A Christmas Eve message based on Luke 2:1-20.

Recently, my wife and I sat down one evening to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie. This is one way we wind down during a season filled with hustle and bustle and todo lists quite long.

By chance we found ourselves instead watching a Hallmark Hanukkah film, Round and Round. With most Hallmark holiday movies the main plot is familiar: two strangers meet – that first connection called a meet-cute I recently learned – and slowly fall in love. Rachel and Zach’s meet-cute happens on the seventh day of Hanukkah. Which is one day short of the holiday’s conclusion, known as the Festival of Lights.

This film has a funky twist: Rachel keeps living the 7th day of Hanukkah over, and over, and over. The movie title, it turns out, is a play on words. The dreidel spins each day that repeats; round and round it goes.

Known as a time loop, the fictional plot device finds the main character experiencing the same day repeatedly. All in the hopes they break the cycle and can move on.

Have you seen the classic 1993 movie Groundhog Day? That’s a time loop. Bill Murray had to figure some things out to get to the next day. Basically, how not to be such a selfish jerk 😉.

Early in this time loop Rachel tells Zach what she is experiencing, hoping he can help her escape it.

Zach suggests she might need to change something to move on.

“My life is going perfectly,” Rachel responds. “I can’t think of anything I need to change.”

Over the course of the film we learn otherwise:

A boyfriend breaks up with her. “I’m going to get dumped every day for the rest of eternity,” Rachel laments. She learns to let it go.

Rachel is unhappy with her job.
That, too, needs to change.

And the young adult manuscript Rachel wrote a decade ago, and filed away in a box? It’s time to dust that off and finish her dream.

Learnings complete, Rachel finally wakes up to the next day. Rachel and Zack also fall in love as you might guess. This is a Hallmark holiday movie, after all 😊.

More importantly, perhaps, she can now light the eighth and last candle of Hannukah.

The symbolism is clear.
Light always defeats darkness.
Even if it takes some time.

Along the way Rachel found herself on a new, unexpected path.

It is a path that allowed her to move on.
It is a path that led to something.

Stuck for so long she has been freed.

With this path she finally found peace.

She
As a betrothed young woman Mary had so much to look forward to. With marriage in this era came certainty, status. Friends, family, community would soon be secured. With it too came hope; of love, of children, of being part of something greater than herself.

Then out of nowhere an angel appeared.
What do you mean I’m pregnant?
Mary had no reason to think she was.

She was, however –
Surprised,
Perplexed,
Afraid.

Her future plans were now in doubt.

Yet the angel spoke with confidence.  Do not be afraid, they announced.

What the cherub claimed this child would be amazed her.

She pondered. This would be a path radically different than what she had once planned. But there was so much potential. So much to be gained. Could the role she played in this moment really matter that much?

She realized it could.

She prayed. And prayed some more. And then came to the conclusion that made all the difference in the world.

Here I am Lord, she said. Let it be.

Mary chose the path less travelled. Why?
She wanted peace.

He
This news surprised Joseph too. Mary, you’re what? Trying to avoid embarrassing her, Joseph planned a quiet separation. He wanted this unexpected drama to just go away. With that things could get back to normal. At least some semblance of it.

Besides, his carpentry shop was busy enough. Joseph didn’t need this.

Yet his future plans were also in doubt. What would be of his hopes for love, family, a legacy that lives on? Joseph couldn’t help but wonder too.

But then –
a dream,
an angel,
a familiar refrain.

Do not be afraid.

The angel sounded so sure.

He pondered. How do you parent a deity adopted from beyond? How on earth could he explain this to friends? Like an episode of I Love Lucy he’d have some ‘splaining to do.

He prayed. God, is this your will? It asks so much. Yet deep down Joseph knew.

Ok Lord, he said, taking Mary as his wife. Let it be.

Joseph chose the path less travelled. Why?
He wanted peace.

New
Travelling, for Mary and Joseph, was far from done.

Their hearts had been strangely warmed.
Their heads aware of what was to come.
Their feet now prepared for an upcoming trip.

The pair then went, by government decree, to a land not their own. Ninety miles from home, even on a donkey, would not have been fun. For Mary’s pregnancy was quite far along.

Away from all they knew, labor pangs begun. Now what? Their options for overnight accommodations were limited. Finally, something.

Stay with the animals, a local resident offered. Make yourselves at home.

The pair settled in as best they could.
It was there, amid humble beginnings,

Mary gave birth,
Wrapped the baby in cloth,
And laid him in a manger.

Their trip, a destination birth if ever there was one, had indeed delivered. The pair found themselves staring into the eyes of nothing less than the Prince of Peace.

They
It was just another shift for the shepherds, tending their flock at night. They walked, they wandered, they gathered. Amid the darkness that surrounded them they wondered: is this all their lives had become?

It was all so –
Mundane,
Predictable,
Non-descript.

But then, amid the monotony of the same –
a bright light,
an angel,
a familiar refrain.

Do not be afraid.

The angel sounded so sure.

The angel spoke of good news and great joy for all people. For a savior had been born, this very day. Could this great joy be for them? They, the lowly shepherds, who slept outside, without homes, under the stars at night?

They pondered.

And they could go, and see this savior with their own two eyes?

They pondered some more. It would mean leaving their routine, in search of the new, yes. But the potential was so great. They tired of the conflicts in their towns, their synagogues, among their politicians. Was it possible that could change?

And then, a multitude of the heavenly host shone all around them, lighting up the night sky, singing:

Glory to God in the highest heaven!
Peace on earth among all!

That settled it. They would leave the familiar in search of the child.

So they went.
And they found.
Mary, and Joseph, and child.

The shepherds chose the path less travelled that night. Why?
They wanted peace.

Us
I’d suggest that, as practicing Christians, we find ourselves in a time loop of sorts at the end of each year.

Some of this loop is pretty awesome. Each Christmas Eve we gather in beautiful spaces like this, celebrating the birth of the savior of the world. We listen to the same scriptures. We hear sermons with similar themes. We sing the same sacred songs, Harkening the Herald Angels to Sing, wishing a Silent Night to all.

Each year the pattern repeats our hearts are strangely warmed.

We then celebrate with our own traditions, be it with family, neighbors, friends. At our house, right after the midnight service we’ll head home, open one gift before bed – just one kids – and read a short book. Lately that’s been the Cajun Night Before Christmas, and that is all kinds of fun.

Then the next morning for us it’s the opening of stockings while the cinnamon buns bake for breakfast. Then the opening of presents under the tree, enjoying family time together. My wife and I, somewhere in there, enjoy a mimosa or two, yum 😊.

Other parts of our Christmas time loop leave us unfulfilled. We celebrate the Prince of Peace breaking into our world, each and every year. But we don’t always experience the peace Christ came to bring.

We desire –

Peace in our hearts,
Peace in our homes.

Peace in our communities,
Peace in our churches,
Peace in our country.

And yet we must confess often we’re just not there.

We pray for peace between –
Israel and Palestine,
Russia and Ukraine.

And peaceable solutions at our borders.

Each year we go, round and round, waiting, hoping, yearning, praying for peace.

Doing the same things,
Getting the same results,

Every time.

To break out of that loop, to better live into this peace Christ brings, just might ask something of us. It is the only way to disrupt this cycle of violence and enter a new day. To do that just might require we change.

Hear friends, the voice of the angels.

Do not be afraid.

Behold, today brings with it good news and great joy for all people. For a savior had been born, this very day. This great joy is for you.

Go now, to the manger. Worship the Christ child. He was sent to challenge all we thought we once knew. But don’t just go to manager today and tomorrow.

Take that path less travelled out of your comfort zone each and every day.

Why?

Because we want peace.

Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Merry Christmas, beloved.  Amen.