Christmas Eve A’25
24 December 2025
Luke 2.1-20
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone <+>
O Wisdom O Lord, O Root of Jesse O Key of David, O Radiant Dawn O King of Nations – O Emmanuel God with us:
Let every heart prepare You room, and let heaven
and all nature sing! – The Seven O Antiphons of Advent{revised}
Good evening, O weary travelers! O Pilgrims! You who have been travelling through a retail mirage and living in the house of fear – come and rest awhile. Rest in safety – let the maddening winds howl outside as we still ourselves once again to hear the Good News that is for All People.
If ever our world needed Good News, it is tonight – for each of us are afraid. We have come to this holy place tonight carrying our many fears, for example: “What’s going to happen to my spouse, my children? What if they get sick, or injured, or run out of tuition money? What if prescription prices go up – again? What if my health fails, and I lose my healthcare coverage by the stroke of a congressional pen? What if a relative or friend is mistakenly arrested as an illegal? What if my job/career is phased out by the government or eventually by AI? What can I do to protect myself, my job, my family, my business, my school, and yes even my church? Add to all of these, diagnosable fears and phobias, of spiders, snakes, heights, airplanes, escalators, elevators, enclosed spaces, loud noises, needles and injections, diseases. There’s also fear due to traumatic experiences from the past like car wrecks, military combat, or from various kinds of abuse. Some have even been harmed by the church, by its ministers or by parishioners.
On this night of nights when we remember the coming of the Christ Child, may we remember that he came into the world that is – the real world that’s filled with a strange mix of comedy and tragedy, of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow, and many fears. With all of this in mind Is it any wonder that the Christmas drama starts with a backdrop of fear?
An angel named Gabriel sent by God to announce wonderfully good news first appears to Mary and scares the living daylights out of her. To terrified Mary Gabriel says “Fear not” “Fear not Mary, for you have found favor with God!” It’s been said that there are 365 “Fear nots” in the bible – one for each day. I’m not sure of the accuracy of the count but I certainly believe to live in love as opposed to fear is a core message of the scriptures and our faith.
Where are our fears located? What are the troubles that bring us turmoil? Where could any good news possibly be found in any of this? The circumstances of the birth of our Savior strongly suggests that it is in the very mess where we will find God. It is precisely there that God is able to birth New Life, because those are the places that are most in need of it. New Life means change, transformation for the better, better than we can even imagine. This New way of living is based on love rather than fear, on abundance rather than scarcity, on hope, and not despair.
This knowledge and way of life is decidedly not an easy one, it is very counter cultural. Like Mary and Joseph, we will more than likely go through some rough patches before the glory is revealed of what God has been doing in our lives. Ours is to trust that the God of the Universe has come to the mess of our world to reveal that God is safe, even vulnerable, and imminently approachable, here we find that perfect love casts out our fear.
The painting on the cover of your bulletin is by 17th cen. painter, Caravaggio, and was one of his last paintings. This painting drew harsh criticism because it was such a departure from the stately paintings of Mary as the Queen of Heaven, that were so typical of Caravaggio’s day. He deliberately sought to paint a more accurate, humbler and realistic picture of the delivery of Jesus, with Mary, not on a throne made of gold, but on a stable floor made of dirt and straw.
At Christmas, we are invited once again to approach the manger along with the angels, shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and the animals, and bring with us all of our fears and hopes, turmoil & dreams, and finally our hearts, entrusting them to the Prince of Peace. The poet Christina Rosetti captures this truth in the last stanza of her poem: “In the Bleak Mid-winter”
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part,—
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
Amen,
