Followers of Another King
Luke 2:1-20
A
Sermon Preached by
A
Christmas Eve Meditation,
University
Congregational United
On this night of joy and
mystery,
let us draw to
a quiet place,
so we too
might hear the angels sing.
Let us pray…
Amen.
There are those who say that POLITICS and RELIGION should not mix.
The author of the Gospel of Luke was not one of those people.
For according to the Christmas Story in Luke, Jesus was born not “once upon a time”
but in a very SPECIFIC TIME and SITUATION.
And I have become convinced, that if Christmas is to come THIS YEAR,
if Christ is to be born anew in us,
we cannot comfort ourselves by saying that Christ is born at “any time” or in “all time” but we must speak of Christ being born in THIS VERY TIME, THIS VERY PLACE.
According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was born in a time of OCCUPATION.
“In those days a decree when out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.”
Those who were not-Jews were in control of the land
of Israel.
A century before Jesus’ birth, the Empire of Rome had taken Palestine by FORCE and held its people by its military power and economic control. The violence of the empire, kept the population, for the most part, quiet and in check. And the control of the wealth in the empire by a mere one to two percent of the population, kept its citizens dependent upon its will and ways for their survival.
In such a time, people are often forced to go where they would choose not to go.
Young Roman citizens, men and boys, are uprooted from their villages to serve the purposes of the empire in far away places.
Conquered peoples, like Mary and Joseph, are forced to leave their homes to go to places where they have no home.
In such a time, there is no room.
No room for anybody who doesn’t serve the empire with the sweat of their labor. No room for poor families expecting a child.
No room for children, women, ordinary working men with simple skills.
No room for Mary and Joseph and a baby who is born this night.
No, that is the way things are in a time of empire and occupation and there is little room for dissent.
In such a time, emperors wrap the very language of God around themselves to justify whatever they do.
Caesar becomes the “son of God”,
the temple becomes an instrument of state control,
and the empire carries out its games of deadly power and violence wrapped in the blessing of God.
Tonight, we celebrate the birth of Jesus in a time and political situation not wholly unlike that of the world 2000 years ago: A time of empire and occupation.
We gather to worship this night in a country that has taken the seat of empire once held by Rome.
A country that has once again conquered and occupied a once sovereign land and people.
A country which depends, as empires do, on overwhelming military might and economic control by a few to maintain its power.
In such a time, people are once again forced to go where they would choose not to go. And so there are empty places around tables in many of our homes this night, as our young people have again been sent forth to play at the game of war orchestrated by those who will never see war themselves.
And there is no room for those who do not serve the economic or military purposes of the empire. No room for the poor, no room for schools and housing and healthcare for our most vulnerable citizens.
No, that is the way things are – we know it all too well, and there is little room for dissent. For the empire’s deadly power and violence are once again said to be wrapped in the blessing of God. As this past Christmas, Vice President Cheney’s greeting card bore the inscription, “If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground with His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” Like Rome, this empire portrays itself as serving in the name of God with the blessing of God.
Such was the time.
Such is the time today.
A time of empire and occupation.
And in such a time as this,
“the time came for Mary to deliver her child. And she gave birth to a son, her first-born, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.”
In a time of occupation, when there seems to be so much to despair about and so little to hope for, Luke’s noisy angels break forth in song:
“Fear not! For beheld, I bring you good news of a great JOY which will be for all the people. For to you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!”
In this time of fear, the angels shout “FEAR NOT!”
In this time of despair, they shout out “JOY!”
For this NO PLACE – this back-alley manger, this sanctuary this night is SOMEPLACE!
For A NOBODY baby born this night is SOMEBODY, our true KING, one in who we see the face of God.
In our church, you need to be six years old to play one of those noisy angels in our Christmas pageant.
It’s a big deal to be an angel – like it’s a big deal to be six.
Like it’s a big deal to get this FEARLESS JOY on a night like this,
in a time such as this.
For FEARLESS JOY turns the whole story around.
No longer are shepherds COMPELLED by the empire to GO where they would not choose to go, but instead they are set free to run to a manger because their imaginations have caught fire.
No longer, are smelly shepherds
NOBODIES who have NO PLACE, NO
The angels song of FEARLESS JOY turns the story around and the world on its head.
For on this night, another KING is born that has freed us from the Emperor’s tyranny and control.
Tonight, do you hear them? Do you hear the angels sing?
Look around. Look within.
And you will see that some of us here this night have heard the angels song.
You can see it in our faces.
We know in this time of occupation that we are free.
We know in this time of despair, a deep JOY that nothing can take away.
We know in this time of fear, that finally, we are not afraid.
We know, all appearances to the contrary, that we live under another rule and way than that of the empire – we know that WE FOLLOW ANOTHER KING.
61 years ago this very night,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was in prison in Nazi
Germany. Bonhoeffer’s
commitment to follow another king pervaded his very life. In the middle of the war, he returned from
safety in the
On
“They seem to have made up their
minds that I am not to be with you for Christmas, though no one ventures to
tell me so. I wonder why: do they think
I am so easily upset?…..Don’t worry about me if
something worse happens. Others of the
brethren have already been through that.
But faithless vacillation, endless deliberation without action, refusal
to take any risks – that is a real danger.
I must be able to know for certain that I am in God’s hands, not in
men’s. Then everything becomes easy,
even the severest privation. It is not
now a matter (I think I can say this truthfully) of my being “understandably
impatient,” as people are probably saying, but of my facing everything in
faith…”
Tonight, we celebrate the birth of our true King and the one in whom our ultimate loyalty lies.
Remember how the story ends in Luke?
In a racket of baa-ing sheep and dancing and shouting shepherds?
Come on! Join the chorus!
Break forth in song -
Live a life of fearless joy -
And let us commit ourselves to FOLLOW THIS OTHER KING born this night.
Merry Christmas.
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Background Sources:
Madeline K. Albright, “The
Mighty and the Almighty: United States
Foreign Policy and God” (An address offered by former Secretary of State
Madeline K. Albright in Marquand Chapel at Yale
Divinity School on
Wesley Avram,
“Anxious About Empire: A Conversation
with Professor Wesley Avram” in Reflections:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, p. 98-99
Philip Hallie,
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The
Story of the
Chris Hedges, “On War” in The
William Herzog, II, Jesus Justice and the Reign of God: A Ministry of Liberation, chapter 5.
Stephen Patterson, “Jesus and
the Empire of God: On Dirt, Shame, and
Sin in the Expendable Company of Jesus”, a paper presented at the