Date:
December 24, 2009, Christmas Eve
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel
GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH, PEACE, GOODWILL TO ALL.
Good Christian men and women rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Jesus Christ is born today! Ox and ass before him bow and he is in the manger now. Jesus Christ is born today! Ox and ass—our manger scenes would not be complete without them. We love to put wooly sheep and a donkey and a cow in the crèche, maybe some doves in the rafters. It reminds us of the Romanian Christmas Carol, “The Friendly Beasts”: Jesus our brother, kind and good, Was humbly born in a stable rude And the friendly beasts around him stood, Jesus our brother, kind and good. “I,” said the donkey, shaggy and brown, “I carried his mother uphill and down, I carried her safely to Bethlehem town,” “I,” said the donkey, shaggy and brown. “I,” said the cow all white and red, “I gave him my manger for his bed, I gave him my hay to pillow his head,” “I,” said the cow all white and red.
And the sheep and the dove and the camel sing their verse too. We are reminded of the prophecy of Isaiah, “The ox knows his master and the ass his master’s crib,” and the prophecy of Habakkuk, “Between two beasts are you known.” Last year I sneaked a little dog into the manger scene in the front of the church. I like the idea of the God who created the universe being welcomed into his world by all the animals God created on the sixth day, “cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind and humankind made in the image of God.” Christ is born today and ox and ass and boys and girls, young women and young men, old men and old women—everything that has life and breath praise the Lord. Jesus Christ is born today!
But what about the wild animals, scary things, snakes and dragons? In the third chapter of Genesis, the serpent is the wiliest of creatures that the Lord God had made and he tricked the woman and the man into sin. They wanted to transcend creatureliness and become divine; instead they were forced to suffer under the weight of sin. The man would toil at his labor and the woman labor hard to give birth. The snake would bruise the human heal but the son of man would bruise his head. The Messiah would come and evil be destroyed. Isaiah looked ahead to the day when Lord with strong sword would punish the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent, the dragon in the sea. And John the Seer looked ahead to the time when a woman clothed with the sun and the moon beneath her feet, on her head a crown of twelve stars, was with child. She cried out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth and a portent of a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and a tail which swept down a third of the stars in heaven and threw them to the earth—the dragon stood before the woman with child so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son who is to rule all the nations. John saw war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back but they were defeated and thrown down. The dragon is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. The dragon makes war on the children of God, all those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
There is a delightful story which comes out of the early church. There were many traditions about the life of Mary and the birth of Jesus, the flight into Egypt by the Holy Family and their life along the Nile. In one called “Pseudo-Matthew” the family left the cave the third day after Jesus had been born and went into a stable to put Jesus into the manger. An ox and ass worshipped Him. Later when they fled to Egypt, the same book says the wild animals worshipped Jesus. As Isaiah had prophesied, “The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert to give drink.” According to Pseudo-Matthew, the lions and leopards worshipped Jesus and accompanied the Holy Family across the desert. Wherever Joseph and Mary went, they went before them showing them the way and lowering their heads in worship; they wagged their tails and honored Jesus with the greatest reverence. Mary saw the lions and leopards and all kinds of wild beasts surrounding them and she was gripped with fear, but the baby Jesus said, “Do not fear, mother, for they do not come to harm you, but they hasten to obey you and me.” The lions went along with the oxen and asses and sheep and rams. They walked among the wolves without fear. And the prophecy was fulfilled, “The wolf shall live with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them.” The child is Jesus. The reign of God will be a kingdom of peace for all people and all creatures great and small. Christ is born today!
But what about the dragons? As the dragon represents sin and evil, Satan and the fallen angels, so it will be destroyed. Good will triumph over evil and we look forward to the final victory of God. But Christ has come. Salvation is not just in the future but present now. I would like to think this Christmas Eve of all the dragons in our lives—men without work. Did you know that unemployment is as high now among men 25 to 55 as during the Great Depression? Real unemployment rates are closer to twenty percent of the American people than ten. There are people without a home tonight, people in shelters or on the streets. There are many lonely people or people who have lost loved ones. There are people who have never found someone to love and wonder if they ever will. There are troops far away from home—sleeping in dirt trenches in Afghanistan, or not sleeping, minds too active with things they have seen or things they fear to see. There are people who know that this Christmas is their last one and some just trying to live to see this Christmas. Many people pretend that everything is just wonderful this Christmas but it isn’t. These are the dragons we face. Let me tell you a story about Jesus and the dragons—picture it as Christ ands the dragons in your life: Pseudo-Matthew writes, “When the Holy Family came to a cave and wished to rest in it, Mary dismounted and sat with Jesus on her lap. There were with Joseph three boys and with Mary some maidens. And behold many dragons came out of the cave. When the boys saw them they cried out in terror. Then Jesus got down from his mother’s lap and stood on his feet before the dragons. Behold, they worshipped Jesus and then stepped back from the Holy Family. So was fulfilled what was spoken through David, “Praise the Lord, you dragons from the earth, you dragons and all deeps.” And the Child Jesus himself went before the dragons and commanded them not to harm anyone. Mary and Joseph had great fear lest the child should be hurt by the dragons but Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.”
Not only ox and ass bow before the Christ Child but even the lions and wolves and dragons. The words of the Child come to you tonight, “Do not be afraid.” Jesus Christ is born today! Good Christian men and women rejoice. Jesus Christ is born today! Amen.
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