Merry Christmas

Psalm: Psalm 96
Old Testament: Isaiah 9:2-7
Gospel: Luke 2:1-14, 15-20
Epistle: Titus 2:11-14

Merry Christmas everybody! Today is a day full of traditions, family, good food, and church. Today is the day we celebrate the birth of the Lord. The God and Creator humbled himself to became a human to redeem creation from the grips of sin. Today is a day of great joy as the Psalmist sings out; sing to the lord a new song, praise his name. God is at work in the world and we see this engagement with his creation most profoundly in the incarnation. God, in his Son, and through his Spirit is a work yesterday, today, and forever and this should cause us great joy.

In Isaiah this week we read the prophecy of the birth of a savior. He shall fulfill the covenant we talked about last week made with David. The Son of David will rule justly from an everlasting throne. He shall be called, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Jesus Christ was both the Son of God and Son of David/Man. He fulfilled the prophecies and the covenants in ways no one could have predicted.

The birth of Jesus interestingly only appears in two of the Gospels, Mark and John don’t seem to consider this aspect of Jesus’ life important. But from Luke we get some important information about Jesus’ life. Jesus was born humbly, yet he was king, born “in the town of David.” He was greeted by animals and shepherds, yet he was the Savior and Messiah. We also see that at this time no one yet understood that Jesus was God. The shepherd’s don’t worship Jesus as is so often depicted in Nativities. They leave “praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” The Messiah had come after 400 years of waiting, but no one yet knew who Jesus was. I’m reminded of that song, “Mary did you know?” I think the answer is no. Mary is said to ponder these things in her heart. She knows Jesus is unique and the Messiah, but God? This is almost too crazy to believe and in fact took the disciples until after Jesus resurrection to get and something which the church struggled for 3 centuries. It is in John that we see the development to Jesus as God. John skips the nativity in favor of the Incarnation. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. John makes it no secret that Jesus is in fact God.

It is in Titus I think that the Christmas story invites us in. Everyone gets excited about the baby story, but Christmas draws us in and points us to the whole Christian story. Jesus wasn’t just born the Savior. He died the Savior and was raised from the dead the Savior. Titus tells us that this “story” actually effects how we live. “It teaches us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness.” We discussed the first couple weeks about how we wait, and that theme continues today. We are to wait as if Christ is actually God. We are to follow him because he is God. He is not a guru or holy man; he is the Son of God in the flesh.

Titus also reminds us that we live in the paradox of living in the age of the Messiah, yet it is not fully consummated. Waiting for Christmas during advent is a sign of the waiting we do for “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” We wait for his return in obedience. As he came the first time so he will come again; at the appointed time. We don’t know when that will be so we wait in hope and obedience. We wait in anticipation knowing that God is faithful and that he continues to be active and present through his Spirit in creation.

And so we pray, Come Lord Jesus Come, that his kingdom will be fully present in the world.