do this when we’re not nine months pregnant?” It was inconvenient. Love is inconvenient. Sacrifice is inconvenient. Jesus says, later in the Gospels, “what good is it, if you love someone who can love you back, I mean, anybody can do that. It’s another thing to love those who don’t love you back.” It’s inconvenient to love. To love someone means that you are no longer the center of your universe. You have to take them into consideration. Why Now? Saint Augustine said, “Lord make me chaste, but not yet.” Many of us are ready for new life, but not yet. Why now? Can’t it be next week? I mean, next week is New Year’s Day. That’s a good date to start something new. 2022. The year of the new me. Why not then? Why now? I mean, there’s so many things going on. The holidays are busy. Why now?
Shepherds
Shepherds were in their fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night. They were tired shepherds. They were night shepherds. It’s a hard job. I’ve heard from good sources that sheep are stupid animals. It’s a quote from Dr. Matt. Sheep are not smart. They get stuck a lot. They hurt themselves a lot. They put their head in places it does not need to go. You have night shepherds because those sheets cannot be trusted, even at night. They can’t even be trusted to go to sleep. The sheep should be counting themselves jumping, but now they’re out there in the fields. Those shepherds, those night shepherds, probably thought to themselves “why now? I don’t want to do another night shift. I’m tired of this. Why won’t these sheep go to sleep. Can’t those wolves come and take them all. Why now?” And they look up and they see the Lord’s messenger before them surrounded by glory. And they were terrified. Why now?
Angels
Angels in the Bible are almost always depicted as scary, scary creatures. Oftentimes they’re not described in detail. And when they are, it’s like in Ezekiel 1 and says:
Each had the form of a human being, though each had four faces and four wings. Their feet looked like proper feet, but the soles of their feet were like calves’ hooves, and they shone like burnished bronze..
It’s a gruesome thing. It is hard to handle an Angel. Most often, when they speak, their first words are, “don’t be afraid” or “don’t freak out, Guys. Don’t freak out.” If a child comes up to you and says, “now mom, dad, don’t freak out, but…” you know where that’s going. It’s obviously going to a situation where there is something to be freaked out about. If a friend texts you, “Don’t freak out,” the next line can go in a many bad directions, few of them good. An angel comes. Why now? “Don’t be afraid. I bring good news to you.” “Wait, good news. But you’re an angel. Like, I thought God was condemning us.” “Shepherds, listen to me, we bring good, joyous, wonderful news. Your savior is born today in David’s City. He is Christ the Lord. He is the Messiah of God. The Shepherds may have responded by saying, “Why this day? Why now?”
They saw an angel. The angel came to them, meager night-shepherds, not to the king, not to the rulers, not to Caesar, to them, right where they were in the middle of a hard, hard night. I think, most often, our human response to God is why now? Whether we believe or we don’t, when hard things happen, our question is, why now? This Christmas, I want you all to consider the amazing possibility that now is the time for something new. You may have a lot of Christmas traditions going back a long time. You may have a special dish you make or eat. You may have a special movie you watch as a family. You may have been in church a long time and been to a lot of Christmas Eve services, but now is the time for something new. Now is the time for God’s plan to be fulfilled. That’s the point of Christmas. That is why we celebrate God’s incarnation. It is the time when God humbled Godself to become human in Jesus Christ. The God that created everything took on flesh, not just any flesh, a baby’s flesh. Babies are super soft, but also kind of sticky when they are first born, but babies aren’t the best communicators in the world. They’re kind of bullying in their communication style. It’s either on or off. It’s like they are saying nothing, then screaming, then nothing. The God who created everything came in this form. The most humble of forms, not the most proud of forms, not the most glorious of forms. The most humble of forms. We could not handle God coming in glory. It would burn us up. It almost burned Moses up. This is the answer to the question, if God is real, why doesn’t he show himself to us? God came in the form Jesus because that was the only way we could receive the glory of the God who created everything. God didn’t ask us to reach up to heaven. God came down for us.
Now is God’s time for us. A son is born for us. A child is given now for is. This day is a time when you can realize that your past is not who you are, that your mistakes are not who you are. Now is a time when you can receive mercy, when you can receive grace. There’s nothing to stop you at other times in your life from receiving grace or mercy or starting something new, but those times weren’t the right times. Why not? Because it didn’t happen. Now is the time, but it takes faith to claim your now. The shepherds, after hearing the words of the angels, say to each other, “let us go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us. Let’s go right now to see.” They take a chance. Why now? Because God has offered Godself for you. Why now? Because the God of all creation became human so that humans may be forgiven and redeemed. If God had not assumed humanity, humanity could not be saved. God chose not to take away our freedom, but to restore it, to restore us the freedom to truly love God, to truly love our neighbors, to not be slaves to our own desires. Why now? Because you are loved now. You are forgiven now. And you have a chance for new life now. You are not alone now. You are not your past now. You can live in freedom now. You can care for others now. You can forgive others now. You can forgive yourself because now God has forgiven you. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, your right time brought Jesus into the world. Forgive us for the excuses we have made that keep us from loving you. Forgive us for the excuses we have made that keep us from loving our neighbor. Help us to see that our lives can change now because you love us. In the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.