What Does Christmas Sound Like
Luke 2:1-20
We began with this simple question: what does Christmas sound like? For some, the sound of Christmas is jingle bells, sleigh bells, and Salvation Army bells ringing. For some, it is Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and Frosty the snow man and grandma getting run over by a reindeer. For some, it is a particular song like “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” whether it sung by little children at a church or sung by Twisted Sister in concert.
These are some of the general or background sounds of Christmas, but maybe the sound of Christmas is a little more personal. For you, it might be a sentimental sound, like the sound of a family gathered on Christmas morning. It may be the sound of a gospel choir singing by candle light. It may be the sound of recognition when Ralphie almost shoots his eye out with his Red Ryder bb gun, in the movie “A Christmas Story.” It may be the sound of your grandmother’s heart beating, when she drew you close and gave you a big hug when you were just a little boy.
Of course, not all of the sounds of Christmas are happy. Most of us do not live in Hallmark cards or Christmas specials. There can be the too-loud sounds which come from being hung over, or the sounds of disappointment over the gifts given and received, or the sounds of irritation because there are just too many people in too small a place and they won’t leave you alone. These are the kinds of sounds that can make Christmas a miserable time.
I don’t know which sound it is for you that makes you think of Christmas, but tonight I want to suggest that there is another sound of Christmas which we can all hear. It is a sound that began in Bethlehem. It is a sound that can still be heard anywhere and everywhere if we know how to listen for it.
Luke’s gospel gives us that familiar story of Jesus’ birth. In it, we hear the angels proclaim that the coming of Jesus is good news of great joy. But sometimes we don’t hear the next phrase – “for all the people.” We may think it is good news for the Jews, or that it is good news for the believers, or that it is good news for good people. But really, are we supposed to believe that it is good news of great joy for all people?
We are suspicious that good news of great joy can be for all the people. Whatever the news is, we know that it will be good news for some, and it is not-so-good news for others. We know that if someone gets the benefit, someone else has to pay. So we are suspicious of anyone who claims that something can be good for everyone.
Besides that, we know that there are some people who do not deserve good news. At least, we know that there are some people we don’t want to get good news, simply because of who they are or what they have done to us. We don’t want them to get good news, because it will mean that we are on the not-so-good side of the news.
And then there are times when I am not so sure that I deserve good news. I know that there are consequences for our sins, both against God and against each other. So why should I get a break, why should I get good news? After all, I know how far short I fall of the glory of God. Why should there be good news for me, when I know how far short I fall of loving my neighbors?
My suspicion about receiving good news is compounded by the genealogy given for Jesus, in Matthew’s gospel. The genealogy is the part everyone skips over because it has all those hard names to say. And yet, Matthew begins his gospel by showing us who the ancestors of Jesus are, as perhaps proof that Jesus is someone who is worthy of being the messiah. We see that long list of names, and it includes some of the most important names in the Bible: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,Judah, Kings David and Solomon. We can try to read that list, but we give up hope long before we get to the end with those less familiar names. We just know that if these are the kinds of people the good news is for, then it must not be for me.
Most family histories are not filled with great people like Moses or King David. Mine certainly isn’t. When my Grandmother Campbell did her family genealogy, it was filled with horse thieves, card cheats, and persons who were wanted for murder. If you were to make a movie, my family would be the bad guys the hero has to run out of town before the end credits can run. And that isn’t just the long-time ago ancestors, either. My grandmother’s children skipped town on bills, robbed stores, used drugs, ran from the police, and my dad turned himself in when he thought he had beaten someone to death.
Maybe that is why I read the Bible a little differently than most folks. I look for the good news, not the good advice. I want to know if God loves me. I don’t really care if there is a biblical diet that will lower my cholesterol. I know that I am going to die, one way or the other, so I am less concerned about how I can put off dying and more with how I should start living.
When I read my Bible, I want to know if God loves you. I don’t really care how many wives and concubines Solomon had and what that might say about our relationships today. Different times call for different relationships, but every time calls for a relationship with God and a relationship with others. I know that I am going to be involved in lots of different relationships over the course of my life, so I am less concerned with how many I can have, and more with whether those relationships are holy before God.
So, I read all of the Bible, even those parts filled with difficult names and no apparent story being told. And that is a good thing because the genealogy of Jesus is filled with good news, especially when we look at these persons against the backdrop of the words of the angels.
Briefly, the genealogy is divided into 3 lists of 14 ancestors each. The first 14 are counted among the patriarchs. The next 14 are counted as part of the royal line. The last 14 would be considered on the order of private citizens. So we have legendary folks, royal folks, and regular folks. So if the good news of great joy will be to all people, then it is good news without regard for a person’s standing in society.
If we look at those names a little more closely, we discover that there are persons that we wouldn’t count as being good today, even if they are part of the legends of our faith. Doing any of the things they did then would get you in serious trouble.
Abraham twice passed his wife Sarah off as his sister, essentially trading his wife so that he could gain cattle. They had a son, Isaac, whom Abraham took to Jerusalem to offer as a human sacrifice.
Isaac was the father of Jacob, but he was also the father of Ishmael, whom he kicked out of his house when his wife asked him to do it. Jacob was a twin who stole his brother’s birthright and then fled in fear. Judah married his former daughter-in-law, Tamar, who had been a temple prostitute for the local Canaanite religion. Tamar gave birth to twins, which made Judah both their father and their grandfather.
One of those twins, Perez, was the father of two sons, who were so unlike the Jews that they established their own non-Jewish tribes. One of these sons was Hezron, and Hezron was the father of Aram, and Aram was the father of Aminadab, whose name means “my people are liberal.”
Aminadab was the father of Nahshon, which is an interesting name meaning “stormy sea waves.” This is perhaps an indication that he had a temper that rose up suddenly and washed over everybody, much like the waves during storms on the Sea of Galilee.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon. Salmon was one of the spies who were sent into Jericho, where he met and later married Rahab the prostitute. They had a son, Boaz, who married another foreign woman named Ruth, and they had a son they named Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of King David.
So, in the legendary line, we have people who lie, con, abuse their children, steal, deny the faith, lose their temper, and marry outside the realms of what others consider proper. So if the good news of great joy will be to all people, it has to be good news without regard for what you have done, or the choices you’ve made, orhow faithful you have been.
When we look at the royal line of David, it doesn’t get any better. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had cheated on her husband, Uriah the Hittite, who was David’s most loyal general and friend. David married Bathsheba after he made sure the troops pulled back during a battle so that Uriah would die.
Some of the men who came after Solomon were both father and uncle to the next generation. This weakened the political line so that eventually, perhaps inevitably, the kingdom was divided and then conquered. The Israelites were sent off into exile, deported to Babylon. So if the good news of great joy will be to all the people, it has to be good news without regard for your success or failure in the world, and without regard for the strength or weakness of your nation, and without regard for your family secrets.
After the deportation to Babylon we get the line of ordinary folks, since there is no longer a country called Israel that would need a king. Jechoniah is listed as the father of Salathiel, but he was actually his grandfather. Salathiel grew up without a dad being around. Salathiel was the father of Zerubbabel, whose name means “son of Babylon” or someone whoworshiped Babylonian gods.
As we continue down this line of regular folks, we find a name that is hopeful (Eliakim, which means“my God will raise up”), a name that is faithful (Eleazar, which means “God’s help”), and a name that is historical (Zadok, which is the name of the order of priests who helped David establish Jerusalem). But nothing else is known about these persons. If not for Matthew writing down this list, we wouldn’t have any reason to know who they are. The line finally gets down to Joseph the husband of Mary, but Joseph is not the father of her baby.
Based on this last line of ancestors, if the good news of great joy is for all the people, it has to be good news without regard for your success or failure in life, and without regard for your parenting skills, and without regard for whether anyone else knows who you are.
We live in the same world that existed when Jesus was born. It is still a world that tries to lift some up while putting others down. Into this world, into our world, the angels proclaim that there is good news of great joy which shall be for all the people, for born to us in the city of David is a savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And we know this is good news of great joy for all the people, because in Jesus Christ’s line are all the people – the great and the good, the lost and the least, the scoundrel and the incompetent. In this family, there is no longer any distinction that would separate us from the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. In this family, there is no longer any disqualification that would keep this good news from being our great joy. In this family, there is good news for you, and there is good news for me.
When we can hear those angels declaring that the good news is for us, and for all of us, we will know what Christmas really sounds like! Amen!