Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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“It was the night before Christmas…and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”

Actually, there were lots of creatures stirring on the first night before Christmas. Creatures were stirring in the fields around Bethlehem. Hungry dogs and wolves were prowling around, just as they did every night. Nighttime was prime time for picking off a tasty lamb or two from a flock if the shepherd was sleeping on the job. Sheep were stirring on that first night before Christmas. Sheep are always more nervous at night than during the day because they know what’s stirring out there in the darkness. Shepherds were stirring on that first night before Christmas. Shepherds had to have sharp eyes to keep watch over their flocks by night.

But predators, sheep, and shepherds weren’t the only creatures stirring. There were heavenly creatures stirring on that first Christmas night too. Angels, a multitude of them, stirring in the sky as they took their places for the greatest Christmas concert the world has ever heard. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.”

God was breaking into His creation. The light was coming into the darkness, which meant that the night would soon be over. The day was about to dawn.

In the beginning, God said, “let there be light, and there was light.” But on one fateful day in the garden of Eden, the serpent tempted the woman to listen to his lies and ignore God’s truth and she did what God said, “thou shall not do.” And her husband was right there with her, and he joined her in her sin. They were deceived by the deceiver and they followed their feelings and their heart rather than God’s Word. They became gods unto themselves.

Ever since that fateful day, the world has been covered in the darkness of sin. Temptations are most active in the darkness. Temptations of all shapes and sizes lurk in the darkness and each one is anxious to devour us in sin. Men and women are a lot like sheep. We’re restless, nervous when we live in the darkness. We’re always much more at peace and relaxed when we live in the light and walk in the light. We’re all anxious for the sun to rise and the light to come and scatter the darkness.

Every message that these heavenly messengers had previously been commissioned to deliver throughout the Old Testament, had just been dress rehearsals for this first Christmas night. Every message they had previously announced to men and women who had ears to hear, was about that great day when God would once again say, “let there be light, and there would be light.”
Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He was the light of the world on the first day of creation and He is the light of the world on this first Christmas night. And He has come into the darkness of our sinful world to lift it, overcome it, to shatter it, to destroy it. Jesus Christ has come into the world to redeem the world from the darkness of sin.

This was the good news that set all of heaven and earth stirring on that first Christmas night when, for the first time in the present tense, all the heavenly hosts lit up the sky with their sermon and song.

The shepherds, of course, were overcome by such a performance. And who wouldn’t be? Luke reports that, “…they filled with fear.” And who wouldn’t be? Sometimes its good to be afraid. Sometimes, we should be more afraid of some things than we are. Its not a good thing if little children have no fear of getting too close to street where drivers might have no fear of driving too fast. We wish that Adam and Eve had more fear of talking serpents than they did. We wish that we were more afraid of dismissing God’s Word than they are. More than once, the bible says that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

But to all those who fear the Lord, the angel of the Lord says, “Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy, that will be for all the people.” “All the people” includes all the people who can trace their ancestry back to Adam and Eve. “All the people” are all the people who know that they have sinned against God in thought, word and deed, by what they have done and left undone. “All the people” includes you, for you, like “all the people” have listened to your own heart and mind rather than God’s Word. You have become a god unto yourself.

For you, God has come down to earth. For you, God has entered into the darkness our sin has brought upon this world and our lives. For you, God was made man to redeem “all the people.”

If gold and silver were a sufficient price for your redemption, He would have made gold and silver come down from heaven, or had it grow on trees. (Something that a lot of teenagers think is actually possible.) But the price for your redemption can be purchased with nothing less than your flesh and blood and bones. This is why God comes to us in the flesh. God has become flesh of your flesh and bone of your bones and that is your blood that is coursing through His veins. For you, this baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger will be striped of all his clothes and laid upon a cross and clothed with burial clothes and placed in a tomb.

We wonder if it’s really all that appropriate to talk about the cross on Christmas. Do we dare mingle Christmas Eve with Good Friday? But, how can we speak about the “good news and great joy” of Christmas in any other way? This baby was born for death for only by His death is He your Savior.

So, you really can’t separate Christmas from Good Friday. Can’t separate the cradle from the cross. The best Christmas hymns, some of which we’ve sung tonight, don’t even try. Already you’ve sung:

“This flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air, Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere. True man and yet true God, from sin and death He save us And lightens every load.” (LSB #359 – st.3).

“Beginning from His home on high, in human flesh He came to die; Creation by His death restored, and shed new joys of life abroad.” (LSB #401 – st.2).

We have yet to sing: “No more let sins and sorrows grow Nor thorns infest the ground He comes to make His blessing flow Far as the curse is found…” (LSB #387 – st.3)

The blessings of Christmas flow from the hands and feet and side of the holy child born of the virgin Mary. He was born in Bethlehem to be crucified at Golgatha, for you, so that you may walk in the light and live in peace.

But because you just can’t separate Christmas from Good Friday, the “Joy to the World” which the angels announce and of which we sing, is always going to be a ‘repentant joy,’ for we know what price was paid for us men and for our salvation.

So, on this holy night, as we celebrate the birth of Immanuel, God with us, our hearts are stirring. Our joy is not yet complete. We are still anxious for that day when He will come again, to take us to be with Him. Then, with unbounded and unbridled joy, we will take our place in the celestial choir with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven , and join in the Christmas concert that has no end.

Related Entries:

» Sermon - 4th Advent - “Divine Revelation” - Matthew 1:18-25 - 12/23/07
» Sermon - Christmas Day - “Christmas All Year Long” - Titus 3:4-7
» Sermon - Christmas Morning - “The Word Became Flesh” - John 1:1-14 - 12/25/07
» Sermon - Christmas Eve - Meditations on the Readings - 12/24/08
» Sermon - Christmas Day - “The Word Became Flesh” - John 1:1-18 - 12/25/09
» Sermon - 4th Advent - “Mary Visits Elizabeth” - Luke 1:39-45

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 7:05 pm and is filed under Audio Sermons, Sermons - Lutheran - LCMS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.