Sermon on Luke 2:1-20
"While it was still dark," (John 20:1b) a group of people stood outside and were suddenly startled by a great light as an angel appeared before them. He explains to them what has just happened by pointing to the sign. "'Don't be alarmed,' he said. 'You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him'" (Mark 16:6). [pause] You may have though I was retelling the familiar Christmas story of a startled group of shepherds who see a great sight and are told to look for a sign of the Messiah. However, this is the Easter story, which, using many of the same words, points the group of women to another sign--the sign of the empty tomb that shows that Jesus Christ is not dead but alive!! This is the true sign of our Savior, "For God [sent] his Son into the world...to save the world through him" (John 3:17). God's gift of Jesus is the gift that isn't dead but keeps on living, as well as giving! Yet, it must have been much harder for those shepherds to accept that first sign of the savior, for what do they find--just a baby in a manger.
Not that this wasn't unusual. But how could this be the sign of God's great gift of a king who would save his people? This is what many in Israel expected in the Messiah--a king to overthrow the Romans and bring back the glory days of King David. And so it must have been hard to imagine this small baby as the savior of the world. For one thing, he wasn't born in a palace, but in a stable. He didn't even have a crib but was laid in a feeding trough! Jesus had all the signs of anything but power.
Today we may live more enlightened lives since we know Jesus didn't come to set up an earthly kingdom. But even though we know Jesus' kingdom is spiritual, when things don't go our way, we begin to question whether Jesus really did win the war against death and the devil. When we're experiencing all the pain and suffering this life can throw at us, we might wonder if Jesus can really help us. We've all heard that valuable gifts can come in small packages, but it can still be just as hard for us today to see Jesus as our savior from all kinds of evil in the world, as it was for those shepherds to believe that a poor baby could save them from Roman oppression.
The author, Harold S. Kushner, also discussed God's ability to help us in bad situations in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, (New York: Avon Books, 1981). In it he concluded that good people suffer unjustly because God cannot do anything about it. He says people must rid themselves of false expectations of God so we can stop asking for help and start asking for comfort. Is this what God's Christmas gift is all about? Just a word or gesture of comfort? Did God sent His own Son into the world because He was helpless to do anything about sin and just wanted us to know he could empathize with us? No! Jesus did destroy the power of sin and death, and gave us the gift of real life--not the sugar coated imitation that the world tries to pass off as life.
However, sin sometimes blinds us to the heavenly reality of Jesus' awesome gift in our lives. And so we find this Christmas gift hard to see and hard to appreciate in the day to day grind. Some might say, "Being a Christian is fine for the small problems in life, but where is God when things really get bad. No angels appear. There are no miraculous signs to point me in the right directions." Jesus answers these thoughts, saying, "Behold, I am with you always." And He does gives us miraculous signs--the sign of his body and blood in the sacrament, for this is where he has pointed us to in order to find him when he said "do this in remembrance of me."
So, Christ is the gift of God that keeps on Living in our hearts, whether we feel it or not. For without the gift of Jesus, we are dead--dead in our sins and dead in God's eyes. For life, by God's definition, is only found in Christ. The message of the angels tells us this-- "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14). The angels didn't say that Jesus' arrival meant peace for everyone, but only those upon whom God has put His favor. That favor was placed upon us at our baptism. The gift of life, as well as the gift of peace, emphasizes what God does rather than what we do. God gives, we receive. And so, the peace spoken of here is none other than peace between God and people, the healing of the estrangement caused by human sin--which is eternal life!
But the reason we don't always perceive God's signs is because many times, God's power is hidden power. This was seen in the simplicity of a child laying in a manger in swaddling clothes, who is also the creator of the world and the conqueror of sin and death. But his conquering would be through suffering. And the gift of Life he gives us is hidden in his death on a cross.
The same hidden power of life is found in the Sacraments too. Martin Luther once said they are the "manger & Swaddling clothes into which Christ has laid himself." In the bread and wine we receive at the Lord's altar, we receive Christ's body and blood for our forgiveness. This is not seen with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith we see God's work in our lives--working to strengthen our faith, giving us hope, and turning our lives toward God's will. [cf., Seinkbeil, "Dying to live," CPH]
By these means, Christ comes to live in us and keeps on living, bringing us life! Jesus told us his mission in the world: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10 b). This Full Life is like a person who suddenly realizes how much more God has blessed them. Like in the movie called "Nell" last year, about a woman raised by her mother who had a speech problem. They were all alone in the Appalachian mountains and she had never met any other person until after her mother died when she was about 20 years old. She couldn't communicate with anyone and she lived in fear. Eventually, people who cared about her broke through to her and helped her see all that the world had to offer, giving her a chance to live a life without fear or isolation.
Jesus cared for us enough to break through our sinful isolation that had cut us off from God. He gave us back real life with God by becoming human for us. This life he gives holds all the riches of heaven for us. Jesus is our Christmas present, now and forever, and because Christ lives, we too will live and keep on living in Him! (Rom. 6:4). Amen.