God Didn’t Wait
December 24, 2007
Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Text: Luke 2:1-20
There is, in love and family life, sometimes a great drive to perfection – we want things to be just right at the holidays. We’d like to finish decorating the house before we have company. We want to be really prepared before we have a baby. We want to have things just perfect for a special occasion with a special someone.
Sometimes this desire for perfection can drive us all really crazy at the holidays – we spend too much so that we can make people as happy as we want to. We worry too much about the details of entertaining. We get too irritable with each other as we are rushing to clean the house or make that last hors d’oevre.
How wonderful that God isn’t a perfectionist!
And yet, we seem to think that God is exactly that. We worry about not measuring up to God, or we criticize God for being judgmental (there’s a certain irony in our making that criticism). We let this supposed perfectionism of God’s be a barrier to our experiencing God’s love and tender care. We think we need to have it together, to get it right, to be part of God’s work, to share in the flow of love and joy through creation.
We need to remember that when God created the world, God pronounced it good, not perfect. We will miss a great deal of what Christmas is about if we are expecting perfection. And yet, so many people want Christmas to be perfect. And there are two more problems with such a goal –
The first problem is that we tend to define perfect for Christmas as Christmas being as it has always been. There is more of a problem with this than it being unrealistic – it is also exactly NOT what Christmas is about, theologically. At Christmas, God reached into human history in a way that did not depend on what had come before. God did a new thing – God entered creation to make a new beginning. And perhaps part of the reason we have trouble receiving that newness is that for many of us, Christmas is all about recreating the feelings of our childhood Christmas.
And that gets to the second problem – the truth of Christmas is not found in our feelings. The truth of Christmas transcends our feelings. The truth that Christmas tells is that in a corner of the world that felt forgotten, God came among us as one of us, trusting Godself to us in coming as a baby. And although it didn’t feel like the world was new, God announced that everything was new: peace on earth, goodwill to all.
And so in that announcement, everything is indeed new: we know that we don’t have to measure up, or be the right kind of person – God has announced peace and goodwill to all. Those who feel uniquely righteous are wrong, those who feel unworthy are also wrong, nothing is as it has been before – unlike the old news, God is among us, and all’s right with the world. God has come to be with us, and nothing will ever be the same. We can know that God is for us, and God is with us, in a way that our actions, our inactions, our feelings, or our lack of feelings cannot change. Jesus went to the cross to prove that God’s love has no limits, and God raised him from the grave to prove that human history does not have the last word – God has the last Word.
And when we dare to believe it, we possess a truth as amazing as did the shepherds who heard the good news from the angels: God has declared peace to the world, and God is with us: we are never alone – in grief, in fear, in loneliness, we are never alone. And our lives, too, have possibilities that do not come only from our own past actions – God has the power to make all things new, even us.
And so while it is nice to have Christmas go as we hope, it is important to remember that Christmas is not what we make it – Christmas is about what God has done, and what God is doing, and who God has made us: people of hope, people of love, people of God.
And because of what has done, and what God comes into our lives to do tonight, we don’t wait for perfection – we rejoice now. Jesus is Immanuel, God-with-us. Madeleine L’Engle, one of my favorite authors, wrote a poem that inspired my thoughts tonight. It’s called First Coming.
He did not wait till the world was ready,
till men and nations were at peace.
He came when the Heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. He did not wait
till hearts were pure. In joy He came
to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
He came, and his Light would not go out.
He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait until the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice! By Madeleine L’Engle
Rejoice indeed. We don’t need to wait for joy. Peace on earth, good will to all: Merry Christmas. Amen.
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Text: Luke 2:1-20
There is, in love and family life, sometimes a great drive to perfection – we want things to be just right at the holidays. We’d like to finish decorating the house before we have company. We want to be really prepared before we have a baby. We want to have things just perfect for a special occasion with a special someone.
Sometimes this desire for perfection can drive us all really crazy at the holidays – we spend too much so that we can make people as happy as we want to. We worry too much about the details of entertaining. We get too irritable with each other as we are rushing to clean the house or make that last hors d’oevre.
How wonderful that God isn’t a perfectionist!
And yet, we seem to think that God is exactly that. We worry about not measuring up to God, or we criticize God for being judgmental (there’s a certain irony in our making that criticism). We let this supposed perfectionism of God’s be a barrier to our experiencing God’s love and tender care. We think we need to have it together, to get it right, to be part of God’s work, to share in the flow of love and joy through creation.
We need to remember that when God created the world, God pronounced it good, not perfect. We will miss a great deal of what Christmas is about if we are expecting perfection. And yet, so many people want Christmas to be perfect. And there are two more problems with such a goal –
The first problem is that we tend to define perfect for Christmas as Christmas being as it has always been. There is more of a problem with this than it being unrealistic – it is also exactly NOT what Christmas is about, theologically. At Christmas, God reached into human history in a way that did not depend on what had come before. God did a new thing – God entered creation to make a new beginning. And perhaps part of the reason we have trouble receiving that newness is that for many of us, Christmas is all about recreating the feelings of our childhood Christmas.
And that gets to the second problem – the truth of Christmas is not found in our feelings. The truth of Christmas transcends our feelings. The truth that Christmas tells is that in a corner of the world that felt forgotten, God came among us as one of us, trusting Godself to us in coming as a baby. And although it didn’t feel like the world was new, God announced that everything was new: peace on earth, goodwill to all.
And so in that announcement, everything is indeed new: we know that we don’t have to measure up, or be the right kind of person – God has announced peace and goodwill to all. Those who feel uniquely righteous are wrong, those who feel unworthy are also wrong, nothing is as it has been before – unlike the old news, God is among us, and all’s right with the world. God has come to be with us, and nothing will ever be the same. We can know that God is for us, and God is with us, in a way that our actions, our inactions, our feelings, or our lack of feelings cannot change. Jesus went to the cross to prove that God’s love has no limits, and God raised him from the grave to prove that human history does not have the last word – God has the last Word.
And when we dare to believe it, we possess a truth as amazing as did the shepherds who heard the good news from the angels: God has declared peace to the world, and God is with us: we are never alone – in grief, in fear, in loneliness, we are never alone. And our lives, too, have possibilities that do not come only from our own past actions – God has the power to make all things new, even us.
And so while it is nice to have Christmas go as we hope, it is important to remember that Christmas is not what we make it – Christmas is about what God has done, and what God is doing, and who God has made us: people of hope, people of love, people of God.
And because of what has done, and what God comes into our lives to do tonight, we don’t wait for perfection – we rejoice now. Jesus is Immanuel, God-with-us. Madeleine L’Engle, one of my favorite authors, wrote a poem that inspired my thoughts tonight. It’s called First Coming.
He did not wait till the world was ready,
till men and nations were at peace.
He came when the Heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. He did not wait
till hearts were pure. In joy He came
to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
He came, and his Light would not go out.
He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait until the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice! By Madeleine L’Engle
Rejoice indeed. We don’t need to wait for joy. Peace on earth, good will to all: Merry Christmas. Amen.