A Homily given by Fr. Ben Jones, Curate;
St. George’s Anglican Church, Raleigh, NC;
On the Nativity of our Lord; A.D. 2009.
“In the Stillness of the Quiet”
+In the name of God the Father,
and of God the Son,
and of God the Holy Ghost,
AMEN.
St. Luke 2:9-14.“and, lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the Angel said unto them, fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, 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, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Tonight, a portion of our Advent anticipations and preparations are over. The Babe of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ our Saviour, has been born. We have been anticipating and preparing for the commemoration of this miracle in disciplines of prayer/meditation, fasting, and studying the Scriptural prophecies of this glorious miracle. God has entered His creation just as all of us, He was born of a woman. We as Christians, believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, celebrate His birth FIRST as a celebration of God’s love towards man.
The world tolerates in their self-centeredness, what they refer to as the “trappings of Christmas”, the manger, the animals, the shepherds, the wise men, Mary and Joseph. Something is missing. Where is the Baby Jesus?? The Baby Jesus is what the world rejects. The world just CAN NOT bear the advent of God in human flesh. They will celebrate the birth of a baby, BUT THEY DO NOT want to hear about the Lord of lords. They adore Him as an infant, BUT WILL NOT pay homage to Him as God in the flesh. They welcome Him as the son of David, BUT NOT as the Son of God. They will sing of His Nativity, BUT BOLDLY REJECT HIS AUTHORITY. As a result, the world IGNORES the core of all of the truth of this “Christmas Miracle”. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” 1 Instead of honoring Jesus at Christmas, they mock Him. The world is re jecting the very salvation of their souls in not believing in the “First Christmas” AND in not believing that the “First Christmas” was perfectly timed and ordered. “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”2
I don’t want to dwell in negativity on this night of all nights when our Saviour Christ was born. However, what we should take from the world’s rejection of the “Christ Child” and Christianity as a whole is that their rejection is our distraction. We leave these particular distractions by placing ourselves in the “Stillness of the Quiet”.
We place ourselves in the “Stillness of the Quiet” to meet our Saviour, because our Saviour was born in the “Stillness of the Quiet”. Historically, even though there was a harsh, Roman occupation at the time of the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem, the whole Roman world was at peace. The “First Christmas” was perfectly timed, in God’s time. In God’s perfect timing and order the “Prince of Peace” was born. Just as we sang earlier in Lessons and Carols, “O COME, O COME EMMANUEL”; “O come, thou Wisdom from on high. Who orderest all things mightily; To us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go”. God’s “Eternal Wisdom” ordered ALL things mightily and ever so gently for this miracle to take place. From this “Eternal Wisdom” we are drawn into the “Stillness of the Quiet” where God works in our very heart and soul through this Babe of Bethlehem, our Saviour, born this Christmas night.
Now let’s fast forward plus or minus two thousand years. Here is what the Birth of this Babe of Bethlehem means to us. God came into the world as the person of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, that He might bear in His body the sins of the whole world. God did this for us so that we might enter into His presence. “But the gift of God is “Eternal Life” through Jesus Christ our Lord”.3 This is the golden nugget of the Christmas message. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; Behold, all things are become new.”4 In order for us to be enabled to shout from the roof tops on that “Resurrection Sunday”, “He is Risen”, we have to be able to shout from the roof tops on this Christmas Eve, “He is born”. Christmas renews us. Our lives will never be the same again. This renewal happens over and over and over again, b ecause we have been justified by the gift of His “Saving Grace” through this Babe of Bethlehem, born this Christmas Eve.
Earlier I mentioned that a portion of our Advent anticipations and preparations are over. Just a portion?? What else is there that we anticipate and prepare for during our Advent journey?? In addition to anticipating and preparing for the commemoration of the birth of the Christ child, we are anticipating and preparing for the return of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all. WATCH.”5 The Collect for the “Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord” says it best.
O God, who makest us glad with the yearly Expectation of the birth of thine only Son Jesus Christ: grant that as we joyfully receive Him for our Redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold Him when He shall come to Be our Judge.
Amen.
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!
+
And now unto God the Father,
God the Son, and,
God the Holy Ghost,
be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion,
most justly due this day,
both now and forever,
world without end.
Amen.
1 The Gospel according to St. Luke 2:11.
2 The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians 4:4-5.
3 The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans 6:23b.
4 The Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians 5:17.
5 The Gospel according to St. Mark 13:35-37.