Sermon for Christmas Eve
Whoa! It’s Christmas!
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
One of my earliest childhood memories is my first visit to New York City with my parents. My parents were already in love with New York and this early visit began my love for this city and its people.
It was in the mid-1950’s. I believe it was our first major trip anywhere as a family. My parents had visited New York many times as a couple, but this was their first visit to New York with their children, my brother, Byron, and me.
And, of course, we went to Rockefeller Center and the Radio City Music Hall in downtown Manhattan.
In those days, Radio City still showed first-run films. And, along with each film came a live musical production by the famous Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.
The Rockettes danced five times each day, or however many times each film played each day. And they were wonderful.
I still remember the film we saw that day. It was a then new musical comedy called “The Court Jester” starring Danny Kaye and Angela Lansbury. The most-remembered song from this film is “Life Could Not Better Be” and some of that song’s words still stick in my head –
Why be gloomy?
Cut thy nose off to spite thy face
Listen to me, a nose is hard to replace
Skies could not bluer be, hearts in love, truer be
I say for you and me
Life couldn't possibly, not even probably
Life couldn't possibly better be
This song set the theme for the film which included another scene I remember still, one involving a poison drink and lots of wordy Danny Kaye patter – “the chalice with the palace has the brew that is true….” And so on.
This all came to my mind as I read a piece this past week by the Rev. Susan Sparks, pastor of Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York City and a friend of mine.
In her book, Miracle on 31st Street, Pastor Sparks writes about the last time a year or two again when she visited Radio City for their annual Christmas Spectacular.
If you have ever seen the Radio City Christmas Spectacular you know is it a mash-up of the Nutcracker, dancing Santa’s, reindeer, the Christmas story from St. Luke and those famous Rockettes dancers. It is over the top entertainment designed for tourists.
Pastor Sparks writes that she was sitting near a little boy, probably about as old as I was on my first Radio City visit. The little boy was there with his Dad and this little boy was really enjoying himself.
With every new thing on the stage, every new thing that happened in the show, the little boy’s eyes grew bigger and he exclaimed, “Whoa.”
A reindeer walked across the stage. Whoa!
A Christmas tree started talking. Whoa!
The baby Jesus appeared in a manger with a giant star overhead. Whoa!
Pastor Sparks writes that, as much into the show the little boy was, his dad was not into it so much if at all. While the little boy was basking in what he saw as an avalanche of miracles, his dad was, you guessed it, texting on his smartphone, uttering an occasional “Um-hum” or “Yeah, I see it.”
Well, no, the little boy’s dad really did not see the show, or, more importantly, the wonder in his young son. He really missed the entire show and its miracles as seen through the eyes of his son.
Pastor Sparks writes that this is such a sad example of how we adults come at this world, especially during the holiday season. We haul a load of holiday stress. We worry about money, gifts, and this year especially, disease. We seem to carry the baggage of fear, judgment and doubt, all things that block our ability to see the miracles of the season that are all around us, even during this strangest of Christmases. It is just too easy to lose the ability to look at the world through the eyes of a child.
Dr. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have mentioned Pausch previously in sermons here at Mt. Olive. You may remember him. Dr. Randy Pausch is famous for his YouTube “Last Lecture,” given while he knew we was dying of pancreatic cancer, cancer which not long after he recorded his YouTube speech took his life at the age of 48.
In that now famous lecture, Pausch framed his look on life in terms of two of the characters from Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, the playful, positive, fun-loving tiger, and Eeyore, the pessimistic, negative, sad little donkey. Dr. Pausch said, “You just have to decide if you are a Tigger or an Eyeore.” And, he added, “Never lose your childlike wonder. It is just too important. It is what drives us.”
Or, as the little boy in Pastor Sparks story would say, never lose those “Whoa” moments.
Life is full of possibility. Life is full of wonder and miracles, but we, in our doubt and cynicism, we can miss it.
We live in a world where we can think we have all the answers. We can split the atom, send a spacecraft to Mars, clone sheep and even develop of vaccine in weeks and months.
So, it can become too easy to think, “what miracles are left?”
There is one miracle left, and it is why we are gathered this Christmas Eve. Tonight, we celebrate the gift of a tiny baby wrapped up and lying in a manger, a baby who ushers in a new world full of hope, love, and possibility, rather than a world of fear, doubt or judgment. A world that we should all look upon in awe, a world that should make us all exclaim, “Whoa!”
This Christmas I invite you to think about that little boy in Pastor Sparks’ story. Let us not be like his father, oblivious to the miracles all around. No, this Christmas, let us be like that little boy and let us see anew the Kingdom of God as it was meant to be seen, as a miracle, all around us, every day. A world of hope, love, and possibility.
It’s Christmas!
Whoa!
Amen
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
December 24, 2020
