Riding the Wave of Love: A Christmas Eve Sermon

​Back in the good old days, when my children were still young and sweet(!), we had a strict routine on Christmas Eve.
 
My children were well aware of the song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” I am NOT going to sing it. But you probably know the words.
 
“You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town.
He's making a list
He's checking it twice
He's going to find out
Who's naughty and nice, Santa Claus is coming to town.”

That’s scary enough. Then comes the worst part.

“He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows when you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake.”
 
Mostly little Benjamin and Nicholas were good. And they early on recognized that Santa was forgiving if they botched it.
 
Still, we wanted Santa to be in a good mood when he showed up at our house, so we did everything we could to make that happen.
 
We put out a plate of cookies. Santa must have liked them because they were always gone in the morning. Looking back, I suspect Santa actually needed a thermos of hot coffee more than cookies, but cookies were good.
 
We figured that the reindeer were working hard that night too, so we would put out a bowl of water and a handful of baby carrots for them.
 
Perhaps most important of all, we followed Santa on the Norad Santa Tracker. It showed us where Santa was at any given moment. Knowing where Santa was mattered because we weren’t sure that Santa would stop at our house if our children were still awake when he was delivering presents in Georgia. Santa was always coming up from the south, so New England children have a little more time. But poor little Benjamin and Nicholas had to hustle to bed soon after supper to be on the safe side.
 
Now that Benjamin and Nicholas are adults, we are a little less focused on Santa. But our stockings are up, and I imagine we will still check the Norad Santa Tracker when we get home because that has become part of our Christmas.
 
I loved our routine of getting ready for Santa. But I used to worry that our focus on Santa might distract us from Christ. Certainly that can and does happen. In our culture, Santa often seems to get more attention than Jesus around Christmas. 
 
But I have come to appreciate that Santa and Jesus aren’t rivals. Santa and Jesus are on the same team. Santa does his thing as a celebration of Jesus’ birth. Santa loves children because Santa knows that Jesus does, too.
 
As we just heard in our Gospel reading, on the first Christmas, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. At first sight, he looked like a perfectly ordinary baby born in perfectly ordinary circumstances.
 
But then an angel showed up, announcing to a group of shepherds the good news of great joy that the savior had been born. A multitude of the heavenly host appeared, praising God and blessing us with peace.
 
This was no ordinary baby! With the baby Jesus, there was an explosion of God’s love, first in Bethlehem, then rippling out through the holy land and sweeping over the entire globe, bathing every human being in divine love and grace.
 
Every Christmas since, people have celebrated Christ’s birth, listened again to the good news of great joy, and shared in the wave of love and grace that Christ brings.
 
Over the years, that celebration has taken many forms. It started with people decorating their homes. Christmas festivities went public when the Roman Empire became Christian.
 
In a development important to me, exactly eight hundred years ago, on Christmas Eve 1223, Saint Francis put together the first Nativity at a little town in Greccio. That was Francis’ effort to celebrate and to share the good news of Christmas, to join in the wave of divine love that continued to sweep across the globe.
 
Tonight, in his different way, Santa does exactly the same thing, celebrating and sharing God’s love as revealed to us in Christ, riding the wave of love that got started on that first Christmas.
 
And, throughout the Christmas season, we do the same in our different ways.
 
When we send cards or share meals or give gifts, when we gather with people we love or donate to a good cause or spend time in service to people in need, when we remember those who have gone before us and nurture and care for those who come after us, we are celebrating and sharing Christ’s love. We are riding that same wave of love.
 
Tonight, here and now, we come together in Christ’s name. And the one who was born two thousand years ago in Bethlehem is with us, as he promised. Tonight we celebrate and share Christ’s love with each other.
 
And tonight we name that wave of divine love. It all comes from Christ. It is Christ. And it leads us to Christ.
 
It is up to us, God’s people in this time and place, to do what we can to make sure the people around us do not lose sight of the reason for this season, that people around us hear the good news of great joy that our Savior was born and that our Savior lives. It is up to us to do our part to keep the wave of love going, in this season, and throughout the year.
 
We are caught up in the explosion of love that began on that first Christmas Eve two thousand years ago. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
 
In Christ’s name. Amen.