Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve | Isaiah 62:6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:1-10 | December 24th, 2011

“Grace is like a package delivered to the wrong address.”

(from a sermon at St. Thomas, NYC, 9/18/11)

This is the season of packages….

….beautifully wrapped packages with fancy ribbons delivered in person to friends and family

….plain packages in cardboard boxes delivered by the US Postal Service or UPS.

We buy them. We wrap them. We mail them. We receive them. Packages are part and parcel of this season. None of us is immune to the desire to give and receive packages at Christmas.

Jim and I made sure to ship our granddaughter’s gifts several weeks ago. Then we held our breath that the package would actually make it to the right address in New Jersey. We know that sometimes the delivery service fails and packages wind up at the wrong address. Sometimes labels are lost and packages wind up in some mighty unusual places. We didn’t want that to happen.

I remember the time several years ago when Grace Church had shipped our broken Jesus statue (the one now standing in our Memorial Garden) to an artist near Chicago for repair, but the label fell off and the hapless statue wound up in a warehouse in Salt Lake City, Utah! We identified the statue from a photo and it was soon on its way again, but not without a good laugh in the church

office as we pictured Jesus being unpacked in Salt Lake City! Jesus does have a reputation for going to unusual out-of-the-way places with both delight and challenge, doesn’t he?

“Grace is like a package delivered to the wrong address!”

Bethlehem was the wrong address for the birth of Jesus, wasn’t it? Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, and that’s where they would raise Jesus. But as Mary was nearing the end of the pregnancy, the couple set out for Bethlehem, or so Luke tells the story. Because they could not find lodging in the crowded city, Jesus was born in a cave or barn where animals were stabled. Luke’s charming story places the newborn baby in a manger–feeding trough filled with hay for the animals. Surely this is the wrong address for the one who is God incarnate, for the one who will be the King of heaven and earth!

How can this be? Couldn’t someone have figured out that a throne room with a gilded cradle and trained midwives in attendance would be the right address for this birth? Mary, the young maiden filled with grace, gave birth to Jesus Christ in a lowly and unexpected environment. It was wrong and an awful surprise, but it was oh, so right at the same time.

“Grace is like a package delivered to the wrong address.”

The letter of Titus tells us that when our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because we had done all the right things, not because we had earned it, but because of his mercy or grace. When the package shows up unexpectedly on our doorstep, it is wrapped in swaddling clothes and the packaging is a wooden feeding trough packed with hay for softness. We may think the grace of Jesus Christ incarnate is being delivered to the wrong address, but in God’s economy, this gloriously impossible gift of redemptive grace is indeed intended for us!

It is intended for us no matter whether we are rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, lonely or surrounded by friends, or whether we occupy any of the other positions on the vast spectrum of human descriptors. The gift of Jesus Christ is for the sake of the whole world. That includes you and me, our loved ones, those we admire, those we simply don’t care for, those we despise, and even perfect strangers.

On this Christmas Eve, we are drawn to the beauty of this place, this church. It has been carefully prepared to speak of joy through a profusion of bright flowers, the soft light of many candles, and a galaxy of glorious music. This is a fitting birthplace for the Christ child. Yet, I found myself thinking this week about other places – more unexpected perhaps – where the baby Jesus might be born if the birth were taking place this year in Paducah, KY. In other words, what is the equivalent of that “wrong address” in the stable in Bethlehem? Would Jesus have found a place in Tent City wrapped in a second-hand shirt? Would he be born in an animal shelter? Would he rest his head on a cot in the county jail? Where would that package of divine grace in the form of a human child most likely be found? I believe there are no wrong addresses when it comes to God’s desire to deliver grace to the world.

Luke’s shepherds and angels got the message. So did Matthew’s magi, who traveled from afar to find the child a bit later. So have countless others throughout the ages been drawn to the grace and goodness, the challenge and mystery of Jesus Christ.

Do we hear the good news tonight in the story of the birth of Jesus? God’s own son, holy child of tender birth–so the first carol sung by our choir names him. “Psallite, sing to Christ the Lord…sing to our Redeemer, holy Child of tender birth, to him all praise be sung.” (Praetorius) It is a worthy occupation tonight to sing praises. It is a worthy occupation on any day or night to proclaim the good news of God’s grace given through Jesus Christ for the sake of the world.

Grace, sweet grace, is delivered to us tonight. Love , a gift come down from heaven in the form of a child, draws all humanity toward God. Hope is born when the package of grace and love is unwrapped and held close in the cradle of our hearts. Blessings abound when that grace, love, and hope are passed on as our gift through Christ to all we encounter on our life’s journey.

The altar of our Lord Jesus Christ awaits your visit tonight. You will walk past the crèche to reach that altar. On this holy night, we gather to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus and the death and resurrection of the man Jesus. We hold the mystery of his full humanity in tension with his full divinity. It is, as author Madeleine L’Engle says, the “glorious impossible.” (Madeleine L’Engle, The Glorious Impossible, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990, p. 1) Believe in this glorious impossible and savor the grace of God delivered to your address this night.

The Rev. Libby Wade

Grace Episcopal Church

Paducah, KY