“Did you find
what you were looking for?” I heard this phrase uttered many times have over these past few weeks during my Christmas
shopping forays. It’s a rather ubiquitous turn of phrase, isn’t it? “Did you
find what you were looking for?”
Most of the
time, if you were like me, you simply answered, “Yes, thank you,” not wanting
to be bothered further nor wanting to spend any more time in the store. Or perhaps
you inquired about a hard to find item or something you missed through all the
crowds. But, honestly, we don’t usually give our answers to that question much
thought beyond the immediate transaction.
Today, however,
on this Christmas Day maybe we can consider the question anew: “Did you find
what you were looking for?”
On this day we
hear the familiar story of an unwed teenage mother-to-be named Mary and her
fiancé Joseph making the trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled under
orders from their Roman overlords. The birth of Mary’s son happens in a stable
because there is not room for them in the inn. We hear a messenger from God
appearing to shepherds in the fields watching over their flocks. It seems that
these poor shepherds will be the first to get the news that the savior has been
born in Bethlehem. A great number of the heavenly host appear, glorifying God
and proclaiming peace among those whom God favors. The shepherds leave their
flocks or maybe they take them to Bethlehem to check this whole thing out, They
find things just as the angel had reported to them. They found what they were
looking for!
We know this
story. Even if all we know of the story is from “A Charlie Brown Christmas,”
with Linus delivering the strains from the Authorized King James Version. The
story assures us that the shepherds found what they were looking for: “the
child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” They found “in the city
of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” What they perhaps did not
know, however, and what they could not possibly have fully comprehend is what
this fullness of this child and what he would mean for them – and for us.
In the birth
narrative, Luke relates the events of the birth of Jesus, answering for the
story hearer the amazing “what happened?” question. But what Luke doesn’t do,
at least not right away – not directly in the infancy narrative – is answer the
question of “Why did it happen?” Why did God choose to come to us and live as
one of us?
Part of the
answer is found in the verses we hear in the letter to Titus:
“But when the goodness and loving-kindness
of God our Savior appeared, he
saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but
according to his mercy, through the water of
rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This
Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his
grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
The birth of
Christ happened to save us. Something we could not do ourselves, God did for
us. God took the initiative and set
about the saving work. But there’s more: God did not do this because we earned
it in any way but solely because God loves us.
What an
idea!!! It’s a radical idea. It’s a revolutionary idea. Given our merit-based capitalistic
culture and our rugged American individualism, this is an idea that might seem
foreign to us. It is something for everyone that none earned. Instead, it is
something given to us, provided for us in grace.
Those verses from
Titus go on to speak about our being “justified.” That seems a big, fancy theological
word. At least it has been made one by the theologians. But the idea of
justification is not so scary or hard to understand as we theological minded
souls often make. It simply means that God made humanity’s relationship with
God right and balanced. In other words, through God’s initiative we can have a relationship
with God.
But there is
more. As if simply having a relationship with God isn’t enough. God did this
great and wonderful and magnificent thing so that we might become heirs as
children of God – heirs with the hope of eternal life. Eternal life should not
be posited as some “going to heaven when you die” idea. That turns the whole
thing into some form of insurance or some kind of celestial evacuation plan. Instead,
eternal life should be understood as living fully and freely now. It is the
present loving God and loving each other. It is a lifetime of loving presence happening
right here and now and continuing forever.
“Did you find
what you were looking for?” Perhaps you haven’t considered that question in
this context, but do so for just a moment. Here you are, on Christmas, in this
church. Why did you come? You didn’t have to come, you know. Oh, sure, some
here will give a nod to family tradition. Some will say that are appeasing
parents or grandparents. And some of you are accustomed to regularly attending
church.
Oh, sure, some
here will give a nod to attending church on Christmas being part of your family
tradition, or maybe it was to appease parents or grandparents, and some of you
are accustomed to regularly attending church. But regardless of why you think
you are here, ponder in your heart for a moment what you are really seeking,
because perhaps something deeper brought you here. What are you really looking
for?
If we are
honest, we all have a deep longing – a sense of something missing in our lives.
Some call this the “hole in our soul.” It is the nagging feeling that we are
incomplete and lacking. We humans are consciously aware of our fragility, our
finitude, our faults and our failings. It is a fearful thing to acknowledge
this truth. Most of us spend our lives running away from this stark reality by
attempting to fill this hole in our soul with anything that promises to fulfill
or fix us.
But try as we
might, we cannot fill this hole ourselves because it was placed there by God
when we were breathed into existence. It was placed there for a purpose: to
draw us to say “yes” to God’s free gift of love in Christ.
Christmas is
the proclamation that God spoke an eternal “yes” to us by slipping through the
back door of history as a helpless baby, to grow up and live with us, die for
us, and be raised from the dead to prove once and for all that our fragility,
finitude, faults and failings are not the last word.
Christ is
still renewing, redeeming and giving life to us – all of us, no exceptions.
No matter what
your life circumstances are this day, God called you here to speak a word of
eternal life and love to you: a love that you didn’t have to earn or prove
yourself worthy to receive. God’s movement is toward us and for us in the birth
of Jesus Christ.
This love is
mystical, and it is the only enduring and life-giving way to fill the hole in
your soul. It comes to us through Word and Sacrament and is present through
this community.
So come. Come
to this Table. Come as you are. Come here today and you will find what you are
looking for.
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