Christmas Day Sermon 2016
Merry
Christmas! May the grace, peace and love of God be with you on this holy day,
and may it grow in you, throughout the coming year. Amen.
I am so excited to be with you this
morning, on Christmas morning, no
less. Christmas Day services are a bit unusual here at Grace, but today being a
Sunday, it seemed only right. So I am especially happy to see all of you here today as we get to celebrate
“the reason for the season” on the
holiday itself, right?
Truthfully, most years, about this
time on Christmas morning like many people, we are embarking on our family
celebration. Here is what that would look like in my family, back from the time
I was just a pup; the turkey would be entering the oven about now; gifts are
being distributed; the coffee and hot chocolate are being poured; and we would
be settling down for an epic Christmas
gift opening session with the entire family.
Growing up, these sessions took hours. With 3 kids, plus my parents and
grandparents all together, we carefully took turns, each person opening one
gift at a time with the appropriate amount of time oo-ing and ah-ing and picture-taking over each gift. Hence,
the epic amount of time our gift-opening
took.
And as my husband and I were raising
our kids, we tended to carry on that same tradition. Oh, and not to forget, in
addition to all the people receiving gifts, we could never neglect the animals
in our lives. The cats and dogs got to open their gifts first. Predictably, the
dogs were always more cooperative, sniffing out their gifts and gleefully
tearing them open, with cameras flashing and lots of encouragement.
Giving and receiving gifts is fun, and
on Christmas Day, part of the fun of the season, is the gift exchange.
But sometimes, totally unexpected and
surprising gifts come our way.
So just imagine my surprise when, the
other day, I received a message that I had won a $100 gift card to a store of
my choosing. And just last week, I won a cruise to the Caribbean for seven days
and six nights aboard a luxury cruise liner. And a couple of weeks before that,
I was awarded a brand-new iPad. Not just any iPad, either. This was the iPad
Pro – the new Super Computer.
The thing is, each of these gifts and prizes came with some
strings attached. There was something I had to buy, or ‘do’ to obtain this
“gift” or “prize.” Something like taking a survey, or giving up my left kidney
or selling my firstborn child, I’m sure. Nothing is ever truly “free,” is it?
Needless
to say, I won’t be receiving any of those gifts any time soon. They were all
too good to be true.
But today we celebrate the best gift
possible. One that is truly free, unmerited,
and with no strings attached. A gift for the ages. A gift beyond our wildest
dreams. Today we celebrate the day ‘when the goodness and loving kindness of
God our Savior appeared.”
What a gift we have in Jesus! This is
a gift that won’t wear out, come in the wrong size, or come with strings
attached. It is revealed to us in the words of the gospel from Luke. And this
gift changes our lives, it changes everything.
Today we hear those words we have
heard so many times, as the nativity story has been repeated every Christmas
Eve, in many a Christmas pageant, and
with every showing of A Charlie Brown
Christmas: “To you is born this
day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
In the gospel we encounter the
fear-turned-wonder of the shepherds, and the angel song, “Glory to God in the
highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
Our gifts to each other pale in
comparison to the wonder of the divine gift of God, the gift the Lord made
known to those, unlikely-to-be recipients of free offers and brightly wrapped
packages – shepherds, living out in the fields.
The lowly shepherds could never have
expected such a gift. They hurry as quickly as they can to the stable in
Bethlehem, where they find the gift that the angels had unwrapped for them –
the child, lying in a manger. They heard the words of the God’s promise,
delivered by the angels, to you is born; for
you is given. For lowly, outsider shepherds, for Mary and Joseph, for us
today, this is good news indeed.
The words from the letter to Titus
today reveal the extraordinary value of
this gift, for all people–this child
is true gift , given out of God’s goodness and lovingkindness. For
the people of old these words – “goodness and lovingkindness” signify the manifest
favor and generosity of God.
“Goodness” and “lovingkindness” of the
Lord in the Old Testament was code for the unmerited, gracious mercy and love
of God, which is now embodied in Jesus.
The text from this letter unpacks for
us the meaning of this gift : that God, out of God’s great store of love for
humankind has given us this gift of God’s own Son, not because of anything that we have done or will do, but according
to God’s mercy.
Jesus
is God’s response to the sin and death in the world; Jesus is God’s solution to the chaos and hurt of humanity. Jesus is the saving Lord, the one who
brings us eternal joy and salvation. Jesus is God’s assurance of constant
presence, secured for us through the Holy Spirit.
The constant movement of the Trinity,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit is revealed as we are reminded of our baptism, when
God washed us clean and created new lives in us, forever.
Once again
today, we are reminded that God gives this gift not because of who we are or what we’ve done, but because of who
God is and what God has done through
Jesus, beginning on a Bethlehem night and continuing through the life,
death, resurrection and ascension of the child born there. In Christ, the
Messiah, God promises and delivers a unique peace to the entire world.
This is the real gift of Christmas,
freely given to us all today: That despite the chaos and hurt of this world,
despite poverty or oppression, despite our griefs and our failures, our sin and
our brokenness in all its forms, God has
come into the world, in the incarnation of this child born to us this day, and
has delivered the perfect gift of love. This is the great surprise of
Christmas Day, given in and through Jesus Christ, our newborn king. Let us all
rejoice and be glad in this most perfect, amazing, glorious gift of all!
Alleluia! Amen.
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