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Most scholars agree that the Gospel of Luke originally
began at chapter 3, verse 1. Later, the author of this
Gospel, or someone doing a good job of imitating his style,
added the first two chapters. The first two chapters sort of
stand by themselves and tell a marvelous story, one familiar
to us because it became the Christmas Gospel of the Church.
One of my favorite Christmas sermons was written by the
Dutch Roman Catholic Bishop, Edward Schillebeeckx. It seemed
to mean so much more to me again as I thought about our
service this evening. It is just the week before Christmas
and we celebrated the gift opening at our home today because
our daughter from Atlanta was home for this weekend, flying
in to attend the baptism of her nephew Gabriel Steven.
Here is what Schillebeeckx says in his Christmas sermon:
"The birth of a human being is always the beginning of a new
possibility in our history. This new person is still open in
all directions: the course he or she will take cannot be
predicted or estimated. The birth of a human being is the
possibility of a new and completely surprising love, but
also the possibility of new grief and evil in the world; a
possibility of new hope but also the possibility of new
despair. What will become of this child, Luke makes people
ponder."
That surely must have been the case with Mary and Joseph.
And it is the case also for Molly and Steve—and the
grandparents too of little Gabriel. It is the case with
every child born into this world. Schillebeeckx suggests
that what makes the difference in the life of each human
being is which stories they adopt as their own. Jesus
adopted the story of Joseph and Mary, the story of Galilean
peasants under Roman occupation, the story of Israel,
Abraham, the prophets and the God of the Covenant. Those
stories gave meaning and direction to the life of Jesus. It
would, I think, be fair to say that Jesus gave his life for
that story: the story of a Covenant God who wanted His
people Israel to model a new way of being human—one based on
building loving communities of peace and justice, not war
and domination. Surely, Jesus wanted to persuade the Israel
of his day to return to that story, to the vision of that
story. He was unhappy with the version of that story that
was being played out in his day because it was a version
that excluded so many. His vision was one of inclusion, not
exclusion.
With the baptism of every child the church takes on the
responsibility of teaching the inclusive story that Jesus
taught. We have a responsibility to help form at least a
part of the story that will be the one that shapes the life
of Gabriel. That is a responsibility we take on as a
congregation every time a baby is baptized at our font.
Tomorrow, our congregation will see once again the Christmas
story in pageant form. I hope that about five or six years
from now this baby will have a part in that story. I think
he should be a shoo-in for the part of the angel Gabriel.
Amen
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