Sermon, 12/24/24: A Vital Statistic

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Christmas Eve Homily

Psalm 96; Isaiah 9:2–7; Titus 2:11–14; Luke 2:1–14 (15–20)

In those days a degree went out from Emperor August that all the world should be registered.  Luke 2:1

So here we are.  We have come, some as people of faith, some as seekers of faith, some as occasional doubters, and some perhaps out of mere curiosity.   We are here, to observe and to honor tradition, to celebrate the birth of the one sent by an unseen, intangible being, whom we address as God.    

As you have come to expect in my meditations, I come with questions.  And on this holy night, my question takes the form of an assignment.  In an earlier era and location, I would ask you to take out your pencil/pen, and your notebooks.  However, a well-known and highly respected academic wrote recently in the Atlantic, a national periodical, that people no longer write, that is to say, no longer use cursive, in order to communicate.  Rather, we reach for our smartphones.  We text each other. 

Because this assignment is personal, for you only, surely you do not use your smartphone to communicate with yourself.  Leave your smartphones wherever you have stored them, and turned off.  To complete this assignment, I ask you instead to use your mind.  Relax!  This assignment is not in preparation for the Pre-SAT, the SAT, nor the ACT exams.  Also not for the GRE, MCAT or LSAT exams. It is, however, time-sensitive.

Lacking a stopwatch, I will be the timekeeper.  Using the next 5 seconds, write down in your mind the single most important date in your life.  Now, I want you to write down in your mind the name of the individual who has been most significant to you, whose influence has contributed to your life’s direction.  Now, being the generous person that I am, I give you the opportunity to change your response to the first item in this assignment: What is the most important date in your life?

Take a deep breath.  Relax!  I shall not ask for a show of hands for a volunteer to share with us her or his “most important date.”  After all, we are Anglicans, and we Episcopalians do not engage in such public displays.  Rather, we use the Virgin Mary as our example.  When it was declared to her that she was to be the bearer of the human form of the Eternal Word, of the Messiah, she pondered that news and guarded it in her heart.  You may do the same.  My assignment, though, still stands, but now as a direct question:  What is the most significant date in your life?  I give you a teaser.  That date has everything to do with the celebration of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and why we are here tonight.  I do not know the answer which you have chosen, but the one which I have chosen for you is: the date of your birth.

During the Season of Advent, when we hear annually the words of the prophets concerning the birth of Jesus, and hear incessantly piped carols in stores, we can hardly wait to get to the creche, to the barn at Bethlehem.  Tradition causes us to return to the stable in Bethlehem.  It is meet and right so to do, because it was in that most unlikely of places that the Divine entered into human history.  Yet, in our excitement and desire to get to the creche, in our anticipation of the joyful celebration of God Incarnate, we give slant attention to a very important element in the birth of Jesus.  Therefore, I repeat it here: “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that the world should be registered.”  (Luke 2:1) Rome was the imperial power at that time, and although they were Hebrews, Jews, Mary and Joseph set out on a journey to Joseph’s birthplace.

Emperor Augustus needed funds to support his kingdom and proceeded to act as rulers, both before and since, have done: he instituted a tax.  However, to levy a tax, a census had to be undertaken. Caesar had to know whom he could tax.  This is the basis for my proposal that the most important date in your life is the day that you were born.

Think for a moment how often and under what circumstance you have had to prove your existence.  When our nation was still in its infancy, births were entered into the family’s Bible, and our federal and state governments recognized those recordings as valid.  Today, almost certainly, in order to enroll in school, to get a learner’s permit or driver’s license, or a passport, we must present a Certificate of Live Birth, colloquially called a ‘birth certificate.’ 

I state the obvious: You and I were present at our birth; yet, we have no recollection of that seminal event.  Rather, we must rely on the accuracy of that Certificate of Live Birth and the testimony of those who have cared for us since our birth, even though they may no longer be among us, that on such and such a date and at such and such an hour, we entered into a lineage that reaches back to Adam and Eve, as our faith teaches and we proclaim.  Our own nation, the United States of America, without announcing it as such, has instituted a personal ID.  Infants may now be given a Social Security Number, which in many European countries, such as in Germany, is called exactly that: Personal ID, a number unique to that individual.

Without objection, we accept these official descriptions from our own Caesar Augustus.  They define who we are: height, color of hair, color of skin, weight, and countless other external attributes, by which we may be identified.  These items, the birth certificate, the personal ID, the physical description—all validate our human existence and are used to distinguish each of us individually from another.  These descriptive adjectives and nouns allow others to define us, to categorize us for their and our mutual convenience, and such categorization can produce both positive and negative outcomes.  However, do they tell us about our real self, about the real you, the real me, the real Other, in whose face we see the face of God? 

Journey with me a bit further, if you would, closer to the creche, to that manger in Bethlehem which depicts for us the birth of Christ. The next question which I pose to you is this: why was the birth of Jesus necessary?  Most assuredly it was not because Caesar Augustus expected Jesus to pay any taxes.  My response is direct: You and I are that reason.  My response is not one based on hubris, is not a declaration of self-importance.  Unless I have misread and misunderstood the prophets, the writers of the gospels, and the letters of Paul and others to communities ancient of days, Christ’s birth takes place to reaffirm your uniqueness, your intrinsic and undeniable value as a human being. You are special.

I present evidentiary materials which can be retrieved from our Book of Records, from Google, from materials which are not classified under “secret,” “confidential” or “Top Secret.”  Rather, the evidence, which I now lay before you, is available for all to read.  It is in the public domain.  Hear, now, what I discovered, in our Book of Records:

The writer of the Book of Genesis establishes you and  indisputable value (Genesis 1:27):

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created him.  And God blessed them.

The psalmist (Psalm 139) has reaffirmed your and my value as humans in God’s eye:

O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me!

Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up…

Thou searchest out my path and my lying down…

Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?

Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?…

For thou didst form my inward parts,

Thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Luke reaffirms our value (Luke 12: 6f.):

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.  Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

John the Apostle restates the reason for the Incarnation (I John 4:9):

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

More evidence I could lay before you, but we have reached this year the destination of our journey.  We have arrived at the creche.  We may now celebrate with songs of praise, and by adorning our homes and our houses of worship.  Each of us brings to this celebration memories formed out of our individual experiences and unique traditions.  Yet, such differences and uniqueness notwithstanding, no matter our individual starting point, our journey has caused us to remember another unique birth, that of Jesus in Bethlehem.

Dear people of God, consider further this.  The celebration of the birth of Christ is an annual reminder of the opportunity which is afforded each of us.   As people of faith, at whatever point in our journey we find ourselves, we have every spiritual right to call into question and reject any and all attempts that would diminish our personhood, a being which is created in the image of God.  On this Holy Night, we reconnect, each in our own way, with that Ground of Being who looked at the Creation and declared it good, but who saw that we had strayed from the divine precept like lost sheep and there was no health in us, and therefore required corrective measures, a reminder of who and whose we are.  As we stand and glaze with awe before the creche of Bethlehem, we are reminded that our value is not determined by the income declared on a W-2 form or the amount of taxes which our Caesar Augustus levies against us. 

Secondly, using as our example the birth of Christ whose ministry then and over millennia has been to reconnect the harmony of God to the created order, you and I can reclaim each year on the date recorded on our Certificate of Live Birth the right and obligation to a personal New Year.  On that day, we can renew our commitment to travel the path which will bring us to a harmonious life with and under God.  The birth of Christ reaffirms a birthright given to us at Creation and embedded in each of us at the time of our own birth.  It is a birthright which resides in Christ, and Christ in us, for he is Emmanuel, God with us.  It is that which we celebrate on this Holy Night.  Amen.