Return To Sacred Places

     “Return To Sacred Places”

      Luke 2:1-14

      Christmas Eve, 2010

Stltoday  had an interesting article on line this week.  It was a picture gallery of homes from around the St. Louis area.  These homes had been featured in the weekly “At Home” section of the Post Dispatch.   There were pictures of stately dining rooms and cozy living areas from some of the region’s most attractive homes.

I guess a lot of people like to see those kind of pictures.  I suppose the thought is “I can’t live like that so I will take a chance to peek in the window of those who do.”

One of the most popular spaces, especially in the last few weeks, didn’t make the Post Dispatch list.  I guess it didn’t appear plush enough; probably not comfortable relative to the fine homes of the region; it may not have appeared to be desirable to anyone—not even the family that would have been found there.  Yet, it is a favorite stopping place this season.  Many are out even on a cold night like this peeking into the window of a stable to look at a poor family.

One of the centerpieces of our worship tonight is the crèche—crèche is the French word for cradle and depicts the nativity or birth of the Baby Jesus.  The crèche was first used in 1223 by St. Francis and was cast with live animals, a real manger and real people (the way Mann’s Funeral Home does it in my hometown of DeSoto).  Since that time Christians have gathered around the crèche.  It has become a focal point of the celebration of Christmas for Christians.

It is more than a bit ironic that this scene has gained such attention and place of honor in our faith.  It is, in actuality, the place where a tired, weary couple looking for a place to stay had to make do.  They had been prohibited from staying where they would have liked to be.  They were crowded out by those who had taken all of the available places of comfort.  It was the place to which they turned when there was no admittance any other place.  It was a barnyard, fit only for animals.  It was not the least desirable, it was undesirable.

Yet, how many people have huddled around, stopped to peek in, and actually become part of the cast as they offer worship before the baby that was born and laid in a manger? 

What transformed this undesirable barnyard into a sought out sacred space?  What draws multitudes out of their places of comfort to share this space with the outcasts?

Of course, it is not the substance of the place itself.  We are drawn to this sacred place because of the event that happened there.  It represents the place where Christ was born!  This place is sacred because this is where the Promise of God to the prophets was fulfilled.  This is the place where the Presence of God is revealed. 

It is right and proper that we gather and worship before this sacred place, remembering where Christ was born.  But, tonight, as we crowd into Mary and Joseph’s sacred space, I want you to be mindful of a chain of sacred places that are scattered along your own journey of life.  Remember the places where you have been the main character—where the story was your story.  Tonight, I call you to return to your sacred places just as Joseph was called to return to the City of David, Bethlehem.  Travel through the crowded streets of your memory.  Return to the city of your childhood.  Watch the crowd for familiar faces, now consecrated for the role they played in the cast of your own holy drama—people who have their names recorded in your own genealogy of grace—people whose faces once glowed with light showing you the way and even now continue to glow within your heart.  Return to the stinking stables you stumbled upon along your weary journey—places that seemed undesirable.  Places that, when you came upon them, there were certainly places you would rather have been.  But it was those very places that proved to be sacred space for you.  For, there, in those lonely and surprisingly unimpressive places you found that God chose to be with you, to meet you and make known to you God’s promise and presence.  What happened there has hollowed that place for you—there you met God, there God came to you.

You can be content tonight to peek into the window of this stable, Mary and Joseph won’t mind.  But the good news of the gospel is that you don’t have to be content with that.  Unlike the homes in the news pictures, this can be your window!  The event that transformed this barnyard into sacred space has happened and can yet happen where you live.

We celebrate tonight the truth of Immanuel, God with us.  In Christ, God entered into the drama of humankind.  At a lowly and forsaken stable, God was present and that presence transformed the undesirable barnyard into sacred space.  God’s promise to us in Christ is that God desires to be present with us.  God entering into the world in the meekness of a baby, God entering into the world at a stable, assures us that no place we find ourselves is too forsaken, too ordinary but what God may enter in, transforming any scene from our lives into holy and sacred space.

All that is required is that we quiet ourselves and become aware of how God will next enter in.  Let our hearts be ever open to let the dear Christ enter in.

And this can be your window!