Sermon: The Effulgence

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The Effulgence of God

By Charles Rush

December 19, 2004

love the last line in Zechariah's song of praise that the Messiah will "guide our feet in the ways of peace." When the child was actually born, the country was under the harsh imperial occupation of the Roman army. His father was on his way to pay a tax to the occupying army for the privilege of not being killed, not having his fields burned to the ground, not watching his relatives raped. This is precisely what happened to those who refused to pay the tax. And less than 50 years after the birth of the child that would show us the way of peace, the Romans pulled down just about every stone in Jerusalem as punishment for a modest insurgency, leaving only the basement wall to the Temple that is today the "Wailing Wall", where Jews have gathered to lament their exile for these past 2000 years.

And it brings to mind a study that I cited from Beloit College earlier this year, when one of the professors at the college, noted that the entering class of freshmen at Beloit this year had never known a Christmas when Bethlehem was at peace.

Perhaps some of you can remember back many years ago when they televised the midnight Mass from the Church of the Nativity, the modest basilica that is supposedly built right over the original stall that Jesus was born in. Gone are the days.

As the French proverb says, "La plus ca change, la plus c'est la meme chose" (The more things change the more they remain the same). Ten years ago, Prime Minister Rabin and Yasir Arafat were negotiating the Oslo accords. During that year one of Julie's friends, a missionary in Bethlehem wrote a Christmas letter, noting that "radical Israeli and Palestinian factions continue to wreak their guerilla tactics of violence in the hopes of derailing the peace process permanently. We continue to hear gunfire outside in the surrounding villages, only to wake the next morning to the latest news of how many dead and wounded. Despite all this, life somehow continues on in its routine: when strikes or curfews have not been called, people go to work and to school, do their marketing in the sugs, run and play in the streets, argue over the 'situation' in the local coffee shops, and keep a constant wary eye for the first hint of 'trouble'.

Because of the strained emotions these continuing snags in the negotiation cause, the Christmas Eve ceremonies here in Bethlehem almost didn't happen. In a burst of nationalistic feeling, the mayor of Bethlehem hung a Palestinian flag over the Municipal Building on Manger Square on Dec. 21st. The Israeli's, furious that the flag was in camera range of the news teams from all over the world, demanded that it be removed, threatening that if it was not, they would remove it forcibly. The mayor refused, threatening to cancel the Christmas Eve celebrations if the Israeli's removed the flag. This put the Israeli government in a quandary, as tourism was up for the first time since the inception of the intifada in 1987, and over 30,000 visitors were expected in scheduled tour groups; neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians could afford the potential lost revenue the cancellations would cause. The stand off was finally resolved when Rabin flew in by helicopter on December 23rd with a compromise: the flag could stay up through Christmas, and then be removed. Luckily, the mayor agreed, and Christmas Eve went as planned [sort of]. The result? An evening that was a bit disconcerting. The scene resembled more an outdoor carnival or rock concert than worship: thousands of people roaming the streets, many drunk or rowdy; massive military presence, with armed soldiers on every roof and positioned every ten yards on the streets, with low flying helicopters bussing overhead; every shop open, with street vendors hawking their wares until two in the morning; garbage strewn everywhere; bands playing and choirs singing often at cross purposes; tacky Santa Clauses wandering the streets and ringing bells. In other words, a cacophony of sights and sounds. At midnight, the mass at the Church of the Nativity was broadcast via closed circuit TV onto a massive screen in Manger Square, but by that time most people were past caring." You can't make this up. File it under 'Truth is Stranger than Fiction'.

The reality is, of course, that 2000 years ago when the baby Jesus was born, the cacophony that he was born into was not that much different. There was no room in the Inn because there were thousands of travelers. No doubt local merchants were out hawking their wares. And God chose to get involved in the sounds, smells, and grittiness that make up the stable. Manger, crèche, all have developed connotations of sanitation. It is stylized, something you put out in your living room, something sounds like it should be accompanied by "O Holy Night" or piped in Muzak. Stable is earthy. Stable is no running water, no light, germs, cold, spiders, merde, the strong smell of ammonia from the cow urine poured on the meadows, mud deep enough it requires knee high water proof boots that stay in the barn. It is not warm or cozy for humans. It is breathing through your mouth and watching your breath, glad you have long underwear of a high tech variety. This is where God chose to make a statement, to announce the coming of a new age of peace.

It is not the style that we would choose, truth be told. We would prefer some majesty, something more ethereal, bolder, something transcendent and awe inspiring. The Pharoah's in Egypt knew how to create an effect we would appreciate. The capital city of Egypt, Memphis (today Cairo) had stele situated in the middle of certain squares. The Washington Monument is a copy, only it is much bigger than the originals which were only a few stories tall. The sides had inscriptions of the great feats of the Pharaoh, but they were covered in Electrum- a combination of silver and gold that created quite a bright reflective surface. In Egypt, there are hardly any days of the year that are overcast, so you have quite a sun to work with, and these stele created a brilliant display of changing effulgence and aura from the morning to mid-day, through the evening. They cast out a golden glow that arced above the capital city and could be seen for miles before travelers actually got to the city gates. From a distance, what you first noticed was a bubble over the land of effulgent, glowing, light. It looked heavenly, ethereal, transcendent, otherworldly.

It made you think that there might just be something to the claim that the Pharaoh's made for themselves that they were part human and part divine. It created a certain fear and awe, especially among less civilized people. It created a certain stage of majesty that made would be revolutionaries think twice before they decided to challenge the Imperial rule of the dynasty. It encouraged a certain respect, indeed devotion or worship of the Imperial dynasty and it worked very well as we know from various travel journals.

I think most of us would prefer that the Almighty made a display of this scope and magnitude befitting omniscience and omnipotence. And we would prefer some power to back up that display. When the Israelites made their Ark, they covered it with a similar material that the Egyptians used. They carried the Ark with them wherever they wandered, partly for the protection that the Ark afforded them. Legend held that whenever, they brought the Ark to the front of the Army, the enemies were scattered before them. So you have all of these pictures of Priests with the Ark in front of the Israelite army, radiance bouncing off in all directions, and enemies covering their eyes and fleeing in horror before its power, not too different from the movie Indiana Jones. We'd prefer a modest to substantial display of power, occasionally of a healing variety, occasionally of butt kicking vengeful variety, the only thing some of our enemies appear to appreciate, spiritual or otherwise.

I understand that, I really do. I once had a father say to me in a moment of blunt honesty when he was emotionally and physically tired, watching his spouse die, "Chuck what good is God if he doesn't do anything at times like this?" It is a fair question and I'm sure that it will be asked plaintively and with heart felt emotion on the other side and it should.

But we don't get a great display of power. We get a baby in a manger. We get vulnerability. Why you could crack that babies head like an egg. We get illiterate peasants, we get dirt, we get bacteria. We get a teenage girl with no connections, no visible means for material support and one young confused boy who is her husband.

It is not what we want, it is not what we expect, and Jesus never will be either. It is many things, and certainly one of them is God's touching interest in the poor and marginalized. God does appear in the bible, as Gustavo Gutierrez once said, to have a 'preferential option for the poor.' And that is largely because it appears that God has a heart to heal that which is broken and doesn't work. Jesus once said that he had come for the sick. The well, he noted, have no need of a physician.

Jesus once said of those of us who are relatively speaking healthy physically, emotionally, spiritually and materially, 'your reward you have with you.' In other words, you are living a blessing. Good for you.

But I have come, he said, that the sick might be made whole, that the disturbed and possessed might find sobriety and peace, that the lame might walk with joy, that those laden with guilt and shame might find release from their burden.

God comes to the dark and cold places of our lives. God will sit with us in the midst of disease and discharge. God can take the smell of birth and waste. It is an unexpected message of Good news for all of us but let's be clear:

If you come here this season worried because your marriage is falling apart and there doesn't seem to be anything that you can do about it; if you are disappointed and guilty about the past, worried about your future, the Christ came especially for you.

If you come to this season just unable to control your drinking. If your life feels like it is a roller coaster that is careening; if you are hurting yourself and those you love and have become a great contradiction to yourself, the Christ came especially for you.

If you come this season unable to sleep at night and lay there thinking about what a loser you have become and how you haven't accomplished enough and you aren't good enough or important enough or successful enough, I want you to know that the Christ came especially for you.

If you come this season with a loved one or a friend that you are worried about from a distance because they are burdened with a terminal illness or they are in danger and you are praying for them, concerned for them, and it weighs on your soul every day, every week, I want you to know that the Christ came especially for you.

If you come to this season and you just don't have enough- and there are not many of us here today- because our society doesn't value your work to make an honest living doing what you do, I want you to know that the Christ came especially for you.

Wherever you are, you are not embarrassing to God; you are not shameful to God; you are not simply a disappointment; you are not a failure. You count. Wherever you are, God is looking for you and wants you to come home. God wants to bless you and love you.

That is the profound, if not sublime, message of Christmas. God will follow us into the stall of our lives. God comes after us in all humility and vulnerability because the point is that we are that important to God. Our concerns are God's concerns.

And secondly God doesn't need a great display of power but is apparently able to accomplish what he will accomplish with or without our help. I was amused to read a few years back of a man who wrote Billy Graham a letter saying that Jesus should have been born the son of a King because then he could have accomplished so much more, using his scope of influence and ability to communicate to a wider audience.

Another great idea that the Almighty must not have thought about until this rube from Ohio came to the rescue. The irony, of course, is that Jesus is heads and shoulders, the most influential person in history. This nobody born on the edge of nowhere born to parents who didn't even have last names, a guy who had no formal education, no assets, and never wrote anything down eventually impacted more people than any other figure in human history. In the bible, if God is in it, things have a way of flourishing regardless of our help or outright hindrance. The bible tells us that God is like that. God takes small, insignificant things, and develops them in surprising, transformative ways.

God came for you. Yes, even for you. As our scripture says this morning, "By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." My brothers and sisters, may you too find the light as you sit in the darkness and may you too be guided into the ways of peace. Amen.