Sermon: Christmas Eve - 2018

24 December 2018

Text: John 1:1-14 (Isa 7:10-14, Micah 5:2-5a, Isa 9:2-7, Matt 1:18-25, Matt 2:1-12)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Our wait is over, dear brothers and sisters!  Merry Christmas! 

The Christmas story begins in different places in the minds of many people.  For many secular people, the Christmas story begins the day after Thanksgiving, when the Best Buy campouts and fistfights at Walmart mark the start of the holy season.  For most Christians, Christmas begins when the tree is put up, when the cards are sent, and when the presents are staged under the tree.  

For Christians who follow the liturgical calendar, Christmas begins now, as the purple of Advent has given way to the white of Christmas, and as the Song of the Angels, the Gloria in Excelsis, has returned to our liturgy.

For Christians immersed in the Scriptures, the Christmas story also can be said to have begun in our fifth reading, as the Magi arrive from the east, bearing gifts for the baby King, following the star of Bethlehem, eluding the wicked and murderous pretender to the throne named Herod.  The story begins as the Magi, “going into the house they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him.  Then opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.”

Of course, the Christmas story also includes the account of St. Matthew, who introduced his account of Christmas like this: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”  The evangelist includes the account of the angel’s appearance to Joseph.  At this point, the birth of our Lord that first Christmas became inevitable.

But from the perspective of God, the real beginning of the Christmas story began, as the evangelist John begins his Gospel: “In the beginning.”  For “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  This is the beginning of all history: the history of the cosmos, the history of the supernatural, the history of mankind – all of that is the Christmas story: a true story that sweeps the entire history of man.  For the Christmas story is the history of humanity and God.  

“In the beginning was the Word” – the Word that made all things as time itself begin.  And in the fullness of time, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The story of Christmas began with the beginning of time itself, at the creation.  The story of Christmas continued with Adam and Eve living perfect lives.  The story of Christmas includes their rebellion against God by the false promise and temptation of the serpent, their estrangement from God, and their world becoming broken, their bodies mortal.  The story of Christmas moves forward through God’s promise that the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.  The story of Christmas includes our other readings from the Old Testament.

For God the Holy Spirit (who was hovering over creation in the beginning) spoke through the prophets.  He told the people of God, through the prophet Micah, that their promised Savior would come from lowly and little Bethlehem.  And from Bethlehem would come the “ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.”  And the Savior would be born of a woman, and “He shall stand and shepherd His flock…. And He shall be their peace.”

God spoke through Isaiah that the Savior would be a “great light” to “the people who walked in darkness.”  For “to us a child is born, to us a Son is given.”  This Son – the Son of God and Son of Man – is the King, the final King, the eternal King of Israel, of the World, of the universe.  He will uphold His kingdom “with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”  The Christmas story is eternal, dear friends.  It extends from the creation of everything by the Word unto “forevermore.”  

The Christmas story is about God, about Man, and about that sacred intersection between divinity and humanity in Jesus Christ.  It is about the eternal God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, breaking into space and time, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  It is about the Word taking flesh and dwelling among us.  It is about the light shining in the darkness.  For “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

The Christmas story includes the Easter story: the sacrificial death of the King for the people, the Shepherd for the lambs, the holy priest for the unholy victims of the serpent: the holy priest who becomes the holy sacrifice that crushes the serpent’s head. 

Yes, indeed, the Christmas story is a story of revenge and bloodshed and of vindication, of salvation and rescue, of love, sacrifice, of the joy of being released from the prison of our own making, of the triumphant victory over sin, death, and the serpent.  

The Christmas story is a story, but it isn’t like most of the stories we hear: fictional tales of heroes and villains in comic books and novels and movies.  For this story is history itself: a true story, a narrative that actually takes place in space and time in the real world.  In fact, it is the true history of God, creation, man, and sin.  It is the true history of the prophecy, birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  It is our ongoing history of grace and truth, of salvation and victory over the grave.  

The story of Christmas is the epic struggle between righteousness and evil: an account written in blood, and lived out in this fallen world whose days are numbered.  It is about our victory in Christ Jesus, even as we figuratively gaze upon the holy face of the baby, the mild and tender care of His mother, the watchful guardianship of his stepfather, the praise and song of shepherds and the angels, the offering of gifts and worship from the Magi, the reverence of the animals and even of the star – all of creation celebrating that Christmas and that Christ.

The Christmas story doesn’t end tonight, or tomorrow, or even after the Twelve Days are over.  The Christmas story continues wherever two or three gather, where His Word is proclaimed, where His body and blood continue to be adored in the flesh and consumed by men and women and children unto eternal life, sinners become saints; saints as victors over the grave.

For the pinnacle of the Christmas story is this, dear friends, “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

In Christ and by means of Christmas, we are children of God, dear brothers and sisters.

His story is our story.  He has rescued us and vindicated us, and so we celebrate His birth.  While the world marks the holy season with the empty service of the self, we Christians serve the Lord who empties Himself to give everything to us – now, and even unto eternity.  Amen.  Merry Christmas, dear brothers and sisters!  Merry Christmas!  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.