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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaerther The readings for this first Sunday after Christmas may seem rather frustrating. As Christians we hold Christmas off throughout the season of Advent. Advent readings have a focus not on the first Christ coming but rather focus on the second coming of Christ when he will come to judge the living and the dead. Christmas was yesterday. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have a wonderful, positive glow about them. Now the presents have been opened, the candles lit and extinguished, the carols sung, and the ham eaten. In the Christian Liturgical Calendar the three days after Christmas have a rather different character to them then we might be all that comfortable with. December 26th on the Christian Calendar is set aside for commemorating St. Stephen, First Martyr. December 27th St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. December 28th is set aside for the gruesome remembrance of the massacre of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem. These three days are days drenched in blood. They are dark reminders of the kind of world into which Christ was born and in which we live. They give us images of the depths of human sin and the depravity that so often erupts in violence. But beyond showing the ugliness of humanity and the destruction that this sin wrecks upon all people from the bold deacon Stephen to the innocent boys under 2 years old in Bethlehem killed by Herod's soldiers, these three days serve to remind us for what purpose the Christ Child was beheld in that manger so many years ago. They bring to the front why God took such a drastic step as to become flesh, not just humanity, but to live under the law and to suffer the death that our sin deserves. These three days reminds us of the nasty and mean world that is ours. We desire that the message of peace and joy and good tidings of Christmas become the attitude of everyday. We resist in fact the reason for the season. Even as joyously call out "Merry Christmas" to spite those that would be limited by the secular "Happy Holidays." We struggle to truly see Christmas as anything more than the nostalgia of family gathering, the carols sung, the food eaten, the presents opened. But don't get confused with the facts. The cost of our following Christ is to see beyond the slow movements of tradition and to truly examine the reason for the season. We may desire that the peace and joy of Christmas become the every day. But simply wishing and asking for it does not change that we know so quickly life can change and the horrible and frustrating sinful world can invade our lives. It is a world that took the life of St. Stephen, sent St. John to exile on the island of Patmos, and slaughtered the innocent children of Bethlehem. These three days serve in the Christian Calendar to see the peace and joy and good tidings of Christmas is not found in the simple beauty of a baby born. The peace and joy that we share with one another at this time of the year as we joyously call out "Merry Christmas" is married to the events that we remember in the Church calendar on Dec. 26th, 27th, and 28th. These three days give us the reason for the season. This season I find it important to be sure that the name of our savior is in the forefront. Jesus Christ, God made flesh who dwelt among us, is our reason for the season. "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." These words of Jesus were directed to Jerusalem. To a city that would show ever so clearly with its cries for crucify the reason for the season. The Lord had repeatedly attempted at embrace, of reaching out with the life giving message of God's grace. Even still Jesus described his desire like a hen that gathers her brood under her wings, but the city would not. Jerusalem of course was not exclusively the recipient of Jesus' words. To our very sinful heart Jesus brings the reason for the season. We would despise and reject the promises of God's word, rather to hear the call to trust in the Lord we seek to satisfy our own desires and purposes. Yet Jesus will not stop embracing and reaching out to you and to all the victims of the world. I am telling you that in a world that is riddled with killing fields beyond the horizon. In a time when violence and hatred seem to grow. When on TV any debate becomes filled with purposeful hurtful words. We do have reason to rejoice. I cannot see the rhyme or reason of the ravages of sin that affect every one of our relationship. Yet we can rejoice because as we look at the manger with the Christ Child we today are invited to not simply see nostalgia. When gentle Mary laid her child, that babe still a stranger to any more than just his mother's arms, there was the savior. The world may struggle to understand what the church does with Christmas if anything more than just carols and remembering a baby born. But today and everyday now we can sing and now we can rejoice. For in that city of David our savior has been born. The one that would embrace under his care St. Stephen, St. John, and the Holy Innocents, and indeed all the victims of this world. As Zechariah sang, "Blessed be the Lord our God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people." The cost of our discipleship is to discover in Christmas a call to have faith in more than tradition and nostalgia. The cost of our following Christ is to see in that child born in a manger more than beauty. St. Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing just that and he worked great wonders and signs among the people. He spoke with wisdom and the Spirit was indeed at work through him. But his preaching was not filled with words of congratulations and nostalgic remembrances of the beauty of that little town of Bethlehem. Stephen said, "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it." Not too unlikely the people became enraged as St. Stephen preached to them the story of Jesus crucifixion at the hands of the people. But St. Stephen was able to rejoice, not because the world around him was filled with peace and joy and the good tidings of Bethlehem. St. Stephen was able to look up to heaven and see the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, because his savior was more than just tradition and beauty. St. Stephen has a savior. St. Stephen looked up to heaven and faced the brutal blows of stones thrown at him. In the middle of a moment of hatred and violence St. Stephen cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." The true cost of our discipleship is not found in preaching the words of judgment to a stiff-necked people, but more so to see this world of sin at its very worst and to still seek to embrace the world with God's good news of forgiveness. Like the prophets before them, Jesus and St. Stephen faced those that sought to kill them buoyed by with faith and hope. Jesus had faith that his work was not in vain but would bring glory to God and peace to his people. St. Stephen had a confident hope that the Lord would work forgiveness even in the midst of this moment of suffering. We do not seek suffering in this world, but neither is it a curse when it comes upon us. Suffering for Christians becomes a blessing moment. How so? We find that we do not have to cling to life or to scramble to find immortality through actions or perpetuate our memory. We are freed from having to live for ourselves because Christ has been born to live for us. You and I bring the blessing of the Christmas season to our lives and to others when we bring the forgiving, embracing, love of Christ. I don’t bring up the martyrdom of St. Stephen, the exile of St. John, or the murdering of the Holy Innocents in order to be a scrooge on our Christmas joy. I bring up the suffering and cost of our discipleship because blessing the season is not found in the endless parade of Christmas traditions. The blessing of the season is discovered in how God poured out his love in sending his son Jesus. We share the blessing of Christmas when we participate in the pouring of love out into a world that would reject, despise, and forget. St. Stephen cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Now we can rejoice, now we can sing, because our Lord has not held our sin against us. The cost of discipleship is to discover God's love goes beyond the nostalgic and reaches into the ugly. Peace and joy and good tidings are reaching out into the world with the Christ Child that has been born. Soli Deo Gloria
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