Sermon: Christmas Eve – 2022

24 December 2022

Text: John 1:1-14 (Isa 7:10-14, Mic 5:2-4, Isa 9:2-7, Matt 1:18-25, Matt 2:1-12)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Merry Christmas, dear friends!  This is one of the two times of the year where it seems that everyone is talking about Jesus, both believers and unbelievers.  Unbelievers will try to convince us that we don’t know much about Jesus, but in fact, we know Him well from the Scriptures and from those who knew Him.  The Church that He established upon the foundation of the twelve apostles is in every country today.  We are still here.

If we think of Christmas as the beginning of Jesus’ life, we miss the point.  Of course, we know that His life also goes back to Mary’s visitation by Gabriel nine months before, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”  And indeed, as the poet said, “Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ was born, in Bethlehem all on a Christmas morn.”

But the story of Jesus doesn’t begin there either, dear friends.  For Jesus is not only a man, born of a woman nine months after being conceived in her womb – for Jesus was already in existence.  And this is why we celebrate Christmas.  For it is the miracle of the infinite God taking on the limits of a fleshly body.

The life of Jesus has no beginning.  For “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  Jesus was already there before anything was made.  In fact, John’s Gospel says: “In the beginning was the Word.”  The Word, in Greek, the Logos, is where we get the word “logic.”  For in the beginning, “the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.”  The Word brought order to the chaos, brought reason and logic and the laws of the universe to the shapeless blob.  For the Word is the Creator of all things, dear friends.  As St. John said, “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  For “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”  The Word spoke, and from nothing came everything.  “All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

And this is why we celebrate the birth of this Eternal Word: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  The Blessed Virgin Mary became pregnant as a result of God Himself, as God the Father is the Father of Jesus, God the Son, by the action of the God the Holy Spirit. 

The birth of every child is a wonder, dear friends, a miracle.  And the birth of this child reminds us that we are creatures created in God’s image.  His birth reminds us of “the beginning,” when the Word created Adam and Eve, and placed them into a perfect world – a world that they would ruin by their sin – sin that we have inherited and added to.  Light was the first thing created by the Word, but we creatures yielded to the darkness, and fell captive to death.  But listen to John’s description of the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

Our world became dark and mortal.  But into our world came Light to dispel the darkness, and the one Life that could destroy death.  And again, the Word spoke, dear friends: the Word Made Flesh, the Word that was born to Mary, the Word witnessed by men who followed the light of a star to behold the face of the God who created all stars, the flesh of the Word that created light itself.  The face from which the poet says come “radiant beams,” for He is “love’s pure light.”

The Word spoke for some thirty years, bringing light to the darkness, bringing life from death, bringing righteousness to sinners, bringing the hope of light and life “to those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death.”  And the Word is still speaking, dear friends.  For just as the Word is eternal and predates His own birth, death did not mark the end of Jesus.  He died a sacrificial death for the sins of the world, and He rose: the victory of life over death. 

The word of the Word still resounds today, dear friends.  We heard it in all of these passages of Scripture, the Word of God.  We hear it as these good tidings of great joy are proclaimed in the preaching of the Word.  And we will hear it yet again when the very words of the Word Made Flesh are spoken over bread and wine, saying, “Let there be My body and blood,” and it shall be so.  The Word is still speaking, still creating and recreating, still bringing light to dark places, and bringing that which is dead back to life.  The Word Himself says, “Take, eat” and “Take, drink.”  The Word is even so kind as to tell us why: “For the forgiveness of sins.”  Jesus is speaking that forgiveness to you, dear friends, bringing light to your darkness.  And when you approach death, you will have the gift of life.

That is why we celebrate this birth.

For Jesus is not only God, but He is fully man, just like us: flesh and blood, only without the sin that condemns us to death.  Jesus died not as a result of His own sinful nature, but because of ours.  His little body was laid in the manger in Bethlehem, the city whose name is “House of Bread,” so that His mature body might be nailed to the cross and laid in the tomb just outside of Jerusalem, whose name is “City of Peace” – so that His risen and sacramental body might be given to you to eat.  For the Word did not remain apart from us in heaven, but rather “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

The Word was born in Bethlehem, not only a “House of Bread” but also the city “too little to be among the clans of Judah.”  For the one born here, in the “little town of Bethlehem” when “she who is in labor has given birth,” will indeed “be their peace.” 

St. Matthew gives us an account of the Lord’s birth.  He explains that the angel Gabriel not only came to Mary, but also to Joseph, her betrothed.  Our Lord Jesus has no earthly father, but he had a godly guardian, the husband of His mother Mary.  And Matthew also tells of the wise men who followed the star and came to see the baby Jesus.  This strange visit caused King Herod and his officials to search the Scriptures.  For this phony king, who was appointed by the Romans, was not pleased to learn of a possible rival to the throne.

But the wise men brought gifts to the newborn king.

And so indeed, we celebrate the birth of God, the coming of the eternal Word into space and time, into flesh and blood, into our sinful world to redeem it.  The created light of the star that He created led men who suffered the darkness of sin and death to Him who is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.”  He is the one who “was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made Man.”

And, dear friends, this is not merely a history lesson.  For the Word has no beginning and no end.  “He is Alpha and Omega,” as the poet says, “He the source, the ending He.” Just as He was with God in the beginning, just as He was in the virgin’s womb, just as He was in the manger, just as He was on the cross, and just as He emerged triumphant from the tomb, He is present here.  His body is not limited, but is the flesh of the eternal and infinite Word.  His body is here in this “House of Bread,” and His blood is here in this “City of Peace.”  He continues to come to “Christian folk through the world” to bring us “out of darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

He is here for you, still speaking to you, still enlightening your darkness, and still giving you the gift of eternal life.  The Word is still flesh and still dwells among us, dear brothers and sisters.  And we participate in His incarnation, death, and resurrection when we eat His flesh and drink His blood “for the forgiveness of sins.”

So let us rejoice!  Christmas is not simply a time of family and decorative lights.  It is the present reality of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us.  Because of Immanuel’s coming, because of the Father’s love begotten, we are drawn into God’s family, and the Uncreated Light brings light to our darkness.  We are forgiven.  We have the promise of eternal life, the “dawn of redeeming grace.” 

Merry Christmas, dear friends!

Amen.

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