December 1998 Issue

Christmas Eve! "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight!" "How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!" The words we sing, the words that speak to our deepest yearnings, our most poignant longings. "O, Little Town of Bethlehem." God is working out the plan and purpose of Eternity; in the very obscurity of the manger and the stable the "wondrous gift is given." So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of God's heaven.

How to understand the scope and meaning of this night of nights? No way, really, to plumb the depth of the agony of Joseph when he discovered that his beloved Mary was expecting a child. What hopes and fears were dashed to the ground in dust and ashes! Not Mary! No! No! But the word was -- and is -- YES! What shall I do? Where can I turn?

And then the word from God. "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20,21)

Even though we know the story so well, it is still incredible when we stop to think about it. This, simply, is not the way things are! Joseph knew that. We know that. And what of Mary? How agonizing to look into the eyes of her betrothed and to see the incredulity, the suspicion, the doubt. How awful yet comforting to know that despite his fears and feelings he did not want to make a public spectacle of her and put her to shame. How impossible to explain the conversation with Gabriel and how deeply she was troubled. How understandable her inability to comprehend that she was to be with child since she had no husband. How trusting to hear her words, "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38)

How long the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem! How frustrating that there was "no room for them in the Inn." How demeaning to lay one's first born in a manger. Yet the wonders continued to come. In the darkness of the night there is a star -- a star which comes to shine over the place where the young child lay. Shepherds appear telling incredible tales of angels turning heaven into a choir loft, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth good will to those with whom God is well pleased."

Of course, it was not a new word. Isaiah had known it long ago. "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel! God with us! Incredible! But true! (Is. 7:14)

Christmas Eve! So dark the night, so strange the stable, so fearsome the choir of angels. And just then, the Christ was born. To mortal eyes the darkness was all around. The short days, the long nights. But the fact is that the power of darkness is already broken. Only a few days ago we passed the Winter Solstice. Did we notice? Not really, for the turn is so imperceptible that it seems as nothing. Yet, it is true. In the words of Edward R. Murrow, "We had passed through mid-night toward the dawn without knowing it." Lift up your eyes!

Paul helps put this in broader perspective. God had promised this beforehand through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures, the good news concerning the Son, "who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 1:3,4) In the child of Bethlehem

-- Son of God -- we are "called to be saints" (Rom. 1:7) which has nothing to do with our righteousness but is the act of God in Jesus Christ, blessed and renewed by God.

As pastors we are empowered by this word. We know, probably more than most, that loneliness is more intense at Christmas time than any other season of the year. Amid all the gaiety, the tinsel, the colored lights, the carols there is the awareness of the empty chair, the memory of one loved long since and lost awhile, the dear one far away who will not be able to "be home for the holidays," and of being, oneself, far away with no prospect of return. The poignancy is deepened by the words of the familiar song, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams."

And so it is that in our busy-ness which is part and parcel of the season we make time for those whose tears are just below the surface, whose longing never quite goes away. The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the stark background of the stable, the pain of birth are just beneath the surface in the world of our people. "He came a little baby thing that made a woman cry."

It is in the context of this kind of loneliness and pain that the ancient word of the Psalmist speaks meaningfully to us all. "Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!" (Ps. 24:9-10)

To be sure, this is not a word of exhortation or command. Put in that format it would not be pastoral at all. Who, in response to a word of exhortation can banish loneliness? To hear this word as a "requirement" would only make the isolation more stark. The word is clearly a word of affirmation. This is what is happening! This is what transpires in the midst of our pain and loneliness. The KING is coming; the KING is here! None of the trappings of royalty, no palace, no robe of purple, no retinue of servants, no crown or mace. But THE King! And this word on this day of Christmas Eve enables us to see through the mist of tears and tinsel to know that the Lord is visiting the people, each of us, from the least to the greatest. We hear the carols, we listen to the words from the Word, we experience the presence of the people of God, and through our tears and lonelinesses, we know in the depth of our being that it is true.

In a way that did not -- does not -- seem possible, we are once again aware that in fact "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein; for he has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers." (Ps. 24:1,2) "Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in."

Christmas Eve. We stand on tiptoe peering into God's future, mindful of God's promises, conscious of the fact that this, truly, is the "hinge of history," and we are granted the opportunity to experience again that which has sustained us through the years. Emmanuel, God with us.

"How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him, still the dear Christ enters in." (Phillips Brooks) This is the mystery, the wonder, the glory of Christmas that shatters the darkness of the night and brings light into our hearts and the hearts of all people. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom God is pleased." (Luke 2:14)

William B. Oglesby, Jr. (deceased)