Christmas Eve (NL3) John B. Valentine
Luke 2:1-20 December 24, 2024

“WHY HAVE YOU COME?”

Down through the centuries ... down through the ages ... people have come ... all sorts of people have come ...

• the wealthy ... the wanting ...
• the humble ... the haughty ...
• the loved and the lonely ...
• oldsters ... youngsters ...
• hipsters ... geezers ...
• saints and sinners

They’ve come.

• Come to hear the ancient story ...
• Come to sing familiar carols ...
• Come to hold up lighted candles ...
• Come to find hope and peace in a world where hope and peace have gone missing.

But how about you .... WHY HAVE YOU COME? What is it that brings you here?

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You see ... according to the Gospel of Luke ... the only account we actually have of that silent, holy night ...

Those folks who came to Judea ... to the city of David called Bethlehem ... on that Christmas night some two thousand and two dozen years ago now ... they came for a variety of reasons.

Take ... for example ... MARY and JOSEPH. Why did they come here?

For one reason and one reason alone ......

Because they were required to ... by the government!

You see ... the Emperor ... that fellow by the name of Caesar Augustus ... had commanded a census ...

And instead of wasting government resources on door-to-door polling or a nationwide mailing ...

He simply ordered ... because he could ... that everybody go home ..... that they return to the place of their birth ... to be counted and tallied.

And so it was that Joseph took his fiance and went to his hometown ... back to the ancient city of David.

Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem because the government had required it of them.

But what about you ... why have you come .....

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But Mary and Joseph weren’t the only people who were a part of that first Christmas story ...

No ... according to Luke ... there were also some ANGELS who came to that little town on that silent, holy night.

But their reason for coming was a little bit different ...

It had to do with the fact that they had been sent!

Now ... given all the discussion and conversation and public fascination with angels in recent years ... I’m not too certain what sort of a picture comes to mind when you hear about angels ...

But ... in the Bible ... an angel is primarily a messenger from God.

• Angels go where God wants them to go.
• Angels do what God wants them to do.
• Angels say what God wants them to say.

And these angels ... this heavenly host in the Christmas story ... came to Bethlehem because they were sent there ... sent by God.

• Sent ... to sing God’s praises.
• Sent ... to bring good news.
• Sent ... to announce the coming of the King.

They came to the little town of Bethlehem because they were sent there.

But what about you ... why have you come .....

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Anybody else come to mind from that story of that oh-so Holy Night?

What about the SHEPHERDS? Why did they come?

Wasn’t it because they were curious?

After they heard the angelic announcement, they said to one another something along the lines of:

Let’s go ... NOW ... to Bethlehem and see this thing that the Lord has told us!”

Now these shepherds weren’t especially notable and noteworthy folks.

The fact of the matter was that being a shepherd was definitely “blue-collar” work ...

But ... having heard the angels’ words ... they were puzzled.

And so they came ... came “in haste” even ... with a little bit of fear ... and a lot of curiosity ... mixed in.

To see if there was anything to this curious report ...

To find out for themselves what the big to-do was all about.

And thus it was that their curiosity brought them to Bethlehem ... where they “found the baby ... wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

But how about you ... why have you come?

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You know ... we didn’t read it here today ... but later on ... in Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story ... on the twelfth day of Christmas as it were ... there were some wisemen from the East who also came to Bethlehem.

And why had they come?

That’s easy!

They came because they’d been led there ... led by the light of a star ... that ‘star of wonder ... star of night ... star with royal beauty bright ... westward leading ... still proceeding ... guiding by it’s perfect light.’

But how about you ... why have you come?

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Mary and Joseph ... were required to come ....
The angels ... were sent ....
The shepherds ... were curious ....
The wisemen ... were led.

Each of them had a reason for coming to Bethlehem.

• It wasn’t because of the exciting night-life.
• It wasn’t because of a booming economy.
• It wasn’t because some sort of grandiose sporting event.

No ... there was something else going on ... for God was at work in that midnight hour.

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There was a fellow by the name of W.H. Auden who once penned a poem in which he had each of the wisemen explain what it was about the star that brought them to Bethlehem.

The first wiseman says ... “to discover how to be truthful now ... is why I follow this star!”

And the second wiseman says ... “to discover how to be living now ... is why I follow this star!”

And the third wiseman says ... “to discover how to be loving now ... is why I follow this star!”

And then all together they say ... “to discover how to be human now ... is why we follow this star!”

THOSE ARE SOME PRETTY GOOD REASONS TO COME TO BETHLEHEM ... AREN’T THEY?

TO DISCOVER HOW TO BE TRUTHFUL NOW ... AND LIVING NOW ... AND LOVING NOW ... AND HUMAN NOW.

So once again ....... how about you? Why have you come?

• Was it required ... like it was for Mary and Joseph?
• Were you sent ... like an angel?
• Are you curious ... like a shepherd?
• Have you been led ... like a wiseman?

Or better yet ... is it simply because you

• want to be more loving ...
• and yearn to be more alive ...
• and seek to be more truthful ...
• and need to be more human.

Because ... somehow ... we realize ... that the answers to our deepest longings are somehow revealed in the birth of this tiny baby

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But what about you? .......... Why have you come here?

NO ... I’ sorry ... NOT YOU FOLKS HERE ... BUT YOU ... you tiny little baby ... you Jesus child ... WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE?

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You know ... it must have been a decade or so ago now ... there was that mine disaster at a gold mine in Chile that absolutely captivated the world’s attention for the better part of two months.

Thirty-three men trapped underground and the world coming together to try and get them out.

Anyhow ... amid that months long drama ... there were days and weeks wherein nothing much was happening on the scene ... and so the cable news channels were left with scavenging their archives to find other stories of dramatic mines rescues to somehow hold out hope.

But of all the stories that got recalled and retold ... there was one particular one that has always struck with me ... more than any of the others.

It was about how ... a number of years ago ... in the coal-mining region of West Virginia ... there was a horrific mine accident ...

And some two dozen miners were trapped beneath the earth’s surface in a cave-in of frightful proportions ...

And how... given the impending collapse of the whole of the mine shaft ... there seemed scant hope that any of those miners would ever make it out alive.

But ... amid all the media coverage ... and all the reporters and the mine safety people and the anxious family members who had gathered at the top of the mine shaft ... waiting for a glimmer of hope or a sign of good news ...

There was this one lone fellow ... a miner ... who appeared ... dressed in emergency gear ... with oxygen tanks and lights and as many tools as he could carry ... who decided that he was going to go down into the mine ... to see if anything at all could be done.

The news reporters caught wind of this fellow’s heroic intentions ... and they surrounded him and stuffed cameras and microphones into his face and began to ask:

• “Why are you going?” ...
• “Don’t you realize how dangerous it is down there?” ...
• “Don’t you realize that you’ll probably die down there with them?” ...
• “Don’t you know that you’ll probably find them already dead?” ...
• “Why are you going?”

And the man muttered back in his simple mountaineer drawl ... “BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO ... BECAUSE THEY NEED ME DOWN THERE ... BECAUSE I’M THE ONLY HOPE THEY’VE GOT.”

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JESUS ... LITTLE JESUS ... WHY DO YOU COME HERE?

How is it that you can come to give up all that you have and come here to meet us?

Why do you come here ... to to us ...to the little town of Bethlehem on this cold Christmas day?

Quiet ... if you dare to listen to that still small voice in the silence of these moments ... you just might hear Him say:

“‘CAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO ... BECAUSE THEY NEED ME DOWN THERE ... BECAUSE I’M THE ONLY HOPE THEY’VE GOT.”