Christmas Eve 2018, ICCM ; Pastor Rebecca Ellenson
Merry Christmas! I’m so glad to see each and every one of you here. We come each year to the manger, seeking what is true and holy and we open our hearts to the mystery of God in flesh. We sing timeless carols in the candlelight and then we track our way back into the messy world, centered somehow again by the most true and holy reality of all.
I brought just a select few of my favorite Christmas decorations to Mexico this year. I have the glass nativity set I received on my first Christmas as a pastor, one of the angels from my collection, and a candle holder of cut metal that shines a halo of light around the holy family. I also brought this ornament which has been displayed in our entryway this year. It reminds me of a plumb bob—you know the simple carpenter’s tool that measures a vertical line. To me this ornament says perfection, truth, clarity.
The plumb bob is a biblical image for the righteousness and justice of God against which we can measure our lives. Amos 7: 9 says “behold I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people.” And Isaiah 28: 17 says, “I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb bob.”
Righteousness and Justice are concepts, principles, subject to interpretation and context. The plumb bob on the other hand demonstrates the underlying and unchangeable laws of physics. The bob will always hang plumb, just as water will always rest level. They are tools that show us truth, dependably.
This definition of True has been right there in front of my eyes this year. You see, there’s been construction in our building again this year, the building of balconies. We’ve heard the pounding of hammers and seen the mixing of cement and the carrying of buckets of cement. I’ve been shaking my head in amazement over the ability of the workers, with such simple tools to create structures that are true, you know: plumb (perfectly vertical), level (perfectly horizontal) and square (two lines meeting at a 90 degree angle) at the same time. Those mathematical and physical concepts show up in reality.
This holy night is something like that. In the crude and simple manger bed, the holy Christ Child lay. The birth of Jesus presents us with a visible reality of the underlying and ever-present truth. Language can barely convey it. The first chapter of Hebrews tries to capture it. Christ is the exact imprint of God’s very being. Paul tries in the first chapter of his letter to the Colossians: In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. John’s gospel begins with that great poetry, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory… full of grace and truth. But words can only do so much. And that’s the real beauty and power of this holy night.
The Christmas gospel call us in, right back to the center, to what is true, grounded in the mystery of reality itself. When we think of the angels’ song, “Glory to God in the highest,” the shepherds visit to the lowly manger, the beautiful face of Mary with eyes all aglow as she beholds her Messiah child, and the invitation to come close to the holy this Christmas we can get back to the standard set for us, to the center of our created purpose, to keep our eyes fixed on the one who calls us to faith.
This holy night invites us to realize that by varying degrees we have been out of plumb, off kilter. One writer put it this way: “unless that which is above you controls that which is within you, then that which is around you will.”
Last week ABC broadcast A Charlie Brown Christmas for the 53rd year on prime time television. In a world where the latest greatest technology is outdated in a matter of months, and social media trends come and go in a matter of days, 53 years of anything becomes quite meaningful. I was four when the program first aired and I suppose I’ve seen the show a dozen times or more. I’m guessing most of you have seen it too. It’s really the only Christmas show I miss watching.
I love that climactic scene where Linus responds to Charlie Brown’s question, “Doesn’t anyone know what Christmas is all about?” by boldly heading out to center stage, asking for “lights please” and then reciting the Christmas story from Luke’s gospel… Right in the middle of speaking, Linus drops the blanket.
Charlie Brown is best known for his uniquely striped shirt, and Linus is most associated with his ever-present security blanket. Throughout the story of Peanuts, Lucy, Snoopy, Sally and others all work to no avail to separate Linus from his blanket. And even though his security blanket remains a major source of ridicule for the otherwise mature and thoughtful Linus, he simply refuses to give it up… until that particular moment in the Christmas story, when he simply drops it…
Three years ago, the last time I saw the show I noticed for the first time a little detail that I am now convinced was intentional. At the specific moment when Linus drops the blanket he utters the words, “fear not”. Looking at it now, it is pretty clear what Charles Schultz was saying, and it’s so simple it’s brilliant.
The birth of Jesus separates us from our fears.
The birth of Jesus frees us from the habits we are unable (or unwilling) to break ourselves.
The birth of Jesus allows us to simply drop the false security we have been grasping so tightly and learn to trust and cling to Him instead.
The world of 2018 can be a scary place, and most of us find ourselves grasping to something temporal for security, whatever that thing may be. Essentially, 2018 is a world in which it is very difficult for us to “fear not.”
But in the midst of fear and insecurity, a simple cartoon image from 1965 can remind us to seek true peace and true security in the one place it has always been and can always still be found.
It’s what Christmas is all about.