A sermon preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral at Midnight Mass, Christmas 2013
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
If you ask anyone who grew up on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line, they will tell you as sure as the sun rises in the East … that God .. is a Southerner.
Mostly, it’s how we love and idealize wherever home is for us. That same enshrinement that leads even someone from Kansas to stare out over grain and flatness extending to the horizon and say with a straight face and absolute certainty … “Ah … this is God’s country.”
But though I am not a Southerner, I have to admit Southerners might have a point on this one. Not that God necessarily is a Southerner, but that God at least talks like one.
You see, one of the great gifts the South has continually tried to give American language and culture is something the rest of us desperately need … a second person plural pronoun.
Y’all.
When the rest of us say “you” – there’s no way of knowing whether we mean you singular or you plural. Unless you’re from New Jersey, and then at least you have “youse.” And especially when we are hearing the voice of God – you singular, you plural -- it’s kind of an important distinction. Especially when it is angels bringing good news of great joy about the birth of a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord, it’s kind of important to know … exactly how many people and who is this news for?
But even y’all doesn’t quite do it. Because when you say y’all, maybe there’s a little doubt still left … am I part of y’all, or is it y’all over there. So, as any Southerner will tell you, the only way to leave absolutely no doubt that this means everyone is not just to say y’all
.... but to say “all y’all.”
And I don’t think God wanted to leave any doubt that night. And so, I’m convinced the best translation into English of what the angel said that night is this:
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing y’all good news of great joy for all y’all: for to all y’all is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
I’m convinced those angels said “all y’all” … because what happened this night long ago is so important that it needs to leave no doubt that this did not just happen for one person, or even some group of people but everyone throughout all time and space.
For as much as we Christians love to ask if you have made Jesus your personal savior, the truth is there is absolutely nothing personal, nothing individual about what we celebrate this night.
The birth of Jesus is not about some individual spiritual experience. It is God breaking through into all of history on a cosmic scale. It is good news of great joy not just for one person or a group of people but for all y’all … for all of us together. Because even though God loves each one of us passionately and without end, God did not create us to be individuals tending to our own individual needs and seeking our own individual glories. God created us for God and for each other.
We have understood this from the earliest stories we told of our own creation. Adam looking at Eve and exploding with joy: “this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Made in the image of God who is three in one, we are wired for relationship. We are made for each other. Not just as couples but as a human race.
And in the same way, God’s love affair is not with just one person. The Bible isn’t the letters of Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett or Kim’s tweets to Kanye. The story of scripture is God’s epic love affair with all humanity. From the beginning, God always speaks and loves in plural. From the beginning, God always says and loves all y’all.
And so on this night more than 2000 years ago, when that child was born in Bethlehem, it wasn’t your own personal Jesus. This night is so much bigger and deeper than that.
This is the night when God kisses humanity and reminds us who we really are. We are God’s beloved – together, all of us. And we – together, all of us, are holy. And we are so, so precious, yes, each one of us but even more all of us together -- all y’all!
And that news came in the form of a tiny refugee child born in a stable in an occupied land. Because God’s good news of great joy to us is that what makes us holy – not just some of us, but all y’all. What makes us holy is not our power but our fragility. That we are created in the image of God, capable of so much, yet at our best not when we put up walls to protect ourselves from one another or even when we emerge victorious over each other but at our best, most beautiful and most holy when we allow ourselves together to be vulnerable with one another.
I fear sometimes that we have lost this message. That the good news of great joy of which the angels sang that night has been usurped by the Gospel of individual accomplishment and competition. I fear sometimes we actually begin to believe that what divides us is stronger than our identity in God that binds us together. I fear that we have begun to believe that we really are actually just you and you and you and you and not all y’all. And that we think of Jesus as only a personal savior meant to aid in our personal spiritual growth – some first century self-help book and not the living Word of a God who so loved the whole world.
I fear that sometimes … and then every year we have this night. And like the angel sings, I am no longer afraid.
I am no longer afraid, because in this moment in time where we gather in the middle of the night together to sing of the birth of the holy child, any power that cynicism and selfishness might have held over us is rendered mute by the power of awe and wonder that still rests in our heart, the heart we share together.
For even though we are so aware of the divides between us, be they across Delmar or across the dinner table, we come together this night because we know we need to hear, we long to hear the message of those angels. That we do not need to fear. And that there is good news of great joy for all y’all. That to all y’all is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
From the beginning, God always speaks and loves in plural.
Look around you. All y’all. I mean it, look around you. Christ was not born for you and you and you and you. Christ was born for all y’all. Together. And that is our gift. And that is our power. And that is the good news of great joy we can take from this place and out into the streets of this city. That we do not need to be divided. That what makes us holy is not our individual power but our common fragility. That we are at our best and brightest and oh our most beautiful when we allow ourselves together to be vulnerable with one another. To see and treat one another as sisters and brothers, and to put our lives in each other’s hands just as God put God’s life in our hands that night in that stable.
From the beginning, God always speaks and loves in plural, and God speaks and loves in plural to this night. Because God’s love affair with us has not grown cold but burns brighter than ever. And God longs for us to love one another as God loves us in Jesus – with passion, and fragility, and vulnerability.
It will be scary at first, vulnerability always is. But if we live as the Body of Christ that we are. If we learn to let one another hold us as God’s holy children the way Mary cradled that child. If we can let our heart – the one we share together – if we can let our heart be filled with awe and wonder at the depth of God’s love for all of us not just this night but every night, we will realize that there truly is nothing to fear.
That the angels that night, and tonight, and every night are right when they sing:
"Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing y’all good news of great joy for all y’all: for to all y’all is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” AMEN.
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
If you ask anyone who grew up on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line, they will tell you as sure as the sun rises in the East … that God .. is a Southerner.
Mostly, it’s how we love and idealize wherever home is for us. That same enshrinement that leads even someone from Kansas to stare out over grain and flatness extending to the horizon and say with a straight face and absolute certainty … “Ah … this is God’s country.”
But though I am not a Southerner, I have to admit Southerners might have a point on this one. Not that God necessarily is a Southerner, but that God at least talks like one.
You see, one of the great gifts the South has continually tried to give American language and culture is something the rest of us desperately need … a second person plural pronoun.
Y’all.
When the rest of us say “you” – there’s no way of knowing whether we mean you singular or you plural. Unless you’re from New Jersey, and then at least you have “youse.” And especially when we are hearing the voice of God – you singular, you plural -- it’s kind of an important distinction. Especially when it is angels bringing good news of great joy about the birth of a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord, it’s kind of important to know … exactly how many people and who is this news for?
But even y’all doesn’t quite do it. Because when you say y’all, maybe there’s a little doubt still left … am I part of y’all, or is it y’all over there. So, as any Southerner will tell you, the only way to leave absolutely no doubt that this means everyone is not just to say y’all
.... but to say “all y’all.”
And I don’t think God wanted to leave any doubt that night. And so, I’m convinced the best translation into English of what the angel said that night is this:
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing y’all good news of great joy for all y’all: for to all y’all is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
I’m convinced those angels said “all y’all” … because what happened this night long ago is so important that it needs to leave no doubt that this did not just happen for one person, or even some group of people but everyone throughout all time and space.
For as much as we Christians love to ask if you have made Jesus your personal savior, the truth is there is absolutely nothing personal, nothing individual about what we celebrate this night.
The birth of Jesus is not about some individual spiritual experience. It is God breaking through into all of history on a cosmic scale. It is good news of great joy not just for one person or a group of people but for all y’all … for all of us together. Because even though God loves each one of us passionately and without end, God did not create us to be individuals tending to our own individual needs and seeking our own individual glories. God created us for God and for each other.
We have understood this from the earliest stories we told of our own creation. Adam looking at Eve and exploding with joy: “this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Made in the image of God who is three in one, we are wired for relationship. We are made for each other. Not just as couples but as a human race.
And in the same way, God’s love affair is not with just one person. The Bible isn’t the letters of Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett or Kim’s tweets to Kanye. The story of scripture is God’s epic love affair with all humanity. From the beginning, God always speaks and loves in plural. From the beginning, God always says and loves all y’all.
And so on this night more than 2000 years ago, when that child was born in Bethlehem, it wasn’t your own personal Jesus. This night is so much bigger and deeper than that.
This is the night when God kisses humanity and reminds us who we really are. We are God’s beloved – together, all of us. And we – together, all of us, are holy. And we are so, so precious, yes, each one of us but even more all of us together -- all y’all!
And that news came in the form of a tiny refugee child born in a stable in an occupied land. Because God’s good news of great joy to us is that what makes us holy – not just some of us, but all y’all. What makes us holy is not our power but our fragility. That we are created in the image of God, capable of so much, yet at our best not when we put up walls to protect ourselves from one another or even when we emerge victorious over each other but at our best, most beautiful and most holy when we allow ourselves together to be vulnerable with one another.
I fear sometimes that we have lost this message. That the good news of great joy of which the angels sang that night has been usurped by the Gospel of individual accomplishment and competition. I fear sometimes we actually begin to believe that what divides us is stronger than our identity in God that binds us together. I fear that we have begun to believe that we really are actually just you and you and you and you and not all y’all. And that we think of Jesus as only a personal savior meant to aid in our personal spiritual growth – some first century self-help book and not the living Word of a God who so loved the whole world.
I fear that sometimes … and then every year we have this night. And like the angel sings, I am no longer afraid.
I am no longer afraid, because in this moment in time where we gather in the middle of the night together to sing of the birth of the holy child, any power that cynicism and selfishness might have held over us is rendered mute by the power of awe and wonder that still rests in our heart, the heart we share together.
For even though we are so aware of the divides between us, be they across Delmar or across the dinner table, we come together this night because we know we need to hear, we long to hear the message of those angels. That we do not need to fear. And that there is good news of great joy for all y’all. That to all y’all is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
From the beginning, God always speaks and loves in plural.
Look around you. All y’all. I mean it, look around you. Christ was not born for you and you and you and you. Christ was born for all y’all. Together. And that is our gift. And that is our power. And that is the good news of great joy we can take from this place and out into the streets of this city. That we do not need to be divided. That what makes us holy is not our individual power but our common fragility. That we are at our best and brightest and oh our most beautiful when we allow ourselves together to be vulnerable with one another. To see and treat one another as sisters and brothers, and to put our lives in each other’s hands just as God put God’s life in our hands that night in that stable.
From the beginning, God always speaks and loves in plural, and God speaks and loves in plural to this night. Because God’s love affair with us has not grown cold but burns brighter than ever. And God longs for us to love one another as God loves us in Jesus – with passion, and fragility, and vulnerability.
It will be scary at first, vulnerability always is. But if we live as the Body of Christ that we are. If we learn to let one another hold us as God’s holy children the way Mary cradled that child. If we can let our heart – the one we share together – if we can let our heart be filled with awe and wonder at the depth of God’s love for all of us not just this night but every night, we will realize that there truly is nothing to fear.
That the angels that night, and tonight, and every night are right when they sing:
"Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing y’all good news of great joy for all y’all: for to all y’all is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” AMEN.
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