Christmas Eve - December 24, 2025

Summary

Mother Suzanne preaches that God's greatest surprise came not through worldly power like Caesar Augustus, but through the humble birth of baby Jesus announced first to lowly shepherds. She emphasizes that God works in unexpected ways, using even a Roman census to fulfill ancient prophecies and bring the Messiah to Bethlehem. This Christmas message offers hope that God comes to meet us wherever we are, promising to be with us always and make beauty from our brokenness.

The Gospel                                                                                                                                  

Luke 2:1-20

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
 and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Transcript

Mother Suzanne:

Do not fear for I am with you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. In the name of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. Well, we can finally say Merry Christmas. And some of you may thought that we sang a whole lot, but listen, we've been waiting for those Christmas carols. We've been in Advent where we couldn't sing those beautiful Christmas songs. But with all love and with all goodness in my heart, welcome this most holy night. We're joined with well over two billion people, billion people, more than one quarter of the world's population who will attend Christmas services this evening or sometime today.

And it is my hope in this sacred space, you will be drawn deeper into the eternal stillness of this night. You've chosen to celebrate the Lord's birth at a church named grace. Perhaps that's what's beckoned you here. The longing and need for grace. And knowing that it's in this holy and sacred space on this most holy and sacred of nights, grace can be received, offered by a God who is made incarnate tonight. We've gathered inside a manger, and if you don't believe me, just look up. It's the safest, warmest. Well, maybe tonight, coolest. Most contented place one could find oneself this evening. It is our own manger, grace, Episcopal. We are ready to welcome Jesus. The miracle of God's infinity dwindled to infancy.

Well, Luke's version of the Jesus' birth story is what I grew up reading every Christmas Eve with the King James Version Bible as my family gathered around the fireplace at my maternal grandmother's house. Did you catch all that? What we read tonight is what was read at our Christmases every year. It's the most familiar, right? And it's often seen as a nostalgic, charming story of old. But you guys, I have to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. It's significant that the story begins with the mention of this man named Caesar Augustus, and he all of a sudden desires a census. It has to be taken.

Roman emperors commissioned censuses for two reasons and two reasons only. Number one, to determine how many soldiers they could draft. And number two, to calculate how much money they could extract intacts. So isn't it interesting that we get from the most powerful man in the world at that time, a Roman emperor, to a little bitty baby boy named Jesus, born in a manger by way of a census. This is the real beginning of our story of why Mary and Joseph are forced to trek for four long days. Remember, they're probably moving really slowly. Mary is so pregnant, yet despite these circumstances, we know that God was at work miraculously repurposing a pagan ruler's political machine to answer the ancient prayers and the prophecies of Israel.

So there was this prophet named Micah, and Micah predicted that Israel's coming king would come from the most unlikely of places, a place called Bethlehem. And then there was this prophet, Jeremiah, and he added that this king would come from the ancient line of David. Caesar Augustus, whose name means exalted one, assumed that he was fully in charge. But in fact, the king of kings was using Caesar's plans to fulfill ancient prophecies, which set the scene for the humble birth of Jesus, whose name one day would be exalted above all others. And it's this next surprise which upends the nativity story even more. The events of a king being born is told to the lowliest and most unexpected group, the gangly group of shepherds.

And yet, in God's wisdom and in God's goodness, it's the shepherds who are chosen as the one that the angel reveals that the savior of the world has been born. This news wasn't delivered to the governor, Corinius or Caesar Augustus, but to a group of unnamed shepherds watching sheep in a very, very dark field. And just like any of us, when the heavenly hosts came, these shepherds were terrified and in true angelic fashion, the angels say, "Do not be afraid." Words of comfort for all of us, even tonight, repeated throughout the biblical narrative when fear begins to set in.

What makes this story remarkable is that the shepherds respond by saying yes. They are afraid, but they are also in awe. And so they moved, they traveled, they go to Bethlehem and they discover for themselves the news that the Lord had made known to them in the field. They knew they were given news that was so profoundly special and they knew it was from God. They had to go. So with heart-led immediacy off, they went to find this child. By tasking the shepherds with delivering this news, our gospel writer, Luke, is saying that the way the world has always been will no longer be. God doesn't come as everyone expects. Can I say that again?

God doesn't come as everyone expects full of might and power in the form of a man named Caesar Augustus. No. Instead, he comes in the form of a baby. He also doesn't come to the high and mighty. Instead, he's found amongst the lowliest of the lowly, the shepherds. In this spiritual path of being with people as they walk in the light of Christ, what I have found along this path is that our God is a God of constant surprises, working in ways we least expect, calling the structures and ways of the day into question, and ultimately declaring a new beginning all together.

And if this is where you find yourself tonight, led by the spirit of God, to a church named grace on the holiest night of the year, looking for a new beginning, this is the Christmas message. Just like the shepherds, you too have heeded the message and have come to discover the greatest gift ever given to the world. God didn't make himself incarnate in Jesus to make things perfect or without struggle. My goodness, I wish he had, but he didn't. Through Jesus, God came to resurrect and redeemed, to make beauty from ashes, to rebuild what's broken and perhaps seen as irreparable, to surprise and reverse and to make right all that is wrong.

And so wherever you find yourself this Christmas Eve, perhaps so full of joy that your heart can't stand it. That's how I felt watching Millie bring baby Jesus to the creach. Perhaps you're sad and lonely and all you're wanting is a simple word of hope or maybe you're full of expectant wonder. Wherever you are, however you are feeling, know this. Our Jesus is made incarnate tonight and his promise to us is he will be with us always to the very end of the age, upholding you with his righteous right hand. Thanks be to God that tonight we celebrate a new mother cradling her perfect gift in her arms.

We celebrate the reversal of a census commissioned as a way to tax and control, which becomes the vehicle by which the greatest birth story ever told comes to be. And we can't leave out the shepherds the least of these, the ones nobody wants to be around or smell or look at. They are the ones Jesus has come to. Tonight, we celebrate a mother and father who gave thanks for what they had and offered their lives to this mystery, trusting in its power to do more for them that they could ever ask or imagine. We have patiently waited through Advent and he's here finally among us and with us incarnate this night. My wish for you is this Christmas and the joy be yours this holy night and always amen. I