O Come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him … Christ our Lord!
And we have! We’ve come tonight. We’ve humbly come for holy celebration here in
this beautiful historic sanctuary. We’ve
come because Christmas just wouldn’t be complete without presence – the
presence of being with one another and loved ones for this time of worship. We’ve come to be reminded that holy light
still flickers brightly amidst our darkest fears. We’ve come to be gathered as family with those
of blood and those we are bonded to through this faith community.
Above all, we’ve come to
experience the fantastic wonder of how God chose to fully come to us. Not with thunder bolts and lightening (very,
very frightening!) but in a meager, makeshift manger … embodied in a vulnerable,
precious new baby named Jesus. God
fully came to us in this natural human way through the Holy Spirit blessed teenage
mom Mary, whose fiancée, the carpenter Joseph, stood devoutly by. Through our hearing of the sacred Scriptures
we are here to again experience this one-time wondrous event for the whole world.
We do so by the side of Mary and Joseph and Jesus, and well as alongside some lowly local shepherds and some
wise, wealthy strangers from a far off land. In the company of this first congregation, we
are here to adore Emmanuel, God with us.
O come, all ye faithful!
We’ll return to these
ancient adoring visitors in a moment, but I have a quick question – generally speaking,
what first comes to mind when you consider adoration of Almighty God?
Perhaps like many folks,
initial thoughts turn to times when you’ve gazed upon the great beauty of
nature and lifted up praise. We small
spectators to so many stunning scenes and scientific curiosities across
Creation are constantly reminded that we are connected to sacred handiwork we
will never fully comprehend. God has an
endless array of environmental ways to grab our attention and inspire our
adoration!
And it was through heavenly displays that God grabbed
the attention of both the lowly local shepherds and the wise, wealthy strangers
from a far off land. These weren’t just big but fleeting inspirational
moments. These were a profoundly personal
invitation to look up, then down, then within.
The shining star and the angelic chorus appeared to lead those shepherds
and wise men home to the side of their Savior, the Savior of the whole world. Both were stunning summons to go and pay reverent
homage, to offer full-on faithful adoration.
The soul-stirring sights and
sounds and peaceful stillness of God’s sanctuary beyond and within these doors call
to us for the same purpose on this holy night.
So what do we learn
about adoring God from the locals, those shepherds who first came to the cradle
of Christ?
We imagine it had probably
been an average kind of night of keeping diligent watch, providing safety and provision
for their assigned flocks. They were
just common folks doing their work, pushing through the sleepiness of a long,
dark, lonely shift. They likely grumbled
about their lot in life, resenting how shepherds were the ones with such lowly,
thankless jobs. Despite it being the
most ancient profession of the Israelite people, the calling that the great
King David himself once had ... shepherding was regarded as a dirty and
therefore undesirable task. Not one of
them had earned anything but the lowest rank in their society for doing good,
solid work day in and day out.
But on that silent,
holy night long ago occurred a totally unexpected spiritual awakening. The wonderfully creative Christian author
Frederick Buechner imagines they had just slumped down under a tree or against
a rock, bone-tired, their glassy eyes gazing at nothing in particular. You
know the feeling? And then all of a
sudden, “the air wasn’t emptiness any more.
It was alive” with “brightness everywhere” and what they usually took
for silence “stopped being silent and turned into a beating of wings, thousands
and thousands of them. Only not just
wings … but voices – high, wild, like trumpets.” And with holy glory shining and trumpeting
all around them there came a conviction in their souls about good news of great
joy for all people -- that in the city of the Shepherd-King David, was born the
Messiah, wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.
Though everything then
just as suddenly returned to as it had previously seemed, they knew nothing
would be the same in their lives or in the world again. They got right up from their glassy-eyed
slumping and hastily headed to the heart of Bethlehem, to the side of Mary, Joseph
and Jesus. Once there, they proclaimed
all that had been told them while greatly adoring God.
If you’ve ever found
yourself lamenting something or everything about your life, or just feeling underappreciated,
resentful and marginalized, or even just uninspired as you trudge through daily
duties, perhaps also wondering at times if you are at all valued and valuable
to God … then come to the side of the shepherds at the cradle of Christ. Hear them tell you about unexpected spiritual
awakenings and salvation happening in the most humbling, mundane of
circumstances. Look down through their
eyes and adore the newborn and eternal shepherd-king.
And now what of those
wise, wealthy strangers from a far off land, the magi, the well-educated, greatly respected, socially high standing,
politically powerful counselors to kings?
They were Persians and
not Israelites. I consider them to have been more spiritual than religious
given that they were students of stargazing science and its affiliated
superstitions. Despite their high social
ranking, they too were outsiders. But
they kept their sharp eyes and keen minds and hungry hearts open for divine
revelations. So they took immediate notice
when it dawned on them that the God of the universe was calling their attention
to a specific, never before seen light shining in deep darkness. They were eager to engage in a holy quest to
personally find out what it meant for them, for the world. Outsiders, yes, yet more deeply aware of and
willing to follow what was happening to fulfill ancient Israelite prophecies
than any of the supposed faithful insiders of the day.
And when they came to
the heart of Bethlehem, to the side of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, they were so
overwhelmed with joy they immediately opened their treasure chests to offer
gifts of precious metal, ritual incense, and anointing oil. They did so kneeling down to pay homage, to
adore the God of the whole wide universe wriggling, crying out in common human
form.
If you’ve ever felt
like an outsider to your traditional faith, more spiritual, really, than
religious, or if you’ve been searching for signs on a life-long quest to find sacred
meaning … then come the side of the wise men kneeling at the cradle of Christ. Trust and adore that all quests for what is
sacred find their true home in Him. Open your precious hearts as wide and joyously
as they did theirs and their treasure chests.
O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, and may we all
continuously adore Christ our Lord!
The heavens don’t ever stop announcing God’s glory in the Good News of
Jesus Christ. That soul-stirring
starlight, those life-transforming trumpets of truth resounding through silence
don’t ever cease reaching for us. In
faithful reply, our adoration should not be momentary or occasional, but ongoing.
Every moment we allow
ourselves to be filled with faithful adoration, we fall in love with God again
and are inspired to work hard to maintain a healthy relationship. It’s
the same with the human beings we most adore, right? May
Christmas inspire you every single day to honor and trust Almighty God’s intimate
presence in all facets of your life, in the lives of all whom you love, by the
side of every brother and sister in the human race. Adoration is continuously coming home to
Jesus Christ, who keeps coming to us all with His redeeming hope, peace, joy
and love.
Let us adore our Lord
through average kind of days. Let us adore
our Lord through the daily grind. Let us
adore our Lord while contemplating the heavens as well as our hearts. Let us adore
our Lord through lonely, dark times and hours of high anxiety. Let us adore our Lord in the midst of
unexpected spiritual awakenings as well as through ongoing quests to experience
holy truth.
And as you do, I pray you’ll
come to know deeper in your heart the life-transforming truth that Mary,
Joseph, those lowly, local shepherds and those wise, wealthy strangers from a
far off land all came to know so intimately -- God absolutely adores you. God has the utmost love and respect for
you. God came in person to be with you. Nothing will ever change this. No need to wonder why, to feel insecure and
unworthy, to feel so lost in sin that there is no hope. It’s just freely and wonderfully true that
God is always with you and with us all in Jesus Christ. Accepting this, may we all go and do as those
first adoring attenders at the cradle of Christ did – let the whole world know
this true meaning of Christmas.
I rejoice that you
have come tonight, all you faithful.
Angel wings are fluttering and trumpeting Good News. Stars are shining
and summoning. Holy light and love are
aglow and redeeming darkness. Here we
are, adoring God who adores us.
Amen.
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