If Christ Will Show Up in
a Stable
Christmas Eve
December24, 2006
Luke 2:1-20
By Pastor Tom Kadel
In his book, The Hungering Dark,
Christian author Frederick Buechner
tells of being in Rome at Christmastime
many years ago. He went to St. Peter's
on Christmas Eve to see the Pope
celebrate Mass. Thousands of people
began arriving hours early. Soon
the great cathedral was filled.
The rag-tag crowd milled around,
elbowing each other to get as near
as possible to the papal altar with
its huge bronzed canopy. Some had
brought food to sustain them through
their long wait.
Finally, after hours of waiting,
the crowd hushed. Way off in the
distance, Buechner saw the Swiss
Guard with the golden throne on
their shoulders. The crowd pressed
toward the aisle. Amid a burst of
cheering, the procession worked
its way slowly forward. Buechner
studied the pope's face as the throne
passed by –– that lean ascetic face
of Pope Pius XII, gray-skinned,
with the high-bridged beak of a
nose, his eyeglasses glittering
in the candlelight. As the procession
passed him, Buechner noticed that
the pope was leaning slightly forward
and peering into the crowd with
extraordinary intensity. He tells
us what he saw:
“Through the thick lenses of his
glasses, (the pope's) eyes were
larger than life, and he peered
into my face and into all the faces
around me and behind me with a look
so deep and so charged that I could
not escape the feeling that he must
be looking for someone in particular.
He was not a potentate nodding and
smiling to acknowledge the enthusiasm
of the multitudes. He was a man,
whose face seemed gray with waiting,
whose eyes seemed huge and exhausted
with searching for someone, someone
whom he thought might be there that
night, but whom he had never found,
and yet he kept looking. Face after
face he searched for the face that
he knew he would know –– was it
this one? Was it this one? Or this
one? And then he passed out of sight.”
I happened upon a reference to Buechner’s
book that I first read 25 years
ago and it drove me back to it again
on Thursday and I re-read this powerful
passage. It was then that I decided
to look for Christ myself. That
very evening our Shepherd’s Shelf
had its annual Christmas distribution.
People from here there and everywhere
showed up here to receive Christmas
Dinner baskets and presents for
their children. This place was abuzz
with excitement. I decided to do
what Pius XII had done. I searched
the faces in the crowd. I searched
the faces of those who had come
to receive help. I searched the
faces of those volunteers who were
here to help. And I saw him! I saw
Jesus – not in one face, but in
all those faces. Jesus didn’t show
up that night as one person. Jesus
showed up that night as the composite
of all those persons – the shy and
embarrassed ones, the toothless
ones, the worried ones, the well-kempt
ones, the excited ones, the little
ones, the aging ones, the busy-bee
ones, the smiling ones, the so-filled-with-the-shame-of-their-circumstance-that-they-wouldn’t-look-you-in-the-eye
ones. He was here. I know it. I
truly believe that I shall never
see people quite the same again
for having seen him that way that
night.
Good evening, brothers and sisters.
This is Christmas. And if Christmas
is anything, it is that moment when
there can only be silence as something
comes to life – some spirit, some
hope, something born again into
the world that is so strange and
new and precious that it severs
us (at least momentarily) from the
world as we know it and transports
us (at least momentarily) to the
world as God knows it. This child,
born into the night so inconspicuously,
born onto straw and near the steaming
dung of animals is a silence-making
child. For, once we have seen him
in a stable, we can never be sure
where else he will appear or to
what lengths he will go to or what
ludicrous depths of self-humiliation
he will descend in his wild pursuit
of you and me. And there are no
words to say in the face of such
a realization.
“If,” as Frederick Buechner says,
“holiness and the awful power and
majesty of God were present in this
least auspicious of all events,
this birth of a peasant’s child,
then there is no place or time so
lowly and earthbound but that holiness
can be present there too. And this
means that we are never safe, that
there is no place where we can hide
from God, no place where we are
safe from his power to break in
two and re-create the human heart
because it is just where he seems
most helpless that he is most strong,
and just where we least expect him
that he comes most fully.”
I comes down to this. If God in
Christ will show up in a stable,
then God in Christ will show up
anywhere. If God in Christ will
show up in a stable, then God in
Christ will show up in a Shepherd’s
Shelf distribution, he will show
up in your workplace, he will show
up in your season of grief or despair,
he will show up in your soaring
moments of happiness and in your
walk through the Valley of the Shadow
of Death, he will show up in the
person you don’t like, he will show
up in Aunt Helen’s camping under
the mistletoe at your family gathering,
he will show up amidst your painful
agonies and in your deep confusions.
I believe he has shown up here,
tonight.
Christmas says he will show up.
And when you get right down to it,
the real power of Christmas is just
that – the powerful affirmation
that he will show up. And it means
that Christmas cannot ever be confined
to one day, once a year. And nothing
more loudly speaks of our awareness
of this than our silence in the
presence of the unexpected holy.
Two years ago on Christmas Eve,
a remarkable example of what I am
talking about happened. That evening
between our two services, Wayne
and Casey Atherholt received the
sacrament of Holy Baptism. Wayne,
a career Marine and now a Chief
Warrant Officer, had already been
to Iraq twice and is presently there
on his third tour. He wasn’t raised
in the faith and didn’t believe
in all this religion stuff. He was
pretty firm about all that. But
then he and Casey began worshipping
here. He unexpectedly saw Christ
in you. You were the manger where
Christ had been laid. He came to
the faith and a year ago, with his
wife, was baptized.
Wayne is in Iraq again. His unit
recently lost six of their soldiers
and it has hit them all hard. But
Christ, this one who shows up so
unexpectedly in outrageous places
has shown up again. Wayne, the former
non-believer, is now a Chaplain’s
Assistant and is leading Lutheran
services there. Once you know he
will show up in a stable, you become
aware that he will show up anywhere
and that any day just might be Christmas
Day.
Yes, I saw Christ here last Thursday.
And a passage of scripture went
through my mind then. I’ve never
thought of it as a Christmas passage
until now. It is something Jesus
said. Let me share it with you as
I close tonight:
“The king will say to those at his
right hand, ‘Come, you that are
blessed by my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world; for I was
hungry and you gave me food, I was
thirsty and you gave me something
to drink, I was a stranger and you
welcomed me, I was naked and you
gave me clothing, I was sick and
you took care of me, I was in prison
and you visited me.’ “Then the righteous
will answer him, ‘Lord, when was
it that we saw you hungry and gave
you food, or thirsty and gave you
something to drink? And when was
it that we saw you a stranger and
welcomed you, or naked and gave
you clothing? And when was it that
we saw you sick or in prison and
visited you?’ “And the king will
answer them, ‘Truly I tell you,
just as you did it to one of the
least of these who are members of
my family, you did it to me.’”
Merry Christmas, brothers and sisters.
May the unexpected presence of Christ
be with you on this blessed day
and in this blessed moment.
Amen
The peace of God which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
