Since the beginning of December, we\u2019ve been on an Advent journey, visiting the places the built the hope of God\u2019s coming. The candles of the Advent Wreath mark the steps we\u2019ve taken and the spirit of the time is captured by the ancient Advent carol, \u201cO come, O come Emmanuel\u201d. Emmanuel: God with us. Since ancient times, since the prophet Isaiah, our people have hoped and prayed for Emmanuel to come, for God to come. Christmas is that moment and it is the moment in which we stop wondering when God will come and ask whether we will come. For Christmas Eve is all about coming to Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary and Joseph are coming. Imagine the journey they\u2019ve made. There is the physical journey: eight and a half months pregnant and riding on a jouncing donkey, day after day. Many of us have made Christmas journeys, we know what that\u2019s like, how the traffic is more frustrating, breakdowns more heart breaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their journey is also emotional and spiritual. From the moment the angel first comes to Mary, telling her, as angels do, not to fear, through the announcement of the child to come, Mary has been on a journey of her own. Her body has changed from the lithe girl she was to a woman round and carrying God\u2019s purpose. Perhaps her spirit has changed as well. She sings a song of brave resistance to the culture of plunder so much a part of her time that concludes, Joseph also has had to make a journey, from his traditional expectations to embracing the new way in which God has chosen to come to the world. Mary and Joseph have come a long way to this Christmas moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others are traveling as well. Somewhere out East, a group of high-powered astronomers, the ones we call Wise Men or sages are already traveling, perhaps with a caravan. They\u2019re not sure of the destination. They have no address to plug into the GPS, no point from which they can measure the distance when someone says, \u201cHow much longer?\u201d They\u2019ll go to Jerusalem and ask the way to the birth of the baby. And there, the politicians will have to confess: they have no idea what\u2019s going on. Still, even if they don\u2019t know where they are going, the wise ones are coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shepherds are coming. Just like Mary, an angel has told them not to fear and promised them a good time in Bethlehem\u2014\u201ctidings of great joy\u201d. What would be tidings of great joy to you? We run past this part but think: there must have been something powerfully enticing to get the shepherds moving. What would it take to move you? Would it need the word \u201cfree\u201d in front of it? Would simply real joy be enough? The shepherds are walking at night, in the darkness we never experience in the city, the darkness you only get out in the Appalachian Mountains or the Adirondacks or on Lake Michigan or somewhere lamps are never lit. I\u2019m sure they\u2019re scared, aren\u2019t we all when we walk in darkness? But they\u2019re coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All these are coming to a special light. We all know there is a legend of a star that shone brilliantly over the stable. But we don\u2019t have to believe every legendary detail to know this is true, true in the way wall deep things are true, true because it has happened to us. Aren\u2019t we here, hoping to see the light of Christmas? That\u2019s why we gather tonight, to sing the songs of Christmas but even more to light the lights, the candles that symbolize that light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christmas is God\u2019s invitation, and it\u2019s marked with a phrase Jacquelyn taught me, something from her Texas childhood: the phrase, \u201cYa\u2019all come\u201d. Christmas isn\u2019t meant to be just a moment when Mary and Joseph come, when just the shepherds come, when just the wise ones come. It is \u201cya\u2019ll come.\u201d We are meant to one to the children of God, the ones our country cages, the ones who will wake up to a present tomorrow you gave through the Christmas missions here. We are meant to come to the children of God, and who are these children? The ones hiding in darkness from bombs; the ones who appear to be adults but feel lost, everyone who wanders in darkness, as scripture says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ya\u2019all come: come to Christmas, come to the light of Christmas, For when we together come to Christmas, when we light the candles of Christmas we are really saying what God says at Christmas: the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Here is your invitation: ya\u2019ll come, come and light the candles of Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christmas is an invitation to come to Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[68,2,32],"tags":[145],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-worship","category-year-c","tag-christmas-eve"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1975,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions\/1975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}