Did you know that according to the song, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” Santa has twelve reindeer? In the introduction it goes “There’s Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen…” That makes eight reindeer. Then there’s Rudolph, of course, so that makes nine. Then there’s Olive. “Olive the other reindeer used to laugh…” That makes ten. The eleventh is Howe. You know, “Then Howe the reindeer loved him…” Eleven reindeer. Oh, and number 12? That’s Andy! “Andy shouted out with glee.” The proof is in the song!
It’s amazing when you think about it. Christmas has been celebrated for about 1600 years and it’s one of the most popular feast days, ranking a possible second only to Easter. Here we are, once again, gathered together to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Housewives, househusbands, school teachers, business executives, students, young and old, rich and poor, faithful and not so faithful. There are no doubt even some skeptics among us. But we are all here because of that one event.
We’re not here to celebrate the birth of Alexander the Great or King David or Augustus Caesar or George Washington or Lincoln or FDR or JFK, or any other national hero. We’re not here to celebrate the birth of Shakespeare or Michelangelo or Florence Nightingale or Marie Curie or Albert Einstein or Sigmund Freud, as important as all of these and many more are to the development of human culture and society.
We’re here because of a baby who didn’t grow up to be a great ruler by the world standards, or a great artist, or a great musician. His teachings, though memorable, didn’t contain any thing that novel, and he never wrote anything down, except in the sand. We’re here because that baby who was born over 2000 years ago is the Savior of the world. And with all of our technology; all of our literature, art, and music; all of our scientific knowledge; and with our high standard of living we still need a Savior. No matter how much we accomplish individually and as a society, there still remains one thing that we could never accomplish on our own, the accomplishment of which is the whole reason for our very existence and without which there is a void that can only be described as utter meaninglessness. It’s no less than the reconciliation of God with man and man with man. And so, we come year after year to celebrate God becoming a man, not that he might be with us, but that we might be with him.
Last Christmas Eve a father was giving his reason for not going to midnight mass. “The Christmas story is just a fairytale. It’s unreasonable that God became a man,” he said. So, his wife and children went, but he stayed at home.
As he was thinking about how foolish it was to celebrate Christmas, he suddenly heard a loud thumping on the window. In the swirling, snowy storm outside, a flock of birds was trying to get into the light and warmth of the house. They fluttered and bumped against the window in vain.
He thought of the barn. There they could be safe and warm. He bundled up and rushed out to open the barn doors. He even tried to shoo the birds in, but they circled around and came back to beat senselessly on the windows of the house. The man thought to himself: “If only I were one of them. If I were a bird I could lead them in some way, show them how to reach safety and escape the storm.”
Then it dawned on him. The story of Christ was no fairytale. It was the most reasonable thing in the world. The one who created and cares for every human being knew there was only one way to lead humankind to safety. God himself had to become human, much as only another bird could lead that anxious flock of birds to safety in his barn. When his family returned, they heard another sermon—the experience of that father.
Our God wants us to have life, and have it abundantly. He gave us a nature that will only really be satisfied when it’s totally directed to the love of him. St. Augustine put it this way, “Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” He sent us the prophets to call us back to him and, still, we couldn’t find the way. So, he took the flesh of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and became one of us, so that he might show us the way of life, of salvation. In fact, through his death on the Cross he himself became the way to the Father. And so Christmas is linked to that greatest of all Christian feasts, the feast of Easter. Through this one man God the Father would accomplish what no teaching, no philosophy, no prophet could do—reconcile the Father with humanity and humanity with itself.
Today we have gathered, just as millions have done for centuries, in response to God’s offering of himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, recognizing that our salvation does not lie in any knowledge we can attain, any books we can write, any nations we can lead, but in this Babe who will give himself for the salvation of the world.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
Christ Mass 2018