Erl Purnell Sermon

Christmas Eve ~ December 24, 2007 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Isaiah 9.2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2.11-14; Luke 2.1-20

A couple weeks ago, early on a Sunday morning, I pulled into the parking lot at about 7.20. The morning crispness caught my breath as I got out of the Subaru. Satchel over my shoulder, I walked around the back of the car and stopped. I always do. Standing there, I gazed at the church. That view—the white of Old St. Andrew’s, dabbed with colored windows and red doors, and capped with angel-catchers atop the belfry—simply gives me pause. Since the very first time I walked up to the church in 1997, I’ve been taken aback by the transcendent beauty and spirit of this place. It’s more than that though. It’s the invitation the church extends to any who stop.

So, on that particular Sunday morning, after my usual pause, I crossed the road. Not three steps up the brick walkway, a flutter and shots of light-brown caught my eye. The very top of the maple was filling up with mourning doves. Not a few, but dozens and dozens. They kept coming like they had all agreed to meet at 7.20 in the maple at Old St. Andrew’s.

There was the church and the maple. There were a bunch of doves in the tree. And, there I was.

Funny, isn’t it, how the peace of God expresses itself? When least expected, not one, not a Noah-pair, but a flock of doves alight in the sweetest tree in the forest on a Sunday morning right before my eyes. Oh my. The grace of God brings the peace of God.

This creation we share has all kinds of surprises for us. Some wake us right up and snatch us out of the sleepy unconsciousness of the ordinary.

“Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…”

Shepherds watching their flocks at night. Luke doesn’t imagine how many, but he does say they were terrified. Well, I guess so. If a multitude of the heavenly host showed up on your doorstep, you might shake in your boots for a moment or two. Well, the point isn’t exactly what happened to the shepherds. The point is “to you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savoir, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Amidst endless political rhetoric, the climate change conference in Bali, people losing their homes to the sub-prime crisis, and the bombs of war, to us is born a Savior. Somebody who is sane enough to recognize that he is as a child of God comes into this wild and crazy world with a wild and crazy agenda—peace on earth and good will towards ALL. It was radical then and it’s radical now. True Peace. Peace through justice! is very radical.

Not only that, but this child signals to the shepherds and the whole of humankind that the spirit of God is within us. The peace of God is among us. In this Jesus, we learn that we, too, are children of God … if only we will recognize the essence of God in each of us. The spark that ignites the Christ in Jesus is what Jesus so dearly wants us to find in ourselves and in each other. You see, what this Christmas celebration is all about is birth and new beginnings—being born and reborn and reborn into the image of the God within.

In essence, there’s only one reality. It’s not the insanity of the world but the perfect harmonic vibration of creation’s first cosmic moment. It’s the pure cry of new born life. It’s that everything’s connected. All that is is One. Meister Eckhart, the great 14^th century Dominican mystic, says, “In this life all things are one, and all things are united with one another, all in all and all in all.” And Dame Julian of Norwich in her day poetically says, “All is well and all will be well and all manner of things shall be well.”

So, now, the Christmas cards are sent (or not), the tree is decorated (or not), and the presents are wrapped (or not). It’s a cold winter’s night, when millions of children await the prancing and pawing of each little hoof. For us, however, we sit in the still of this lovely night. For to us, a child is born in the still of our hearts. Where we might have been apart, now we’re together, each of us being born into new life, the new life of the child within who is Christ among us here and now.

Funny, isn’t it, how the peace of God expresses itself? When least expected, the grace of God brings the peace of God, for to us again this Christmas season is born a Savoir, Jesus, the Messiah.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Amen.