December 24 Christmas Sermon:

The Birth of Our Savior

The angel said to them: “I bring you good news...”

- there are no more shopping days until Christmas. For most of us, that is good news - the hectic rush to get everything done is almost over - at least no more gifts to buy.

Some of you are so relieved - and so exhausted - that you’ll probably be asleep before I get to the second point in my sermon.

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Tonight’s gospel is one of the most beloved and familiar in the Bible - the birth of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Our Lord Jesus was born among the lowly. In Him, God enters into our world, stoops down very low, and comes to us as we are.

Born in a stable - rough walls, a floor of dirt, a roof of beams, mud and straw, and cold, heated only by the presence of the animals. It was dirty and it reeked.

That filthy stable was the first dwelling of the most perfect person who was ever born.

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I can imagine Mary thinking: “This isn’t the way I planned it - my child being born in a stable with sheep and donkeys.

All my friends and family are back in Nazareth - and we’re here alone in Bethlehem.

Did I miss something when the angel spoke to me nine months ago? Didn’t he say that my child was God’s chosen one, a king like David? So why are we here in this stinky stable?

Any chance of another angel?”

If Jesus is God’s chosen One, why is he born in a stable?

It was not by accident that Christ was born in a stable. The stable means something.

The dirty stable is a metaphor for human life messed up by sin. From God’s perspective, the world in which we live appears to be an immense stable where people produce filth and wallow in it. Though the Bible says we were created but a little lower than the angels, we seem to have sunk quiet a bit lower. And we can’t lift ourselves up by our own strength. We need help. We need a Savior.

Jesus appeared one night, born of a stainless virgin, a poor young woman armed only with innocence. In Christ, God came down into the mess and muddle of real life. He was not sheltered from the harsh realities of life.

Christ’s humble birth in that stable reveals the Son of God who emptied himself - put aside His divine rights and privileges, so that he could walk among his people - be one of us.

He experienced a life like ours - so that he could relate to us - and understand what we are going through. So Christ can say to each one of us, “You are not alone. I am here. I understand.”

Jesus breathed our air, felt our pain, knew our sorrows, and died for our sins.

Jesus is God simplified, God approachable, God understandable, God lovable.

Jesus puts a human face on God.

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Because of Christmas, we can see everything differently. We are not permitted to give up on the world - or give up on other people - or even ourselves, because in Christ, God has not given up on us. God loves us, and His Son came into that dirty stable - into the mess of this world, to dwell among us. God took on human form not only to stand beside us, but to stand with us - to dwell among us.

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The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him “Emmanuel” which means “God is with us”. Matthew 1:23

Our world has layer upon layer of troubles - and our own encounters with life are not all sweetness and light either. Maybe at times God seems distant. At those times remember the message of Christmas: Jesus is Emmanuel, God who is with us, even in those dark hours when we feel all alone.

No matter what you go through, Christ is present where you are in what ever situation you find yourself - and He comes with salvation.

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Jesus is Emmanuel - God with us - and whether we acknowledge it or not, the Lord is at work in your life and mine.

Christ is with us - prodding and guiding, judging and forgiving, or perhaps even weeping - trying to guide us to that more abundant life.

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Before Jesus was born, an angel appeared, saying that the child that Mary was carrying was unique - conceived by the Holy Spirit. This child was God’s idea and God’s doing.

Furthermore, the child was to be given a special name, “Jesus”.

But as Joseph said to Mary, “That’s a very common name for a special child.” It’s about as common as “Bill”, “Bob” or “John”. “Jesus” was simply a name common to that time and place, one that did not by itself set him apart.

Common, but not misleading.

The name Jesus, or as the Jews in His own day called Him, Yeshua, literally means “God is salvation”. As the angel explained, you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Thus, his name is constant reminder of God’s grace and goodness - a reminder that with Jesus there is love and forgiveness.

In other words, Jesus saves.

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Last year the Garesons gathered in New Jersey for the wedding of their oldest son. The first event of the weekend was a dinner for family and friends at a local restaurant. Rachel, the groom’s sister was living in Boston at the time and took the train to New York. From there she thought she could take a train right to the Jersey community where the dinner was. Wrong. No train to that town.

So Rachel called her brother Alex, “I think I’m about to get lost. I don’t know how to get to the dinner.” Alex handed the phone to his Hispanic friend Jesus, a long-time resident of the area. He directed her to take a train to another Jersey town, where he would be at the station to meet her - which he was.

When the two walked into the dinner a few minutes late, Alex put his arm around his friend and announced “Rachel was lost, but Jesus saves.”

Jesus saves. If in our sin we could not come to God, then in His love God came to us. Even if someday you should turn from God and walk away, He’s already provided a way back For He seeks us out, where we are, offering forgiveness and love. Jesus saves.

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Christmas means that God is incarnate in Jesus - that God has come to us as a man. And that this child born of Mary is Emmanuel, the God who is with us, and for us, - and that His name is Jesus, for he would save us from our sins.

One example of what that means for you and I is to realize that God created us for connection - connection to Him and through Him to one another. We were designed to live in peace and harmony, in a fellowship marked by love and inspired by God.

But we’re really living in that dirty stable - even trying to nose others out of the feed trough. To have that connection to others, that harmonious fellowship, something has to change - and that something is you and I. Among the things that hinder that harmony - and break the connections - are our sin and self-centered-ness.

What God did in Jesus was to send Him where we are - where we can’t quite be connected to God, nor maintain that connection to others - and move us to where we need to be, at the table of fellowship with Him and his followers.

God sent Jesus to move us from that place where we are separated from God by our sins, from others by our selfishness, and move us to a better place – in community with God and others.

Christ is determined to permeate all of us - to be among us - incarnate, dwelling in us - so that we might be wonderfully alive, full of the divine love of God.

We can be changed as we receive Christ and His love - and then share Christ-like love - so that we may live in peace and harmony.

For Christ’s way of love is the way to peace in our lives.

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Lord Jesus, on this holy night of nights, you slipped in among us, became one of us, one for us. In our sin we could not come to you, so in your love, you came to us. In so many ways, we kept moving away from the love of our God. So in You that divine love was embodied, and you sought us out where we live.

Lord Jesus, fill our hearts with your divine love, that we may share your love with family and friends, and thus experience your peace in our lives.

Amen