According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring.
Therefore, according to every historical rendition depicting Santa’s reindeer, every single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl. We should’ve known. Only women would be able to pull a fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost!
It was just before Christmas, and the magistrate was in a happy mood. He asked the prisoner who was in the dock, “What are you charged with?”
The prisoner replied, “Doing my Christmas shopping too early.”
“That’s no crime,” said the magistrate. “Just how early were you doing the shopping?”
“Before the shop opened,” answered the prisoner.
Last Saturday as I was heading to the church about 6:50 in the morning, I was listening to the radio. A comedian was being interviewed about his ability to find humor in the most unlikely places. He talked about how necessary humor is in helping us to get through life. I was with him up to this point. And then he said, “After all, we’re all headed to oblivion, aren’t we?” In other words, “We’re all headed to being eternally forgotten. Our lives have no ultimate goal. Eternal life, as everyone knows, is only believed by unsophisticated, not very bright people. You and I, obviously bright, well-informed people, know we’re headed for oblivion.”
Last Wednesday I had a personal encounter with an unbeliever. I had attended the monthly meeting of the board of Resurrection House, the daycare facility for the homeless started by Redeemer over twenty five years ago, and after the meeting I couldn’t get out of the parking lot because a car was blocking the exit. So I went back into Resurrection House and went to the various places where there were volunteers, asking who owned the car blocking the exit. At one point, before I was even able to ask the question, one of the volunteers saw me and shouted at me, “You’re the problem!” I thought, “No, it’s not my car. I’m not the problem!” Then he went on, “You’re the reason for all of the world’s problems!” Then I thought, “Oh no. We’re dealing with a bigger issue here.” He ranted on, “Organized religion is a curse on this world!” I didn’t take it personally. I knew he wasn’t responding to me as a person but was responding to my clerical collar. I wanted to say, “You know, sir, Resurrection House was started by and continues to be supported by organized religion. Besides, we’re not always that organized.” But I didn’t say anything.
Another response to the fellow at Resurrection House as well as to the comedian could borrow the words of Darth Vader as he was talking to Luke Skywalker, “I find your lack of faith…..disturbing.”
Your presence here tonight is a testimony that not all bright, sophisticated people believe we are all headed for oblivion. In fact, what we proclaim at Christmas is the exact opposite. We’re headed for glory! As St. John said in his account of the Gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
We gather tonight to mark the birth of a baby born some 2000 years ago. That birth took place in an insignificant country in the Roman Empire, in an obscure town by the name of Bethlehem. The name Bethlehem means House of Bread. Mary, the baby’s mother, and Joseph, her husband, had travelled to Joseph’s ancestral town in obedience to Roman law, to be enrolled for the purpose of taxation. The town was full of others who were there for the same reason, so they could not find suitable lodging. An innkeeper took pity on the couple, for the woman was obviously pregnant. He let them use his stable, and while there, Mary had her baby, wrapped him in strips of cloth, which she had made sure to bring with her for that purpose, and used for a cradle a feeding trough for livestock, better known to us as a manger.
In one way, it was a birth like any other birth, played out at that time in countless places throughout the world. And since then, millions upon millions of other births have taken place in homes and palaces and hospitals, in the meanest of places and the richest of settings. And yet, it was a birth unlike any other birth in that it was heralded by a host of angels, heavenly beings, erupting with joy over that birth, appearing to shepherds watching over their flocks by night.
And since then, generation upon generation of believers have gathered annually for hundreds of years to celebrate it. For on that particular night, in that particular place, with those particular people something unique in all the world and for all time took place. Almighty God, the creator of this vast universe, who had taken flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, had now entered the world as a newborn infant. He had entered the world in order to give true life, eternal life, to his people by paying the price for their sin through his death on a cross.
The Rev. H. King Oehmig, in commenting on the particulars of the birth of Jesus, says this, “The vulgarity of God,’ someone has called it. Others: ‘The scandal of particularity.’ Perhaps that is the choking point—the reason no Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim will embrace this doctrine. Anyone who naively assumes that all religions dine on the same cuisine had better take another look at the Christmas Day menu.”
The 16th century poet Robert Southwell expressed the awesome significance of this birth:
“This little babe/ so few days old
Is come to rifle Satan’s fold;
All hell doth at his presence quake,/ Though he himself for cold do shake;
For in this weak, unarmed wise,/ The gates of hell he will surprise.”
And so we remember this birth primarily because of the death he was to die.
The culture wars rage on about wishing people a Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays, whether a Christmas tree is appropriate in public places, and if it’s allowed, whether it should be called a holiday tree. The irony is that most Christians aren’t aware of the significance of the Christmas tree. It is an evergreen, which symbolizes eternal life. Eternal life is made available to us through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The sap of the tree signifies Jesus’ blood, another allusion to his death. We should never look at a Christmas tree without thinking of the cross, for the two are inseparably connected. The lights on the tree signify that Jesus is the light of the world. The star at the top recalls the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem.
At Redeemer we have a tradition that points even further to the tree as a connection between the birth of Jesus and his death on the cross. When we take the tree down on Epiphany, Skip Huene will lovingly remove all of the branches, attach them to the trunk, and form a cross that will be displayed in Gillespie Hall throughout the season of Lent, the Christmas tree and the cross clearly tied together in that one symbol.
A very merry Christmas to all of you, with lots of joy and humor. We Christians engage in humor not because we are all headed for oblivion, but because we’re headed for glory. This is a sign of that glory: A Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
Sermon preached by the Very Reverend Fredrick A. Robinson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
Christmas Eve & Christmas morning 25 December 2013