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St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
December 24, 2024
Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20
God’s Quiet Power
Merry Christmas!
Each year when I stand up here on this holy night, I think of all the countless hours of preparation that went into getting us ready for Christmas at St. Thomas’.
Our church staff worked many extra hours designing, editing, and printing bulletins, checking the names of our deceased loved ones on our Christmas Memorial List, choosing music and rehearsing our magnificent choir, preparing our children for their “Tableau Plus,” cleaning our buildings and sprucing up our grounds, doing so much to make tonight perfect for all of us.
And then there are our parishioners – the people who “greened” the church on Sunday afternoon – and doesn’t it look beautiful?
There are the altar guild members who polished our silver and ironed our our linens – the ushers and our acolytes who volunteered to serve tonight – the choir members who gave up so many Thursday nights to rehearse all the gorgeous music we’re singing and hearing tonight.
And I also think of our Christmas Extravaganza a couple of weeks ago, when so many parishioners and friends gave gifts – wrapped them and delivered them – gifts for people at the Community Crisis Center, Paul’s Place, Owings Mills Elementary School– people we may never meet, people who will never be able to thank us.
And so, as I stand up here on this holy night, I feel deep gratitude for the privilege of serving this church.
And I also feel awe – awe at God’s power flowing through this place and its people – a quiet power that’s very different from the loud power of the world.
Tonight, Deacon Amelia read for us Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth.
This is a story that always touches our hearts, no matter how many times we’ve heard it.
Luke begins by identifying the loud power of the world – the loud power of the Emperor Augustus who could demand a count of all the people in the vast and cruel Roman Empire.
That loud power uprooted ordinary people – or seemingly ordinary people – like Joseph and Mary, forcing them to travel far from home – loud power that doesn’t care that Mary’s pregnant – loud power that doesn’t care about – and maybe even enjoys – the suffering of others.
Luke acknowledges the loud power of emperors and governors but, of course, Luke knows - and we know - that the true power – the ultimate power - God’s quiet power – was at work not in the glory of Rome but in humble Bethlehem.
God’s quiet power was at work, not among emperors and governors, but with Mary who said “yes” to God, and Joseph, who couldn’t really provide a suitable place for the holy child to be born, but, no matter what, he stayed by Mary’s side and that was enough.
And, most of all, God’s quiet power was at work in and through this newborn child.
Jesus was an infant.
The Son of God was totally dependent on the love and care of others, totally vulnerable to all the very real dangers of the world.
And yet this is how God’s Light enters the shadowy world, not with thunder and lightning, not with commands and cruelty, but through dependence and vulnerability, through tenderness and smallness.
God’s quiet power.
And God’s quiet power that was born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago is still at work in and through us.
God’s quiet power flows through the people who worked so hard and, yes, mostly quietly, to give all of us a beautiful Christmas celebration.
God’s quiet power flows through the people who gave gifts, not only to family and friends, but to total strangers in need.
God’s quiet power flows through us, each time we really listen to one another, each time we reject selfishness and choose generosity, each time we reject hate and choose love.
On this night, we remember and celebrate that the real power, the ultimate power, God’s quiet power, has entered the world in and through Jesus.
And God’s quiet power continues to flow in and through us.
On Christmas, and always.
Amen.
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