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Another Christmas has come. How was it for you? Are you glad it is here? Are you ready for it to be over? Or is it? The Christmas season actually begins today and runs through January 6, Epiphany. For manu, the parties and gift exchanges and busyness continue up through the New Year and beyond. I know that is true in my household. All three of my daughters and their families are arriving at our house in the coming days and we will celebrate together this weekend.

So what has been the focal point of this season for you? Did you remember whose birth we are supposed to be celebrating? The following story was sent to me many years ago, and I used it many times, because it helps put Christmas in the proper perspective.

A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable, and hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.

She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season time of the year. Overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, making sure we don’t forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card.

Finally the elevator doors opened and there was already a crowd in the car. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed she couldn’t take it anymore and stated, “Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot.”

From the back of the car everyone heard a quiet calm voice respond, “Don’t worry we already crucified him.” For the rest of the trip down the elevator it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

 The message is so straightforward and powerful. Those who are looking for joy in gifts and shopping and parties and people will never find it. True Joy is found in the birth of Jesus Christ. That was and always will be the most significant event in the history of this world.

The reason this is true is because without Jesus, we would have no hope. We would be doomed to destruction and eternal separation from God because of our sin. But God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19) That was all part of God’s plan. He was crucified to pay for the sins of everyone. That’s why He came. His resurrection sealed the deal, proclaiming His victory over death and the grave for everyone. Faith in Him assures you of forgiveness and eternity with Him.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

I have always looked forward to Christmas Eve. When I was growing up in a parsonage, we always ate a special meal of oyster stew (a tradition from my dad’s side of the family) and sandwiches and cookies before heading off to the Candlelight service at church. We would hear the songs and scriptures and sermon reminding us of God’s greatest gift to us all, The Word become flesh, God with us, the Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

As soon as the service was over, my siblings and I would run to the car and be ready to go. Why? Because we knew that we would be opening our presents as soon as dad got home from church. Well, not immediately. Another long tradition in our family is that once dad got home from church, we would gather around the tree. There was a plate of Christmas goodies for us to choose from, get something to drink, and one of us would read Luke 2:1-20. After that, dad would offer a prayer, again reminding us of the greatest gift we would ever receive, our Savior. Only then we would open our gifts, which were to remind us of God’s gift to us all. Then it was off to bed so we could get up and go to church again the next morning.

Cheryl and I continued those traditions in our home as we raised our family. While we let the kids eat potato soup, she and I still had oyster stew, as we will again today. And we always had someone read Luke 2 to keep our focus on Jesus as the reason we were all together to celebrate.

I still marvel at the love of God that was manifest in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem. That love was always there. It did not stop when Adam and Eve sinned, but was displayed in the promise to send one who would crush the head of Satan and restore us to God’s good graces. That love took human form in the fallopian tube of Mary, was carried in her womb until the time had fully come and He was born. Jesus then lived a life without sin so that He could pay for my sin with His life. I know He did it for everyone, but I prefer to make it personal, because I know He did it for me. That is what I celebrate at Christmas and throughout the year.

I have been looking forward to Christmas Eve this year. It will be the first time in five years that I will be with my church family for Christmas Eve, the first time since I retired that I will attend Candlelight Service at the congregation that I served as pastor for half my life here on earth. We will rejoice together again in that angel announcement:

Luke 2:10–12  “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Luke 2:10

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. No doubt many of you reading this will attend a worship service, most likely a candlelight service. When I was still serving a congregation, I always wondered about all those unfamiliar faces that showed up on Christmas Eve for worship. Some were there because someone made them come. Some attended because “it is what you do on Christmas Eve.” Some were there because they truly wanted the opportunity to worship. What I tried to do for all of those folks, regardless of why they came, was to let them hear the message the angels shared that first Christmas: Good News of great joy for all people. We have JOY in Christ. The New Testament calls on us to “rejoice” over 70 times.

This was no ordinary birth announcement that first Christmas. This was a sin-crushing, death-defeating universal news alert: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). This was the news of great joy! The joy was so contagious that the shepherds, the first to hear the news, couldn’t stop talking about it.

I heard about a couple who learned they had won millions in a lottery. Hoping to keep it a secret until they made the necessary plans, they told no one about their new fortune for a few days. Those close to them, though, couldn’t help but notice that something about them had changed. Something was different. They were obviously very happy about something, even overjoyed. They just couldn’t stop smiling. Finally, a neighbor asked, “What in the world is going on with two of you?” Then the news spilled out. Their lives would never be the same, they said.

The joy God gives is part of your identity as a follower of Jesus. It is what you have in spite of everything that is wrong with the world. God had Jesus pay the price for your sins. That is why you have Joy: You have a relationship with God that goes way beyond striking it rich in a lottery. This is joy in the Lord. This joy responds to all God is and all God has accomplished. This joy is eternal. This joy shines through the carols of this season, the notes we write on Christmas greetings, the works of charity we offer, and the tears which fall as this great good news of a Savior touches our hearts.

At a living nativity scene one Christmas, the costumed shepherds were trained to look like those who had been transformed by the angel’s good news. As people came by to view the scene, the shepherds were beaming from cheek to cheek. They worked the crowd, saying, repeatedly, “Come and see! Christ the Savior is born!” They were the liveliest, most welcoming, smilingest bunch of Christmas shepherds you could ever hope to see.

As you complete your preparation to celebrate Christ’s birth this year, what if all of you took a lesson from those shepherds? If you know the joy of Jesus being your Savior, don’t forget to tell you face about it.

I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Joy to the World. The Lord is come.

You may have heard the name Henrik Ibsen. He was a prolific Norwegian playwright. One of his many plays is Emperor and Galilean. Written in 1873, the play depicts the life of Julian, who ruled the Roman Empire from 361-363 AD. A previous emperor had made Christianity the official religion, but Julian was trying to reverse that and reestablish the old worship of the Greek and Roman gods. Ibsen’s 8-hour play (which is most likely why none of us have ever seen it) tracks emperor Julian’s degeneration from a young Christian to a pagan Caesar.  In the play, Ibsen has Julian say, “Have you looked at these Christians closely?…They brood their lives away; unspurred by ambition; the sun shines for them but they do not see it; the earth offers them its fullness, but they desire it not; all their desire is to renounce and suffer, that they may come to die” (Quoted I, English in William Barclay, In the Hands of God. New York: Harper & Row, 1966, p. 66).

This description of sour and joyless Christians by Mr. Ibsen is similar to what we hear today. Critics of the Christian church frequently point to our lack of joy. Millennials charge Christians with being quick to judge, always ready to tell people what they are doing wrong. One woman described her pastor as being “so solemn he looks like he just stepped out a Nyquil commercial.” It is unfortunate that to some, even as we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we Christians may look more like Ebenezer Scrooge than an angel with “good news of great joy.” One pastor’s eight year-old son once asked him on the way to church on Christmas Eve, “Dad, are you going to let us enjoy Christmas this year or are you going to try to explain it all again?” Wow!

It is true that all of us have a right to be miserable. We have a problem with sin. We see it all around us. We see people making bad choices and bad decisions. We see people doing things that destroy families and relationships. We see children starving and Christians suffering persecution. Evil thrives in our world. Families disintegrate. The world is falling apart. Sin has become normal and accepted by our society. We see our own sins, ever before us, like a dirty mirror that has us looking worse every day! If Christians don’t lament all this darkness, who will? If we won’t carry the world’s heavy burden of sin, who will?

What we are about to celebrate reminds us that someone else already carried that burden. When you feel burdened by sin, remember the message of the Christmas angel. Exceeding your desire to carry the burden of sin yourselves is the great news that Jesus came to do it for you. He has taken sin seriously. He has carried the full consequences of your sin, dying in your place. When you look and act as if you bear the sins of the world, you cheapen His sacrifice and tarnish His victory.

As we are in the last days of preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of our Savior, remember the Joy that he came to bring, a joy that should be in all of our hearts, a certainty that we are the redeemed, forgiven and dearly loved children of our heavenly Father.

The season of preparation is coming to an end, but not just yet. You have been bombarded with messages of giving for a while now, online, at retail stores, and on every kind of media. Much of it comes from retailers telling you to buy their products and give them to someone else as a gift. A great deal also comes from every charity imaginable, tugging at your heart strings and asking you to support their worthy cause. The atmosphere of giving is seen in everything from bell ringers at red kettles to packages wrapped in colorful paper and ribbons and bows.

In our world, this is a season for giving. And I hope you consider it as such. Just don’t limit yourself to the kind of giving that society encourages. This is a season of giving because of what God has given to us. I used to like to take the ad slogans I would hear at this time of year and apply them to what our loving God did at Bethlehem. Here are a few I remember from years past:

• He cared enough to send the very best.
• Only One was good enough to be called Messiah.
• Immanuel in a manger: priceless.

Maybe you can try doing this yourself. Listen to catch phrases you hear in ads and see how many you can apply to the Christ child.

When I reflect upon what God has given, I am reminded of this verse that is set to music in one of the liturgies of the church:

What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?  Psalm 116:12 (NASB)

Another translation puts it this way:

How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me? Psalm 116:12 (NIV)

God has given you a Savior, forgiveness, life, salvation from death and the grave, and the certainty of eternity in His presence. Then He heaps on top of that the list that Luther used in his explanation of the first article of the Apostles’ Creed:

… He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.

How can I repay the Lord for what He has given? I can’t. Neither can you. What we can do is gratefully receive what He gives. After all, it is a gift. Having received all these blessings and benefits, you and I should gratefully respond with lives that give to others. Sharing what you have been given is pleasing to our God. While we can never repay God for all His goodness, you can live the way He wants you to live. That shows Him and the world that you are gratreful for all His benefits.

What Child is This, who, laid to rest,
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While shepherds watch are keeping? 

Do those seem like silly questions? Perhaps they are to those of us who have 20/20 hindsight. We know exactly who He is.

This, this is Christ the King, 
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The babe, the son of Mary! 

Sure, we know who He is. We’ve heard the story. But do we hurry to bring Him our praises, or do we simply offer them in a hurry so we can get on to other things? I know my life always seems most hectic at this time of year. I hear plenty of others voice similar sentiments.

Advent, a time the church established for us to prepare our hearts for the coming celebration of Christmas, finds us busy with so many other things: buying gifts, attending parties, decorating, sending cards and letters, wrapping presents, shopping some more, preparing feasts and goodies, bemoaning how little time there is in each day, especially if you have a full-time job as well. Satan is trying to take our focus away from the Gift. Don’t let this Advent season pass without you preparing yourselves. Pause right now to reflect on what we are about to celebrate.

Why lies He in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians fear; for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spears shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you;
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The babe, the son of Mary! 

Christmas is about a birth, to be sure, but it is also about a life lived and a death died for each of you. That is the gift. Not just a sweet baby in crude surroundings who would someday make good, but the Son of God who would make YOU good by His life and death.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrhh;
Come, peasant, king, to own Him.
The King of king salvation brings; 
Let loving hearts enthrone Him,
Raise, raise the song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby;
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The babe, the son of Mary! 

In the midst of the business and busyness of this season, please take time to contemplate and thank God for His Gift to you: a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Matthew 3:1-11  In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea  and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

I’ve often wondered how I would have reacted if I had seen John the Baptist preaching by the Jordan River. Most likely I would have simply walked right past him, ignoring what he said, dismissing him as someone not right in the head.

By God’s grace, I will never know the answer to that. I am grateful to have been raised in a home that believed the promises of God’s Word and shared it with me from the time I was born. My parents saw to it that I was baptized so that God’s name was placed on me and my sins were washed away. I was taught the importance of repentance and confession. My family pointed me to the one John was proclaiming, and the Holy Spirit worked through their testimony, the Word and the Sacraments to lead me to faith in Jesus.

Others did not have that luxury. They never heard of Jesus and His love in their homes. Some have still not heard that message. What better time for you and I to share this good news than Advent, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of God’s greatest gift to the world. I pray that God will use me to shine the light of His love and grace to those I encounter during this season. I pray that those of you reading this will do the same.

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
Awake and hearken, for he brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings!

Then cleansed be ev’ry life from sin;
Make straight the way for God within,
And let us all our hearts prepare
For Christ to come and enter there.

We hail Thee as our Savior, Lord,
Our refuge and our great reward;
Without Thy grace we waste away
Like flow’rs that wither and decay.

Lay on the sick Thy healing hand
And make the fallen strong to stand;
Show us the glory of Thy face
Till beauty springs in ev’ry place.

All praise eternal Son, to Thee
Whose advent sets Thy people freed,
Whom with the Father we adore,
And Holy Spirit, evermore.

(Lutheran Service Book #344)

John 1:1-5, 14, 16-17  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth … From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

A recent Facebook post said simply “Ruin Christmas with four words.” My immediate thought was “It can’t be done.”

Of course I knew what the poster meant. He or she was referring to ruining one’s celebration of Christmas. We do that all the time. And it doesn’t take much. It usually happens because we set our expectations too high and forget what Christmas is supposed to be all about. When people think Christmas is ruined it is because they leave Christ out of it.

I maintain that there is nothing we can do to ruin Christmas because Christmas is what God did for us. Out of His love, He came down here to be one of us. And it was so much more than just a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem. That was God with us, the promised Messiah, the one who would save us from our sin. It was all God’s doing, the Word became flesh, paid our debt, rescued us, and gives life eternal to those who trust in Him.

That can’t be ruined even if the tree gets knocked over, if grandma’s dish gets broken, if someone can’t make it home, or even if a loved one has died and is not with you this year. Yes, bad things can and will happen, even at Christmas. But that does not change what happened through the Word becoming flesh. You and I have received one blessing after another. First and foremost is that Jesus came and offered Himself to redeem us. In Him was life, and He gives that life to you.

Of the father’s love begotten Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, He the Source, the Ending, He,
Of the things that are, that have been And that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.

O that birth forever blessed When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, Bore the Savior of our race,
And the Babe, the World’s Redeemer, First revealed His sacred face,
Evermore and evermore.

O ye heights of heaven, adore Him; Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him And extol our God and King.
Let no tongue on earth be silent, Every voice in concert ring
Evermore and evermore.

(Lutheran Service Book #384 stanzas 1,2,4)