Year C Christmas Eve Late 2024 Eyes with which to See

 Year C Christmas Eve Christ Mass, 24 December 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Eyes with which to See”

Collect: O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Luke 2:1-20

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

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 found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Two Thousand Twenty Four years. Give or take a few, we mark the night when Christ was born. We celebrate the light that he brought into the world, and we place it on the nights when the days are getting longer bit by bit and the light is more present.

We are made to be in the light. Our bodies need Vitamin D, which, while needed, is something which comes from being in the sunlight. Or, if you are like me, melanin poor, I need to watch my sun exposure, and I have to take pills. But Vitamin D, originally from the sun processing in our bodies, affects our bone health, our mental health especially around depression, our heart health, aids in nerve transmission, and may even help us fight cancer in our bodies. We were made to be in the light. This is so important to remember in these darkest of days when the northern hemisphere is turned away from the sun.

In my youth, with a younger back and hips and knees, I used to spend time exploring dark places. Nothing immoral, but caves deep, and dark, and wild. There was one in particular I spent many hours in called Crossroads Cave in Bath County. I did this exploring as part of the ministries at Camp Alkulana run by the Richmond Baptist Association.

One of the great experiences was taking kids from the inner city who never had been in a place without street lights, they had never really experienced physical darkness in any real way.

One of the many glories of the cave was seeing a wall 20 feet tall in one of the many corridors. And in this wall was layer upon layer of sedimentation. And in those thousands of layers in those 20 feet of sandstone were seashells. Year upon decade upon century upon millenia of seashells. I would tell the campers that for millions of years God made life that no one would know about until a special few, like them, were able to see it and see the glories of God and God’s goodness. And then we would go deeper.

About a mile into the cave we would snake and burrow our way to a place we called the Pit. We had to shimmy down a chimney about 15 feet and get to the bottom. Once everyone was safely down there we would ask everyone to turn off their lights. There was always one child who thought we were going to scare them, and try and leave theirs on, but the ring of light shining pink through their fingers would be visible. It was so dark in the pit that even that bare little light would show.

Darkness is the absence of light, and after every one sat fully in the dark for about a minute I would ask them to wave their hand in front of their eyes and many of them would “see” their hand. They did not. They could not. But their minds, so used to the light, saw in the darkness even though it was impossible.

Friends, we were made for the light. Like with Vitamin D needs, our brains are wired to see the light even in the dark. And I do not think it is just our eyes and brains, I believe that our very souls are designed for the light as well.

And that is why the Church chose these days for our celebration of Jesus’ birth. We did not have a date, but We believe him to be the light of the world, and that his light shines in the darkness and the Darkness cannot, will not EVER overcome it. Even in our darkest nights of the soul, we can picture him with our souls’ eyes, knowing him to be there despite our senses not being able to affirm it. Those eyes of faith looked ahead to him for thousands of years and our eyes look back knowing that the fullness of time is fulfilled and we are awaiting the Culmination of his return.

Keeping Christ in Christmas is an annual appeal. On this evening the last few years I have mentioned how St. Francis had the first Nativity Scene eight-hundred-and-ONE years ago tonight. Francis wished to make real in a palpable way the presence of Christ for those in the village of Greccio in Italy that night. But it is not performative, to have Christmas we do not add Jesus and stir.

One of the big things that being a Christian can lead us to see is that Christ is always present. Christ is in Christmas. Let us rather say, do we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear Christ in our Christmas, no matter how our Christmas is.

Those shepherds in those fields so long ago were invited to come and see. The angels invited them, directly. Kings may have gotten their star, but the shepherds got the formal invitation. The first singing telegram. 

But don’t imagine the cute shepherds we will see in our Epiphany play. Bathrobes and towels held on by ropes. The message of Jesus and its radical nature says much by who God includes. 

The Gospel of Luke is all about bringing in those apart, those who normally were picked last if they were recognized at all. That would have been the shepherds. They were on the bottom rung of the 

Shepherds were considered unclean religiously and “less than” socially. They had daily contact with unclean animals, in constant contact with the manure, blood, and the insects that surrounded the sheep. And this would have been worse when they were caring for them while giving birth. That is why they were “abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night.” Shepherds would have to kill predator animals to protect their flock, which made them unclean under Jewish law. 

They were considered social outcasts and were on the lower rungs of the social ladder. They were treated similarly to tax collectors and dung sweepers. Shepherds were often uneducated and unskilled. Shepherds were often regarded as untrustworthy and irreligious, not that they would have been allowed to participate because of their unclean status. They were not allowed to testify in court. Because of all of this they were banned from entering homes and the temple. They were banned by people, but not by God.

These humble shepherds were the ones about whom God said, “Make sure they get an invite.” And that is the beginning of Jesus’ story. I see Christ in that act. And I am led to wonder who we need to invite in.

In Carl Jung’s office, the eminent psychologist had inscribed above the door to his home, “Bidden or not bidden, God is present.” Vocatus atque non vocatus, deus aderit. There are many supposed origins of the phrase from the Delphic oracle or Erasmus. I always associated it with Jung. Whatever.

But the idea remains, do we see Christ in the face of the stranger, or not. In the depths of the darkest of days, is God there or not?

It comes down to faith. Without eyes of faith, we will never see it. Without ears believing we will never hear it. With the gift of those eyes and ears, we cannot help but see God’s fingerprints if not Godself any and everywhere. 

Even in what has become a secular Christmas story, God is there. Go and read the original. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is less about making Scrooge good, but whole. The Ghosts haunt him by showing him his life: his past heartaches, his present heartbreaks, and his heartless future. But in this most secularized story, if you go back to the original you see it is about Spiritual rebirth It must be with us each and every day so we can say like Scrooge, 

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

As Christ promised, “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10b) That is for Scrooge and for us, still.

I do not know where you are this Christmas Eve. Maybe you are feeling it. Maybe you are not.

The shepherds were huddled around their campfire surrounded by the stars, faint lights all. Then the glory of the choir of angels astounded them, but even that paled in comparison to the light they pointed toward. The light that came into the world that it made, and that light was life. The light and life of the world.

Maybe you can hear the angels inviting you into the beautiful circle in such a humble setting, or maybe you are like Scrooge, so loathing of self that it blurs his view of humanity. Feeling it or fleeing it, God is there. Immanuel, God with us. God is with us now. God was with us then. God is with us always, bidden or not.

Jesus came to show us what already was. And made it clear that it always would be. 

This Christmas, my prayer for all of us is that we hear that invite into the glow of the holy, to sense the light even if it remains unseen. May your Christmas Presence, C E, be so very present. And may your presents, T S, be a reminder of that. Amen