January 7, 2024
Hebrews 2:10-18
Introduction
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Let your heart be light, from now on our troubles will be out of sight. Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Make the Yule-tide gay, From now on our troubles will be miles away.
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Well, something is miles away, but I’m not sure it’s our troubles.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly Christmas disappears. What took months in coming, preparing, anticipating, is over in an instant. Sure, it’s been nearly two solid weeks since Christmas day, but when the clock struck 12:01 on the 26th, for many Christmas was in the rearview mirror, and troubles were back in sight with our hearts feeling anything but light.
How is it that what we prepared for since November can be over so quickly after it begins? We like to blame the retail industry that moves so quickly on to the next big money-making holiday, but I can’t help but think much of the reason for a short Christmas lifespan lies within us. The days after Christmas seem more like a dream we have awakened from, and we feel silly singing Christmas carols and talking about this baby with the New Year and all of its troubles staring us in the face. So what does our merry little Christmas and the call to let our hearts be light, have to do with us now?
Well the author of Hebrews clues us in a bit… especially in verse 10 of our text… It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Move 1
It has been nearly two weeks since little baby Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph, and by now it feels as though they are probably decorating his room, painting it blue, putting up mobiles, and adjusting to their new life as parents of the Son of God. How perfect it must have been. (Not so much actually.)
Matthew tells us they had to flee soon after the birth because King Herod was so enraged at the Magi’s notion that this child was the newborn King, that he gave an edict to kill every child born in the Bethlehem area over the past two years. Joseph and Mary had to escape with their child and flee as refugees into Egypt for safety or else their newborn baby would be run through with a sword.
But this was just the beginning. Throughout his life, Jesus was beleaguered by troubles and hunted by death. As an adult, he would be led into the wilderness where he would be confronted by Satan and tempted to abandon his calling, his faith, and his moral values. He was often misunderstood by his own family and closest friends. People used him and then left him when he said something they didn’t like. He got tired, felt overworked, tried unsuccessfully to get away, was interrupted time and again, and felt pulled in a thousand directions at once. His success would rise and fall. His competition was strong and persistent.
His enemies would plot to kill him, and eventually succeed. The sins of the world and the coldness of death would catch up to him. He would be slapped by ignorant men, betrayed by those he trusted, abandoned by his friends, tossed around by the political powers, let down by the religious leaders. He would hurt so badly that his sweat would drop as blood.
Finally, on a hill outside of Jerusalem this baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s son, would die a horrible and heartbreaking death on a cross. This child, born in a manger, born under a star that led royalty to him, lived a life filled with suffering, temptations, and the shadow of death hovering over him wherever he went. Is that why we can’t “Let our heart be light”?
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Move 2
Why do I bring this up on this first Sunday of the New Year, and the Sunday we observe Epiphany? Why not continue to talk about the hope, peace, joy, and love of Jesus? Why not continue to talk about the wonder of that majestic star? Why not try to keep the mood of Christmas going as long as possible?
Christmas is not about a feeling, or a mood, or the celebration of a special child who is unlike us. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Christmas is about the birth of a special child who is like us in every way—a child who knows suffering like we know suffering; a child who experienced temptations the way we experience temptations; a child who lived under the shadow of death like we live under the shadow of death every day. This is no child born with a silver spoon in his mouth. This is a child who has been tested and, as the writer to the Hebrews says, “because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”
And this is why I bring this up today… because where do we find the courage to face another year? After all, we know what is coming. It will be a year in which there will be tragedies and we will be involved in them to one degree or another. Either they will happen to us or to a friend or we will watch them on television and be shaken.
It will be a year in which we will be tempted to hurt other people or to hurt ourselves. It will be a year in which circumstances that are out of our control will try to force us to act against our principles and tempt us to do what we know we should not. It will be a year of joys but also disappointments, good luck and bad luck. It will be a year in which the obituaries will be filled with names—some of them we will know; some of them we will love; perhaps one of them will be our own.
How do we keep from hiding under the bed? Where do we find the courage and hope to go forward into the unknown of another New Year? We are creatures that are powerless to live as we ought to live, powerless to save ourselves from sins or harm, powerless to control the events that are constantly influencing us, powerless to prevent our own demise. How do we keep from going insane?
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There are various ways we can face the future. We can cower in fear—we’ve got plenty to be afraid of. We can admit how weak we are; believe we are alone and that we are no match for what is coming and live every day with frayed nerves and churned stomachs. We can try to deny our fear by fooling ourselves into believing we are immortal or that it can’t happen here. We can try to numb the fear by drink or drugs or work or endless scrolling.
Or… we can face our fear… and beat it. How do we do that? We begin by remembering what season it is that takes us into the New Year and what the message of that season is all about.
Christmas is the Season that takes us into the New Year, and it reminds us, always… “It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Move 3
Every year we want to be done with Christmas immediately after the last store-bought package is opened and clear out the living room of all the paper, bows, and decorations and throw the tree onto the curb because it’s time to get on with real life. We treat Christmas like it is a fairy tale that has enchanted us for awhile by whisking us off to a make-believe world, but as much as we would love to stay, we know we must get back to reality.
And yet, it is this baby Jesus who leads us into the unknown of the New Year like a pioneer. Not a pioneer who goes it alone, but a pioneer who has gone up ahead and has already met what we will meet, so that we will have someone with us who understands what we are going through.
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For many people, Christmas time seems to be all about joy and parties and presents with no place for sadness, fear, troubles or death. But Christmas is about incarnation—which is a fancy word that means God comes into this world, into our flesh and blood, into our real life reality, to experience what we experience and to defeat what threatens to defeat us. Incarnation means God in flesh. God with us. God in us.
And when we believe God is with us; when we live by his example and allow Him to forgive us and restore us, we hold onto his resurrection from the dead and cling to the truth that there is nothing in life and nothing in death that can separate us from His love, and He will be our power throughout the coming New Year. Jesus has already gone on ahead and calls back to us, “There is nothing here greater than me. No need to be afraid.”
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Conclusion
Do you think Jesus would come all this way just to allow the world to defeat us? He came that He might know life as we know it, live life as we live it—with one difference. Where we fail and are defeated, He was victorious. And where He was victorious—we are victorious through Him.
So let’s not be so quick to be done with Christmas. This Christmas child is both with us and has already faced everything we will face in this New Year. And whenever we begin to fear because are trouble are not far away, hear Jesus say, “Been there. Done that.” And not only has he been there and done that, he beat that—and so will everyone in his family.
No, our troubles may no longer be out of sight, but because of God’s Merry Little Christmas, neither is our Savior. So from now on, we can let our heart be light. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer: Epiphany, January 7, 2024
God of new beginnings, we come before you on the first Sunday of the New Year, well aware the holidays are over, but the work of Christmas must continue.
And so we give you thanks for the season, and all it has been for us and our families. And we give you thanks for the cherished stories which surround the birth of Jesus, particularly for the story of the bright and wondrous star that guided the Magi to his side.
But we want them to be more than just stories of a holiday season.
So on this holy day of Epiphany, a day that culminates our Christmas season, we pray your love shines from within us to encircle and embrace all those who are still searching for hope, peace, joy, and love.
We pray you help us let the light of Jesus shine from us, that we may be sources of light for others who stumble about in fear, anxiety, self-destructive passion, hatred, and all forms of dimness and chaos.
We pray you grant our minds, bodies and spirit energy and courage so we may serve as messengers of your grace for loved ones and friends whose lives have been stricken by illness, as well as to even the stranger who are at this very time walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
The holidays are over but the work of Christmas must continue.
So before we go any further into this New Year, show us once more your star that will always guide us. And if we should lose our way, help us to see again the light that shines bright, always there for us to see anew, and follow again and again.
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Hear now, we ask, the prayers we want and need to lift to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, light of the world, who taught us to pray saying, “Our …”