Rev. Steven S. Billings
Christmas Day
Sermon
12-25-2006
St. Luke 2:1-20
1 Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register, along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her first_born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 "And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." 15 And it came about when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." 16 And they came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.
The non-Christian world is looking forward to the start of a new year in about a week, but for the Church, we are already four weeks into our annual pilgrimage through the life of Christ and His people. Every year, we begin with the remembrance of Holy Advent, a time of anticipation, of looking to how Christ came and how He will soon come for us...and how He comes to us today through the Gospel and the Sacraments to bring us forgiveness, life, and salvation, to make us ready for His return.
We go through this cycle each year because the hardness of our hearts demands it, because we are so quick to forget, so easily lead away by other concerns, so unable to remember each day and moment what our dear Lord Christ has done for us...so feeble in our attempt to serve, obey, and praise Him. And, if we understand this purpose of the Church Year, we thank God for it, we thank Him for this repetition that the Lutheran Church goes through each year, because instead of hammering us incessently for what we do wrong, it enlightens us to why we can delight in what Christ has done right...how His perfect life was lived in our place and how His bitter suffering and death paid for our sins, so that eternal life is ours! In this, we have comfort and a reason to desire to thank and praise the Triune God at all times.
Really, what this yearly observance does – and what all the feasts and holy days, such as this Feast of the Holy Nativity – what they do for us is to keep us from getting 'too adult' to receive grace, too involved in civil and social religion to have a childlike faith, the sort of faith that Jesus praised, saying that it is of those who believe like little children that the Kingdom of God consists. A day like today ought to bring us to awe, and the festivals that follow should keep us in awe of what an incredible thing God has done so that He could be our God and so that we could be His people. To hear what St. Luke records is never a thing that can be done without growing childlike; the more we understand it, the smaller we become and the greater the grace and mercy of God become. How could He do such a thing for a sinner like me?
For sinners Christ came; for sinners, God took on human flesh and human responsibility, to fulfill the Law while sin and death and temptation surrounded Him. As a Man, God lived and walked and worked for us...and suffered and died for us. Here He comes as a tiny infant, the Creator of all things, making Himself utterly dependent upon the institutions He had set up at creation: the parents upon whom He relied for sustenance, the government upon whom He relied for protection, the Church upon whom He relied for instruction in the Word...and all of these failed Him! Yet, He remained faithful; He kept the Law; He redeemed all whom He created, living for each one of us from the very start. Even His infant breath was lived in perfection, with no selfish thoughts or desires...perfectly faithful, to make up for the times that we are faithless.
We get sentimental at Christmas...and this can be a good thing or a bad one. If our sentimentality, if our warm feelings, are so wrapped up in humanity that we neglect the awe and wonder of God taking on our flesh, coming in the form of a servant, we put ourselves in violation of the First Commandment, no longer fearing, loving, and trusting in Him above all things. God grant that, instead, we learn from the words of the poet to have the same awe as the shepherds, to have the need to have our fear at being confronted by God soothed through the message of the angel, "Fear not, for I bring you glad tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people!"...for herein, in the birth of a Savior in the city of Bethlehem, herein is God's glory apparent in highest measure, as in human flesh He appears to bring us peace, to rest His favor upon us.
The English poet John Betjeman encourages us well:
["Christmas" by John Betjeman]
The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say,
"The church looks nice," on Christmas Day.
Provincial public houses blaze,
And Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says, "Merry Christmas to you all."
And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.
And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad,
And Christmas-morning bells say, "Come!"
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.
And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?
And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,
No love that in a family dwells,
No caroling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this simple Truth compare--
That God was Man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.
[British poet John Betjemen, 1906-84]
The poet pauses in wonder, because this final truth is too great to take in: that God would once be willing to lie in a manger, and that, seeing our lives that speak rejection of Him in volumes, He would yet be willing to come to us again and again, His body and blood being made present in, with, and under the bread and the wine that come from this altar to be received by us...or, possibly, to once again be abused by us. "Is it true?" the poet asks, and we have no reason to doubt that he believes it, believes with childlike faith...but he asks because he sees in himself, as in all men, the tendency to live as if it were not so, or as if there were other truths and other realities that could validly compete with it.
No, he and we rightly conclude, there is nothing that can compare with this truth: that God was willing to come in human flesh, to be Man in a far more excellent way than we ever could, to make up for all our failings and to win for us salvation...and to come to us every week in His body and blood, to come to us even though we do not always come to Him when He presents Himself: even though we fail to hear His Word, to treasure His dear Supper, still He comes, all gracious and in deepest humility, to serve His servants, to wash the feet of those whom He has Bathed, so that the dirt of this world and the weariness it brings might again be removed from us, all our sin taken away.
Yes, 'tis true--it is true!
This most tremendous tale of all,
The Baby in the ox's stall!
Maker of stars and seas of blue
Became a Child on earth for you!
Let nothing in your life or care
Be thought to with this Truth compare--
That God was Man in Palestine
And comes to you in Bread and Wine.
1. All praise to Thee, eternal God,
Who, clothed in garb of flesh and blood,
Dost take a manger for Thy throne,
While worlds on worlds are Thine alone.
3. A little Child, Thou art our Guest
That weary ones in Thee may rest;
Forlorn and lowly is Thy birth
That we may rise to heaven from earth.
8. Welcome to earth, Thou noble Guest,
Through whom the sinful world is blest!
Thou com'st to share my misery;
What thanks shall I return to Thee?
13. Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
14. My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle-song:
15. Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto us His Son hath given!
While angels sing with pious mirth
A glad new year to all the earth.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
