Sermon for Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, Dec 24, 1997
by Most Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Presiding Bishop, United Catholic Church
Isaiah 9: 1-6
Psalm 96: 1-3, 11-13
Hebrews 1: 1-6
Luke 2: 1-14
A few years ago, when I turned 60, we had a birthday party. We had food and drink for everybody. Quite a few people came, and most brought little gifts for me. It was fun. It’s hard for me to remember any of the gifts I got. They weren’t important, although the fact that they brought something was. But the most important thing was that they cared enough to come.
Imagine what it would be like if you had a birthday party and invited fifty friends. You cleaned the house, bought lots of food and drink, and had favors for everybody. On the night of the party, five people showed up. None brought gifts. They stayed for an hour, ate and drank, then left and joined the other forty-five people who were partying across the street. All of them were celebrating your birthday, and they had all bought gifts ... for each other. Most of them never showed up at your house at all, and the majority didn’t even give you a thought.
I think you’d have a right to be a little upset. But that’s exactly the way Jesus is treated in our society. What we’re doing here tonight, and what thousands of other churches are doing as well, is a birthday party for Jesus.
Since you people cared enough to show up, you’re not the ones who most need to hear this sermon. It’s the ninety percent of those invited who aren’t here who really need to think about this message. (So I’m going to mail it to them.) Now they all have good excuses why they’re not here tonight. Most of them are at Christmas parties. They’re celebrating Jesus’ birthday without him, and opening the presents they’ve given each other. And at all too many of those parties, Jesus won’t even be given a thought.
Whatever the activities people are engaging in tonight instead of going to church, the problem is not with those activities. Most of them are good things. The problem lies with their priorities. If people care enough about Jesus, they will plan all those other activities around the central focus of the season, Christ’s Mass, the reason for the season, this birthday party for Jesus. I’m grateful that those of you who are here have done so.
Now that you’re here, besides the food and drink and song, Jesus has some great party favors for all of you. The first is absolution, the forgiveness of all your sins. The second is the privilege of participating in the greatest and oldest party game ever invented — the sacrifice of the Mass. The third gift Jesus has for you is himself, his body and blood in the Eucharistic feast.
Now, it is customary for us guests at this great birthday banquet to bring gifts for the guest of honor, who is also the host. Now you don’t need to run out and go shopping. What Jesus desires most, you already brought with you — your heart.
Think of all the people you’ve ever loved — your mother, father, husband, wife, favorite teacher, FDR, President Kennedy, Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, your first lover, a beloved grandparent. Jesus is more worthy of love than all of them put together. Give him your heart tonight.
At various times during this birthday celebration, we will pause to pray, to talk to Jesus. Those aren’t my prayers we say. They’re yours too. Talk to him. Tell him you love him. When we pray together, don’t just follow the words. You know, in the eyes and out the mouth. No. Let them rattle around a little between your ears. Don’t just say the words, pray them. Mean them. Give Jesus your heart tonight.
That one gift will mean more than anything. It will make up for the millions who tonight are ignoring Jesus on his birthday. Give him your heart tonight.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we thank you for inviting us to your banquet. You have given us everything — the world, each other, life itself. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We thank you and we love you. As insignificant as we are, you have loved us from the beginning of the world. You came into the world in that smelly cave in the Judean hillside ... for us. You came so that we could be adopted daughters and sons of God. You suffered so that we could enjoy eternity with our creator and lover. You died that we might live. Take the one thing we have to offer, that which costs us nothing, but which is of infinite value to you, our hearts. Happy Birthday, Lord. Amen.
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