It’s Christmas Eve and this evening we’ve been journeying
through the Bible, reflecting on and singing our way through God’s faithfulness
and commitment to his people. Right from the beginning, God has walked with his
people, calling us back time and time again to be his people. Even when we fell
into sin, God doesn’t give up on us; right after our fall into sin, God promises
a redeemer, one who will come to defeat Satan once and for all and redeem us
from sin and death so that we can walk together again with God as it was in the
beginning. Yet, even with the promise of a Messiah, humanity has often walked
in fear and uncertainty.
Reverend Thomas Butts writes, “Jesus was born into a world riddled with fear. So much of the
lives of people was controlled by factors over which they had no control.
Anything not explained rationally, which was almost everything, was thought to
be caused by demons and evil spirits. Disease and weather were controlled by
unseen evil spirits over which they had no control. Israel was occupied by the
Roman army. The destiny of the country was in the hands of people who did not
have their best interests at heart. Every change seemed to worsen their
situation, which was already bad. Most news was bad news. Fear so consumed
first-century people of Israel that when they did not know how to feel they
were instinctively afraid.”
But now God is on the move and angels have come to let the world
know. We hear the reassuring words of the angel: "Do
not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the
people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the
Messiah, the Lord." This is the fourth time angels have come in the
last few months with good news for the people. First Zechariah is met by an
angel who tells him that he and his wife Elizabeth, both too old to have kids
anymore, will have a child who will help the people get
ready for the Lord. They become the parents of John the Baptist.
Then Mary is met by an angel. “The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are
highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” We hear the unexpected good news
as the angel calls Mary, “You who are highly favored.”
The angel then tells her that she’s going to be the mother of God and he will be called the Son of the Most-High whose kingdom will
never end. At Christmas we’re reminded
that we too are highly favoured as Jesus has come to live among us and learn
life as we live it, “The Lord is with us in
Jesus.” Leonard Vander Zee writes about Jesus’ birth, "[Mary] uncovered her baby as much as she could in
that chilly, dank space. She examined him from head to toe, caressed his tiny
body, touched his perfect fingers and toes. Perhaps it wasn't so amazing to her
or to Joseph, but to me the most amazing sight she laid her eyes on was the
stub that protruded from his belly, the freshly-cut, already-withering cord
that had sustained his life in her womb — the cord through which he received
her nourishment, her very life. When you really think about it, this is the
amazing thing: This child, the long-promised Son of God, has a belly button.
The incarnation means that God now has a belly button. He is bound forever to
the human race, and that remnant of an umbilicus proves it." God with us as a baby in a cradle, God in
skin, as one theologian says, God who joins us in all our joy and sorrow and
washes us clean, not only of our sin, but also of our fears and worries.
Then her husband-to-be Joseph receives an angel visit to
reassure him that the child his fiancée is carrying was from God and that he’s
to marry her and help raise this boy who will be called
Jesus and who will save his people from their sins. Jesus grows up in a
family, with all the wonder and stress that comes from family, all the comfort
and hurt that families can bring; Jesus gets it, he understands and is there as
our big brother to hold us when we need holding, to challenge us when we need a
challenge and encourage us when we need encouragement.
Now a choir of angels has come to proclaim that the promised child
has come; the saviour of the world, the one who will save his people from their
sins; Immanuel, God with us, is here. God’s greatest expression of love has
just been born in the babe of Bethlehem. The good news is that because of the
babe of Bethlehem we’re all included in the love of God. You may not have yet
accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, but God loves you and has led you here
this evening to hear how great his love is for you and to invite you to come
bow before Jesus, who so loved you, that he took the hard journey all the way
to the cross for us, to wipe away all your sin. Jesus has made us right with
our heavenly Father so that we can be called children of God, beloved of the
Father.
Pastor Pam Barnhardt was teaching the children's sermon for an
unusually large crowd of children at the 11 o'clock service in the First United
Methodist Church in Alabama. Children were packed into every corner of the pulpit
area. She ended the brief message by saying, "And God loves you and you
and you," pointing as she spoke in three different directions. She
paused to let this profound message sink in. During the silence, a child down
at the far end of the pulpit area behind the baptismal font toward where she
had not pointed, said in a wee, tiny voice, "What about me?"
This child represents all those who feel left out, the poor, the oppressed, and
the unnoticed, those who live below the radar screen of normal attention, who
wonder if they’re too small or too bad or too insignificant to be included. Good
news! Jesus came to tell us that we are all included in the grace-filled love
of God. No one is left out.
Still today, in a world so often filled with bad news, we hear
the angel’s words ring out again with words of hope that still today speak into
our fears and distress, "Do not be afraid. I bring
you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town
of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” God
has come to live among his people and point the way to salvation, hope and
freedom for all those who are willing to come to the Babe of Bethlehem and
accept him as their Lord and King. As the writer to Hebrews reminds us, “Long ago God spoke
many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And
now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised
everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the
universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the
very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his
command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of
honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.” This Son is
Jesus who was born on this night so many years ago. So, we join the
angel song in saying, “Glory
to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor
rests.”
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