O Come Let Us Adore Him

Isaiah 9:2,6-7 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-20

December 24, 2019 Eve Dr. Edwin Gray Hurley

“To an open house in the evening, Home shall all men come To an older place than Eden, And a taller town than To the end of the way of the wandering star, To the things that cannot be and that are, To the place where God was homeless And all men are at home.”

So wrote G. K Chesterton in “The House of Christmas.” And really, Homecoming, is the heart of Christmas. Tonight we have come home to such an open house, as we make our way home. Tonight heaven and nature sing. Outside these nearly 131 year old stone walls, in the shrubbery, the sparrows are singing, echoing the Psalmist,

“Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.”i

We come home tonight. We draw near to the heart of God. Some of us have come a long way to get home to loved ones, family and friends, home to the laughter and wide-eyed wonder of children, the smell of roasting Christmas dinner, presents under the tree, the crèche on the mantle, old traditions again renewed, lighting the Christ Candle on the wreath, then lighting all our candles and singing Silent Night, Holy Night. We come home tonight to a stable where in lies Jesus; child in a manger; Lord of the world.

Tonight, although we have come home, some of us feel more the ache of separation, from loved ones by distance or disease or divorce or death. Some of us feel a sense of emptiness. Some of us feel deeply troubled over health issues, or job issues, or money issues, or the divisiveness and incivility abroad in our country, and across this planet.

Whether we feel warm and comfortable at home, or disconnected from home, tonight we all need to hear again and trust again the message of the angel, “Fear not.” “Do not be afraid.” We all need to hear and trust the Good News, “To you is born a Savior! Christ, the Lord!”

Remember He said, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them. And we will come to them and make our home with them.”ii Tonight we are at home.

We need the “bifocals of faith that see the despair and the need of the hour, but also see, further on, the patience of our God working out His plan in the world He has made.”iii There is within us “that longing for these things that cannot be and that are,” where all of us are at home.

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Tonight we want to be filled with faith and hope and love, as we sing of the “Wonder, of His love.” Tonight we yearn for that love of God for us to be palpable, we want to taste it, we want to feel it, and we want to believe that indeed;

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him, may not perish but may have eternal life.”iv

We want to believe that, yes-

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all…

There is an unforgettable moment in Dostoevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov, when a high-society woman comes to the wise spiritual leader, Fr. Zossima, asking him to help her recover her lost faith. “How can I believe in God again?” she asks. He answers, “You must learn to love. Try to love your neighbors, love them actively and unceasingly, and as you learn to love them more and more; you will be more and more convinced of God and the immortality of your soul.”v

Tonight and tomorrow we give gifts to one another as we recall God first giving us the greatest gift, the gift of the ages, in His one and only Son. This gift comes in this most unlikely of places; an animal stall in a little no count village of a remote insignificant province of the mighty Roman Empire.

Here in Bethlehem arrive this poor young couple, Mary and Joseph, from the backwaters of , traveling with difficulty 100 miles on foot and donkey to Joseph’s ancestral home upon command of Rome. No room is found for them in the inn. But the kindly inn keeper gives them a space out back in an animal shed. There Mary gives birth to her firstborn Son and lays him in a feeding trough.

It is a bifocal of faith scene: utter humility, poverty, rejection, yet overlaid with radiant bright-as-noon heavenly light and choirs of angels singing in the sky, appearing to Shepherds, nomads who themselves have no real home. Kings begin traveling from afar, the high and mighty of the earth, but nameless shepherds are chosen to be the first to hear the amazing news of God’s visitation to earth in this child, born to be our Savior, with the promise of peace through Him, and “glory to God in the highest!” because of Him.

Tonight Christ is born. “He who is above, now for our redemption dwells here below; and He that was lowly is by divine mercy raised up.”vi Emmanuel, God with us. God has made his home with us, pitched his tent among us. We are at home. So how shall we respond?

I First, let us “Come and adore Him.” Hearing, the angel’s message, the shepherds decide then and there, to go to Bethlehem immediately, in the middle of the night, and see for themselves.

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“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.”vii

Like them, let us open the eyes of faith, and see beyond our present moment through the eyes of our heart to the reality of God giving us himself in his Son, and seeing, offer our adoration, our worship, our thanks, our love, and our devotion.

You see the reality is that when we live by faith and not by sight amazing things happen and we become new. We become open to a higher spiritual dimension, the kingdom of God breaking in among us. Adoring, worshiping, serving this God, we find that all things become new for us, even us.

Malcolm Muggeridge was a British journalist, satirist and TV personality. He died in 1990 at the age of 87. A prominent international figure, he lived much of his life as an avowed atheist. Later in life, in 1969, at the age of 66, he became he said, “a reluctant convert”, after he became convinced that the only solution to human brokenness was for God to become a human. God, he said, thereby,

“Set a window in the dark dungeons of our soul,” that He might “let in a light which would provide a view, and offer a way to be released from the misery of our self- centeredness and pride.” In Jesus, “eternity steps into time, and time loses itself in eternity.”viii

II First tonight, at home again, let us come and adore Him, Christ the Lord. And then let us go forth to tell and to live out this Good News, in our daily lives, as the Shepherds. Who,

“When they saw this, they returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, and made known what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed.”ix

The question I ask you tonight is this: you who have come home and adored Him, do you have room in your house for Jesus? Will you make room for Jesus to be at home in you?

With him at home in our heart, we can be part of making this world fit to be His home - sharing His hope and healing, whenever we reach out to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit those imprisoned in whatever sort of cell, wherever we work for a more just, humane, peaceful, and loving life for all. Remember He said,

“Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”x

Martin Luther concluded a Christmas message saying this:

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“If you can sing- the Son who is proclaimed to be a Lord and Savior is my Savior, if you can confirm the message of the angel, and say it and believe it in your heart, then your heart will be filled with assurance and joy and confidence, and you will not worry much about even the costliest and best this world has to offer. ‘To you is born this day the Savior’ ”

“What can I give Him, Poor as I am” If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give Him; Give my heart.xi

Amen

i Psalm 84:3 ii John 14:18, 23 iii Peter Marshall, The Best of Peter Marshall, “Let’s Keep Christmas”, p.111 iv John 3:16 v Samuel Lloyd III Sermons from National Cathedral, p.11 vi St. John Chrysostom, Watch for the Light – Readings for Advent and Christmas, p. 225 vii Luke 2:15-16 viii Malcolm Muggeridge, “Conversion: the Spiritual Journey of a Twentieth Century Pilgrim, p 131, quoted by Richard Simmons, Reflections on the Existence of God, p.212 ix Luke 2:17, 20 x Matthew 10:42 xi The Presbyterian Hymnal, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” p.36