Gloria in Excelsis Deo -- A Sermon for Christmas Eve

Luke 2:8-20

Shepherds are tending their sheep in the hills near Bethlehem, when to their surprise a choir of angels gathers in the heavens and begins singing Gloria in Excelsis Deo. What a treat that must have been! After all angelic visits don’t happen every day, and it can get a bit boring sitting out there in the fields in the cold of night.

In the spirit of angelic visits, J.B. Phillips tells a wonderful story about the day when a senior angel takes a new recruit on a tour of the cosmos. This rookie angel is quite impressed by the grandeur of the cosmos – who wouldn’t -- but then, as they walk through the multitude of galaxies and stars, the older angel points out a small insignificant star and the planet that orbits around it. To the young angel, this "small rather insignificant sphere turning on its axis . . . looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball.” Why would this senior angel point out this plant? It seemed so insignificant and unimpressive in light of what she had just seen in her tour of the cosmos. In spite of his first impressions, the guide leaned over and said, look closely because this is the "visited planet."

"You mean, visited by . . ."

Yes, the senior angel replies, it has been "visited by our young Prince of Glory."

Now this news made no sense to the young angel. Why would the Prince of Glory stoop to visit this little planet?

The senior angel replies: it's not for us to know the reason, but remember, God isn’t impressed by size or numbers.

"Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that he stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?" Yes, said the senior angel, but God would prefer that you not call them "creeping, crawling creatures."

The increasingly skeptical rookie angel, couldn’t see the wisdom of this, and so the mentor takes the recruit back on a little tour of the past so that the younger angel could witness the glorious event described for us by Luke. As they watched this scene from above, they saw a tiny, but intensely bright, light shine in the midst of the darkness, and then they watched as the light was extinguished. The younger angel turned to the older one and asked, why would these creatures do such a stupid thing as to kill the prince of glory? But, then to his amazement, a bright blazing, radiant point of light emerged on the planet. That, said the senior angel is the resurrection of the prince of glory. What a glorious sight it was to behold, but the story isn’t over yet.

Watch said the older to the younger.

As they looked, in place of the dazzling light there was a bright glow which throbbed and pulsated. And then as the Earth turned many times little points of light spread out. A few flickered and died; but for the most part the lights burned steadily, and as they continued to watch, in many parts of the globe there was a glow over many areas.

"You see what is happening?" asked the senior angel. "The bright glow is the company of loyal men and women He left behind, and with His help they spread the glow and now lights begin to shine all over the Earth."

"Yes, yes" said the little angel impatiently, "but how does it end? Will the little lights join up with each other? Will it all be light, as it is in Heaven?"

His senior shook his head. "We simply do not know," he replied. "It is in the Father's hands. Sometimes it is agony to watch and sometimes it is joy unspeakable. The end is not yet, But now I am sure you can see why this little ball is so important. He has visited it. He is working out His Plan upon it."

"Yes, I see, though I don't understand. I shall never forget that this is the visited planet." [J.B. Phillips, "The Angel's Point of View," in Behold that Star: A Christmas Anthology, edited by the Bruderhof, (Farmington, PA: The Plough Publishing Company, 1996), 2-9.]

The angels sing Gloria in Excelsis Deo that night because the Prince of Glory has visited our planet. In visiting our planet in the person of the babe of Bethlehem, God brought into the open the promise of peace and joy for all of creation. It is as Isaiah declared:

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us;

authority rests upon his shoulders;

and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6 NRSV)

But, the end of this story has yet to be written. As the senior angel said, only God has foresight to know where this story is leading. We don’t even have the same vantage point as the Angel, for we can’t look down upon the flow of history from above. All we can do is join with the Prince of Peace in the work of spreading the joy and the love and the peace that is embodied by the Christmas event. It is our calling as followers of the one whose birth we celebrate this night, to participate in spreading the light of God around the globe.

Tonight we will light our candles and sing "Silent Night" and then go into the world as light bearers with the song "Joy to the World" upon our lips and in our hearts. Like that littlest angel, we may not understand the “hows” and the “whys,” of God’s ways, but let us not forget that this is the visited planet, and that God has chosen to visit us in the one who was born the babe of Bethlehem. Therefore let us join the angels and boldly sing boldly: Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

After the Fire, the Fire Still Burns

John the Baptist began to spread the new way with a fiery oratory style and a radical message that inspired the masses and threatened the establishment. So the powers-that-be chopped off his head and extinguished his fire. Or so they thought.

Little did they know that Jesus Christ was there to pick up the torch. He would not allow the flame to be extinguished. Instead his message and his style went even further, flaming up so brightly that many saw the hope of an entirely new world, one which would not see the current authorities retain their traditional power. And so again out of fear, they took him away. They beat him, mocked him, and nailed him to a cross where he would also die. They thought that they had extinguished the flame once again. The fire was out as Jesus died and his followers, it's final flickering embers, dispersed into the wind. Or so those same powers of this world thought.

Jesus had indeed been put to death on Friday, and his body taken away and buried in a tomb on Saturday. A massive stone had been set against the opening to the tomb, and guards set outside so that none would be able to remove it. And so night time fell, and into the early still-dark hours of Sunday morning, Jesus lifeless body lay there entombed.

Early on Sunday morning, three of Jesus' female followers arise before dawn, gather their spices and oils, and set out for the tomb. Mary Magdalene, Salome, and another Mary intended to further and better care for Christ's body, which had been hastily prepared for initial burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They had followed Jesus in the group of his closest friends for some time. They had the fire lit inside them by his new teaching that included "Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted."

Setting out at about the same time was a 2nd group of women, led by Joanna, who had arranged to meet Mary Magdalene's group at the tomb. They too had the fire lit inside of them by Christ's teachings that included "love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." They knew that a large stone had been rolled in front of the tomb, but they had no idea that it had now been sealed and had guards placed at its entrance.

Before they arrived, an angel suddenly appeared at the tomb and frightened the guards with his brightness. The guards fled in awe and terror, and when they did the angel rolled the stone away from the tomb. As Mary Magdalene's group approached they immediately saw that the stone was rolled aside, and that the tomb was open. She left the other two there and immediately returned to town to let Jesus' Apostles know that the tomb was open.

The other two women decided to enter the tomb, and there they found the angel who said to them "Do not be afraid. I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.' Behold, I have told you." The two women quickly ran back to town to give the message to the Apostles.

Then Joanna's group arrived, are met by two angels, and are given the same message. They also excitedly return to tell the message. They catch up with the first group, and all of the women are suddenly met on the road by Jesus. They immediately fall to his feet and do him homage as he gives them the message himself: "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."

Peter and John, having been given the message by Mary Magdalene, run ahead of her and arrive at the tomb. The fire of Jesus' teachings which included "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden" has fully engulfed their lives. There they see that Jesus is gone, and examine the burial cloths. They observe that in the condition the cloth is found, it appears as if Christ's body was not removed, but instead appears to have simply disappeared from within.

For all of these men and women, these close followers of Jesus Christ, the Word burns like a flame within. It will be further inflamed as the reality of his rise from the dead and the continuation of his teaching takes place in the coming weeks. Christ had died, but now he had risen and thus had defeated darkness, sin, and death. The authorities had once again misunderstood. Just as with the snuffing out of John's life they had not put out the fire of his message, neither had they with Jesus' death.

Jesus spread his fiery message during his lifetime and his public ministry, and the authorities believed that fire had been put out. These earthly 'authorities' failed to realize that after the fire of Christ's life had been extinguished, the fire of his message still burned. On his return it now burned again even brighter, and would begin to spread around the world as a raging inferno of peace, hope, and love.

What Did She Know?

Driving in to work this morning, my wife and I heard the Christmas song "Mary Did You Know?" playing on the radio. In the version that we heard, Kenny Rogers is asking if she knew that the child she was carrying would do many wondrous things. He asks if she knows that he will 'one day walk on water', 'save our sons and daughters', 'give sight to a blind man', 'calm a storm with his hand', and 'one day rule the nations' among other miraculous actions. It is a legitimate question to consider: what did Mary know about her child, and when did she know it? We know from Matthew's Gospel that Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel and given certain information. First, she was told that her child would be a boy, and that she should name him 'Jesus'. She is told by Gabriel that the child will be 'great' and will be 'called Son of the most High'. But then Gabriel goes further, saying 'the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.' What Gabriel is telling Mary is that her child shall be the long awaited Messiah. Mary doesn't understand how this can happen, since she is engaged to Joseph but not yet married, and she has never been with, nor does she intend to be with, a man in any physical way that would result in the birth of a child. In other words, Mary is a virgin, and she is staying that way until marriage. Gabriel then drops the final bomb on her: 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee...the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' Mary is told that God Himself shall be the father of her child through supernatural means. Now you try to tell me that this wouldn't be a little overwhelming for your basic average teenage girl. But Mary was not average, she had been chosen by God in his plan for this purpose long before her own Immaculate Conception. So she knew before she had even conceived Jesus that she would be the mother of the Son of God, the Redeemer, the Messiah promised for ages. Later her fiancee, Joseph, was also visited, told of the supernatural conception, that the child would be a boy, and that they should name him Jesus. Joseph was told that this name would be given because the child would go on to 'save his people from their sins.' So both Joseph and Mary had this information during the pregnancy. While newly pregnant, Mary finds out that her cousin Elizabeth is also pregnant, now six months along. What Mary apparently does not know is that Elizabeth's child will grow to be 'John the Baptist', who will begin to lay the groundwork for her own child's ministry. When they visit, Elizabeth tells Mary that she, Mary, is 'blessed among women' and is 'the mother of my Lord.' Finally, just after Jesus' birth, Mary's family is visited by shepherds who related their experiences of being told by angels that 'this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.' These were the exact circumstances that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were in, and the shepherds were thus driven to their location. So Mary gets even more confirmation to her earlier messages, as if she needed it by this point. So we find that Mary knew before she was even pregnant that her child would be the Christ, the Saviour, the Son of God, and she received a number of confirmations to these facts during and after her pregnancy. As a Jewish woman whose father was a priest, Mary knew well the prophecies involving the Messiah, so she had to know that ultimately her child would die so that his people could live. In the end we are left with no other way to see things than that Mary knew pretty much everything that was going to happen right from that first visit from Gabriel. We are man, and Mary was blessed, but she was also mortal. In other words, she could have seen and been overwhelmed by all of this and simply said "No." Instead, because Mary saw, knew, and accepted, and said "Yes", our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was born, lived, taught, and died for our sins. Mary quite obviously, along with the help of her husband Joseph, raised Jesus to be a loving, strong, wise, good man. Of course, as God among us, this was inevitable, but the love that Jesus had for his mother showed that she quite obviously did a good job raising and loving him. In these last couple of days before Christmas it is nice to know that 2,000 years ago, Mary knew exactly what she was getting into with the child to whom she was about to give birth. And it is nice to know that she said that "Yes" to the pregnancy, to His birth.