Christmas Eve – December 24, 2018 – Luke 2:1-20
Luke 2:1-20
Beauty Leaving the World, Beauty Coming into the World
Christmas Eve – December 24, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I hated things coming to an end when I was a child.
Things that I enjoyed, and things that I loved.
Every week, say, when The Rockford Files ended –
or, hey – even, and maybe especially, Charlies Angels.
Something great, over again, for another week.
And then . . . both The Rockford Files and Charlies Angels were cancelled!
Quel dommage!
That was a great sadness and weighed heavily on my young heart.
But saddest of all was when I finished reading The Lord of the Rings,
the 3 volumes of which I had ridden my bike literally across Regina to collect.
It made me feel very much like the Elves in the story,
who are slowly but surely leaving Middle-Earth,
to go to the undying lands of the gods in the west – their story is kind of over.
In the movies you see the Elves slowly marching through the world to the coast where
they will leave on ships – and it is all unbearably sad.
There is a great sadness that hovers over the whole story,
and it is encapsulated by this sadness of the elves.
The elves brought beauty into Middle-Earth: they were the ones who brought
poetry and music and light to the world.
But now they are leaving – and that part of their lives is over.
The world has become inhospitable.
Treachery, lies, and endless war and suffering have overtaken an originally beautiful place
filled with ancient forests and starlight.
And so, they leave, because apparently there is no place left for their beauty.
Beauty is leaving the world.
Well, Tolkien originally came up with the concept for his massive story during and after
World War One, the horrors of which he experienced first hand.
Certainly, to many, then, it seemed as if Beauty were leaving the world, forever.
In that war more troops died than the entire population of Canada at the time.
It seemed certainly as if Beauty were leaving the world.
And Tolkien’s story still feels very contemporary, a hundred years later.
We experience Beauty leaving the world every day.
It has been a difficult year.
Treachery, lies, endless wars and violence seem to leave fewer and fewer nooks and
crannies for beauty to flourish.
Fewer and fewer spaces where friendship, and honour, and hospitality can flourish.
Beauty seems to be leaving the world.
And yet – and yet, you are here.
Because the promise of this night, of this magical, beautiful night,
is that Beauty is coming into the world.
The story of this night is that someone beautiful has come into the world.
At first a child, and then a teen, and then an adult who brings the most beautiful gifts into
world of treachery, and lies, and violence:
peace, friendship, inclusion, hospitality, healing, grace – and forgiveness.
These are the beautiful things that come into the world with this beautiful person.
And on this night, here at Sargent and Victor, we celebrate them with
beautiful music, beautiful words, beautiful light, beautiful prayers,
and beautiful wine and bread.
It is our affirmation that although Beauty seems to be leaving the world,
God in fact continues to bear Beauty into the world, light into darkness.
We celebrate, though, something that not just happened once long ago in Bethlehem.
There would be little to celebrate in only that.
We celebrate something that God continues to do day in and day out here at Sargent and Victor.
From the first Christians celebrated that God continued to bear something beautiful into the
through them.
Outsiders were astonished that Christians would heal and feed those outside their communities.
Tonight, on this night, God bears something beautiful to you.
Light in your darkness.
Forgiveness for your failings.
The assurance that you are not defined by your mistakes but by the love God bears for you.
Tonight, on this night, God bears to you the assurance that you can make a difference,
that you have something to offer the world and those around you.
God bears to you the precious gift of hope, for those you love – and for this whole world.
God offers a promise that the ugliness of treachery, and lies,
and violence will not have the last world.
That this world was made for beauty, for poetry and music, for friendship and love and kindness.
With Jesus’ birth, God bore that into the world.
With Jesus’ resurrection God ensured that nothing could get in the way of
the persisting beauty of justice and sharing.
With this Holy Communion on this night God bears that beauty into you.
The beauty of forgiveness, the beauty of kindness, the beauty of sustenance,
through this gift of bread and wine made by our own members with their own hands.
Take this gift – and become something beautiful for others –
wrap up these gifts with a bow and give them away.
Volunteer at our food banks.
Volunteer at our community meals where friendships are formed and
people assured of their beauty and worth.
Bring something beautiful into the world.
That is what Christmas is for.
And that is what First Lutheran Church at Sargent and Victor is for.
Here, Beauty is coming into the world – again.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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