Christmas Eve

Transcripts are AI-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Reader: In the song we sing and the sermons we endure, God of love, remind us again that life is a gift and love is the point. When the hands of the homeless, friendless, joyless, lost knock on the door in search of a room, Emmanuel God with us, may we always make room for you. 

Reader: When the deadlines and due dates pull us away from the present, God of the now grant us the courage and the capacity to be here with you like you are here with us. We light a candle tonight for the Christ who came and the Christ who still comes, interrupting all of our stories and bringing peace to our anxious and wandering hearts. 

Reader: God of flesh and blood, of morning prayer and late night whispers for help, grant us new eyes to be fully present so that we do not miss the light right in front of us. Together we say:

Together: A light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot put it out.

Matt: You were rehearsing that all week, weren't you? That worked for me. Can I just tell you real quick? I'm sitting over here. I'm listening to the reading, which you guys obviously nailed. Um, I I'm coming from a service which was wonderful, uh, a bigger church with my wife's family. And uh, like the, the lead pastor wasn't fidgeting with the lights over there, which is why it's dusky here. 'cause we don't know how to change it. And it was like so clean and perfect and amazing in all kinds of ways. But this feels like home to me personally, Elise. 

So thank you for showing up in the mess that we are at The Table. Happy Merry Christmas to you all. Mer Christmas. Thank you. Okay. Wow. I wasn't actually holding it for that traumatic, uh, response, but you know, you know, oh, thanks Mac. That's my sweet nephew. What Even we here, don't get emotional, Matt. 

Hey, let me, um, let me pause real quick and I'm gonna ask you to do the same where we just catch our breath when we recognize, I understand this is a season of hustle and bustle where we're all moving 10,000 different ways and sometimes we're authentic, sometimes we're performative. I'm not, I'm not projecting on you. I'm, this is me confessing, like we're all going through these different things. We're here though, right now on the brink of Christmas morning. So take a deep breath in Stillness. 

Um, my name is Matt Moberg. I'm one of the leaders here of the community we call The Table and, um, I know I say it every Sunday night and I'm gonna say it this night still, if nothing that you gather from a reflection that I offer up on the Christmas story as proposed to us by Luke two, hear this, at least who you are is more important than what you do. Even if what you do gets more attention than who you are, if you walk out with nothing else, carry that nutrient into your week. Who you are is more important than what you do. Even if what you do gets more attention than who you are. 

I'm gonna start with the story. Um, I think I, I gave this a few Christmases ago, but it was so good the first time and it wasn't, it wasn't well received. Like you guys didn't appreciate the beauty of this story, so I'm gonna try it one more time. That's what we learned from our mistakes. So listen up (you two crying child of that's a manning baby). 

A while back on the outskirts of London, Sherlock Holmes and Doc Watson went for a camping trip in the woods and after sharing a hearty meal and a bottle of wine, they called in a night and they went back into their tent for a good hearty rest of sleep. A few hours later though Sherlock Holmes, he was awoken and he chose to turn to his friend Doc Watson. He said, you better wake up as well. He said, Watson, look into the sky and tell me what you see. Watson shaken awake, responds to Sherlock next to him and says, I see millions of stars grace then Holmes in response to, what does that tell you about that though? 

Well, Watson replied astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of pallets. Was that me? Was I do Maggie, why do you look so horrified? Should I carry on? Let's carry on. Well, Watson replied, astronomically tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically tells me that Saturn is in Leo theologically tells me that God is great and that we are small. Horologically tells me that it's about roughly give or take a few 3:00 AM and I shouldn't be up right now. Meteorologically, it tells me that we're gonna probably have a really good, beautiful, clear blue sky kind of day tomorrow. But now tell me Sherlock Holmes, what do you see when you stare into that sky? 

Holmes looked at his friend and he said, well, you know, I certainly could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time being so, but I'm pretty sure that somebody stole our tent. 

That's actually all I got for you. Merry Christmas Drive safe, Choose to uh, yeah. When we think about the Christmas story and we settle into this space where there's poor lighting and miscues all around or making a hot mess, but we are still together. We recall this Christmas story and we recall the angels who break open the dark, the Magi who chased down a star, the pregnant teenage girl who defies logic and follows love despite what is written about her on all of the bathroom walls. And the terrified fiance who is doing his best to restrain his wants for a boy in need of a dad. 

It can be very easy to get so lost in all of the Christmas stars that we miss out on the Christmas story. It can be very easy to speak of the manger without seeing what it means for there to be a child inside of it. So easy to be such a group of folk. We're in a religious context right now. This is ritualistic in a lot of different ways. It is so easy for us to be so tied strictly to a tradition that we forget that we are here to be touched. It can be easy to be so enamored with the props of Christmas that we miss the very point we miss that the tent has actually been taken. We missed the point.

Tonight in our brief space that we have together. I want us to just center in on what is the point of this story that we tell every year on December 24th and 25th. What is the reason that the church for thousands of years now has chosen to regurgitate this story again and again? And like I already mentioned, after sitting through a longer sermon that I'm, you know, I've been conditioned to get used to like, uh, uh, I'm not used to like not, I'm not used to it, period. Lemme make this very concise, straight to the point. Lemme give you what I got. 

There was a time 2000 years ago where God wore skin like you wear skin, which means that you wear skin like God wear skin. There was a moment where those angels did burst and break the darkness at night where the night that we held as normal, as dense, as dark, as suffocating, as the only reality that we knew, there was a moment where it was pierced, where something shifted, something changed, a baby cried, a noise broke out. 

And for some reason, ever since that night, 2000 years ago, we've meeting in spaces just like this to tell this story again and again. Now, cards on the table, maybe it's confession of ego. I should probably do that more often. Jae, don't say anything. 

But I was like, you know, when we get to this Christmas Eve point, I always want to say something to you that is novel, like insightful. Like, uh, oh, you thought there was three magi walking from the east? Turns out that doesn't say three. How dare you? You know what I mean? Like make you feel small so that I can feel big. It's not healthy. I'm not saying that it is, but I always wanna present you with some kind of new angle to approach the Christmas story inside of. And uh, what I come to find out, part of me from making myself sound very old, but the facts are what they are. I've been doing this now for about, well, really close to a decade, Sam. 

We have talked about Mary, we've talked about that teenage girl. We've talked about her courage to follow love over logic. We've talked about Joseph and his uh, uh, integrity and his character and his willing to stand willingness to stand in that gap. We've talked about the magi, the Zoroastrian priests who, who went to see about a star without knowing why. We've talked about all these different things. 

And so in my mind, I kind of had landed at a place that said, I've presented the whole nativity scene to you. Like there's no characters that have been exempt from the past decade of me presenting Christmas Eve sermons. But then my five-year-old son kicked me in the head at 2:48 AM last night and I woke up. And those of you who are unfamiliar with an ADHD mind, uh, once you wake up, you don't go back to sleep, you start spinning. Can I get an amen from anybody else in the thank you. And so my son Graham, who I thought was an angel, but, and he says he loves the Lord, but we've yet to see the fruits of that claim. Oh, you're here. I forgot you were in the room. Okay, kicked me awake at 2:48 AM I went downstairs. I figured this is it. This is what it's gonna be. And I cracked open Luke 2 once again. And in the presence of insomnia and frustration and looking for some kind of angle to present you with tonight, can I just read to you Luke 2 and I want to present to you what I heard at 2:48 in the morning today. 

Luke 2 says like this:

In those days, Caesar Augustus has issued a decreed that a sense should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria and everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house in line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child while they were there. The time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby. 

I've presented to you in the past the shepherds, the reality of them. They were the outcasts, the dismissed, the criminals and the crooks, the addicts, the agnostics, the ones who didn't fit in proper society. 

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby.” They were not working out there. They were living out there. “keeping watch over their flocks at night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them,” not to the prince, not to the president, not to the kings, not to the heads of all kinds of power and authority. They went to the shepherds. “and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were terrified. But angels saw their fear and said, don't be scared. I'll bring you good news that will cause great joy for all of the people today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly on the scene, as we've told the story thousands of times since 2000 years ago, “a great company of the heavenly hosts appeared with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those whom his favor rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 

You know, I've always, I've pontificated about it in the past, but I've always wondered about those shepherd boys out there in the hills living, not working. When is the last time that one shepherd boy turned to another shepherd boy and said, let's go see about a new possibility. Let's get excited about something. Let's pursue a new chapter in our collective story. When I read this story at 2 48 in the AM this morning after being freshly kicked in the jaw by my 5-year-old son. Yeah, it wasn't funny at the time, Jack, thanks. 

The shepherds were also woken up. And I realized I have never stopped and stewed on this part in the story right here where the shepherds are met by an angelic presence. And in their presence they're met by this, this, this chorus that sings “glory to God in the highest.” When I sat and I thought about it, I went to Google and started researching it, which led me to about six in the morning where I started dialing into all these different kinds of books and realized this is seismic activity. This matters right here. 

Whatever you say like about the Christian tradition, whatever you say about your convictions, the things you believe, the things you question, the agnosticism that lies within you, whatever it may not or may not be. This part right here is now flyover territory. I realize why it might feel like it is. 

You have the shepherds getting an announcement. You have the baby in the manger. In between is the angels singing glory to God and the highest, can I break it down for you why it matters to me? Glory, Hebrew word, kavod, it signifies weight. It speaks of like, yes, glory to God as it's been used in scripture from the time beginning to time right now. But it also speaks about like that king right there is weighted down in gold. He's got kavod. It speaks about things that are literally weighty, but also it speaks about things that are figuratively weighty. 

And we do the exact same thing when we think about this word kavod. When somebody goes through something where they're not the same person as they were before they went through it, we would say that they are weighty heavy. They've seen some things that nobody should see. And on the other side of seeing those things, their shoulders slump a little bit lower than they once did. There's a heaviness there. 

When you sit down to that family dinner tomorrow and you say, can we talk about something that's real? What you are saying is, can we put some weight on this conversation and not just regurgitate the failures of the Vikings, not just talk about the weather at hand. Kavod is an understanding of like, sh, stop talking. This matters. This has substance. Angels burst on the scene. They say, glory kavod do God in the highest. 

Now your question should probably be, what does altitude have to do with the kavod we just named? What is it about the highest? Well, from the beginning of scripture to right now at hand, we have the psalmist and others speaking about how the sky, the stars, the network of above us, it speaks of the the handiwork of God, the kavod of God again and again. You have David and other songwriters and poets throughout our scriptural collection who are saying, pay attention to the weight of God as expressed and articulated in the sky above your head. And you know that you didn't need me to tell you it.

Last, well, Lauren, where's Lauren? Three years ago? we went out to a family, uh, Christmas dinner out in Lakeville 20 minutes outside of the city. We drove there, city lights were far behind us. We got out of the car, we mingled. It was forced, but it happened. We got back into the car Prior to doing so, though we stood outside of the car and we looked above our heads, we craned our necks when we recognized, oh my goodness, have these stars been here the whole time? When the scriptures talk about how the skies proclaim the glory, the kavod, the weight of God, that is exactly what they're talking about. 

Now here's the thing that tripped me up, and I want you to pay attention. You have this moment in scripture preceded by all kinds of moments in scripture where people have talked about the glory of God as being ambiguous, unknowable, mysterious up there when you look up and your jaw falls down, when you're filled with awe and you can't say why. When you're met with mystery and you have no mathematics to respond with: kavod of God, pay attention to the kavod of God that drapes above your head. 

But in Luke 2 it says, glory to God and the highest pointing to the highest, pointing to the skies. But then it ushers the shepherds to the lowest place on earth. First time we've ever seen that. If you want to see glory, if you want to see the kavod, the weightiness of God, let me bring you right now into the rubble, the cracks, the worst place imaginable. The feeding trough of animals where there's a teenage girl, nobody will believe that she got impregnated by God. And yet if you listen closely, you can hear that baby cry in the Palestinian night, the joy, the jaw dropping, the awestruck thing that you look up when you see the sky, it's right there in Bethlehem, a baby. And for the first time, and I don't know how long the shepherds run to see what's possible.

When you hear this story, many of us, we tend to think about the angels breaking out up on the sky, light bursting the darkness. This like, uh, uh, grandiose proclamation that is, is amazing and beautiful, but they're always hovering, right? At least in my head. They're either like perched up on a roof or they're hovering slightly below the clouds, the angels. And they're making this proclamation because we tend to think of them in that particular way. Luke goes out of his way and we consistently choose to dismiss it. To say that the angels had their feet firmly planted on the ground in between their angelic toes where dirt was filling up the cracks. They're saying, glory to God and the highest, the kavod of God that we've been talking about for thousands and thousands of years. Now, if you want to see where it's true residence is, may I escort you down to a little town in Bethlehem. 

And when we recognize that, we recognize that God wore skin like ours, but Jenny wears skin like Gods. Maggie wears skin like God’s, my dad wears skin like God’s. What would it look like for you to turn around to your neighbor right now and recognize the face of God that the shepherds ran to see was also the face of the neighbor next to you right now? That God did not just become one of us, but we also became one of God? 

The psalmist says that we were made crowned with glory, kavod with glory, that on each of our heads there is the kavod of God, the glory of God, the weight, the substance, the essence, the beauty, the highlight material is on each and every one of you. Do you understand what that means? Because I'll tell you, I'll, I'll point it out as specifically as I can. 

The reason why The Table exists, the reason why we create space where people have ran out of space. The reason why we wanna make sure that we are always arms open wide and never fist, make sure that some people stay out. You need to know that there's a crown on your head. You need to know that you're not a wretch. You need to know that you're not a mistake. You need to know that no matter how many dumb stupid things you've done, you haven't done enough to remove the crown off of your head. 

Christmas is the exclamation point on that very point right there that says, if Christ is born to a teenage mom in the lowliest of circumstances, let me make it plain that you belong in the family of God. Do not forget who you are. 

Do not forget the reason why we celebrate this season. Why it's liberating news to so many people in oppressed circumstances. 'cause for once, there's a God who makes it plain and says, you belong. You're enough. You are seen, you are celebrated, you're safe. I love you. I'm for you.

For whatever reason, and and I always question the reason. Every time I look in the mirror for whatever reason, Christmas is the story of God saying, Matt is worth it. I'm gonna go still. Even for that addict down there, that hot mess of a man down there. Stefano is worth it. Annie's worth it. Matt is worth it. 

If we start to turn to one another with the Christmas reality fully sunk inside of our bones and we say, you're worth it. You're enough. It doesn't matter how you vote, it doesn't matter where you go, it doesn't matter what you do. I still see the image of God inside of you. And I refuse to turn my back on that because the Christmas story is that the kavod of God was pronounced by angels to rest inside the lowliest places on earth. And if that's not good news, we're missing out on what good news actually is. 

Will you pray with me? Jesus, God, Lord, thank you for this space. God, we can just, um, re-encounter that freeing story, God, that we're enough. Man, we forget that so easily. We are told every day in 10,000 different ways that we're not, that our production falls short, that our sense of self is inadequate, that we actually have no idea who we are. But there's a baby that cries out in the manger that says, you belong, you're sufficient and that God found you in particular among all of the masses worthy of making the trip to be here right now. The angels proclaim. If you wanna see the glory of God in the skies, look to the lowliest place on earth. May we have the courage and the conviction to actually go about doing the same. In Jesus' name, we all pray. Amen.