RCL Year A (Christmas Eve) - December 25, 2007

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A (Christmas Eve) - December 25, 2007

Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20


The first thing that you learn in homiletics (preaching class) in seminary is that you don’t go to church on Christmas eve to hear the sermon. My homiletics instructor always told us that the folks are there to experience the beauty, the wonder, the peace, the awe, and the miracle… they were not there in Church at 11:00 in the evening on Christmas Eve to listen to your convoluted sermon, so give it to them straight… Give them something to carry with them… Say something that they can think about all year long…

So I pondered…

From what he was telling me, I would hate to think that I could stand up here and preach a sermon on the recipe to my grandmother’s famous pineapple Christmas cookies – and that it would have the same affect… They are however, the best cookies in the world!!!
But I am not going to do that...

Those of you that have grown accustomed to my preaching style, know that what I am about to do is a little different from the norm, but not completely far fetched for my character…

I have decided to retell you the wonderful familiar story that you have just heard from the point of view of Mary… Something as if you were reading Mary’s diary…


I cannot believe the trip that we are on… we left Nazareth 10 days ago bound for a little remote village in Judea called Bethlehem. I don’t completely understand why the Roman government wants everyone to return to their city of origin, I think it has something to do with control and the government wanting more money. That’s why we are going to Bethlehem. Joseph, my betrothed, is a descendant from the great King David, I think he is related on his father’s brother’s side, but I am not real sure.

It has been about 8 and a half months since the Angel came to me and told me that I was going to have a baby… and – all this trip has done is made it worse… I really wish that angel were with me now. The angel said that the baby that I am having will be the king of kings, and lord of lords but yet we have a foreign emperor telling us where to go and that we need to be counted and pay taxes.

I really didn’t want to come… In fact, the last thing that I wanted to do this far along in my pregnancy is travel ninety miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. If I weren’t betrothed, I could have stayed in my father’s house and been counted with them.

But, I am so thankful to Joseph for accepting this strange pregnancy – I know it must be difficult for him to understand or accept. It is even difficult for me, and in the past few months, I have been taking it one step at a time, trying to figure out what it all means, and why God chose me.

We have taken the trip slowly because of my condition and I am real glad that we only have a couple of miles to go. I really hope that we can find a place to stay, I really need a place to rest. I have this strange feeling that it’s not going to be a short visit. In fact I think we are going to be in Bethlehem for a few months while the Roman government gets their counting done.

I know Joseph is not a rich man, but he is a skilled carpenter and works hard for the meager wages he receives. All of the projects he had to leave behind to take this journey
would probably feed all three of us (him, I, and the baby) for almost 3 months.


We have arrived in Bethlehem, and have been going door to door for the past 3 hours. Nobody has any room… Joseph has just told me that we cannot find any place to stay, and it is starting to get dark.

The inn keeper down the street has offered us his stable, I am thinking that it would be fine for the night, all I want to do is rest. We could find a suitable place in the morning.


Joseph and I have been in Bethlehem of Judea for about 4 days now and we are still in the innkeeper’s stable. I don’t think that we will get out of here any time soon. What little bit of currency we had for the journey is going away very quickly, soon we will not be able to afford a different place to stay. The innkeeper has told us that we can stay as long as we need to. I guess he feels sorry for me because I am pregnant.


It’s been about 2 weeks, and I stated having contractions this morning… I know it’s time for the baby and he will come soon… I am not prepared… I don’t know how I will care for him in these horrible conditions, but least it’s warm here in the stable. Joseph has cleaned out the manger (the feeding trough for the animals) and lined it with new straw.

He said that we could probably use it for bedding for the baby… I am not crazy about laying my new baby in a feeding trough, but it is convenient, and Joseph has cleaned it up pretty good.


Jesus was born last night. I am very glad now that we have this stable to stay in. He is such a beautiful child, and Joseph has been wonderful through this whole ordeal. The manger that he cleaned up works out pretty well. I tightly bound him up in strips of cloth as is our custom. It will keep him warm and give him a feeling of security, as if he was still in the womb. Somehow we are finding enough to eat, if I don’t get enough to eat, Jesus suffers too and I worry about that. Everyone around here has been very generous and have been helping us so much.


Its been about 3 weeks and the baby is doing extremely well considering the conditions. The strangest thing happened this morning… Sheep herders were passing through Bethlehem and stopped here at the stable. They said that an angel of the Lord had appeared to them last night when they were watching the flock up on the hillside. You could tell that they were in awe as much as I was when the Angel came to me. The shepherds said that the angel told them about the baby, and that the baby was the messiah… the anointed one… the Christ.

Chills went up my spine… I didn’t know what to think… My baby, the savior of the world? The anointed one of God?

I know now, that my life and life as the world knows it will never be the same!


God humbled himself and was made man, and came to live among us as one of us… God didn’t come to us in glorious splendor, he came to us from a poor family that had no place to stay when they traveled, so they stayed in a barn. He didn’t have royal robes and fine garments, he was bond with strips of cloth or swaddling clothes. He didn’t live a life of luxury… he didn’t even have a bed. He was laid in a feeding trough… But from that feeding trough he feeds the world!

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among all people!