Sermon for December 24th (Christmas Eve)

Life is full of little interruptions. You have your life all planned out, or at least your day planned out, or at least your evening planned out and suddenly everything changes. You’re walking out the door right on time for a meeting and the phone rings—Pardon the interruption—but someone would like you to buy another credit card with a very low balance transfer rate for the first fifteen minutes you own it. After politely saying no three times you hang up only to discover that you are now late—Pardon the Interruption. You get out to the car and realize that, yes indeed, it is December in Connecticut and there is ice covering your windshield. You forgot it had snowed--Pardon the Interruption—but you’ve got to scrape it off before you start going anywhere and now you are going to be even later. Of course, by driving a little dangerously, a little faster than usual, you make it to your meeting pretty much on time only to read a note on the door—“Cancelled due to bad weather.” Pardon the interruption.

Life is full of little interruptions. Some people handle them well, some people don’t, but everyone has to deal with them. They can be little interruptions, like tests of the emergency broadcast system, or they can be big interruptions, like notices of foreclosure. They can be wonderful interruptions that have been hoped for and planned on, “Honey! I’m pregnant!” And they can be scary interruptions that have not been planned on, “Honey. I’m pregnant.” Interruptions can change your life drastically, like losing a child, husband or mother in a sudden car accident. Or they can simply change your view on life, like watching a good movie for the first time. Interruptions happen every day of the year, 24/7 and they even happen on holidays and weekends. And, in case you haven’t noticed, if you haven’t had a big one yet this year, interruptions love to happen around Christmas time. The first Christmas was, in fact, one great big interruption.

“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered to Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.” I’d reckon that any decree from Emperor Augustus would have been at least a little interruption in a person’s daily life, but demanding that every man, woman and child be registered must have been a huge interruption, especially when you consider that people sometimes had to leave their town to get it done. So here are Joseph and Mary, a very pregnant Mary it seems, riding to Nazareth instead of preparing for the birth of their first child—Pardon the Interruption.

“While they were there [in Nazareth] the time came for Mary to deliver her child.” Pardon the interruption! Yeah! Anyone here have a baby while they were away on a trip? I can’t imagine that woudn’t be a surprise. You’d think that when the Angel told Mary she was pregnant, it could have given her a little head’s up as to the timing, but God likes interruptions as you will see for yourself. “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

The world had been moving along swimmingly for a long time. Sunrise, sunset. Seasons would come and seasons would go. But Pardon the Interruption, God becomes flesh. Jesus Christ is born. Up to this point in the life of the world, God created human beings, he breathed life into human beings, but he had never become a human being. One night in Nazareth he did. And from that moment on, even though it was two thousand years ago, your life was forever changed. Pardon the Interruption.

“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Pardon the interruption shepherds, sheep and Cornwall, Connecticut. God was born as a human being. After this kind of an interruption, your life will never be the same.

“This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven and, and on earth peace among those he favors!” Martin Luther once said that if you want to see God in his most glorious state, don’t look up into the clouds for any heavenly throne—you need not look any farther than Jesus Christ, a babe in swaddling clothes, nursing at his mother’s breast. THAT is God himself—pardon the interruption.

This interruption of God upon your life doesn’t come to you in a series of grand ideas that you can mull over and consider for the rest of your life as a great philosopher. Jesus Christ is much more than a nice idea. God’s interruption into your life isn’t always some grand experience that you will be forced to try to recreate over and over again in your life like some kind of religious drug addict in search of another good trip. Knowing Jesus Christ is more than an awesome experience. Jesus Christ wasn’t given to you as an idea and he wasn’t given to you just to make you feel good. Jesus Christ was given to you as a baby human being: touchable, seeable, kissable and, we will later find out, killable, just like you.

Many people talk about “peace on earth” at Christmas time, as if it were some kind of wonderfully abstract idea. Give a little more to the Salvation Army bell ringers and maybe it will happen. Give another present, maybe you’ll be a part of it. But peace on earth crawled before he walked and he is as present today as he was in that manger, though we trust he is here in faith and not by sight. Peace on earth came as an interruption, wearing the same diaper as Jesus Christ. And faith in this Jesus gives you peace not just on earth but in the eyes of God himself.

Many people talk about the “spirit of Christmas” as a warm, fuzzy spirit that brings happiness and joy, but the “spirit of Christmas” is God himself and he is a lot more than just some superficial sort of love. He is all about a heartsplitting kind of love that ends up dying for the very people who murder him. Christmas is about God becoming flesh and bone not just to love people in a general way, but to love you, a sinner, who has no future, no hope and no life apart from God’s forgiveness. Pardon the Interruption, but, for you, Christmas is much more than cookies, holiday cheer and presents. Christmas is God’s gift to you, that no matter how naughty or nice you are, Jesus was born and died so that you would live with him forever. Through the life and death of Jesus Christ, you are put at peace in God’s eyes, for he has favored you through the birth of his son.

Pardon the Interruption, but when your life has been interrupted by Jesus Christ, nothing else is ever the same. Life is full of little interruptions, but Jesus Christ changes everything. He’s the biggest interruption this world has ever seen. He even interrupts the holiday created in his name by doing more than just talking about love and peace and goodwill towards all people. He gives you love by forgiving your sins. He gives you peace by promising you eternal life. Pardon the interruption, but Jesus Christ was born for you. Your life and your death will never be the same. You have a Savior now. Amen.