Text: Luke 2:8-20
King James Version (KJV)
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
In the Name of God: The Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
“O come, o come, Emmanuel!”
Tonight is the night! Tonight is the night when we step outside and look up at the night sky and see all those stars twinkling above us and stand, awestruck, at the majesty of it all; where we think about the angel who said to a bunch of peasant shepherds, quaking with fear, that there was no need to be afraid, because God, the One who created those stars under which they we watching their flocks that night, had done something unexpected, something wondrous, for them. This is the night when we look into the excited faces of our children and grandchildren and we tell them that the world is full of magic, that reindeer do fly, that Santa Claus does come down the chimney (even if we don’t have one!) – and we believe it, too. Above all, tonight is the night when we gather here to bask in the warmth of the fellowship and love we feel toward each other, to remember Christmas Eves of the past and those with whom we shared them, to give thanks to God for not just noticing us, and our ups and downs, highs and lows, dreams and disappointments, our triumphs and our tragedies, but for caring enough to take them upon Himself by becoming one of us and one with us. Immanuel – God with us.
When we say that, we’re talking about the Incarnation. That’s the theological term. But it might seem just a bit abstract, maybe even a little cold.
Pastor Dan Rogers writes the following about that: “Søren Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian of another century, tells a story of a prince who wanted to find a maiden suitable to be his queen. One day while running an errand in the local village for his father, he passed through a poor section. As he glanced out the windows of the carriage his eyes fell upon a beautiful peasant maiden. During the ensuing days he often passed by the young lady and soon fell in love. But he had a problem. How would he seek her hand?
“He could order her to marry him. But even a prince wants his bride to marry him freely and voluntarily and not through coercion. He could put on his most splendid uniform and drive up to her front door in a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this he would never be certain that the maiden loved him or was simply overwhelmed with all of the splendor. As you might have guessed, the prince came up with another solution. He would give up his kingly robe. He moved, into the village, entering not with a crown but in the garb of a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time the maiden grew to love him for who he was and because he had first loved her…”[1]
That’s what we Christians mean by the Incarnation.
“O come, o come, Emmanuel.”
God came and lived among us. This amazing and unprecedented act shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is with us, that He is on our side, and that He loves us. And, additionally, it gives us a firsthand view of what the mind of God is really all about. When people ask what God is like, we, as Christians, point to the person of Jesus Christ. God himself is too vast for us to comprehend. But in Jesus Christ we get a glimpse of who God is. In the person of Jesus we are see that God, that mysterious, all-powerful Person who created those stars I just mentioned and the universe that contains them, loves us so much and wants a relationship with us so much, that he came among us as that Baby whose birth we celebrate tonight. He gave up everything – all the power, all the majesty, all of it – just to be with us and to bring us back to Himself.
I think that, underneath all the frenzied activities that so many people put themselves through at this time of year, there’s another reason than just “it’s what we do at this time of year.” Even among those who don’t normally think of themselves as particularly religious, and whether or not they even realize it, I think that the power of God’s wondrous Christmas gift strikes a chord deep in their souls. The message that God loves us so much that He does the unthinkable and becomes one of us cuts through the noise of the crowds, breaks through the crust of cynicism, clears away all those layers of mental and emotional sludge created by the last year’s worth of what Shakespeare calls “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that flesh is heir to”; and exposes again an all-too-easily forgotten hope – the hope that truly does “spring eternal in the human breast” – the hope that proclaims to us that, yes, all this is true, it is real, and that, yes, we need those “good tidings of great joy,” we yearn for them!
“O come, o come, Emmanuel!”
Tonight that yearning is answered. Tonight, with the act of a miraculous birth, God embraces of our lot – our humanness and our lives; and in this incredible act of love, we not only learn about God – first, of course, that God is love, that God will not give up on us, no matter what, that there is no length or depth to which God will not go to reach us, to touch us, to embrace us, to claim us – but we also learn something about ourselves and, in fact, about the whole of creation. We learn that we have worth. We learn that we have dignity. We learn that we and the whole creation is of immense, in fact, incalculable, value to God. We learn that everybody here tonight, all these wonderful people, around us are treasured children of God. God came to dwell in ordinary human flesh – let that sink in for just a moment – and in this way, God hallowed and blessed human life and all creation; and in this way, God set the pattern for us to similarly honor each other and the whole created order.
“O come, o come, Emmanuel!”
It is done! Emmanuel is here! And all creation rejoices!
I’d like to close with the poem “Christmas Eve” by Christina Rosetti, which goes like this:
Christmas hath darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June.
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answering music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
I wish you all a blessed and Merry Christmas!
In the Name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. AMEN
[1] http://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/23567/god-in-a-manger/