One of my earliest memories of Christmas is my Dad fast asleep on the couch by like 9am. Anyone else remember a parent “resting their eyes” by midmorning or been that parent?

My Dad taught elementary school by day, but always picked up extra shifts at Holly’s liquor store before Christmas to bring in a little extra cash.

In whatever free time was left, he and my uncle would meet in their workshop to make gifts for us, the most beautiful of which I still have; a wooden stable he built for my Breyer horses.

My parents didn’t have the time or money to buy and wrap gifts ahead of time. Much of what we received from Santa was acquired at the last minute, finished the night before, and wrapped in the wee hours of Christmas Day after we’d gone off to bed. So my Dad was tired on Christmas morning, and rightfully so.

But friends, as I look out at all of you, I know a lot of us our tired these days too. And it’s not just the tired of trying to make Christmas come alive for the people we love.

I think we’re tired of holding it all together in a world that feels like it’s coming apart. It takes a lot of energy to cling to hope and keep fear at bay in times like these. Which is why we need this holy and precious story you’ve just heard, perhaps now more than ever.

I think we need to be reminded that there was once an emperor so powerful he could issue a decree that “the whole world” be registered, and everyone was so frightened of him that they obeyed.

Frightened, for you see, back then, Caesar’s law was order and his gospel was power. Caesar demanded that everyone in his empire be documented so that everyone in his empire could be taxed for all they were worth.

And even though everyone knew those taxes would only go to strengthen Rome’s army and the emperor’s ability to rule over them all, they were already so bowed down with fright that they dared not disobey.

Resistance was futile. And so everyone returned to their home town to be registered no matter how old, infirm, or even pregnant they might be.

It makes me tired just to think about it.

But then, according to Luke, heaven issued a counter decree: “good news of great joy for all people.” For you see, God’s law is love and God’s gospel is peace. God sent a heavenly host, a literal army of angels, not to threaten anyone but to proclaim that everyone counts, whether they are documented or not, so that every soul might feel its worth and be set free.

This decree came not to the governor in his mansion or the priest in his temple, but to lowly shepherds out in the fields: migrant laborers who had thus far flouted Caesar’s decree to go back where they came from. Low wage, third shift workers living “in imperial territory but beyond the emperor’s control” ( https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2019/12/23/rethinking-christmas-eve).

The angels bent down toward earth with a message grounded in love rather than intimidation.

“Do not be afraid;” said Gabriel, “…for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger.’”

Which they did. The shepherds found Joseph and Jesus and a weary young mother named Mary, “pondering all these things in her heart.” Pondering, meaning literally in the Greek to hold two contradictory things in tension with one another:”

A law of order or a law of love. A gospel of power or a gospel of peace. A world built on the backs of the many to privilege a few, or a world turned upside down where all people - from the poor undocumented laborer on up - is filled with good things.

Pondering if the child in her arms rather than the emperor on his throne would be the one with the power to save us.

I hope she rested after that. I hope she found some peace. I hope Mary took a little nap on that first Christmas morning and I hope you will too.

I hope you will rest this Christmas in the knowledge that emperor’s - no matter how powerful - come and go, but this child born of Mary - this child is here to stay. Here with us even still.

Here in you and here in me.

Here with good news of great joy that still has the power to change the world. Amen