everything lost, we'll find

only at christmas time

A sermon on St. Luke's superb Christmas Gospel:

A very Merry Christmas to you all! You’ve done it. After a month of nonstop shopping, cooking, cleaning, wrapping, mailing, reassembling the family like a stubborn jigsaw puzzle, watching your diet, arranging your schedule like a suitcase two sizes too small, and just generally running hither and yon at a breakneck pace, you’ve finally reached the finish line! Good on ya. 

You’ve made it. Take a breath of relief. Savor this moment. At last, there’s nothing more for you to do. Your to-do list is happily done! 

And even if everything isn’t done, savor this moment anyway. For one thing, it’s too late! There’s nothing more you can do now. So you might as well sit back, relax, and enjoy this moment. 

We could use the reprieve, too. Couldn’t we? Yes, we're worn out. But the truth is, even the most prepared among us don’t have everything done. No, we all still have more left to do. Don’t we?

As the gentleman waiting in line at Panera kvetched to me just this week, it never ends. And it doesn’t ever seem to, either. Does it? No, there’s always just a little more to do. The resting point never really seems to come.

…But guess what!? Tonight, it has! Tonight, there isn’t! HERE, in this place, on this night, the to-dos do end for one blessed and most holy eve! 

Christ hasn’t come this Christmas to give you more to do! No, he’s come to be YOUR Savior, Messiah, and Lord! Christ is born to deliver you from the incessant demands that you prove your worth and earn your keep, too. God Thyself has become human in Jesus Christ tonight to prove God’s undying love FOR you! GOD’S undying love for you that GIVES you peace and fills your life with the very glory of God, to boot!

CHRIST, and his feast day, Christmas, is not for fictional people. No, Christmas is for real people! Christmas is real people living real lives. And in reality, there’s no point when everything is done, and it’s all just so. 

The true miracle of Christmas, though, is that it is into THIS incomplete and imperfect world that the Christ-child comes! Christ hasn’t waited around in heaven for us to get our act together. No, as the shepherds learned, Christ has unilaterally gone TO you and me! AND, as Mary and Joseph found out, too, Christ has arrived before any of us were ready!

So, if you’ve got a thing or two hanging over your head this evening, you’re finally ready to receive CHRIST himself this Christmas Eve! And if you’re worn down by the hustle and bustle of it all, you are, at long last, perfectly situated for Christ to be laid in the manger of your life! Tonight, the wrong side of the deadline is the right side of the Christ-child! Everything that has you under the gun is precisely what makes you MOST ready to really celebrate Christmas this year!

…In the parsonage, the house where Amanda and I live, there’s a “Christmas room.” And even though you probably don’t live in a church house, I’d be willing to wager that you have a “Christmas room” in your home, too. 

However, it’s probably not the one you think. The “Christmas room” is not the room with the tree and all the tastefully appointed decorations. No, the “Christmas room” isn’t so visible. And that’s the point. 

We actually call the room in question the “Christmas room” in the parsonage. The room gained the title back in my bachelor days. During that time, I had significantly fewer possessions. Thus, there were entire rooms in the house that were totally empty. And one year after Christmas, instead of going through the hassle of taking down the tree, I just moved the entire thing into one room and left it there all year long! Voila, Christmas room!

After that, the room became a catchall. ANYTHING I didn’t have a place for got stowed in that so-called “Christmas room.” These days, there’s no room left. The tree has to come down each year. Nevertheless, we still have a room where everything gets stashed. And I bet you do, too. 

And I bet that room gets more crowded the closer it gets to Christmastime, too! Doesn’t it? I know it does for Amanda and me! The closer the deadline, the more we pack in that little room. And let me tell you, one of the last things we do before guests arrive for Christmas is rush to haul entire piles from tables and chairs into that little makeshift manger of ours.

That! That is what truly makes the “Christmas room” in the parsonage Christmasy! And this is true for you and your home, too! It’s not the presence or absence of a tree. No, what really makes for a “Christmas room” is that it’s the place in your house you’re not ready to show anyone else and, in fact, would be a little embarrassed if someone else saw it, too.

And if you don’t believe me, just go back to tonight’s Scripture! Christ isn’t born in a decked-out castle or cathedral. Is he? No, he’s not. He wasn’t even born in an inn! No, Christ had to be laid in the manger. As Luke succinctly reports, “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.”

…The manger! The manger is not some cute crib made from reclaimed barn wood. No, the manger is a real-life food trough for animals! When God steps out onto the world’s stage in Jesus Christ, God comes behind the scenes! God shows up where no one expects, and nothing is prepared! 

This is the way God likes it, too! The manger is not happenstance. No, it’s God’s holy stance! As Luther discovered, God’s glory is not that God is glorious, although God is. No, what’s glorious about God is that God bestows this glory ON you and me!

When you come to communion, peek out this detail. You can’t see it from where you sit, but if you look behind the table, you’ll see that the stained glass window is painted in such a way that Jesus’ foot is peeking out from under his robe! This isn’t a mistake, either! No, what’s going on is the window has been intentionally painted this way to depict Christ stepping out from heaven! 

That’s exactly right, too! Christ’s glory is that he leaves it all behind! And what’s more, Christ leaves the perfection of eternity to bring you and me with him into the glorious company of all the saints in light! Christ is not content to stay up in paradise! No, it is God’s good and gracious will that Jesus Christ should step out of that celestial city to give you and me the fullness thereof!

That! That is what makes the cluttered room in your house most prepared for Christ’s gift exchange THIS Christmas! It’s the messy room in your house that’s most ready for Christ to make into his holy manger this night!

And even if you don’t have a room like that in your house, although you probably do, you do have one in your life. Don’t you? We all do. But the Christmas gift that doesn’t cost a thing is that it’s the place in your life that’s most out of order that’s most fully within Christ’s life-giving embrace!

…One last thing: this is all true irrespective of you or how you’re feeling, too. These promises apply even if Christmas isn’t doing much for you this year. Christ still comes TO you even if it’s all become familiar. And Christ still hallows your havoc even if you’ve gotten so used to it that you don’t really notice it anymore. 

Let me ask you a question: What is it that sets the Christmas story in motion? Yes, God. I know. But what does God use to get the ball rolling? That’s right! Taxes! 

Now, what could be more boring and routine than taxes??! Yet, that’s precisely what God uses to make God’s promises felt! And that’s also what God is using tonight, too! 

Christ is just an all-purpose savior like that! He’s not too precious to show up in your pandemonium. AND neither is he too high and holy to turn up in your humdrum habits, either! 

Whatever it is that’s brought you HERE tonight has really been arranged by the very hand of God! And God has been pulling all the strings to make this happen: Listen up! I bring you GOOD news of great joy! Christ has been born tonight to GIVE you HIS everything AND eternity, too! 

In Christ’s birth, heaven and earth meet HERE in the manger of your life tonight! By God’s incarnation, peace and righteousness are out back, sharing a kiss behind the barn of ALL your foolhardy Christmas plans! 

Merry Christmas! It’s all been done. And in Jesus Christ, it’s all yours, too. It’s a Christmas gift that you don’t have to buy. There’s a future for you shining in the Christ-child’s eye. 

…There’s no better way to nestle into all these promises than to sing. Is there? A well-worn and lovely hymn will be best, one that speaks of peace and goodwill. How about O Little Town of Bethlehem? 

Yes, O Little Town of Bethlehem, hymn number 279. O Little Town of Bethlehem. O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie. 

And tonight, here and now, your dear Lord enters in and bestows this peace of his on you, and me, and all the rest of God’s people out there laboring in the fields of life. 

Amen. Let’s sing! O Little Town of Bethlehem. Hymn number 279.