Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

December 24, 2009
Christmas Eve
11.00 pm
The Mass of the Shepherds
The Midnight Mass

 

(Complete with the Preacher’s Notes.)

 

GOSPEL: Luke 2.8-20

 

8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This was be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

             15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

             20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

In That Region

 

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

(This is the Midnight Mass, which begins in our Parish at 11 pm and ends at Midnight.  It is the time when all the preparations for Christmas have been done, or do not matter any more.  There is nothing to do but to tell the story, and listen to it … even while being the Proclaimer.)

I.

There is something profound about the Midnight Mass.  What is profound about it is its simplicity and clarity.

When we come to this Service in our Christmas Eve celebrations, nearly everything we could possibly do to prepare for the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, the celebration of the Birth of Jesus … just about everything we could do to get ready has been done, or left undone.  We have walked Canyon Road again this year, or did not get to do it.  We have had our Christmas Eve supper, or not having enough time, let it go.  We have all the presents and gifts nicely wrapped and in order … or we are wondering just how we are going to show our affection in a delayed manner tomorrow to those we love.

In this time of prayer and worship, in this time of telling again and hearing again the Christmas Gospel … there is a beautiful gift each of us has been given, and that is the gift of simply letting the story be told, and letting ourselves hear it, take it in, and with Mary herself treasure all these words and ponder them in our hearts.

 

(Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.)

II.

In that region … says the Gospel-Story-Teller Luke as he writes … In that region there were shepherds …

In this region proclaims the Midnight Mass, the liturgy called The Shepherd’s Mass, in this region … in this place, in this time and moment and lateness … the story asks that we again enter into it, and find our seats on the hillsides outside Bethlehem where branches have been placed in a circle of sorts to corral the sheep into safety under the watchful eyes of the shepherds.  We are to sit with them and listen to the sounds of the night, the sounds of potential danger and harm … we are to sit quietly and then with them hear the surprising rush of the wings of an angel who comes in the midst of the darkness and illuminates it with brightness and loudness scattering the sheep and causing the shepherds to fall down to the ground in fear and trembling.

Isn’t Luke a wonderful storyteller of the Gospel of Good News that is about Jesus?  No insignificant thing, Luke is saying, no insignificant thing, this birth, this baby, this moment.

It is enough news to be announced by an angel and not just one angel but a million of them spanning the sky like the Northern Lights themselves, so important is this message that it comes even to sleepy field-hands on a Judean hillside.  That is what Luke means by writing In that region.  He places the story into humanity, into the earth and with the placement, announces the Messenger of Heaven comes not Fear but Good news of great joy for … all people … everyone.

Did you hear that?  Everyone.  The Messenger speaks to the shepherds ages ago and keeps speaking to us ages later, this news is for … everyone. 

Luke writes in the time of oppression, we cannot ever forget that.  It all has to do with Caesar, a foreign Emperor, certainly in the eyes of the people a really non-Jew whose compassion for his distant subjects was left to some puppet rulers and an army.

Caesar, Luke is saying, is the Imposter here.  I quote The Rev. William Loader here (professor at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia) who notes that  “Caesar Augustus was hailed as son of God, as bringer of peace, as saviour, as a good news person. Rome made much of these claims to legitimate its regime of suppression and exploitation, law and order, through the empire. So the Christmas story is a cheeky response. It parodies these claims: the Son of God is a baby whose family can’t find accommodation; the good news of peace comes to ordinary shepherd folks of the hills; the peace is about real peace, real inclusiveness. It is people’s peace, people’s power, people’s salvation and liberation.”[1]

It is that peace which is the good news of the Gospel that Luke was writing in his time, it is that peace which comes lying in a manger, nursed by his mother, adored by his father, and grows up to be the Teacher who will proclaim himself the Kingdom of God.

That Kingdom is born tonight, the Midnight Mass tells us.  That Kingdom of love and mercy and peace and justice and wellbeing and indeed “good news of great joy for all people” is at the very centre of this worship, and the story we are telling once again.

And as quiet as we have become in this nearly Midnight Hour, the message is not one of inactive passivity … not at all, it is a Midnight Message that brings with it hope and the possibility of the healing of wounded souls, broken hearts, lonely lives, inadequate and unfulfilled dreams, and thereby what we call the healing of creation.

It comes to us, watching and waiting as we have for it to appear.  The baby in his mother’s arms calls to us to live in the very presence of the Holy One (God) and so love in the very presence of humanity (each other).

The shepherds left the baby and his parents, Luke insists, and went back to work, back to being shepherds, but now shepherds with a message of hope (Luke says, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen) … shepherds whose lives were changed in such a way that they were no longer observers of creation and humanity, but lovers of creation and every creature.

If we find that here at the Altar tonight, if we find that in this Christmas Gospel, if we find that in this story and in these prayers, and in these carols and songs … then we, with the shepherds, have found the love that brings us closer to God and to each other … and that, my brothers and my sisters, is the Christmas Gospel.

(And now, the Prayer.)

IV.

Let us pray.

O God who delights in the presence of all of your children,

    grant us grace so that we can accept this great gift

    you have bestowed upon us,

    the gift of Jesus Christ.

Let us embrace Jesus.

    Dispel the world's burden,

    remove oppression,

    bring good news of your peace to all.

Amen.

  +Deo Gratia

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III

Pastor

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