In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. 2 This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. 3 Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. 4 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. 5 He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. 7 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 guestroom.
8 Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. 9 The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. 11 Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. 12 This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, 14 “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” 15 When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” 16 They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. 18 Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. 20 The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told. (Common English Bible)
“Into
Heaven,” Luke 2:1-20
It’s something as Christians we are told not really
to do if we want to be prudent and responsible, even though we are here tonight
worshiping a homeless savior whose first earthly gifts were from wise men
giving him gold: we are told not to give money to homeless people.
Except that recently, one fellow did. A chunk of money, too: a cool $100. And here’s what happened next, as reported by
NBC News:
Josh Paler
Lin…thought he’d try a social experiment: Give a homeless man money, then
follow him in secret to see what he’d do with it.
And sure
enough, the man’s first stop was at a liquor store. He emerged with a bag and took it to a nearby
park. Well, what did you expect, right?
Wrong: Once
at the park, the man pulled food from the bag and shared it with his fellow
homeless.
“My heart
was crushed,” Lin (said).
After
witnessing what the homeless man, whose name is Thomas, did with the cash, Lin
approached him on camera and explained that he’d been following him. He apologized and gave Thomas more money.
Thomas said
that he’d quit his job to take care of his sick parents, then lost his family
home after they died. He said he (has)
been on the street for four months.
Lin decided
to take action, setting up a crowdfunding page to raise money to help Thomas
get off the streets. Donations thus far
have topped $50,000.
“People
think I changed his life,” said Lin, who maintains the video was not
staged. “For me, it’s completely the
opposite. I feel that he changed my
life.”
And as of tonight, Christmas Eve, the
crowdfunding campaign for Thomas has raised nearly $80,000, from over 4,000
separate donors.
It has been a long, roundabout road towards a
home for this brother in Christ, Thomas…but it is a road he will soon arrive at
the end of. And that is what we all have
to look forward too, because as followers of a homeless savior born in a barn
and placed in a manger because there was no crib for Him, we too, are, in a manner,
homeless. We await for our eternal homes
in heaven. But we have so much more left
to do here, along that long, roundabout road towards home. It was C.S. Lewis who wrote it, in Mere
Christianity: “For the longest way round is the shortest way home.”
And it is this belief that keeps me from sheer,
unadulterated envy of the angels, the heavenly hosts, who appear to the
shepherds to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s birth. I mean, these guys get to swoop in, sing
their little song, and swoop right back into heaven before you can say, “We all
want some figgy pudding,” leaving the shepherds—and the rest of us—to have to
muddle our own separate ways to Bethlehem to gather ‘round the manger. How very thoughtful of them. You think they could’ve given those poor
shepherds a lift, at least. Angels have
wings, after all.
But maybe giving those poor shepherds on the hoot
owl shift a boost would defeat the whole purpose. After all, you’d also think God could have
dropped a divine Garmin or somesuch in the laps of the wise men to help them
hoof it over to Bethlehem sooner as well, and He didn’t.
And maybe that is because the journey towards
Christ is something that cannot be skipped over, or hurried, or rushed. That journey, no matter how long or dangerous
or arduous, is very much a necessary one for each of us to have to take. It is a journey that we must take, no matter
the cost, whether that cost is $100 to a homeless man, or $80,000 to help him
piece his life back together.
I mean, can you imagine Thomas’s experience being
a part of your own journey to Christ?
Having your own job and a family home and seeing all of it get swept
away simply because you did the noble thing and cared for your parents as their
journeys towards heaven were nearing completion? And then see it return because you did the
noble thing again and used this gift of money not for yourself, but for other
people in as desperate need as you?
That is why we have to make that journey ourselves
on Christmas. That is why there cannot
be any other way. No shortcut, no
disregard for speed limits, no cutting in line will get us to where we want to
be faster. Only trust in doing the right
thing, for the right reasons, will ultimately ever do.
Which is what Christmas is, I think, really
supposed to remind us of. God sees the
hurt and trouble His world is in, and not only does the right thing, but does
the MOST right thing possible: giving us his child, His son, His own substance
made flesh. God could not possibly have
done more right by us in this gift of a newborn Savior.
And so, in turn, we are meant to not just do
right, but to do the most right by God and, by extension, by one another. For that is what makes this journey into
heaven most worthwhile, and it is what makes this trip towards Bethlehem go the
easiest and the quickest.
So where are you on your life’s journey towards
God? Are you just starting out on this
journey of faith, have you been going along the road for a while now but also
know you probably have much further to go, or has this a journey of your whole
life’s making? No matter your answer,
though, none of us have arrived all the way there yet. We’re still muddling along, all of us,
together.
So when you go home from here, from the Lord’s
house to your house, and you gather around your tree with your families and
friends and loved ones, please, I ask of you, lend an ear to what these angels
are saying in the most fleeting of moments between their entry into earth and
their return into heaven: Glory to God
in the highest, and upon earth, peace among those whom God favors.”
Because Luke continues: “When 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. So they went with haste…”
And so should we all. Alongside the shepherds, and the wise men to
come, alongside all people to gather ‘round the manger to ask, “Newborn Christ,
here I am. What is it you are calling me
to do?”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Eric Atcheson
Longview, Washington
Christmas Eve 2014
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