Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
Christmas Night Scripture Readings
Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur. That is a centuries-old principle of philosophy that means, “Whatever is received is received in the mode of the receiver,” and it’s a principle that manifested itself most clearly and profoundly in the Nativity. What it means, quite simply, is that the receiver, not the sender, is in charge of the message.
Remember the game called “Telephone”? It goes like this: the first message-giver whispers something in the ear of the next person, the message-receiver. They, in turn, become message-givers and whisper whatever message they received to the next person. The last person repeats what they believe to be the message. The final product always bears little resemblance to the original message. Why? Because each receiver receives the message in their own way. What happens when the way of the message-sender is incompatible with the way of the message-receiver? What happens, for example, when the message arrives in a language that the receiver doesn’t understand or when he receiver just isn’t listening? Simply, no message is received.
When it comes to the Nativity, Yahweh God himself is the message-giver, and God is never silent, but we’re not always receiving it. Not only that, but God broadcasts on every available channel and in every language imaginable. That’s especially true when it comes to the birth of Christ. The narrative is replete with messages and messengers. How about those messengers? In both Hebrew מַלְאַךְ (mal’ak) and Greek αγγελος (angelos), the term angel means “messenger.” Yet, God has only one message, and that is himself. With God, the message is the message-giver. Therefore, the messenger is a characteristic of God personified. Take, for example, the archangel Gabriel. The angel’s name, גִּבּוֺר־אֵל (gibbor-el), “the power of God” suggests that Gabriel is an expression of God’s power personified.
God’s messengers and God’s message appear all over the Nativity narrative. First, an angel appears to Zechariah, announcing that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a child in her old age … a child who would be John the Baptist, precursor and herald of the coming Messiah. Then an angel appears to Mary with the message that she would miraculously conceive a boy who would be called Son of the Most High. Finally, an angel appears to Joseph to tell him to accept Mary as his wife and the child Jesus as his son. Now, at his birth, the heavens are filled with angels, who appear to shepherds with the message that the Messiah has come. The message-sender is always the same. The message itself is also always the same. What changes is the message-receiver. The events surrounding the Nativity were particularly special in the history of humankind because the message-receivers at that time were so open to receiving the message.
Take Jesus’s mother, Mary, for example. Why her? What made her different from all the other women who’d ever lived? It had to be that her soul—her life-spirit—was so focused on God and so open to all possibilities that she was able to receive God’s message fully and completely unfiltered. By God’s gift of grace and her openness and willingness to receive it, she was able to conceive the inconceivable and so to bring God’s message to birth in our world. To receive the message is to be transformed by it. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” [John 1:14]
We’ve seen that God, the message-giver, is never silent and that the message is God himself. Since whatever is received is received in the mode of the receiver, on this night, we celebrate the receptivity of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the receptivity of Mary and Joseph, and the receptivity of the shepherds in the fields. Yet our celebration gives us pause to consider our own receptivity to the message of the divine message-giver. How open are we to receive the message? How open are we to conceive the inconceivable? We have no excuses. God’s messengers are everywhere. God’s message surrounds and encompasses us. God speaks our language. God’s message comes in every sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch. It comes in every feeling and thought. Have we been good message-receivers? Have we heard the message of Emmanuel, that God is with us? Have we heard the message of Jesus, that Yahweh God saves? Have we opened ourselves to receive the Prince of Peace?
The stable, the shepherds, even Mary, Joseph, and the baby in the manger are long gone. Only the angels remain, the messengers carrying the message which is God. They’re here in the sights and sounds of this, our liturgy. They’re singing their eternal hymns of praise, “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” as Christ is once again born for us, and with us, and in us. They’re asking us to be message-receivers and to be transformed by it. They’re standing by expectantly as Christ himself, pointing at each one of us, declares, “This is my body. This is my blood.” Get the message?
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