On Earth as it is in Heaven
Scripture: Luke 2
Rev. Richard H. Thompson, December 24, 2009

"O Come, Desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind, bid envy, strife and quarrels cease, fill all the world with heaven's peace. Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!"

Late afternoon on Christmas Eve a man in a rumpled suit scowls at the line in front of him in the supermarket check out. He's in a foul mood. Business has been miserably bad. The numbers haven't come in. He's under enormous pressure at the end of the year. And now he's got to stand in this stupid line filled with all these idiots who left everything to the last minute. What's the matter with them, aren't they supposed to be somewhere else? "Procrastinators!" he mutters under his breath at the line, including this woman with her three little kids right in front of him. They're impossible- one is pulling magazines off the rack, another is arguing about why she should have the M&M's she has in her clutches. The mother balances a baby on her shoulder as she bends down to put the magazines back and try to win the argument against the M&M's. As she stands up the baby locks eyes with the man. There's a transformation. As he stares back into that tiny face his tight lips soften and then subtly turn...up. His eyes widen ever so slightly, the furrows on his brow smooth. As he puts his groceries on the belt he takes a quick look this way and that- no one sees. Facing the baby he places his hands in front of his face and suddenly opens them with a big, silent, BOO! The child bursts into laughter. The man quickly looks away at the magazines as the mother turns to see what's so funny.

There's something about babies isn't there? What is it? They're so... human. Without pretense. It's all right there, totally honest, bad gaskets and all. Parents worry about their babies when we baptize them- that they'll scream, or try to crawl up the pastor like a jungle gym, or worse; they'll let loose with... something. I've now learned that I need to advise parents to bring a towel or a diaper. Because often mom super charges junior with a big breakfast in the hopes this will make him sleepy while we place the water on his tiny head. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. So, I say, bring a towel.

Babies are so earthy. Maybe that's it. They remind us that we are too. We stare into their wide curious eyes and we feel no judgment. We feel accepted for who and what we really are. Interesting how this works. Maybe our blood pressure drops just a little, we breathe more slowly. Our pulse slows too. We calm down. We almost feel like we're becoming more peaceful.

More ourselves. More human.

Over the last weeks of Advent we've been thinking about that ancient hymn we began our worship with tonight, O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Each verse calls out to God with another name; Emmanuel, God with us, Rod of Jesse (the hope for new growth from a dead stump), Dayspring (God coming like the dawn of a new day), Key of David (God unlocking the places that keep us trapped and alone). It may have first been sung over twelve hundred years ago. I think about all the situations in the churches over the centuries in which these words sang out like prayers: in times of war, famine, disease, of fear and worry, and anger, of economic melt-down. It's a heart felt prayer, this hymn. Because none of us does well in times of crisis. It's hard to avoid not becoming cynical and defensive. It's hard not to blame and accuse, maybe to seek revenge. In such times we are less ourselves. We de-humanize.

The last verse, calling out to God as the "Desire of Nations" was added in 1916, written by a pastor in the midst of the First World War. Makes sense, doesn't it? In such brutality, to pray to God to fulfill a deep desire the whole world yearned for; that people would be bound in one heart and mind. That strife and quarrels might cease. That all the world might be filled with heaven's peace.

But how? God knows we haven't figured this out on our own, have we? Look how the rest of the 20th century turned out.

-It's not by the force of arms, as sadly necessary as they are to hold back evil, they don't make for peace by themselves.

-Neither does education. There are too many examples of well educated people doing brutal things.

-Nor does science, or technology, or money.

Because there's a deeper problem. It's that we are self centered. And we're self centered because we're not sure anyone really gets us, or really cares. Or maybe we actually believe we can do this on our own. That we really can be "self-sufficient" and be "self-fulfilled". So we think it's really going to be up to us to make our own way. So get out of the way. Maybe that's why we hate standing in lines...

It's what all conflicts are about. It works like this: I don't feel heard. So I raise my voice so YOU CAN HEAR ME! If you still don't respond the way I expect, maybe I do something more than yell.

But, what if I were to get the sense I really am being heard? Then what happens? The first thing that happens is that I can lower my voice. Maybe I slow down a little. Maybe my blood pressure drops a little, so does my pulse. And maybe then, maybe over some period of time, I begin to let you know about the real me, all the way down into my earthy humanity.

The thing is for any of this to happen someone has to begin. Someone who really loves us. Who really cares. Who really understands.

Thank God someone has.

Mary had very limited prospects for her future. No doubt she was in trouble with her family. She lived in an occupied land, she could very understandably have become hard and cynical too. But she heard a word from God- what we all need to hear, "Do not be afraid. The Lord is with you." You can hear the transformation that happened in her in her song,

"My soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant..."

It's knowing that God has heard. That God understands. That we are not alone. We are not forgotten. Not you. Not me. Not anyone.

It's what God intends by Christmas.

To fulfill the desire of nations, for peace.

To show us how it's going to be done...

By becoming earthy, human, like the small round face of a helpless baby melting away the hard exterior of a tired, beaten down businessman.

Maybe those shepherds were a little like that too. They literally didn't count in the Emperor's census because they didn't have anything to tax. They were "worthless". What happens to a person's sense of self when others tell them they are worthless? Maybe they begin to believe it themselves. Maybe they begin to give up. And withdraw. It happens all the time. But God knows and loves the shepherds. Isn't it just amazing that the angel of God announced the news of Christmas, not in the halls of power in Caesar or Herod's palace, but out in the fields?

"Do not be afraid," the angel began. "For see - I am bringing YOU (you lonely ones, you thinking you are not worth anything, you ignored, forgotten, you without leverage), to YOU good news of a 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. This will be a sign for YOU, (an earthy sign, nothing fancy. Ordinary. Simple. Easy to miss. It's how God does things most of the time- how God fulfills the desire of nations); YOU will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a feed trough."

And the praise band sang,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven!" And then they sang, "And on earth peace among all, whom God favors."

I love it that God bypassed the professionals and the officials. I love it that he gave the job to carry the message of Christ's birth to amateurs, to simple people, ordinary people, earthy people...

Because it's how God likes to work.

How God likes to make for peace... on earth as it is in heaven.

Just think. Tonight, as the earth circles into night over two billion souls are pondering just as we are the tiny face of God. All of us, every beloved earthy human one of us, loved, accepted as we are. We stare into the eyes of God on earth looking back at us from the wood of the manger, preparing us for when he would look at all of us from other wood, (the wood of the cross...) in order to finally one day, fulfill the desire of nations.

So we give thanks. We worship. And then, just like those shepherds, we carry the message out into this night.

God bless you. Merry Christmas.

---

Questions for Reflection.