Christmas Eve 2018

Christmas Eve 2018 “The weary world rejoices.” I was scrolling through Facebook several weeks ago, and these words jumped out at me from one my oldest friend’s pages. She’s an artist, and she had posted a number of her Christmas items for sale. And that is the one that, like an itch, caught my attention. “the weary world rejoices.” How do I know that line? (In my defense, this was before I was really listening to Christmas music.) So, I will confess, I eventually had to google it typing: “the…weary…world…rejoices” and search. And what I saw first, took my breath away. It wasn’t the title of the famous song to which these words belong. What I saw first was the line just before this one; it’s musical mate, if you will. And when I saw that line, I couldn’t help but sing it: “A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices.” (I’m sure you’ve all figured this out by now, but the line is from O Holy Night.”) I reached out to my friend to see if she had any of the prints left, but she didn’t. And so I thought that was the last of it. But then, on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Reverend Aimee referenced this very line in her sermon as she preached about messengers. And since I’ve learned over the years, to pay attention to those snatches of song that get stuck in my head, I realized that this verse of this song--“A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices”—kept being sung in my soul by the Holy Spirit, who prays in and through us before we can even begin to think about praying; and therefore, it was, for me, either a message or even, perhaps, a messenger. But what on earth did it mean? What’s the message? How to figure it out? Well, like any sane person, I decided to listen to Nat King Cole’s version of “O, Holy Night” over and over and over again, to try to discern the message. (You’ll be happy to know that I did spare my family from this, by only listening to it over and over and over again when I was in the car by myself.) But nothing was revealed. So, then I went to the story of Jesus’s birth in Luke’s gospel to see if it could give me any clues as to the message of this persistent verse: “A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices.” And there, I certainly found an abundance of the “weary world” that helped me to connect with the “weary world” of today that we find ourselves in. This story is located in a particular place and in a particular time. In this process of being registered, people are traveling from great distances and descending upon Bethlehem. And we can relate to busy travel at certain times of the year, can’t we? How many of you had to get on an airplane to get here tonight? How many of you drove more than an hour to be here? How many of you will drive more than an hour some time in the next week? Mary and Joseph are caught up in this great wave of travel, and when they get to Bethlehem, there is no place for them. Now, sometimes we modern people make the assumption that they can’t get a room in the inn because they are poor, but I’m not sure that is correct. How many of you have ever had to evacuate for a hurricane or other sort of natural disaster? Have you experienced all the hotels being full in a certain area and so you have to look further afield? And in this weary world in which Mary and Joseph find themselves, they are at the mercy of political forces that seem so far beyond their control. (We know something about that, too, don’t we?) And so they hunker down and have the baby in less than ideal circumstances, because babies come when they will, weary world or not. Then the shepherds get involved. Now, they really are homeless, living in the fields with their flocks. They are so poor they are really beneath the notice of the registration process. But suddenly, the glory of the heavenly hosts breaks into their weary world to tell them that the savior of the world has been born TO THEM this night, and they should go see him. “Do not be afraid [the angel says]; for see-- I am 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. And with “a thrill of hope”, they journey from the fields into Bethlehem, where they find the savior of the world who has been born to each one of them just as the divine messengers said they would. Whatever journey has brought you here this night, whatever weariness the world holds for you, know that the good news holds true for you tonight—as true as it was for those shepherds keeping in watch in the fields all those many years ago: “Do not be afraid; for see-- I am 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.” The Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, said it this way: “Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.” Tonight, and every night, may you encounter a thrill of hope as you live in this weary, transparent world through which the divine is shining all the time. May you be open to seeing it; hearing God’s messengers who proclaim it to you; and may you help others to experience this thrill of hope at the love of God which shines forth in this weary world this night and always.