Homily for
The Vigil of Christmas
Saturday 24 December 2016
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church
Readings:
Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful
order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy
angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may
help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
This collect for the
Feast of St. Michael and All Angels speaks beautifully of the exchange of mortals
and angels. Tonight the Gospel provides us with a real tangible exchange
of humans and angels. In his proclamation of the birth of Jesus, son of Mary,
Son of God, St. Luke the Evangelist tells us that the very first ones to
proclaim the holy birth were none other than the angels of heaven. In a
very special moment on a very special night, the holy angels reveal themselves to
shepherds keeping their flock safe through the night outside the City of David,
Bethlehem, that they might announce the birth of Christ.
Tonight that moment is
represented in our midst. On this holy night we receive once more the
message of the angels. And just as the shepherds long ago received that
message and joined in proclaiming the birth of Jesus, God with us, so too do we
join in that proclamation. In fact not long ago at this very Mass we sang
the proclamation of the whole heavenly host. We do so at every Mass
outside Advent and Lent.
How fitting that in the
midst of all this tonight we have remembered a servant of God who lived among us,
who proclaimed the Gospel in word and deed as an example of humility and
faithful living. Tonight the new Gospel book has been dedicated to the
glory of God, the God who drew near to save us, in loving memory of our brother
Tom. I hope that tonight as the Gospel was proclaimed he was very much on
your mind and in your heart. I pray that you are aware that this man whom
we love but see no longer is among those who on this night proclaim unto us the
sacred birth of Jesus and who point us to him who is the light that shines in
the darkness and overcomes the darkness with his glory that shines brighter
than the sun.
Tom of course is not
alone. He is one among a cloud of witnesses that cannot be numbered who
have joined the angels. They have not become angels. They are the
saints of God who in their generation have faithfully witnessed to Jesus and
who even now remind us that Jesus is in our midst, that our God cares for us so
deeply and loves us so passionately that he draws near to be our help and our
strength.
Surrounded by the angels
and the saints, tonight we proclaim Jesus to the world. This proclamation
made first by angels and saints and now by is a proclamation that the world
around us needs to hear. Many around us are even now keeping Christmas.
Many of them started a number of weeks ago. How many times have we heard
not just this year but in years past the cry to keep Christ in Christmas?
How many times do we observe a keeping of Christmas that is completely void of
Christ? The lights and trees are beautiful. The images of Santa and
an abundance of gifts are precious. And yet all these things are, in the
words of St. Paul the Apostle on things larger than these images of Christmas,
mere rubbish in comparison to the vision of the holy child born of Mary and the
sacred knowledge of who this child is for us and for our very lives and
salvation.
Do you want to keep
Christ in Christmas? Look to Christ, and set aside all that distracts us
from him and his life-giving presence in our midst. And how do we best do
that? How do we best kept Christ before us and in our sights?
Remember that the earliest spelling of Christmas has one extra letter than we
commonly see. We, the servants of God, the people who identify ourselves
as Christians, keep Christmass, the Mass of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And tonight the saints and angels assist us in keeping the
Mass. They sing with us. They proclaim the good news with us and
invite us to make Christ known in the world for the sake of the world.
They also challenge us to
keep Christ not only in Christmas but in the daily life we live. And how
do we do that? Here is the starting point. We keep the Mass, not
only on this sacred night, but especially Sunday after Sunday as each Lord's
Day we proclaim that the one whose birth we celebrate tonight rose again from
the dead and promises us that because he lives forever, so we too shall live
not only in this life and in this world but also in the life of the world to
come where we, the saints of God, join our voices with those of the angels,
singing the praises of our great God without end.
Our brother Tom knew this
well. He reminded us often of the importance of regular participation in
the Mass. Think back to our thoughts at any Mass where he was not with us.
How odd did those moments feel? I know I felt it, and I know I am by no
means alone.
Tonight, and at every
Mass I have celebrated in this House of Prayer since his repose, I have been
greatly comforted by knowing that Tom is still with us around the Sacred Body
and Precious Blood of Jesus, our Lord and God, expecting and desiring for us to
be here with Jesus whenever he reveals himself in our midst in the breaking of
the bread.
I also need to say too
that I am deeply aware of the fact that by this point, with all the references
I have made to him, Tom would be embarrassed. His deepest desire would be
that we would not focus on him, but rather on Jesus.
Tonight we gather to
recommit ourselves to that focus. Jesus is with us, not only tonight and
not only in this House of Prayer. Jesus is with us always, loving us as
no one else can, desiring that we long to come again and again to the manger
that is the Altar where we eat his flesh and drink his blood, and are renewed
that we might proclaim Jesus Christ not only on Sacred Holy Days and in Holy
Houses, but even on the most ordinary of days and the most common of tables and
meals.
Alleluia! Christ is
born! Glorify him now and forevermore! Alleluia!
Father
Timothy
Alleman
Thank you, Father, for sharing this
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