The Church of St.
Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
December 24, 2019
Christmas Eve
Isaiah 62:6-12
Psalm 97
Titus 3:4-7
Luke 2:1-20
Awkward Silence
Merry
Christmas everyone!
Every
year I look forward to the beauty of this night, the sights and sounds of
Christmas in this old and holy place.
All
of this beauty doesn’t just happen, though, so right off the bat I want to
thank everyone, especially the Altar Guild and Gail and the Choir and our guest
musicians and all those who decorated the church – thank you all so much for
once again making our Christmas celebrations magnificent!
Here
in church and out in the world, the weeks leading up to Christmas are a time of
intense preparation.
And, it’s also a
time to look back and reflect on the year that is drawing to a close.
And,
as I look back on our year here at church, one of the highlights was when we
once again hosted our Family Promise guests.
If
you don’t know, Family Promise is a national program that provides homeless families
with temporary shelter (usually in churches or other houses of worship) while
also working to find them more permanent housing.
Our
church is part of Family Promise of Hudson County, and so, for the second year
in a row, for two solid weeks we hosted homeless families – this time it was 11
people, four families in total.
It
is by far the most challenging effort of our year, much bigger even than
getting everything ready for Christmas.
This
isn’t a checkbook ministry where we just give money and are done (though, of
course, Family Promise will accept any donations!).
But, for two weeks
many of us got deeply involved with these families and, as you’d guess, that
was sometimes beautiful and sometimes difficult.
As usual with
human beings: it was often a messy experience.
It
was beautiful to see the deep bonds of love between the mothers and their kids,
bonds forged in the challenge of having lost so much, the pain of having no
place to call a true home.
It
was fun to be with some of the kids, especially a brother and sister, 10 or 12 years
old or so, Muslims as it happens, who were both really smart and funny.
They
were full of questions, eager to get into mischief, demanding to hear good
stories, and always up for playing games
They
even made up their own game that they called “Awkward Silence.”
It
goes like this: one person calls “Awkward Silence!” and everybody else is
supposed to sit or stand, looking around awkwardly in silence until somebody
finally gives in by talking and laughing.
Not
to brag, but I have to say I think they met their match in me, a master of
awkward silence!
And,
of course, there were other moments that were not so beautiful: the yelling as
the kids didn’t want to go to sleep at night and didn’t want to get up in the
morning, the fighting over the bathroom, the leaving a mess in the kitchen, the
failing to turn off lights or worst of all forgetting to turn off space
heaters…
You
know how it is: human life is messy!
And,
you may have noticed that our world is a mess.
And
it is this messy humanity and this messy world that God loves so much, that God
loves so much that God chose to come among us not as some imposing supernatural
being or even as a mighty warrior, but as a helpless child born into less than
ideal circumstances.
At
Christmas we remember that God enters into our messy world, born to a mother
who I’m sure had to endure uncomfortable questions and unpleasant looks about
her pregnancy, born into a family that had impressive ancestry but seemed not
exactly the best equipped to raise a child, unable to provide even a proper
crib, making do instead a feeding trough meant for animals.
God enters into
our messy world, born to a family that will soon be on the run from a brutal
tyrant, refugees forced to flee their homeland, desperately trying to protect
the life of their holy child.
On the first
Christmas, God doesn’t just write us some kind of spiritual check but instead
enters, really enters into, our messy world.
And, the grown-up Jesus
will spend his earthy life right here in the mess, loving and blessing the
people that others turned way from or condemned – the lepers, the tax
collectors, the prostitutes – and loving and blessing his own closest
followers, who, let’s be honest, were no great prize, people who, like us,
messed up in ways small and big.
And, so today the
followers of Jesus are called not to retreat behind the beautiful walls of our
church but to follow God’s example and enter into the messy world, knowing that
God is with us, no matter what, that this is God’s work, not ours.
God loves us so
much that God chose to come among us as a helpless child born into a messy
world.
And this evening we
respond to this most amazing gift with beautiful prayers and glorious music and
shiny silver and fancy clothes.
We respond to this
most amazing gift by loving and serving people in need, like those four
families without a home of their own.
And, who knows,
maybe later on tonight, when the music has ended and we’ve run out of words, if
we take time to really reflect on what God has given us - on who God has
given us - we might feel a little overwhelmed.
So, the best
response to God’s gift might be spending a little time tonight in silence…maybe
even awkward silence.
May you all have a
wonderful Christmas.
Amen.
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