12242021 – Luke 2. 1-14
In Isaiah, the Prophet of old wrote, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will STAND FAST FOREVER.”
I am going to cling to that. I am going to hang on to that…I need to hear that tonight. I need hear that THIS YEAR. I needed to hear it last year…and I need to hear it NOW.
“Jesus Christ is THE SAME yesterday, today, and forever.”
The Gospel of John starts out by saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made – that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Talk about living in darkness…uncertainty…
Every one of us has shown up tonight with “a particular story” and it is “a story of change.”
It is almost as if everything has been in flux. Our lives have been turned literally upside down. “They” have been in major flux.
We are living in a world that is constantly changing, especially today. The way we think, act, and speak is changing. The world’s customs and societal culture stay the same until one day these things are all altered. And altered they have been. Everything is altered and everything is changing.
We’ve been through a lot…a great ordeal…and are still in the midst of it. It has been an arduous journey. More difficult for some, than for others.
But a journey of change for us all. There has been confusion. There have been losses…There have been blessings…There have been hurts…and longings…
Whether “welcome” or “unwelcome,” that change leaves us feeling “vulnerable,” it brings “uncertainty,” and presents “new challenges” and new “difficulties.”
And none of us knows what the morrow will bring. There is MORE uncertainty. That’s what has brought us to this night.
We’ve come to hear the same old story again. Nothing else will do. We want to bask in its comfortableness. We want to be told what we already know. We want to hang on, to its words. It is a story that anchors us. It gives direction. It has meaning. We want to be reminded of what MAYBE we have forgotten. We want to hear a word of HOPE and a word of GOOD NEWS.
Lord knows our world can use some good news right about now.
We have come this night to be told, to be reminded, to hear, and to know that God is with us. So let me be clear.
God was born this night in humanity, as a human baby, through a human mother.
God is with us. God is not up there or out there somewhere but here, in and with humanity.
God-with-us is the fundamental truth of the Christmas story.
Regardless of who you are, or the story you bring tonight, God is with you. You are not alone. That was the angelic message. “To [us] is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
The story and the truth of God-with-us give meaning, stability, direction, and hope to all our individual stories. God-with-us illumines the dark fields of our life. God-with-us strengthens fearful hearts of men, women, and children.
God-with-us fills our emptiness and losses. God-with-us enlarges and enlivens our joys and celebrations. God-with-us is the origin of our love and compassion for one another. God-with-us restores our life and rewrites our story. God-with-us means that God is on our side, God has chosen humanity, and that, says the angel, is “good news of great joy.”
God with us means that there is always hope. Hope for the morrow and for the day after. So hear it again:
“ While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing YOU good news of great joy for ALL THE PEOPLE to YOU is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign FOR YOU: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
Somethings do not change. That God came for us and is with us, is one of those things. Merry Christmas, everybody!