Christmas Day Message 2011

A Christmas Message offered to the glory of God by the Reverend Scott D. Nowack

December 25, 2011 at the First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

Will you pray with me? 
Startle us, O God, with your Truth, and open our hearts and minds to your Word.  Silence in us any voice but your own, so that you Spirit may be within us today.  Amen.

I want to share with you some interesting historical happenings from the year 1809.  Had you picked up a daily newspaper in 1809, you would have read the big news that Napoleon I, emperor of France, had conquered Austria at Wagram, annexed the Illyrian Provinces (which are now part of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), and abolished the papal states.  The news of Napoleon’s exploits was the big story that captivated everyone’s attention across the world much like the news of the war in Iraq does for us today.

But in that same year, did you know, in France, Louis Braille, who devised a way for the blind to read, was born.  And in Germany, Felix Mendelssohn, the great composer of symphonies, was born.  And in England, William Gladstone, the four-time Prime Minister and the father of public education, was born.  Alfred Lord Tennyson, the poet laureate of Great Britain, was born.  Charles Darwin, the most influential scientist of the 19^th century, was born.  And in the United States, Edgar Allen Poe, the master poet and storyteller, was born.  Oliver Wendell Holmes, the writer and physician who developed surgical techniques still in use today, was born.  Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th President of the United States, was born. 

But, at the end of the year 1809, the only event anyone thought to be important was Napoleon’s conquest of Austria.  That was the big news story of the day!

Today, December 25, 2011, who remembers the “big news” of 1809?  Hardly anyone does.  Napoleon’s conquest is just a tiny blip on the big screen of history.  But the world was changed forever by a few seemingly insignificant births which took place that same year.

In the year Jesus was born, most people missed it.  Only a few shepherds and wise men had a clue of the cosmic implications of his presence in a manger in Bethlehem.

And so it is with all of God’s work.  Most of it is behind the scenes, hardly ever visible.  It’s in the small stuff.  It’s in the ordinary, mundane and the everyday.  It’s the still small voice.  It rarely makes headlines in the newspapers or as the big story on the evening news; instead it makes a huge difference in the lives of people.  God in the person of Jesus Christ entered into our world to be like one of us.  God did so because he wanted to share love, grace and hope with all creation, so that we would come to know God more intimately.  The birth of the Christ is truly an eternal gift from our all-powerful and transcendent God.  Amen.