Christmas Eve Sermon

“The Beautiful Underside of Life”

Luke 2:1-20

It was Christmas, 1966. I was a senior in high school at a time when it seemed like the world was being turned upside down. Some of you remember. There was a war in Vietnam – and widespread protests against the war at home. There was a struggle going on for Civil Rights – and the movement was meeting violent resistance in many American cities. Many of us growing up during that period of time were turning to drugs as a means of escape, and it seemed as though the very fabric of American society was being torn asunder. I remember one night at Christmas that year getting into the car – a rather nifty two-tone blue 1957 Ford Fairlane – and driving down to Sandy Angell’s house to exchange gifts. Sandy Angell – with two “L”s by the way – is now Sandy Singley. And as I drove to her house to share the beautiful wonder of Christmas –visions of sugar plums and smooching dancing in my head – I switched on the AM radio, tuned into the local Rock and Roll station, and turned up the volume. And this is what I heard:

(Here we play “Seven O’clock News/Silent Night” by Simon and Garfunkel. If the song is unavailable, explain that it is a beautiful rendition of “Silent Night” into which is brought the narration of evening television newscast from the period which becomes louder and louder until “Silent Night” is almost drowned out. The newscast narration is as follows:

“This is the early evening edition of the news. The recent fight in the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill.

The battle brought traditional enemies together but it left the defenders of the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters. President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing but it had no chance from the start and everyone in Congress knew it. A compromise was painfully worked out in the House Judiciary Committee.

In Los Angeles today comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdose of narcotics. Bruce was 42 years old.

Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday into the Chicago suburb of Cicero. Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held. King, now in Atlanta, Georgia plans to return to Chicago Tuesday.

In Chicago, Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a Grand Jury today for indictment. The nurses were found stabbed and strangled in their Chicago apartment.

In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special sub-committee of the House Committee on un-American activities continued its probe into anti-Viet Nam war protests. Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans. Former Vice President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Viet Nam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war. In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.

That’s the 7 o’clock edition of the news. Goodnight.”)

When the song was over, I felt almost overwhelmed by a feeling of despair. Even the beauty and wonder of Christmas was being invaded and drowned out by the loud cacophony of life’s harsh cold realities there at the end of 1966. Simon and Garfunkel had a hit on their hands. And I had lots to think about.

It occurred to me a few weeks ago, as I was watching the President and First Lady light the beautiful national Christmas tree, that it seems as if Christmas is always being crowded out by the dark stuff of life. During the ceremony, as musicians played and people sang the great Christmas carols, as the switch was thrown and the beautiful lights came on, I found it kind of sad and depressing that at the bottom of the TV screen, just below the beautiful images of Christmas, the news of the day crawled by, highlighted by a background of red. 15,000 more layoffs at a major aerospace company…three American Special Forces troops killed by a friendly fire accident in Afghanistan…B-52’s drop bunker buster bombs on the caves of Tora Bora…Usama bin Laden reported escaped to Pakistan…the Dow loses 152 points…Tennessee favored to beat LSU in next Saturday’s SEC Championship game…

Maybe Simon and Garfunkel were being prophetic in that song from 1966. Maybe life – in all its harsh cold reality – really does drown out Christmas and render it irrelevant!

Or maybe Simon and Garfunkel were wrong!

I don’t know if you noticed it about the reading of the Christmas story from the second chapter of Luke, but it is, in fact, something like a newscast of the headlines on that day back 2000 years ago. It goes something like this:

“In Rome, Emperor Augustus issued a decree calling for a new census throughout the empire. All persons are required to return to their place of birth to be registered, and to pay their taxes. Government officials promise that this tax hike should be enough to balance the federal budget, and that they can promise there will be no new taxes…Meanwhile in Nazareth, local families are concerned about the increased rate of pregnancies among the teenage population. Officials say they are concerned over what they describe as a decline in morals among the young, and some are proposing that the Ten Commandments be posted in all schools…Hundreds have gathered at a place outside Bethlehem where shepherds report seeing what they believe are angels in the night time sky. Many claim to have had a religious experience as a result of the apparitions, and plans are underway to build a shrine…The large influx of visitors to the area has been a boost to the local economy and hotel operators are warning travelers to stay away because there is no room in the inn…”

Do you see? There were headlines way back then, too. Political news. Economic happenings. Military reports. Social uprisings. Religious experiences. Personal tragedies. Moral dilemmas.

And then one more thing.

The birth of Jesus.

And here’s what I hope you’ll recognize tonight: it was not that the harsh, cold, headlined realities of the day invaded Christmas, but what the Bible wants us to know for sure is that Christmas invaded the harsh, cold, headlined realities of the day!

You see, there is a beautiful underside to life – not always evident – not always seen – in which God is at work bringing salvation and love to the world. Yes, on the surface it seemed like just another senseless political decision to tax the world, but underneath that decision, God was at work bringing Jesus to the world! And it surely troubled the good people of Nazareth that a young girl like Mary should be expecting a child that was not the product of a marriage, but underneath that seeming moral failure, God was at work bringing Jesus to the world! And the religious experience of those who saw and heard angels singing at night, might have seemed like just another spiritual awakening, but underneath the experience, God was at work bringing Jesus to the world!  And it may have seemed as if the lack of room in Bethlehem’s inn was simply the result of plain old economic factors, but underneath that reality, God was at work bringing Jesus to the world!

You see, Christmas is the promise that God enters all the harsh cold realities of our lives and our world, and in the very face of them, in the very midst of them, gives us His Son! To be our Friend. Our Leader. Our Guide. Our Savior.

Tonight, we proclaim that Christmas has already invaded the headlines of our world – the terrible tragedy of September 11th; and the economic difficulties of this recession; and the moral breakdowns in American society; and the ongoing sins of racism and human exploitation; and even the wicked web of worldwide terrorism.

The times are indeed awfully dark, but the Bible promises that “underneath are the everlasting arms.”

And God is at work in the underside of the headlines of your life, too. Your illness. Your injury. Your loneliness.  Your loss. God is at work in the underside of your family’s conflicts, your marital struggles, your personal problems, your hopes and dreams.

God is at work in our world, and our lives! Christmas is invading reality! The news is not drowning out “Silent Night”, but the message of “Silent Night” is being sung in the face of the news! In the midst of it all, God has given us a Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord!

And you can find Him tonight – if you’re willing to believe that God is at work in the underside of your life – if you’ll open your ears to hear his song, and your heart to receive his love  – and if you’ll simply ask God to show you the way to Jesus!