Luke 2: 1-7
Roger Lynn
December 22, 2019
4th Sunday in Advent
(click here for the audio for this sermon)
Deeply ingrained in the very core of our being is a strong desire for God to come into our lives and into our world and put right what has gone wrong, to fix what seems to be broken. We see this desire acted out in a wide variety of ways down through history and, indeed, in our own experience. But the foundational longing remains the same. It is this desire which underlies the ancient Hebrew expectation of the Messiah. And it is this desire which we express in our observance of Advent. We look urgently for Emmanuel, God With Us, because we desperately need to be healed of our wounds and we know that only God is powerful enough to accomplish such a miracle. So all through Advent we watch and we wait and we prepare to receive again the powerful love of our God who is Emmanuel, revealed in Jesus Christ.
But in our almost frantic grasping for the power of God to save us, we sometimes fail to notice (or perhaps choose to overlook because it is not at all what we want to find) that God’s power is unlike any power we might expect or hope for. In fact, God seems almost to delight in presenting us with anti-powerful examples of how God works. God’s ultimate triumph comes with the daring risk of losing it all. God’s love is offered to us not in power, but in weakness. Ann Weems gives expression to this theme in her poem, “Unexpected.”
to find a deity in a stable.
Somehow the setting is all wrong:
the swaddling clothes too plain,
the manger too common for the likes
of a Savior,
the straw inelegant,
the animals, reeking and noisy,
the whole scene too ordinary for
our taste.
And the cast of characters is no better.
With the possible exception of the kings,
who among them is fit for this night?
the shepherds? certainly too crude,
the carpenter too rough,
the girl too young.
And the baby!
Whoever expected a baby?
Whoever expected the advent of God
in a helpless child?
Had the Messiah arrived in the
blazing light of the glory
of a legion of angels wielding
golden swords,
the whole world could have been conquered for Christ
right then and there
And we in the church - to say nothing
of the world! -
wouldn’t have so much trouble today.
Even now we simply do not expect
to face the world armed with love.
(from Kneeling in Bethlehem, by Ann Weems, – 1980, 1985, 1987, The Westminster Press)
And then, to make sure we don’t miss the point and think the whole manger scene was just a nice sentimental beginning to build us up for a powerful climax, this same Jesus who began life in a stable ends life dying a criminal’s death on a cross. It is no mistake. God’s powerful love forces us to re-define our understanding of ultimate power. It is not about getting what you want through brute force. It is not about “might makes right.” It is about being willing to give up everything with no guarantees of success. It is about believing that love is ultimately the most powerful force in all of creation, even when all evidence would point in the opposite direction.
None of this is comfortable. We would much prefer to believe in a God who comes charging to our rescue, leading the heavenly equivalent of the cavalry. But for the Church which celebrates Christmas and Easter there is not much choice but to believe instead in the power of love’s weakness. We are called to place our trust in the God who is with us rather than beyond us. It is a risk which flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but if we’re honest with ourselves we will recognize that conventional wisdom hasn’t really done much to leave us in good shape. Power as the world understands it only seems to provide the occasion for struggle and conflict and pain. Maybe it’s time to give love’s weakness a chance.
So here at the end of this Advent season, as we prepare to slide into Christmas, as we celebrate the coming of God among us as one of us, may we open ourselves to the power of God’s love in our world and in our lives. Then, perhaps, we can learn to face the world armed with love.
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