“What Difference Does it Make?

Micah 5:2-5A
Luke 1:46-56


Rockville United Church
The Rev. Denise Giacomozzi

December 24, 2006

“Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of a non-profit venture-capital fund that provides resources for the developing world, [had] an uncle [who] gave her a sweater when she was 12 that became her favorite. Eventually she donated the sweater to Goodwill. Twelve years later while jogging in Rwanda, Novogratz came upon a small boy wearing a sweater like hers. She ran up to him and took a look at the collar: sure enough it had her name on it! This experience underscored for her the interconnectedness of the human family.” [The Atlantic Monthly]

Carl Pope, the Sierra Club’s executive director said at an inter-religious meeting which grappled with materialism around the world that: “It is…as though a sinister new religion were sweeping the earth: Its God is Mammon, its temples shopping malls, and its alters constructed of dollars, euros, yen, and rupees. As for its teachings, they consist of a sole commandment: ‘Buy more.’”

Today is the last day of Advent, the last day, to get ready for Christmas, which might mean buying one more present, or opening one’s heart more fully to Jesus, if we have opened ourselves to Him at all.

Maybe you lost someone dear to you. Maybe you are ill. Maybe you are expecting a child yourself and are elated. Maybe parenting is not part of your life and Christmas with all its emphasis on birth is a cause for sorrow. Maybe you anticipate joyful family reunions; maybe you have no family or your relations are filled with conflict. Maybe you have loved ones overseas and in harm’s way.

Christmas can be mixed. We can be filled with hopes or sorrows. Probably, for most of us, it is a season of both those emotions.

What difference, really, does Christmas make? If Jesus had not been born, would it matter?

At Christmas churches get lots of visitors. The Catholic Church had an ad campaign which said, “Come home for the holidays. All is forgiven.” If you are a visitor, we welcome you. As a visitor, you may not know that here we focus on serving Christ through serving others and that the gospel message is about caring for those who have little, those who society would consider as the least—if the world took time to consider such people at all.

This social gospel is something we understand. So visitors, please know that this is a place where people do not talk much about faith, rather we try to “let our lives speak” as Quaker founder George Fox said. We advocate for the least in our society, welcome the outcasts, the foreigners, and shelter those without homes. We understand, as Jacqueline Novogratz found out, that we are all connected and our actions, however small, ripple through time and geography.

Here’s the thing though: I think, although I could be wrong, it may be unknown to many of us that we can have Christmas every day. Jesus really does invite us to welcome him into our hearts to live with us. Sure, I like the traditions of Christmas, with decorated trees (although my daughter Kristen had to decorate our tree last night when she came home because I was too exhausted), cards sent to friends far away, singing carols and buying gifts. But, really, for me, Christmas is a nearly every day experience of joy in the midst of life’s suffering because, as a teen, I said “yes” to Jesus. Since that day I have known His presence as closely as I know my family members.

So what difference does it make to you that Jesus was born to a humble teen-ager in an insignificant town 2000 years ago? Would your life be different if Mary had not said “yes”? If your answer is, you do not know, or, no difference, then I invite you to step into the waters of faith and to say “yes” to Christ this day for He has promised to dwell with those who do.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that the gospel of Luke “sets forth the words and works of Jesus as the divine-human Savior, whose compassion and tenderness extended to all who were needy. The universal mission of Jesus is emphasized [several ways]...by including references which commend members of despised people, the Samaritans [whose different worship practices made them outcasts]… by indicating that women have a new place of importance among the followers of Jesus…; and… by promising that the Gentiles would have an opportunity to accept the gospel….”

Because of the physician Luke’s account (himself a Gentile convert, one who was previously excluded from God’s covenant, or promise to the Jewish people) we learn that we all have a place in God’s plan. Good news, indeed! which remains news in a world which otherwise worships materialism--and good news which is known to us only by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We learn from Jesus, living in even us, that all are equally valued—no exceptions-- equally loved by the One who created us all and we want to serve others out of gratitude for the one Christmas gift that matters—Emmanuel, God with us.

In conclusion, hear these words from “O, Little Town of Bethlehem”: “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.” May it be so for each of us. Amen.