Episcopal Church of the Messiah

Worship Service Sermons

December 25, 2009

Sarah Fraley, a parishioner at our 10:15 service, related this conversation with her 4 year old son Mark, who was asking questions about Christmas and Jesus: "On Christmas," she explained. "we celebrate Jesus’ birthday – the day he was born."

"But I thought Jesus was in heaven," Mark protested, trying to make sense of this information.

"Yes, he is – but once he was born and grew up and lived here on earth as a human being – just like you and me."

"When was this?" Mark asked, all excited.

"Oh – long before you were born," his mother responded.

"Oh, man!" he exclaimed. "And I missed him!"

And I missed him!

Christmas has come once again, and I think of the many ways in which all of us might exclaim, "Oh, man! And I missed him!"

It’s no surprise that sometimes we miss him in our busy-ness: Christmas has devolved into a check-off list of things we must do: decorations to be retrieved from their storage place in attic or garage and put up; presents to be bought and wrapped; cards to be sent; baking to be done; parties to give or to attend; trips to the airport; meals to be prepared...

Oh, man! I missed him!

Sometimes we miss him in the secularism and our consumer culture: More than once I have had to explain to children in the First Communion class that no, there is NO Gospel account of Santa Claus, and nowhere in Scripture do reindeer land on the rooftops of good little girls and boys. (I just noticed at the Posada that someone, in a strange mix of the secular and the sacred, had taped a red nose on the donkey Mary rides to Bethlehem!) Even in the malls these days we aren’t wished a "Merry Christmas" with our purchases: the sales person hides behind what might be taken as inoffensive "Happy Holidays!"

Oh, man! I missed him!

Sometimes we miss him in our own emotional spaces, caught up in the pain of grief or loss, anger or depression, fear or anxiety, which seems to isolate us, and to insulate us from whatever else is happening.

Oh, man! I missed him!

Sometimes we miss him in our fantasy of the ideal Christmas, noticing only what goes wrong, and filling the holiday with "if only’s..." "If only we could all be together..." "If only the weather would cooperate!" "If only Aunt Molly weren’t so negative" "If only Uncle Joe didn’t pick his teeth after dinner, or Grandpa wouldn’t talk politics at the table, or the turkey had been more moist or the plumbing hadn’t backed up..." In our fantasy each gift comes – without a credit card bill! – perfectly matched to its recipient, who is appropriately surprised, delighted, and grateful... We each have our own list of "perfect Christmas" criteria – as though there were such a thing. After all, what’s "perfect" about an unwed mother making an arduous journey to a strange town, going into labor and having to give birth in a cave?!

Oh, man! I missed him!

Sometimes we miss him in the familiarity of the story: I’ve heard people complain about the endless round of Christmas carols they hear on the radio, in the elevator, in stores while they shop... same old tunes, same old lyrics. "Yes," they say impatiently. "I know about the little town of Bethlehem, the silent night, the angels heard on high, away in a manger, the little drummer boy! Enough already!"

Oh, man! I missed him!

I recently heard that thieves have – twice! – stolen the baby Jesus from the nativity scene in the Orange Circle. They have cut his chains – now there’s an image! – and run off with him.

Did they find him, I wonder? Even having him in their possession?

Or might they, too, be feeling, "Oh, man! I missed him!"

We’ve all felt that "Oh, man! I missed him" feeling.

But we have felt, too, those times when we have found him, when we have had that sense of the sacred, or that experience of Jesus, which takes our breath away, leaving us awed and filled with deep joy – perhaps that same joy that sent the shepherds back to their fields glorifying and praising God!

I want to tell Mark, "Yes, you did miss him – that baby Jesus born of Mary in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago – you missed that particular birth, and boy, in that particular time and place.

But no, Mark! You haven’t missed him at all!

You haven’t missed him, because Jesus is born, again and again, every time we experience God breaking in upon our ordinary world, our ordinary lives, our ordinary times…

We just need to be open to him… open, and allow him to find his place in our heart.

I am reminded of the story Thomas Loederer tells, of finding himself walking through a dark street in a marginal neighborhood one night shortly before Christmas. He is walking quickly, trying to get out of there as rapidly as possible, when he is drawn up short by a nativity scene in the large living room window of a house he is passing. The figures are life-sized, and arresting – and he suddenly realizes what is unusual about the tableau: as he looks at it, he realizes there is no manger. Instead, all the figures – Mary, Joseph, the angel, the shepherds – are looking at him, and he realizes: he, too, is part of the scene, and it is in HIM that Jesus is to be found, his heart is that manger where Jesus has been laid, his is the life that contains him…

Imagine!

He could have walked rapidly by that house without stopping – and then he, too, would have had to say, "Oh, man! I missed him!"

How often do we all walk rapidly past Jesus, waiting to be born in us?

How often do we even realize we have missed him?!

Christmas Day is a reminder that Jesus’ birth, this special gift from God, happens again and again, when we are open to receive it.

Thomas Merton says that "the mystery of Christmas lays upon us all a debt and an obligation to the rest of humankind…" It is a gift that comes with an responsibility to share, to reveal Jesus in our lives so that no one else misses him!

"Christ is born to us today in order that he may appear to the whole world through us!"

We bring our different selves here this morning – some of us filled with a sense of longing, of not wanting to miss Jesus – of wanting to find him once more. Others come to celebrate the Jesus they have found again.

We all come because there is something in us that honors the holiness of this day, when heaven and earth met in Jesus, son of Mary.

May we, like the shepherds, respond by glorifying and praising God and proclaiming the Good News in word and deed, that no one else need ever say, "Oh, man! I missed him!"

Amen.