A beautiful, crisp evening made it feel like Christmas and the gathered congregation brought excitement to the evening. Preaching Christmas Eve is always a challenge because everyone already knows the story. it also feels like a collision of moods - for some Christmas is exciting and an escape from the world, but for others it is a moment of melancholy or depression as they remember their brokenness or who is not sitting in worship with them. I tried to bring to Bethlehem, so to speak, to meet the Christ-child and the truth of God's desire to be with us.
“Surprising Paths” Christmas Eve, 2022; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton; Luke 2: 8-16; Richard B. Culp
8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.
Introduction: My cousin has two young children.
her daughter is about 6 yrs old and her son is about 3.
Recently, they were playing together. My cousin did not know what they were playing, but it was great that they were talking to each other and getting along.
She finally realized that the journey to Christmas must have made an impression on her two children when she heard her daughter exclaim to her brother:
"Quick! I am having a baby and the plane to Bethlehem is leaving soon!"
Lots of different paths to Bethlehem!
people are following lots of different paths to get to Bethlehem, some of them surprising paths: Mary and Joseph travel from their home in Nazareth; the shepherds travel from their fields; the wise men travel from some unknown place car away.
All their different paths lead to the Christ-child.
What path have you traveled to get here tonight?
Move 1: For a few minutes this evening, Let’s reflect on some of the paths people travel, some of the paths we travel to find the Christ-child.
a. Mary and Joseph traveled the path of obligation to Bethlehem.
1. they had to go and be counted for the census, which means Mary and Joseph were obligated to travel to Bethlehem because of Joseph’s family.
2. I won’t ask how many of you are here this evening because you have to be here out of family obligation.
your parent
or your spouse
or kids demanded you come to Christmas Eve worship tonight.
or you had to see your grandchild participate in the worship service.
2. in a life full of obligations, maybe that’s just what you always do,
so here you are, traveling the path of obligation to get to Bethlehem.
b. Mary and Joseph’s also traveled their path carrying a burden.
1. Mary shows her burden in the very late stages of her pregnancy.
2. Joseph probably feels the burden of trying to meet the needs of his very pregnant wife
And find a place for his pregnant wife to rest in Bethlehem.
3. I suspect some of us have traveled the path to tonight carrying our own heavy burdens.
4. the burden of medical journeys;
5. Burdened by our concerns for the world.
6. Burdened by the challenges we face in our own lives.
c. Now the shepherds,
the shepherds travel a path full of excitement and energy as they race from the fields after hearing the angels announce the news of Christ’s birth.
1. they cannot even wait until the morning, so they leave in the middle of the night (leaving behind their sheep in the fields).
2. Overwhelmed by what they will find, and how their lives will be changed, their path is full of excitement.
3. Maybe your path to tonight has been an exciting one
4. someone told me the other day that last year at this time Christmas was a downer. they’d had a very difficult 2021, and Christmas last year was just a reminder of all their difficulties.
But this year, this has been a great year so Christmas seems wonderful this year.
4. Maybe you are moving through an exciting time in your life with new opportunities waiting before you.
5. Tonight is one more exciting stop along your path.
d. The wise men go on a long journey full of unknowns
1. They do not know exactly what path to take to get to the place, and they don’t even know where it is (they have to stop and ask for directions).
2. And they are going to an unknown place to see the baby born, the baby whom they do not exactly know who he is (they have to ask about that, too).
3. But they travel anyway.
4. Maybe you have been traveling the path of uncertainty.
5. Uncertainty imposed on you by a forced change in jobs or some change caused by circumstances beyond your control.
6. Maybe your uncertainty arises because you are not sure what you are looking for in life at this moment, but you know you want something more.
e. Most of us have traveled paths that had a part of all those journeys - paths with some obligation, with some burdens, with some excitement, with some uncertainty.
1. The path we have traveled to get here has been surprising.
2. I bet a year ago on this night if you had mapped out your year, planned the path you would take in detail,
3. life is like that - full of surprises, challenges, opportunities
Move 2: So hear the good news:
no matter the path you traveled, no matter what surprises you have discovered along the way, your path has led you to this place.
a. To hear the story again;
to be reminded;
to lay claim;
to announce to the world
that God has arrived in flesh
b. God has come to redeem the world
to save us
to give us hope in the face of the challenges we discover
to call us to new life.
c. How does God do this?
1. By choosing to be with us.
2. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the child born in Bethlehem will be called Emmanuel, “God with us.”
d. The christ-child arrives with no promises of wealth
or material possessions
or an easy life
or the winning lottery ticket
or no more medical issues
or no more war and violence in the world.
3. But he arrives to be with us.
To join with us in every challenge, in every joy.
4. WE cannot know with any certainty what surprising paths we will go down in the future,
but we know with absolute certainty who will be with us.
The God who comes in Christ.
Move 3: I love the story told by two Americans who were invited by the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in the public schools.
They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments, and a large orphanage, where about 100 boys and girls were under care.
As Christmas approached, they read the Christmas story in their classes and taught how it had become the foundation for the Christian ethics that had developed.
With the kids at the orphanage, they didn’t teach ethics, but instead had an art project.
They read the story, and then they gave the kids small pieces of cardboard to make a manger; strips of yellow napkins to make the hay for the manger; small pieces of old flannel shirts to be cut up for blankets, and then tan felt to cut out a little baby Jesus.
As the kids were assembling the mangers the two teachers were walking among them looking at the emerging manger sets.
They discovered one of the manger scenes had two babies in the manger, so they called the translator over and asked her to ask the child to tell them about his manger scene. manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately, until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in he started telling the story. he told it just like he heard it until, until the part where Jesus was born and laid in a manger.
Then, the little boy began ad-libbing his own ending.
he said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't because I didn't have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift" And Jesus told me, "If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him and he would stay with me — for always." (https://www.epm.org/resources/1999/Dec/1/russian-christmas-story-always/)
Conclusion: you have traveled your path and found the Christ-child,
the one who has come to be with us,
to be with you. Always.
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