Christmas Eve Service

“Star of Wonder, Lead us to Peace”

Christmas Eve - December 24, 2022

Pastor Deb Birkeland- BRCC

Grace to each of you and joy as we gather as a family of believers in the Christ to celebrate his birth.

I have a story to share with you tonight about a Christmas eve that “rocked my world” over 20 years ago. I was driving to the church I was serving at that time, Shepherd of the Hills in Shoreview, when I got a call from my daughter Sarah. She’d gone into labor! Her baby was coming! It was a bit hard for me to focus on the services that night, and we didn’t sleep much as we awaited a call. And when Christmas morning dawned, we couldn’t stand it any longer. Christmas presents could wait, dinner canceled…off to the hospital our whole family went. The other set of soon to be grandparents came too. Cafeteria food and waiting room magazines filled our day as we awaited the advent of a precious child.

Finally, a nurse came to tell us that Sarah’s baby wasn’t quite ready to be born and we should probably go home for a while. But, we mom’s….soon to be grandmother’s, just couldn't leave. We knew….and sure enough, before Christmas day ended, Samara Noel rocked our world! She has been a star of wonder in our midst ever since. Samara is filled with enthusiasm, talent and a zest for life…BUT…so are ALL my grandchildren (some who are here tonight) and now a great grandson! Forgive me for bragging, but I’m sure every parent and grandparent in this room could say the same thing about their children and grandchildren too!

In some way, EVERY baby changes our world. Each one is born in vulnerability, totally dependent upon the care and love of parents, yet filled with potential to shine bright as a unique child of God, sent as a blessing to this world. Life for those waiting and those receiving a little babe are literally turned upside down, and they are never the same as they embrace this new gift of life and responsibility. And even when that baby grows into a young woman, who will be 22 on this Christmas day, that child will always be “your baby” or “grand-baby” and you will never grow tired of sharing the story of their birth.

Perhaps that is why Christmas Eve is such a special night for families to gather together; but also a difficult night if the peace and unity within our family isn’t what we want or hope it to be. For believers, the story of Christ’s birth is so familiar that it’s comforting… and yet…is it relevant in a diverse world where such a story comes across as….well, just a nice story? Does it matter that we tell this story at all? Is the world listening? Does the birth of Christ rock our world anymore…or has Christmas become just another holiday where tradition is revered more than the reality that God is REALLY and truly with us?

Tonight, as we gather in this beautiful setting to worship Christ, I can’t help but think of others for whom this story of God’s incarnation might be a critical source of hope and courage. I’m thinking tonight of Kateryna, the mother of three who was forced to flee from her hometown of Kharkiv with her husband and children as Russian forces bombed her community and invaded her homeand. Her 4 year old son, Sava, remembers the bombs, and his father’s tight grip on his small body as he carried him into a basement for shelter. He remembers how the sky lit up before them as they ran. Kateryna’s family is safe now and staying in a shelter in Romania run by a partner of the ELCA Ukrainian Disaster program helping refugees find a place to be safe. The shelter manager says 32 people staying together there at that shelter have formed a community. They come from all parts of the Ukraine and none of them knew each other before they arrived, yet they have created an ad-hoc family brought together by devastating circumstances, and they are celebrating the birth of Jesus with a renewed sense of trust that indeed…God has come near to them and shown them mercy. Their children play together even though they don’t always speak the same language…celebrating life, however fragile and fleeting it may be. “We feel safe here,” says Kateryna, “yet my thoughts stay in Ukraine and I worry about friends and family who have stayed behind.” She dreams of coming home. “I am an accountant, and my husband is a business owner,” Kateryna says. “But his business….” Her voice trails off… “I can show you.” She searches for her phone and holds us a video of buildings reduced to embers after a Russian attack. “We just want peace,” she whispers… ”Peace.”

Perhaps that’s just what Mary, the mother of Jesus, was thinking as she and Joseph sought shelter in the city of David where they had to travel to be registered under law. Perhaps Joseph wondered what he had gotten himself into by staying with this young pregnant girl for whom he was now responsible to get through a birth in a refugee setting. Perhaps that’s what the shepherd’s were thinking as they watched their flocks by night, eking out a humble living in a world dominated by Roman oppression. Peace…we just want peace. Peace to live…peace to love and cherish our families; peace to anticipate tomorrow with a sense of purpose, joy and hope for a future that makes sense…doesn’t disappoint and bring despair. A future where there is justice and calm assurance that everything is right in the world despite all its challenges and evil.

Perhaps that is why God sent that amazing, all encompassing star of blazing light. A star of wonder, that no one could miss. A star that brought wise men from the east because they believed…really believed, that God would and could intrude on human life in a way no one might suspect. A star that proclaimed that in Jesus, peace…eternal peace, is the true destiny and outcome of God’s love for us all. That God is real…and present to those seeking refuge in him.

Whether we realize it or not, we are all refugees of some kind or another. Some of us may feel alone, and disconnected. Our loneliness longs for wholeness and peace. Some of us feel overwhelmed and afraid about the future and what it will unfold, we long for peace in the midst of that which we cannot understand. Some of us face challenges to our faith as we try to understand this world’s endless injustices and the struggle for the collective will to act. ALL of us come to the promise of this night with a longing for joy that supersedes the everyday ordinariness of our human lives. And… if we look up, trust the star that glows in our hearts in search of meaning…seeking the wonder of a baby…a child, given to us so that we might know we are ALL family… we WILL find that peace and joy are right there. In our hearts…born to rock our world!

Will you receive him? Will the world put aside its angst and look up and notice his star of wonder?

There was a man who prided himself in being a realist, and he thought faith in God was a crock. He especially resisted Christmas as a sentimental story that made no sense at all. If there were a god, what god in his right mind would be as weak and vulnerable as a baby born in a barn to a teenager! His wife, however, took a different view and had a deep faith and belief in Jesus, the Christ. She took all their children to church every week which really frustrated him. His refusal to even consider faith in Christ made her sad, and so each and every Christmas, she would gently ask him to please join her and their children for worship. And every Christmas, he said no. “I’ll just sit here by the fire and wait for your return from all that nonsense,” he grumped. And so, that is just what he did.

But that night, a sudden snowstorm, not unlike the one we just had, came up. Lights went out as the winds howled, and so he lit a candle and set it in the window hoping his wife had the sense to come home early. He watched anxiously through the window when suddenly there was a huge thump on the pane. A bird had seen the light and was trying to find shelter. It was a persistent bird, for time and time again, it fluttered its wings and flew directly toward the candlelight, certain that this time it would succeed in finding refuge. The man was horrified, for he truly cared for such a small and fragile creature. Putting on his coat and boots he went outside and tried to shoo the bird into a shed next to the house where it would be safe. But his efforts only made the little bird all the more frantic. Next he grabbed some bird seed and tried to create a trail of food that might lead the bird away from the window, but the bird just wouldn’t respond. It kept flying against the glass, frantic and afraid. Frustrated, the man grumbled to himself…”stupid bird! If only I could become a bird for just a moment and show you the way to safety before you break your neck!” Just as those words crossed his lips, the bells from the church tower began to ring out loud and clear in the distance. And the man’s heart literally leaped with the shocking recognition that THIS…this is what Christmas was all about. God became one of us…a fragile, helpless, human being, to show us a way to life we could never find for ourselves. Light shone in that man’s heart that night. He welcomed his wife and children home with a new sense of wonder, asking them to share the story of Jesus’ birth so that he could understand for himself who this God knocking on his heart truly was.

Tonight…like every night, God’s love shines in the darkness and beckons all refugees to find peace and safety, love, hope, and most of all joy, in his presence. And he asks us to do that within a community of believers where we can come and adore him.

Tonight, in that shelter in Romania, Kateryna and the other mothers and families gather just like we are gathering. They are hoping for peace where peace seems impossible. Asked if she has any prayer requests on this holy night, she offers a Christ-like response: “I know people are praying for us,” she says. “I would also like to pray for the Russians, for those who are ordinary people just like us.” She says. “Please pray for them to have understanding, to open their eyes and their minds, and if they can do something to stop this war, pray that they will please do it for the sake of all God’s children.”

Let us pray:

Star of Wonder, Star of Light, shine upon us this holy night. Bring us to the child, the Son of God, that he might show us how to see your light and presence in our midst; teach us how to love as you have first loved us; guide us by your truth to bring meaning and hope into this troubled world…and give us peace. And all God’s people say. AMEN.