Christmas Eve
Readings: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96, Luke 2:1-14
It was exactly 100 years ago today that the first Christmas Eve service was held in this Chapel. The small congregation had worked and prayed for thirteen years to raise the money to build on the small corner lot that had been donated for this purpose. Every day after they finished their shifts in the mills or maritime profession, parishioners would come to do the labor themselves. Meals were provided by their wives and mothers. Much of the wood and other materials were donated. Ballard was then the shingle capital of the world and the cedar shakes and beams were milled right down the street.
The stained glass window behind the altar would come later. The original furnishings, including the altar were reused from an earlier Ballard Church, St. Stephen’s Episcopal, which had closed 20 years earlier. They decorated for Christmas with cedar boughs and candles. The earliest photos show a modest, humble parish church in a mostly working class neighborhood dominated by lumber, fishing and saloons!
Can you imagine it? Families, friends and neighbors walking at night to the brand new church, singing carols with a piano since there was yet no organ, lighting candles and worshiping the babe born in the simplicity and humility of the manger. Silent Night. Holy Night.
Just a few years ago it snowed at Christmas. Most folks couldn’t get out of their driveways, including our musician. The church looked magical with candles in all the windows shining into the snow covered streets. People who weren’t able to attend their own churches in other neighborhoods walked through the streets and packed our sanctuary. Without a musician, we sang everything acapella and it was beautiful, simple and humble. Silent Night. Holy Night.
That first Christmas in Bethlehem must have been the same. The circumstances were more than humble, they were downright impoverished as the desperate couple searched for a place for Mary to give birth. The stable was made of wood, the feeding trough made into a makeshift cradle. This was no royal palace for a king to be born. It was barely one step removed from homelessness.
And yet, the stars shone, the angels sang, a mysterious and holy light filled the room and those who came to see this new child – the parents, the poor shepherds and even the lowly animals were filled with awe and wonder. One thing every crèche gets right is the gaze of love and delight with which Mary and Joseph behold the baby Jesus. Silent Night. Holy Night.
There is a timelessness to Christmas Eve. Time is no longer linear but instead loops round and round as we circle back through the years and our experience of this holy night. The loops draw us into the past, all the way back to that first Christmas and the birth of the Christ and carry us forward in hope that God’s Messiah will come again in peace, love and joy.
And yet, Jesus was born at a specific time and place, under a particular government and in difficult circumstances. There are political leaders who are easily threatened by any opposition to their oppressive reign. This baby’s birth throws Herod into such insecurity that he later has all male children under two slaughtered to prevent a future coup. The cloths the baby is wrapped in are a foreshadowing of the burial cloths wound round Jesus after his crucifixion. The light shone but there were also very dark times ahead.
In 1924 we were in between two horrific world wars. The flu epidemic of 1918-1920 killed 50 million people around the globe. Just a few years later the stock market would crash plummeting many into desperation and creating huge numbers of unhoused and hungry people. Also in 1924 the revival of the Ku Klux Clan attracted 50,000 people to gatherings in Renton and Issaquah.
Even on this holy night, we are aware of the challenges in our own lives, our nation and especially to our planet. It is not that the coming of Christ magically removes all the difficulties but rather that God chooses to come among us in the midst of our messy, imperfect lives. God enters the world in the Christ child and we are gifted with peace, hope and joy in the midst of all that troubles us.
Follow the time loop back with me. Here is Joseph trying to protect a family that doesn’t meet standard expectations. He has been faithful and true despite the unusual nature of Mary’s pregnancy and the challenge of this journey. You can sense his anxiety about whether or not he’s up to this whole fatherhood thing. Will he be able to provide for and protect them? Can he love this son that is both his and God’s? Will he have the strength and patience for what lies ahead?
Imagine the shepherds. They dwelled on the outskirts of society, living rough, not very clean and associated with petty criminality (whether that was accurate or not). Why are they the ones to hear the angels sing? What allows them to pay attention to the heavenly voice and gives them the courage to believe the angelic proclamation? And why are they chosen? Is it their humility or their proximity to life and death while living outside? Maybe, of all people, they need the miracle of hope in a dark world.
Draw near to Mary, giving birth for the first time at a young age and without the security of a home. Her only companions a not-yet husband, barnyard animals and a bunch of stinky shepherd dudes. Where has she found the courage to say “yes” to God, “yes” to new life, “yes” to embracing a new vision for a world that is turned upside down by the birth of this baby? Later in the story it says that “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” She takes God within herself and provides a place for love to be born and hope to be restored.
Tonight there is a star shining over this very location, the place where Christ is born yet again into willing hearts. When you leave, be sure to look up and directly to the east. There you will see the star of Ballard, shining where we are “building a place for love to dwell.” The star was created by the construction crew for our 84 unit affordable housing building. It is placed on the crane where our new 8 story building is underway. Next Christmas families and those who cannot afford a home in this neighborhood will be celebrating in a warm and secure apartment set up for those who make 30-60% of Seattle’s average income.
This is (we think) the final Christmas that will be celebrated in this chapel. Soon our current buildings will be torn down as we create more affordable housing and a new church space on the ground floor of a second 8-story building. Our space will include 3 classrooms for affordable childcare. The Joseph’s and Mary’s of our community will not only have a place to rest their heads, but their dear children will have a loving space to learn and grow that is available for those who could not otherwise afford it.
Our past and future come together on this holy night. For it is in the eternal now that Jesus comes into our lives. The babe in the manger, the Messiah on the cross and the resurrected Christ pour love and light into our lives and into the world around us. In this simple and humble church we are graced with the love of God and the power of the Spirit to live lives that are meaningful, faithful, devoted and true. May God be with you on this silent night, this holy night. Amen.
