Sermon
Christmas Eve
St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Heathsville, VA
The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, December 24, 2013
Immanuel, God with Us
Text: Luke 2:1-20
We never tire of hearing Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. We know all the details from countless Christmas Eves and Christmas pageants. Some of us can probably recite the story by memory. But as familiar as we are with the story, do we grasp the true meaning of it? Do we understand the miraculous thing God has done?
There are three keys to understanding the Christmas story—the messengers, the witnesses, and the humility. The messengers were the angels. They were the ones who explained what was going on. Without their revelation to the shepherds watching their flocks by night, no one would have known the significance of the birth that took place in the stable that night down the hill in Bethlehem. This was their message: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)
The second key is the witnesses. The witnesses were the shepherds. Even though they were “sore afraid,” they took in what the angel had told them. The great company of the heavenly host that filled their night sky with glory convinced them that this message was for real. And so they said to one another, “Let’s go see this great thing that the Lord has told us about.” And after they had seen the baby Jesus for themselves, they went out and spread the word about what they had been told concerning this child. And everyone who heard it was amazed.The third key is the one upon which I want to dwell tonight.
The third key of the birth of Jesus is the humility. Humility is not a quality we often attribute to God. But it is important that we see how the all-powerful Creator of the universe humbled Himself in this event we call the incarnation. The incarnation—the coming of God manifested in a human being. That is the biggest key of all. And it is hard to imagine it happening in a more humble way:
- As the Bible tells us, Jesus did not consider His equality with God as something to cling to. But He emptied Himself and humbly took on the nature of a servant, being born as a man. (Philippians 2:-8)
- He didn’t come as Superman. He came as a baby – weak and vulnerable, dependent on His parents for His very survival.
- And He didn’t come as a royal baby whom the world would recognize of a person of substance. He came as the child of a carpenter and his young wife from Nazareth, in a small nation occupied by foreign soldiers.
- And because there was no room for them in the inn, this baby was born in a stable with the animals. How poignantly this makes the point that the world has no room for God.
- And even the witnesses were humble. All through the Gospels, the witnesses were people whom the world ignored, or discounted or rejected:
- shepherds,
- a tax collector,
- a leper,
- a Samaritan adulteress,
- a thief on the cross,
- and Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus cast out seven demons.
The humility of God that we see demonstrated in the Christmas story is the greatest key of all, because, if God had not chosen to humble Himself, then He would have redeemed the world through His terrible power. And then we would be lost. As we sang earlier, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining.” God made a perfect creation, but sin corrupted and stained it. God is holy. Sin and corruption are incompatible with who He is. So He inevitably would eliminate them. He could have washed the whole thing away with a flood. He came close to doing that once. Or, He could have burned it all up. He could have done any number of things to wipe us all out. But instead, He chose to stoop into His creation, and to send His only Son to live and die as one of us. And to those who believe in Him, He gave the right to become children of God, to be rescued from the death sentence that lies over this corrupt world.
What God chose to do was foretold in the prophecy of Isaiah many years before:
Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. [Isaiah 7:14]
Immanuel means “God with us.” And that is what God did when He chose to come among us. He came as a man of humble birth. He walked the dusty roads of the Holy Land and gathered a few disciples. And then He died a sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of the world. God with us: He is not far away and unapproachable. He does not sit in some faraway heaven leaving us to make our own way in a treacherous and confusing world. He has come into the world so that we may have life and have it in abundance. And He has promised to be in our midst, and even more than that, to dwell within our very hearts.
- Jesus said to His disciples before He went to the cross, “I will not leave you as orphans.” (John 14:18)
- That same night, Jesus prayed to the Father, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.... May they also be in us.” (John 17:21)
- Jesus said, on the day He left His disciples and ascended into heaven, “I am with you always, to the end of the ages.” (Matthew 28:20) God with us.
- Jesus promised to send His Holy Spirit to everyone who obeys His commands, and He will open to you all truth. (John 14:15-17)God with us.
- Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)
God has come down from His heavenly throne and stepped into the world He created. That is what happened that night in Bethlehem, heralded by the heavenly host and witnessed by the shepherds. It makes all the difference in the life of a person navigating this world in which we live.
- It is a dangerous world.
- It is confusing.
- Mixed signals and deceptions and phony wisdom perplex us, and we don’t know what to believe.
- This world is filled with treachery.
- We are subjected to desires and cravings that could lead to our destruction if we give in to them.
And in the midst of this, God has said to us, “I will be with you.” The author of life and the designer of everything that ever came to be has said, “I will be with you.”
We struggle to deal with this enticing, perplexing, confusing and hurtful world.
- You’re sitting in a doctor’s office, waiting. He comes in carrying test results. He has a somber look on his face. He tells you that you have a fatal disease and have 4-6 months to live. How do you deal with that? Are you immobilized with fear? Do you deny that this is happening to you? Do you quickly work up a bucket list and head off to do all the things you always wanted? Or if God is with you, do you turn to Him and seek understanding, comfort and hope from the one who holds the future in His hands?
- Many families lost their homes on the Jersey Shore in Superstorm Sandy. Some dissolved in grief over the loss of all their family pictures and the treasures they had gathered. Some curled up in fear that their lives would never be the same. Others said, “I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. I will rebuild.” But I heard a few who turned to the God who is with them through every triumph and disaster, and asked Him to provide and heal and bless them. They said things like, “Thank God we still have our family. We’ll get through this.” Immanuel is the one who said, “Your real treasure is in heaven. (Matthew 6:19-21) Just rejoice that your name is written there.” (Luke 10:20)
- How do you deal with the loss of a loved one? I have been to a number of memorial services for people who did not accept Jesus, and did not enjoy God’s promise to be with us. They are usually lively celebrations of life, with lots of anecdotes and laughter and memories. But what about the future? Where is the hope for that lost loved one? Over the proceedings looms the ominous question, “Is this life all there is?” Immanuel, God with us, has said to those who put their trust in Him, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:1-3) Yes, we get angry at God because He could have made it otherwise. But He is there for us to throw our questions and our grief at. And He loves and comforts us.
- How do you deal with crushing guilt? It was something you did long ago that you deeply regret. It had dire consequences. You can’t change it. It is your secret, and it is eating you alive. Immanuel, God with us, said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) He said “I shed my blood for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28)
- How do you deal with a moral dilemma, when you have to decide what to do? If your only guideline is public opinion, how do you deal with the conscience? How do you deal with shifting public opinion? Can you really believe that something that was universally condemned 30 years ago is suddenly morally acceptable? Where do you get reliable answers? God is with us in His Word. The Bible calls Jesus the “Word made flesh.” God’s word is His gift to us. Theorems and hypotheses and laws of nature are proven to have been wrong guesses. But God’s Word never changes. And it contains everything the Author of Life knows we need to live as He made us to live. Jesus, the Word made flesh, Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, said, I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)
I remember a Christmas Eve many years ago. My first marriage was falling apart. We were going through the motions of Christmas for the children’s sake. That night, right next to the beautiful Christmas tree, with the stable and the wise men on the mantle and a fire in the fireplace, we had yet another fight. I stormed out of the house, got in my car and went for a drive. It was snowing. I picked up a hitchhiker and gave him a ride 20 miles into the city, just to stay away. He was a lonely man with a broken family. He was grateful to spend the time with another human being, and so was I.
Going home, I was full of questions about what life was all about. I wondered why I couldn’t get the “Christmas spirit.” We had been to the Christmas pageant and enjoyed the angels and the shepherds and the baby. But I had not yet grasped the meaning of that story. I felt empty and alone.
Fast forward three years to a day when I gave my life to Christ. He had come to the door many times and knocked, but this particular day, I invited Him in. And after all the years, He was truly God with me for the first time. For the first time, His light shone in all the dark corners of my heart, so that I could see all that I had missed those 36 years.
Life did not suddenly become easy. The moral dilemmas did not go away. The losses of people I treasured still happened. But now I was no longer navigating this life on my own. Immanuel, God-With-Us, was with me. The one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills is with me. The one who hurled the stars across the heavens is with me. The one who knew me before I was even knitted together in my mother’s womb is with me. The one who wrote the code in my DNA is right here with me, loving me, guiding me, forgiving me, encouraging me and strengthening me. How glad I am that I answered the door that day and let Him in.
How is it for you tonight? Have you embraced the full meaning of the event we celebrate tonight? Have you accepted the greatest Christmas gift ever given, Immanuel, God with us? I see some of you are younger than 36, which was the age when I gave my life to Christ. I hope you will not wait as long as I did. Others of you are way beyond 36 years old. Let me just say that it is never too late to give your life to Christ. And there may be some here tonight who have been waiting for years for definitive answers to the questions that have dogged you about the Christian faith. It just may be that the answers will not be given you. May I suggest that you give your life to Christ, even in your uncertainty, and see what happens?
Maybe this is the night. I hope that the next time Jesus stands at your door and knocks, you will let Him in and surrender to Him. And then it will be God with us in your life. And it will make all the difference.
© Jeffrey O. Cerar, 2013