Appearing to the shepherds, and terrifying them in the process, the angel says “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy which shall be for all people”. Over 2000 years later the angel still proclaims good news for all people.
Sometimes it is hard to hear and see the goodness. So often it seems like the bad news threatens to drown out the good.
In her poem Into the Darkest Hour Madeleine L’Engle writes:
It was a time like this,
war & tumult of war,
a horror in the air.
Hungry yawned the abyss –
and yet there came the star
and the child most wonderfully there.
It
was a time like this
of
fear & lust for power,
license
& greed and blight –
and
yet the Prince of bliss
came
into the darkest hour
in
quiet & silent light.
And
in a time like this
how
celebrate his birth
when
all things fall apart?
Ah!
Wonderful it is:
with
no room on the earth,
the
stable is our heart.
L’Engle wrote those lines almost 30 years ago. But don’t they seem to fit the world today? This year churches across Bethlehem are being asked to cancel their Christmas celebrations in light of the continued Israeli offensive in Gaza. One of those churches took a pile of building rubble, broken bricks and dirt, and placed their nativity scene on and amidst the rubble. Then we have the ongoing war in Ukraine. And other places like Yemen that don’t get the same sort of news coverage. War & tumult of war.
Or we could look closer to home. Multiple mornings this week CTV news was sharing the story of homeless encampments in Edmonton that were going to be dismantled, along with questions of whether there were in fact shelter spaces available for all those individuals. Here in Grande Prairie The Salvation Army has said that 20% of the population was served by the Food Bank and Community Kitchen this year. There is an ongoing opiod crisis. What is that if not an abyss, yawning, threatening to swallow us up?
Or we could talk about so many other things. A marked increase in both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic violence in the last 2 months. The flurry of anti-2SLGBTQ+ protests and legislation across Canada and the US this past year. Politicians in multiple countries who seem to want to score political points for short term gain at the expense of people at the margins or the long-term well-being of us all. There is an ongoing climate crisis. So much bad news. How do we find Good News in a world that threatens not just to fall apart but to tear itself apart at the seams?
Christmas Good News always comes at what seems like the wrong time, but maybe it is exactly the right time. The angel’s proclamation always comes into a time of war and tumult and horror. The carols are always sung in a world where there are people lusting for power, and others living in fear. The abyss of disorder and violence is always yawning somewhere in the world.
We could always use some Good News. We could always use some starlight and angel song. We could always be reminded to stand and listen for the silence of the Prince of Peace breaking into the world.
We need to hear some Good News this Christmas. Where do we look to find it? Can we be quiet enough to hear it We won’t find it on the front page. It won’t be the top-rated link on Google. It likely won’t come with trumpet fanfares and marching bands. If we aren’t careful we might miss it.
Because the Good News comes to and from people who others might not even see. In our story it comes to a poor peasant girl in a backwater town. It comes to shepherds on a hill side. Later it is shared with fishermen on a seashore. It seems to end in death on a cross only to be revealed again to women weeping by a graveside. God shares the Good News in ways that most of us would usually miss.
We won’t find the Good News coming from any of our major political parties. It won’t come from Hamas or the Israeli Knesset. It won’t come with big flashy marketing campaigns. It will continue to come from the sidelines. The Good News is brought forward by groups like the Mothers of the Disappeared in Latin America a generation ago. It showed up when everyday Irish people pushed for an end to the Troubles. It shows up when people ‘adopt-a-family’ and support Helping Hands here in Grande Prairie. The Good News is made evident when people with little or no power or status quietly share the hope and promise that change is coming – and work in their own small way to make it happen.
Here is the Good News that echoes through the ages: God is creating a world where all live in abundance. God is creating the Peaceable Kingdom. God is bringing healing and liberation to a hurting, chained up world. Love and Joy, Hope and Peace will win in the end. God LOVES the world.
It is Good News for all creation: from the tiniest one-celled organism to the mighty blue whale, from the smallest flower to the mighty Redwood tree, from the newborn baby to the centenarian. It is Good News for the person sleeping in a tent along the Bear Creek and for the CEO of the most profitable corporation. It is Good News for the poorest nations of the world and for the economic powerhouses like the US or China.
Tonight we remember that the Good News is being announced again. Tonight we remember that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in a baby lying in a manger. Tonight we remember that Hope, Peace, Joy and Love will win in the end – and if it looks like they have lost then it is not yet the end. Tonight we remember that birth changes everything.
In the song When A Child is Born Johnny Mathis writes:
A ray of hope flickers in the sky
A tiny star lights up way up high
All across the land, dawns a brand new morn
This comes to pass when a child is born
...
It's
all a dream, an illusion now
It
must come true, sometime soon somehow
All
across the land, dawns a brand new morn
This
comes to pass when a child is born
This is the Good News that the angel Gabriel shared with Mary. This is the Good News that an angelic host shared with shepherds on a hillside. This is the Good News that we still share today. For unto US a child is born – and our lives will never be the same again.
Throughout the Advent season we have been lighting candles. The flicker of a candle flame reminds us that light shines in the darkness. The candle flame looks so fragile, indeed a well-directed puff of air can put it out, but at the same time a candle flame adds light and heat to a room. With their flickering light these candles have reminded us of the power of Hope for a world that is being renewed and reborn; the promise of Peace based in abundant justice within that renewed world; the Joy of knowing that God is with us as we and the world are being reshaped; and the Love that takes shape in Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh, the Love that provides the guiding principle for this new world.
Tonight we lit our fifth candle, the candle of birth. Tonight we proclaim that with the birth of Jesus that new world is here among us: a ray of hope, a tiny star, possibly an illusion, maybe a dream? Not a dream, not an illusion, It is real. It may seem hidden. It may be out at the edges of our awareness but it is real. There is a lot of bad disheartening news out there. It is loud and flashy and bright. It can fill the center of our lives. But out at the edges, a different light is quietly, dimly flickering.
Hear again the Good News of this day. Jesus is born! God has once again broken into our lives! The world is being changed! Listen for the quiet voices sharing their hope. Watch for the nobodies running in with joy in their eyes. See the places where peace is breaking out. Feel the love that brings us together and leads us to work for a better world. This is Good News for the whole of the world that God loves.
It makes no sense. It may be hard to see We have to look in the right places, with open eyes to find the evidence. But it is there and it is real. Will we focus on the war and tumult? Will we stare into the abyss? OR will we embrace the Good News over at the edges?
In another poem, The Risk of Birth, Madeleine L’Engle says:
This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.
That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honor & truth were trampled to scorn—
Yet here did the Savior make His home.
When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn—
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
Indeed it is no time for a child to be born. It is certainly no time to expect hope, peace, joy and love to be born. But still it happens. It has been said that the birth of a baby is God’s way of saying that the world should continue. New life is a sign that there is still hope. There is still love. There is a place for joy. There is the possibility of peace.
God is still taking the risk of sharing Good News in unexpected ways and places. God is still in the business of transforming the world. God still loves the world, God has not given up on us. This is indeed Good News. We just might have to look in odd places to find it.
The angel still proclaims Good News which shall be for all people. For unto us is born this day a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest! And on Earth peace, goodwill among all. Amen.
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