"We need not pretend to be anything than what we are"

Homily for Christmas Day

Saint Peter's | Arlington, VA

Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)

Over the course of Jesus' life and ministry, time and time again, so many have difficulty recognizing him. It’s a perplexing theme repeated throughout the gospels. People fail to see his ministry for what it is—and this morning Luke can help us understand why...

We are transported to a field outside Bethlehem.

Few details are provided to help imagine the scene, though. No significant points of reference are offered. So, for all intents and purposes, we find ourselves in “the middle of nowhere.”

In a vast, open field, in the middle of night with a handful of nobodies. Aside from the occasional sounds of a sleeping flock of sheep, we are surrounded by the sheer, uneventful nothingness of nowhere.

This is where Luke places us on Christmas morning. On the fringe of society, somewhere on the margins. And it is into this setting that a divine delegation arrives to unveil the full glory of God. God sure can be a peculiar messenger... Why shepherds? Why sheep? And why a multitude of the heavenly host?

I picture this angelic scene almost like the commotion of a presidential motorcade (or perhaps that of an international dignitary). All of the flashing lights and blaring sirens, not to mention multiple armed escorts and an ambulance in tow, all ensure there is absolutely no question: this is a matter of urgent importance involving people far more important than me and my silly commute. 

Then, after disrupting traffic throughout the city, the motorcade arrives at its destination. The Very Important Person steps out and then begins an address...to those who have taken up residence in the tent city under the bridge, which you’ve gone out of your way to avoid. And the word delivered, like a balm for wearied souls, is indeed good news.

When the multitude of angels arrive, not a single shepherd hesitates to receive the wondrous thing they declare. So, they make haste to go and see it for themselves.

The Christ child has arrived. Humble. Lowly. And not a single shepherd fails to recognize him. 

In a poem titled, The God We Hardly Knew, the Archbishop Oscar Romero wrote:

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud,  those who, because they have everything, look down on others,  those who have no need even of God, for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God. Emmanuel. God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.

In much the same way, the Gospel of Luke insists that God arrives in lowly form and then—to put it in Mary’s words from The Magnificat—“lifts up the lowly and casts down the mighty.” As some theologians will argue, God displays a preferential option for the poor.

It is perhaps quite sobering to consider. For those of us in this abundantly wealthy and powerful nation, how are we to receive the Christ Child? Can we celebrate Christmas? 

In my own life, I’ve experienced it to be true that divine presence is never more palpable than in the moment of need. In my lack and insufficiency, wound and need for healing. This is when God draws especially close; because God desires that we be made whole, so much so that "love came down at Christmas."

And this is precisely the good news for each of us this morning... Christ comes to meet us in poverty—in our brokenness, our frailty, our hunger, our pain, our humanness. As Jesus will later say, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

We need not pretend to be anything than what we are. We need only to accept the truth of who we are as children of God in need of God’s love—and then offer ourselves up to be embraced. 

This morning, we might hear the same invitation set before the shepherds in that field as our very own. And in recognizing Christ, allow ourselves to be made whole and set free.

“Do not be afraid; for—God is bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” 

Merry Christmas, Beloveds. 

Amen.