I love Christmas! It’s my favorite holiday – by far. I love the lights and the food and the music and the presents! In my many, many, many years on earth, I’ve gotten some pretty neat Christmas stuff. Probably the best was the ballerina suit I got when I was 5. That morning when I saw the pink leotard and the pink tights and pink tutu and the diamond tiara, I was soooo excited. I put it all on and I knew I was the most fabulous looking creature on earth! I held this conviction in my heart for the next 25 years. And then my daughter got her ballerina suit and clearly the most fabulous title got passed on. 

Along with the presents, I love Christmas because it comes tied up in family traditions that get played out year after year. My people put the Christmas tree up on December 18^th, not the 17^th or the 19^th, the 18^th. My people use white lights and we’re Fraser fir folk. Not one gift gets opened on the 24^th. 7:45am on the 25^th is designated unwrapping time. 

At Christmas dinner, we always have pickled peaches. Have you ever eaten a pickled peach? They’re pretty disgusting! But, my grandmother’s family had them on Christmas day as a “treat” growing up with 12 kids on a Texas cotton farm, so we have to have them – still! – 100 years later. We also get oranges in our stockings. But, we have to give them back to make the fruit salad because every year someone forgets to buy enough oranges.  And every year my dad yells, “Don’t throw the bows in the fireplace, they give off toxic fumes as they burn!” These are my family’s special holiday memories. 

I know you all have your own wonderful, touching and perhaps humorous traditions. In your homes, there are special decorations that get put out and special dishes that get served. Some loved one wears the same Christmas socks or sweater year after year. This is the season for maintaining family connections and creating rituals with the people we love. And all this memory making is good stuff. It is the glue that holds us together. Traditions give us a sense of belonging and help us know where we fit. 

Christmas memories and Christmas rituals are a large part of the holiday “glow” we feel every year at this time. 

But, dear friends, if we allow ourselves to remain focused on the marvelous memory making opportunities of the season, we will completely miss the point of Christmas! We will let a spectacular, unprecedented, miraculous event pass by unnoticed. We will be left clueless to a phenomenon of providential proportions.   What happen on earth that night nearly 2010 years ago occurred only once before in all of human history. In the late hours of that evening, the impermeable barrier between heaven and earth was broken. The separation between God and humanity was breached! The first time God shrank himself and so limited himself that he could be intimately perceived in the universe was when he called all things into being. In the creation process, God reached through his natural realm and brought forth the essence of life, all living matter, all atoms of being. The second time the dome between heaven and earth opened up and God’s full glory was apparent to human eyes is the event we celebrate tonight. That night, there was a cosmic shift in the universe. That night, God relinquished his most prized possession. From his perfect realm, from the place of absolute harmony, beauty, order, goodness, unwavering peace and balance, God made a hole. He allowed an emptiness! From heaven, God gave over his only companion. The first and greatest love of his life he sent to earth. The Son was pushed out of heaven and into the world. The Son was sent on a singular, extraordinary mission. God, in the Son, was now truly in the world. This is the Christmas message: “God among us,” “God with us,” “God as one of us.” The incarnation – God in human form is a gift of almost unspeakable love and heartbreaking sacrifice. While Christ was with us on earth, God was without him in heaven! God originated this plan of excruciating sacrifice because of his unending, unfathomable love for humanity. This is why the angels sang that night. 

The night Christ came into the world, the air between heaven and earth became sooo thin. The light from heaven, so much brighter than our sun, streamed through the atmosphere. The voices of the celestial choir singing en masse permeated the night sky. They sang of God’s love for the world. They sang of his gift to humanity. They allowed themselves to be seen in their full glory to mark the significance of this event.

The night Christ came to earth, the world knew immediately that something was different. And the difference was of God and the difference involved love and sacrifice. That night, there were human witnesses who saw and felt a shift in earthly reality. They were awed and overwhelmed, but they were also utterly convinced that what they saw and heard was real and divine. They took in the gift offered and they reacted as human beings do when they are given love – they loved back! Their love looked like this:

In the crude, inhospitable, substandard stable, Joseph delivers a baby and tries to make his young wife comfortable. In his arms, he holds a son that is and isn’t his own. He looks down and sees the image of God shining out of those new bright eyes and he knows his life will never again follow a normal path. In this moment, he recognizes that he will raise and guide the child to adulthood, but this Son will never share the family business, will never settle in the same town, will never give him grandchildren. This Son will always belong to someone else. How hard, how sad this realization must have been. Yet, Joseph is simultaneously aware of God’s grace and love in the complicated situation and, without hesitation, gives himself over to a lifetime commitment to the infant. Joseph will love and protect Jesus all the days of his life. He gives the Christ child the gift of security and protection. 

Recovering from a long trip, and a less than ideal delivery, Mary looks on her new baby. She counts his fingers and toes, she takes in his perfect shape and sweet smell. Strangers burst in on the intimate family scene. She’s tired, she’s not ready to receive guests. Mary’s just trying to figure out the swaddling clothes. She doesn’t need dirty, smelly, loud shepherds creating a ruckus around the manger. Mary puts aside her deep desire for peace and solitude and listens to their story. She ponders their account in her heart. Like Joseph, she knows this baby will never be her own.  This baby comes from God and belongs to the world. She will feed and change, clothe, rock and walk this child. She will raise, teach and watch over him but, every day he grows, he will slip a little further away from her. Gabriel told her she would bear a “Savior” but a “Savior” born in a barn rather than a palace is likely to have a hard life. Mary doesn’t know the details, but she has a pretty good idea that the road looks rocky for the infant she holds. Still, with all the oddness and prophetic foreboding, Mary sees God’s love and God’s grace in that tiny face and so she commits herself, her whole self, to loving this baby. Without reservation, she will give over her entire heart. She will allow his destiny to break her heart. The love she promises at the manger is the love that takes her to the cross. 

Mary and Joseph had the benefit of forewarning. A specific angel with a specific personal message came to them in quiet and private and outlined God’s plan. The Angel waited for questions. The angel was available for clarification. The shepherds, simple, salt of the earth, men of the fields, did not have this advantage. That first Christmas, the shepherds were caught off guard. Nothing in their lives, nothing in their faith, nothing in their cultural history prepared them for the spectacle they saw in the night sky. Angels, visible to the eye, a particular star, a traveling family in an animal stall, a newborn with an other worldly sense of peace – these are hard elements to accept. But, these no-nonsense men of the land took in the supernatural message. They left their only asset (their sheep in the field) and hurried to the stable. Without hesitation or equivocation, they repeated what they heard and saw to the Holy family and then they went into Bethlehem and told all the townspeople. Risking reputation and derision – they told this incredible, strange, very odd story. In that night’s events, the shepherds witnessed God’s love and God’s grace in the gift of his son. Taking in that love, they responded with all that they had. The gift they gave the Christ child was the gift of their witness. They told the story. They began the tradition that we celebrate tonight. They laid out the beginning of our faith story.

Accepting what they saw as real, committing to spread the word, the shepherds moved and good news forward. Sensing God’s devotion to humankind, they reacted in kind.

When the wise men arrived days later, what was their greatest gift to the Christ Child? Joseph surely used the gold to help the family escape Herod’s soldiers. Mary surely used to myrrh to protect the baby’s skin. But the packages the 3 kings carried to the manger are rather insignificant. In the scheme of the Christmas story, it is their presence, not their presents we remember. Three of the wisest, most renowned minds of their generation, leave the comfort of their palace lives and travel to a forgettable village to pay homage to the infant in the care of a carpenter. The wise men give up their seats of honor. They leave their center of power. They move past their preconceived notions of what a Messiah would look like. They abandon conventional understanding and respond with haste and determination. To God’s gift, they give the gift of their attention and their credibility! 

So, my friends, we have the context of the very first Christmas. From heaven, from his home and from his side, God said goodbye to his most favored, his most beloved! God sent his Son to earth to do saving work for our benefit. There is no greater gift. This is the supreme act of love and the most gracious sacrifice.

The angels could not let the incident pass unnoticed. They sang of the miracle, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”   Joseph took in the gift of God’s Son and gave back protection. Mary accepted God’s gift and responded with complete devotion – even to the end. The shepherds experienced the Father’s love and gave their witness in return. The wise men recognized the world had changed and they responded by coming in person to pay tribute to the child and to God’s commitment to humankind. All the first participants gave all they had…because God gave all he had!

This then is the meaning of Christmas. Beyond the lights and food, the trees and the music, the fabulous presents and family memories. This is what we celebrate. This is why we come to this holy place at this holy time. God loves us! God wants us with him in real and meaningful ways! To accomplish this kind of relationship, He gave up his dearest possession. He sent his Son into our world, in our form to bring us back into the family. And we get this plan. We understand what God was about in the nativity. We are amazed! Awestruck! Overwhelmed! To be loved that much! Amazed and awestruck!!!!

So, dear ones, what do we give in return?

We have the gift of Jesus. What do we offer in exchange? Christ is no longer a baby. He no longer walks among us. He doesn’t need gold or frankincense or myrrh. What would be an appropriate present?

We know. The only thing that can be exchanged for love is more love. The only thing God wants for Christmas is our love. The only thing Jesus wants this year is our love.

We have 365 days left to find this “perfect” gift. It should be easy enough. One size fits all.

Here are some places we can go to pick up some love:

·        Go on-line and click the “Hungersite” each day and a cup of food gets sent to Africa.

·        Write a card to someone you suspect is lonely.

·        Call a relative you’re irritated with to check in. Don’t expect a miracle, just be a pleasant voice.

·        Give up a round of golf or a football game and hang drywall on a Habitat House.

·        Don’t buy those shoes at the after Christmas sale – even if they’re really cute. Send the check to Thompson’s Family Services instead.

·        Forgive the snippy co-worker, not because they deserve it, but because you got Jesus for Christmas and a forgiving heart would please him!

·        Mark your calendar every Wednesday in 2008 and make a promise to thank God for 5 minutes for all the good things in your life.

Unlike the shopping experience we have when we’re trying to get gifts under the tree, finding love to give back to God is all good. There’s no rush or deadline. There’s no wrapping or overbuying! There’s just peace and sense of rightness.

And it is our sense of peace, and rightness and joy in returning love back to God that becomes the perfect gift and the perfect response to the Christmas event. 

So tonight we say, “Thank you Lord for the gift of your son! We will hold him in our hearts! And we return your great love for us in our love for others – tonight and in the 365 days to come! ”