The reason for the season

I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas with family and friends! Here's the sermon I preached on Christmas Eve at Trinity Lutheran Church, Connellsville, Pennsylvania. The Christmas Eve Gospel text is Luke 2:1-20.

Glory to God in the highest! What a blessing it is to gather together to glorify God and hear again the good news of great joy that is the birth of our Savior. Thank you for being here – your presence is a gift!

How many times this holiday season did you hear the phrase “Jesus is the reason for the season”? Who heard it at least once? It seems like a nice reminder, doesn’t it? Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas - not commercialism or Santa or whatever else we try to make it about. “Jesus is the reason for the season” - short, sweet, and rhyming (we love the rhyming part)!

For us, it may be a helpful reminder to say that Jesus is the reason for the season. I wonder, though, what God would say is the reason for the season. Would God also say that Jesus is the reason for the season? Or, would God say that YOU are the reason for the season…

You are the reason for the season. We are reminded so many times throughout our worship service tonight that we, ordinary, unremarkable, sinful people, are the reason for Jesus coming among us. We hear it in the angel’s words to the shepherds, words that are also for us – “TO YOU is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah.” The baby, the Messiah, comes to us.

You are the reason for the season. We will say these words together in the Nicene Creed – “For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven.” The divine one, made human. For us.

You are the reason for the season. We will hear it in Jesus’ words to his disciples, the ones we remember at the communion table - “This is my body, given for YOU. This is my blood, shed for YOU.” The crucified and risen one, the Messiah, comes to us.

Why? Why would God do it? Why would God put on our humanity? Why would God choose to come to us in such an unremarkable way – born as a tiny, vulnerable infant to an unwed mother in a small backwoods town? It is not for Jesus’ sake, but for ours. And why? There can be only one answer to that question. Love.

Jesus comes as a tiny, vulnerable baby because of God’s great love for us. Jesus takes on our nature and our lot because of love. It is that love that seeks us out when we are lost. It is that love that continues to be present even when we are angry or scared or anxious. It is that love that shines as the smallest flicker of light when we sit in the midst of deep darkness. It is that love that rejoices with us when we are glorifying and praising God for all that we have heard and seen.

Many of us come to worship on Christmas Eve because this feels like a holy place. On this, of all nights, with all these people, God must be among us. When we sing Silent Night to the flickering glow of candles, God’s presence seems to radiate through the room. God’s love seems extra palpable on this night. And, indeed, God is here. A Savior has been born, a Son given to us, the Messiah, the Lord. And we rejoice with the angels, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

And, while this certainly feels like a holy place tonight, it is not the only holy place. We gather tonight not just to experience God’s presence here, but also to be reminded that God is present with us everywhere else, too. On this, of all nights, we hear of the overwhelmingly ordinary places and overwhelmingly ordinary ways God chooses to be made known. Chooses to be made known to an unwed mother, chosen to bear God’s Son in her own body. Chooses to be made known in a dirty, smelly stable. Chooses to be made known as a tiny, vulnerable baby. Chooses to be made known to outcasts like the shepherds.

And also, chooses to be made known to sinners such as us. Chooses to be made known in common bread and wine and water. Chooses to be made known in the hospital and the prison. Chooses to be made known in the school and in the factory. Chooses to be made known at the bar and in the nursing home. Ahead of us and among us in every place we would ever go.

The most precious and most important gift of Christmas is God’s love, wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. The Christ child is the gift of God’s very self, and this gift is for you. Hear these words tonight, and know they are true. Glory to God! Amen.