First Lutheran Church

Christmas Eve – December 24, 2021

Luke 2:1-20.  In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “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. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

When 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.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Sermon

“A Down and Out Christmas”

Pastor Greg Ronning

Have you ever felt “down and out?”  Have you ever been “down and out?”  The origin of the idiom “down and out” comes from the world of boxing, the term first being used in 1889.  A boxer who is “down” has been knocked to the canvas, and one who is also “out” is unconscious or unable to resume the fight; Thus, a down-and-out boxer is someone who is “utterly defeated.”  Have you ever felt “utterly defeated?”  

“Down and out” has come to be used to describe someone who has lost everything, someone who is unlucky in life, someone who has suffered a great loss, - ultimately someone who has lost all hope.  Sometimes we feel down - but not out, sometimes we still have hope for the future.  But sometimes, honestly, we just feel, “down and out,” sometimes hope is displaced by doubt and despair.  And when you’re “down and out,” you often feel desperately alone.  In the words of the 1923 blues classic written by Jimmy Cox, “Nobody knows you when you’re down and out.”  

Have you ever been “down and out?”  Have you ever felt “down and out,” even on Christmas, maybe even especially on Christmas?

I wonder if Joseph and Mary felt a little “down and out” as they entered that “little town of Bethlehem” after a long day’s journey on that first Christmas Eve, as they searched for a place to stay, as they ended up in “some kind of stable,” because there was no room for them in the inn?  I imagine they felt every bit of, “down and out.”

“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by;

yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

Hear the good news this evening, into our deep and dreamless sleep, into the empty sounds of silent stars, down the dark streets that we must travel, down the dark streets on which we must live, despite our fears, despite the fears of the world that surround us, even if our hope is all but gone, even if we feel completely “down and out;” - God in Christ Jesus has come to be with us.  Hear the good news, the good news of “A Down and Out Christmas!”

During the season of Advent, we’ve been preparing for a “Down and Out Christmas.”  Our rousing Advent theme hymn, “Lord of Glory,” reminded us each week that God is coming to meet us, that God is overcoming every obstacle in the way, every road block between us, “Leaping the mountains, bounding the hills, see how our God has come to meet us!”  And our Advent Call to Worship, (tonight’s call to worship) reminded us that God comes “down” to meet us.  The direction of the Christmas Gospel is extremely important to note and to always remember; God comes “down” to meet us, God comes down with hope, with peace, with joy, with love, and with light, - “God comes down” with life, life abundant!  This is the good news of the Gospel.  We do not have to somehow ascend to the God, God in Christ Jesus comes down to meet us!

And it gets even better, God not only comes “down,” - God goes “out.”  The direction of Christmas is “down and out!”  Jesus is not born in a Palace in Rome, Jesus is not born in the Temple at Jerusalem, Jesus is not born on a holy mountain, Jesus is not born in a holy off-limits unattainable place, Jesus is not born somewhere above and beyond us; Jesus is born in a lowly stable in the somewhat forgotten little town of Bethlehem.  God comes “down” and then “out” to the edges, to the margins, to the places where the “down and out” live, in the very midst of the “down and out,” - Christ is born into the utter depths of this world.  God is born in an unassuming place where God can be held by us.  Yes, even us, you and me!  God in Christ Jesus, God in the vulnerable baby Jesus, God in human flesh; humbly yet powerfully meets us in the fragility of this world, in our fragility, in the everyday Bethlehem where we live, into “our” “mean estate,” “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

And Jesus will live out this “down and out” archetype of the Gospel.  He will grow up in Nazareth, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  He will be baptized into his vocation in the wilderness of a “no man’s land” on the banks of the muddy Jordan River.  He will emerge from the desert wilderness preaching the good news of God’s love, the coming of God’s Kingdom, to the masses where they live and work, where they are born and where they die.  He will minister to the people of the beatitudes: the poor, the poor in spirit, the weak and the lowly, the broken, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry, the thirsty, those who hunger and thirst for justice, the captives, the oppressed, the alienated, the persecuted, the forgotten, those who long for mercy, those who long for peace.  Jesus will reach out to “sinners” and battle with “the holy.”  He will touch the untouchable, restore the outcasts, and begin to tear down the walls between enemies.  Jesus will welcome the “down and out” of every kind and situation into the Kingdom of God.  

The direction of Christmas is decidedly “down and out” and that’s good news for all of us, because we too are often found - “down and out.”  We too can find ourselves on the margins of our life, we too have known brokenness, we too have experienced emptiness, we too have felt unloved and unwanted, we too have become lost in this world.  At Christmas, in Christ Jesus, God comes down to meet us; to meet us in the places where we must live, the places where we experience pain, the places where we are all alone, the places where we need healing, the places where we long for hope, peace, joy and love.  Christmas comes “down and out,” even to the very broken edges of our lives.  This is the gift of God at Christmas, the gift of God’s love, the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So it is on Christmas Eve, we gather to tell the story of a “Down and Out Christmas,” the story we all long to hear, the story we need to hear over and over again.  We gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we give thanks for the incarnate presence of God flesh out in the very midst of our life, and we pray this Christmas prayer

“O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

oh, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel!”

We boldly pray, “Be born in us today.”  What does it mean for Christ to be born in us?  What might we give birth to on this Christmas Eve?  What might that look like?  And what direction will it go?

If it is to be the Spirit of Christmas, if it is to be “Christ with in us,” if it is to “descend” “down” into us, and then “out” of us; It will surely be an adventure that takes us “down and out.”  To give birth to Christ, to continue to flesh out the love of God, is to take the good news “down and out” into the world that surrounds us.  Just as God came “down and out” to meet us, just as God overcomes every obstacle that is in the way, “leaping the mountains, bounding the hills,” we are called to continue to bring the good news down and out into our world.  We are called to employ our time, talents, and treasures to make “a difference” in this world - in the places where “a difference” is desperately needed.  The light of Christmas comes into our darkened world, in order that we might take that light into the darkened corners of the world around us.  “… descend to us, we pray; … be born in us today.

The direction of Christmas is important, it comes “down” and it goes “out!”  This is our salvation, and this is the salvation of the world.  The hope, peace, joy, love, and light has come to us.  May these things also be born in us this very night.  May you all have a “Merry Down and Out Christmas.”  Amen.