On The Night He Was Born…
A Sermon for the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith
by Griff Martin
On Isaiah 9:2-7/ Luke 2:1-14
For Christmas Eve
December 24, 2020
*This document comes from an oral manuscript.
Now Incarnate and Present God, we ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and breathing reality we can all together experience. Make us attended to your presence here in this space and in these words God, for if we are aware of your being here then nothing else will matter, but if we are not aware of your being here then nothing else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter.
Children are the best artists, especially when it comes to drama. In particular, when it comes to the Nativity story and what they can teach us when they go off script. They lead with imagination and creativity and are way freer than we are as we grow.
I was in Theater in High School and my freshman year we put on a production of Little Women. I was John, who marries Meg, which involved my first onstage kiss. My best friend Matt played Laurie. There was a pivotal scene towards the end of the play when Beth dies; Matt and I were onstage and the March family father was supposed to come onstage, holding Beth’s doll and mutter something about ‘she is gone,’ and then he cried and the scene went dark leaving us to all mourn Beth and transition the next stage of the March family life. Well, the actor who was playing the father was very busy playing cards backstage so he missed his cue and left Matt and I just standing there. And standing there.
We were going to have to go off script. So I looked at Matt, trying to be as serious as possible and said, “I think something bad has happened (pause) to Beth.” He looked at me as if suddenly my character had become a psychic and started laughing and we both walked off stage, leaving the audience wondering what bad thing had happened to Beth, why we were laughing about it, and why she was no longer in the play.
Not good improv; a failure at going off script.
Two years ago I was set to give the Children’s Sermon this very night and I had something in mind, that was calming and probably built on a metaphor which is a horrible way to teach children, and then on the drive to church I decided that an improv Christmas nativity play would fit the night better. All the kids would come forward, we would select parts and we would just wing it. A few brave adults were recruited to help me.
One of our older little saints offered to play the role of Joseph, so I sent him over where the manger was, assuming he knew the role of Joseph was to just stand there. Jospeh has a dream and then gets busy doing some really good supportive work. I continued on with the story, when I saw a few members of the congregation and their eyes were growing big at whatever was happening behind me, I turned around and found Jospeh attempting to crawl in the manger.
"Jospeh, you just stand there -- you don’t need to get in the manager," I called out. But later I found myself wondering, maybe that Jospeh had given the real sermon that night, even when it looks ridiculous and might not fit the script, our call is to get as close to Jesus as possible.
I heard about another Christmas pageant recently where a little boy was chosen for a speaking role, to memorize the angel’s message to the shepherds. He worked and worked on his line but the night of the pageant he froze, he could not remember his line in front of all these people, he could not find the words, “It is I, do not be afraid,” so instead he said what felt right: “Here I am and I am scared to death!”
His words might be the truest words any of us could utter this year.
None of us scripted 2020 the way 2020 has played out. We did not plan for a pandemic that would force us to work and live all the time in our homes. We did not plan that we would spend most of 2020 cloistered in small groups without any of the privileged creature comforts we have come to love so dearly like hair cuts and movie theaters and eating out. We did not plan to have to face our mortality with a disease that killed way too many people. We did not plan to have to struggle through the issue of race and the myth of whiteness that we have so long looked the other way to avoid seeing the true pain of Black and Brown skinned siblings, we did not plan to have to face that head on this year. We did not plan to do Easter and Christmas Eve on our sofas. We did not script out our worries about money and a crashing economy.
Early March last year we went almost completely off script.
And here is what we did: we feared, we uttered the same line as the wayward angel, “Here I am and I am scared to death.” Fearful that our kids' grades and social well-being would suffer. Fearful that we would catch the disease and the hospital would be full. Fearful someone we loved would catch the disease. Fearful we would lose our jobs. Fearful we did not have enough savings. Fearful that this racial awakening would change everything and we could not even name what we feared we would lose because we felt so guilty even knowing how much we clung to white privilege. Fearful that the world was never going to be the same.
Here I am and I am scared to death.
Of course most of us were not brave enough to actually confess that, instead our fear came out in other ways. We snapped at our loved ones and noticed every little thing they did that got on the last nerves we had. We doubled-down and worked harder than we have ever worked before. We worked out more than we ever have before or we worked out less than ever before and chose to numb the fear with Netflix, snacks and scotch. We got angry. We got depressed.
Here I am and I am scared to death.
Which means the Christmas story is the exact story we needed not just this night but all of 2020 because you know what phrase is the refrain of the Christmas story: Do not fear.
Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favor with God
Don’t be afraid Joseph, this dream is about to explain everything.
Don’t be afraid Shepherds, something new is happening.
Every time Divine Love speaks in this story, it begins with those words: Do not be afraid. In fact, I believe that Mary the contemplative that knew the truth of everything, actually wrote that in Jesus’ baby book as his first words, “9 months before he arrived, Love said to me ‘do not fear.’”
Every time God begins to do something new and big and grand and true, it starts with the same refrain: Do not fear.
Because I believe our souls know things at a deeper level than our minds do; it is our childlike intuition and imagination. We feel that God is doing something new before we really understand it. And not loving change and not loving unknowns, our soul's response is fear. Here I am and I am scared to death.
Do not be afraid, which better translates, “stop and don’t go on being fearful.” Maybe today we could say, choose courage and not fear because you have trust in Love and God. Stop and don’t go on being fearful because what I am here to announce changes everything, today this day a baby that is Godself, that is Love Incarnate has arrived and nothing will be the same, everything will get better because of this birth.
And we in 2020 live on the other side of that announcement, that news, that story.
Which means tonight our calling might be exactly what I should have done in Little Women when things did not go the way I had planned them to go -- in theater when things happen that were not planned, the rule is simple, don’t be afraid of the silence and space, lean into it and say ‘Yes, and…” Yes, and will keep the story going and might just get you to a whole new place and a whole new story.
Just like Mary did when she said yes to this grand plan to carry and mother love.
Just like Joseph did when he said yes to a brand new dream.
Just like the shepherds did when they went running off to join a new story.
Just like the magi do when they follow a star.
Just like the innkeepers who know that even though rooms are full, they have to make room for this moment, even if it’s a stable.
Just like the angels who say yes to announcing a new story to the world.
Just like Jesus who says yes to this crazy but brilliant plan to make Love flesh and to risk being human to build a better world.
And just like you and I do when things go off script but we sense that God is doing something new.
Tonight we have a chance to do 2020 over and change our line…. We have confessed our fear, God knows the prayer, Here I am and I am so afraid…. But what if, as we end this year, we try a new payer, “Yes Lord…. You are doing something new and we want to be part of that… tell us our next lines and stage direction.”
There is another pageant story that I love… another typical church Christmas pageant with children playing all the roles. Mary and Jospeh begin, then the inn keeper, then the shepherds, then the angels and finally the wiseman. And it wraps up in a glorious and wonderful song, "Glory to God in the Highest."
And that is exactly as the pageant was going until one of the angels missed his mark which caused the angel behind him not to have the direct line of sight to Jesus that she really wanted. And this girl wanted to see the babe; the small girl electrified the entire church by crying out in a voice shrill with irritation and frustration and enormous sadness at having her view blocked, "Let Jesus show!"
After the little girl cried out, “Let Jesus show," there was a lot of the service still to go, but my pastor said that one of the best things he ever did in his life was to end everything precisely there. "Let Jesus show!" the child cried out, and while the congregation was still sitting in stunned silence, he pronounced the benediction, and everybody filed out of the church with those unforgettable words ringing in their ears.
“Let Jesus show!”
First Austin, tonight in the midst of all that is right now, in the midst of so many good reasons to be afraid and fearful, hear these words: “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!”
And our reply…. “Yes Lord…. You are doing something new and we want to be part of that… tell us our next lines and stage direction so that we can let Love show.” Amen and Amen.
*artwork: Advent Triptych, by John Swanson
Christ Like a 4-Year-Old
By: KB
Once, I failed to confront the blank page in front of me. In the same
hour, a younger cousin drew a painting smeared with yellow stains
and sticky fingers. The corner read God is sunset and I realized
young people are the bravest beings in the world. The older we get,
the more we make room for shame. We tap into terror, become scripted
creatures comforting what law labels forbidden in the dark. What happens,
in moments of fearfulness, when we say I’m here? What if we are
our best selves when learning, listening, and unlearning small
cruelties? Faith is not the cakewalk we think it to be. There is nothing
we can do to prepare for the biggest of life’s challenges. For many,
this year has not been a time of reckoning. For Black & brown folk
in a world that warrants too many double-takes, this feels like Tuesday.
In the ongoing unknown, I makeshift into what God wills. When asked
Are you ready to go completely off-script? I know that I am love
in the face of all this. When flexible is the antonym of deceased,
are you ready to bend to whatever gets you closest to Him? Are you ready
for the better that is building, unseen & happening right now?
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