{"article":{"id":190845,"heading":"Christmas Sermon","author":"Manfred Sorg","created":"2006-12-26 17:27:35","modified":"2013-11-11 00:46:43","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:46:43","article":"

CHRISTMAS SERMON

By Manfred Sorg

[This sermon delivered on December 25, 2003 in a church in Bielefeld is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http:\/\/www.ekd.de<\/a>.]



Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear community!

\tWe have all heard the Christmas story that is today’s lesson. This is a familiar story; its figures and pictures are before our eyes. Perhaps it is so familiar most people hear it as sheer poetry, as something linguistically beautiful, something romantic, as an impulse to memories of our childhood days, to hours filled to the brim and intense experiences, as an invitation to a holiday from the I or ego but ultimately as something unreal, something past.

\tThese possible reactions do not do justice to this Christmas story. This story is an important up-to-date story that is completely necessary, a story full of human and worldly reality.

\tI invite you to hear this story again and transcribe it in our present reality.

I

\tIt came to pass

-\twhen terrorists raced their aircraft into the World Trade Center in New York and carried thousands of persons to their death;

-\twhen the American and English governments invaded Iraq to destroy the axis of evil and force peace with deadly weapons;

-\twhen the dictator Saddam Hussein was caught after months of searching;

-\tat the same time when the German government challenged theoretically the oppressive unemployment;

-\tat the same time when the poverty of people in some areas of this world assumed inhuman forms;

-\tat the same time when refugees and the persecuted were filled with uncertainty, existential threat and fear of deportation;

-\tat the same time when the perspectives and social security of the young and older generations seem thrown off balance.

At this time God found as much room on this earth and in this society as then in the cramped stable in Bethlehem. While the longing of people for something higher was not lost, God was not among the powerful control stations of this world where everything was exactly planned according to strict economic, political and scientific models and according to self-developed criteria. So love was greeted in this world, love that does not seek its own advantage. Compassion and humanliness have hardly any place.

Where God only has little room, humanliness also ends. There people harass, push aside or ignore others.

Still God spoke again in the middle of this world to people through many messengers. Fear not! You shall breathe and let others breathe because I let you breathe and live. I love the poor continents and the rich,

-\tthe exploited and the exploiter,

-\tthe oppressed and the oppressor,

-\tthe shepherds and Herod,

-\tthe slaves and the rulers.

God’s love is a question to all of us: Will we give it room in our world? Will we give God space in our inns – in our material and spiritual inns?

People, the Christmas story seems to continue today, spoke to one another: Let us not go to Bethlehem. What important things can be found there? Should we abandon our power and our influence, our position and our reputation, our security and our possessions, our anthropology and pictures of the world for a phantom of love and God?

\tSo many remain locked in the status quo, each on his property:

-\tthe rich with their money,

-\tthe powerful with their influence,

-\tthe poor and oppressed with their disappointment and their hatred,

-\tthe youth with their hopelessness,

-\trefugees with their enormous existential anxiety.

Nevertheless the star of Bethlehem shines as the star of hope over this world. This star announces that God was found in this inconspicuous stall in an incredible nearness to people,

-\tto the timid who crawl back into their own shell without interest in life,

-\tto the hungry who lack existential securities,

-\tto the restless who torment and wear themselves out,

-\tto the imprisoned who are caught in the net of their demands,

-\tto the movers and shakers and

-\tto all of us.

God waits that we people lift our eyes to this star and discover its light,

the light that cannot be produced with human initiative,

the light with which God in this child becomes brighter for the person and the world,

the light in which God becomes our near, imminent God

in which heaven opens for this earth.

II

\tWe should listen again to the Christmas story so it comes a little nearer to us. This story refers to us very personally and not only to the world.

\tThus it came to pass that a great multitude stream together to the churches in a Westphalia city to celebrate Christmas in the festive splendor of lights with familiar music. The sextons estimated their number and the number was very great. Nearly everyone joined, one with pious conviction and another with high spirits, longings and hopes, disappointments and fears.

\tThey were entirely occupied with their feasts, with their high spirits and longings, with themselves. But since God wants to create a space on this earth despite everything even today, the child in the manger became the speaking, acting, suffering, dying and resurrected Jesus.

\tThe people living in this Westphalia city were:

-\tthe lonely,

-\tthe stricken by fate,

-\tthe stumbling and straying,

-\tthe despised,

-\tthe desperate and

-\tthe sad.

The Christmas message is true for them. For you, the Savior is born today. He comes first to you and the people living in the shadows. The healthy and successful often do not understand that the world needs him, that it needs God’s love and mercy. Their efficiency often blinds them and their success makes them deaf. Go to Bethlehem and find the divine mercy there.

And there were persons in the Christmas church services who went home and said: What an enjoyable feast! For them, everything ended with the status quo.

\tBut others felt nothing was more important than God’s love. Their eyes were opened when that love converted them. They discovered the poor are not the only ones who live in shadows. This living-in-shadows was a matter of love and attentiveness, not a question of the bank account.

\tFor one, the long desired or ignored face of a life partner appeared out of the darkness. For another, her strange grown-up children reappeared. Former friends and acquaintances, neighbors, colleagues and competitors arrived. They resolved to have time for one another and not only to see and circle around themselves. Encounters, communities and conversations were important. Visions and new standards were vital. So Christmas began for them. They went to Bethlehem, found the divine child in his inconspicuousness and began opening their life and the earth for this child and God’s grown-up son. Amen.

\tMay the peace of God that is greater than our thinking come over you now and forever. Amen.

<\/p>\n","contact":"mbatko@lycos.com","link":"http:\/\/www.mbtranslations.com","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"For you, the Savior is born today. He comes first to you and the people living in the shadows. The healthy and successful often do not understand that the world needs him, that it needs God's love and mercy. They are often blinded by their efficiency and success","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2006\/12\/190845.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}