Sermon Christmas Eve 2013

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who comes to us and sends us out.

 

​Well, time for the Christmas Pop Quiz! They didn’t tell you when you were coming in there would be a quiz? Oh, uh oh. Well, it shouldn’t be too hard.

 

Ok, Question one! Who loves Christmas?! Let's see hands!  See, that wasn’t so hard.

 

I love Christmas, everyone gathering together with their families, some coming long, long distances to be with friends and relatives. It’s a wonderful time. You get together and there’s lots of warmth, maybe you put a fire in the fireplace, or for me, turn to the fireplace video on Netflix. There’s always a lot of good food, whether turkey, ham, meatballs, lutefisk, schnitzel, cookies, lefse, bars, and almost anything else you can think of.

 

Then after some eating, everyone comes here to church for service, we sing, we hear the  Christmas story, we will pass candles around and lower the lights, letting the candle light fill this room like the starry night sky, and sing silent night as we give thanks for Christ’s birth.

 

And then of course gathering around the dining table for even more food, and then to the Christmas tree and presents (if you are like my family) or maybe it’s straight to bed to wait for Santa and presents early in the morning, kids streaming from their rooms to gather at the tree.

 

All of our Christmas texts are full of people streaming to the manger as well.

 

Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth, north by the sea of galilee, toBethlehem, south of Jerusalem, and many day’s journey on foot and donkey. They arrive late and settle into a stable, where Jesus is born and laid in a manger.

 

The shepherds are out in their field, the night is dark, when suddenly the angels appear and tell them the good news, “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord!” They jump up and with haste make their way to Bethlehem, winding their way through the city until they find Mary and Joseph, and Jesus in the manger, wrapped in bands of cloth.

 

​If you would read the Matthew account of Jesus birth, we find wise men from the east traveling to Jerusalem, where they ask Herod about the location of a child born King of the Jews, following a star.  They leave Jerusalem and ahead of them goes the star until it stopsBethlehem. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

 

​Christmas is a time of coming together, a time to celebrate with one another that Christ has come to us, God has become Immanuel, God with us.

 

​God has broken into the darkness of our lives and turned on the light. God is the light the darkness cannot overcome, a great light for those walking in darkness, a light shining on those who live in darkness.

 

​But, the story isn’t done now. Our children’s Christmas Program this year was on the 12 days of Christmas, and those twelve days don’t end on Christmas, but begin on Christmas. Christmas doesn’t end with us, our families, the shepherds, the magi, all gathering together around Christmas trees and mangers. That's just the beginning.

 

​The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

 

​The magi, opening their treasure chests, offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

 

​That is just the beginning of the story. We get to continue it. Like the shepherds, and the magi, we leave from here, we go to our homes, and then to work and other communities, but we go knowing that Christ has been born. And we go to share that good news.

 

​I wish we had the same intensity the shepherds do as they return to their fields. Glorifying and praising as we return to our homes. Telling the good news that God has come deep, deep down to us. Entering into our lives, our dirty, difficult lives, all because God loves us.

 

​We go from here, not with the story finished, but going out so we can add our own chapters, chapters of helping the needy, feeding the hungry, comforting the grieving.

 

​We go from here bearing the light of Christ into the rest of this dark world.

 

​I keep seeing the phrase Keep Christ is Christmas, and when I do I think, you know, I want to take Christ out of Christmas. Not in the sense of removing Christ and making it secular, but in the sense of leaving Christ here. Christ is born to us not so we can come here and gather together this one evening, but so we can be sent from here to tell Christ’s story to the world. Let’s Keep Christ in Christmas, but let’s also bring Christ out of Christmas to the rest of the world.

 

​Because God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, to gives us the freedom to go tell the story on the mountain and everywhere.

 

​Pop Quiz question 2: Are you going to go out and tell the story of Christ’s birth to all the world? Good.

 

​May you feel Christ’s blessing this day, and the whole year. May you find Christ born in your hearts today, and every day. May you know the peace of Christmas every moment of your life.

Amen.