First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-17
10Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah — the king of Assyria!”
Psalm 24
1The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein. 2For it is he who founded it upon the seas and made it firm upon the rivers of the deep. 3“Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? and who can stand in his holy place?” 4“Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who have not pledged themselves to falsehood, nor sworn by what is a fraud. 5They shall receive a blessing from the Lord and a just reward from the God of their salvation.” 6Such is the generation of those who seek him, of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob. 7Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8“Who is this King of glory?” “The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.” 9Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10“Who is he, this King of glory?” “The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.”
Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25
18The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
What we Learn from Love
I don’t know about you, but there are times when I have difficulty falling asleep. It might be a problem I need to solve, a TV show that was particularly intense, or something troubling going on with a family member or a friend. Oftentimes what’s needed is a distraction. To combat the insomnia, I might need to listen to some soothing sounds, like the sound of the ocean, or the right music. Or it could be that I need to get my mind off what’s troubling me and onto something else. Recently, I heard about another option, storytelling via a podcast.
Drew Ackerman is the host of the podcast Sleep With Me, and his goal is to tell stories that help people fall asleep. He refers to his broadcast as “the podcast that sheep listen to when they get tired of counting themselves.” According to Ackerman, the key to the perfect bedtime story is to make it slow and boring. Ackerman’s technique is to slow his tempo and speak in a really low voice. His plots are hard to follow, and he goes on long tangents where he explores odd information, such as “a detailed exploration of the science behind mood rings.” The plot line of one story involved a secret war between two candy companies, See’s Candies and Whitman’s Samplers.
Ackerman says it takes a lot of careful editing to ensure his stories don’t stir up too many strong emotions in his listeners. He doesn’t want them to get overly excited or so interested that they can’t fall asleep. He must be doing something right. Last year, his podcast was ranked in the top 50 podcasts on iTunes, and his stories are downloaded 1.3 million times each month. Mr. Ackerman may be the only storyteller on earth who wants to craft boring stories. His purpose isn’t to wow his listeners with his skill. His purpose is to help his listeners fall asleep. Now I know what you’re thinking…he got his storytelling training in seminary!
This morning, it’s good for us to revisit one of the greatest stories ever told, the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Now I hope God doesn’t hold this against me, but if the incarnation of Jesus had been left to me, I would have approached this event very differently. I would have started with Jesus descending from heaven in the midst of explosions, earthquakes, and shooting stars. No one could have missed it! The whole world would have fallen down in wonder and worshipped Him. But as you know, God didn’t leave this history changing event up to me.
God’s purpose wasn’t to instill fear, nor was it to wow us into submission by the limitless power our Lord and King. God’s purpose was to relate to us, one-on-one, to save us from our sins and restore us back to a right relationship with Him. God’s purpose was to give us unmistakable proof of His love for us. And so, God chose to come to us in the flesh so we could see what love really is; to see what true love and mercy looks like when it walks in our shoes.
Our gospel reading begins, “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means “God with us”). “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”
Take a moment to really consider what God has done: Jesus, fully divine and who became fully human, the One who was before all things and though whom all things were created, set aside His heavenly authority and power and came as a little baby. He set aside His heavenly realm to instead be born into a poor family in order to save His people from their sins. From His incarnation to His ascension, Jesus’ story is the story of love and grace, God’s unmerited gift of love for us. God came to us in the flesh to give us life!
As you may know, Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker whose family hid Jewish citizens and helped them escape from the Nazis during World War II. Corrie and her family were eventually arrested by the Nazi’s and spent four months in prison before being sent to concentration camps. Her father and sister died in the camps. After her release, Corrie became an author and speaker, sharing her war experiences and her faith with people all over the world.
On one occasion, Corrie and her ministry team were invited to speak at a prison. The men clearly didn’t want them there. The prisoners began making more noise, trying to drown out the singing that preceded Corrie’s talk. But when Corrie stepped up to the microphone and began her story, “When I was alone in a cell for four months—” the men quieted down. Suddenly, they wanted to hear her story. She too had been a prisoner. She was one of them.
I’m sure you came here today for the usual reasons. However, I hope that before you leave, you’ll hear anew the story of a God who loved us so much that He took on human flesh and walked in our shoes. The story of Jesus’ birth, His life, His death and His resurrection are a story of love from beginning to end. And the first thing we learn from the birth of Jesus is that love makes a plan.
When you love someone, you build your plans around them. You become intentional about spending time with them, watching out for their interests, envisioning a future together. The Bible tells us that before the foundation of the world, God chose us for adoption as His children (Eph. 1:3-6, 11), and prepared a kingdom for us to inherit (Matt. 25:34). After the fall, God planned for Jesus to offer His life as a sacrifice for us (1 Peter 1:19-20) and promised us eternal life (Titus 1:2). It’s a mind-blowing idea! Because of our sin, God set in motion a plan to restore our relationship to Him and give us eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Many years ago, Pastor R. Benjamin Garrison received a computerized chess game as a Christmas present from his wife. He loved playing the game, but it was also frustrating. No one likes to lose to a machine, he says. He also admits that one evening, he even yelled at the game, “All right, you idiot,” he screamed, “If you’re going to cheat, I won’t play with you any longer.”
In an article in The Christian Ministry magazine (Nov./Dec. 1988), Garrison wrote that he knew the computer didn’t cheat. It had simply made a move early in the game that would secure the win. Garrison didn’t pick up on the move at the time. But the computer had already won the game long before it was over.
He wrote that God did something very similar at Christmas when He sent Jesus to be born as a baby in Bethlehem. He wrote, “That move secured the future. That move guaranteed the outcome. Meanwhile, we’re free to go on making our moves on the chessboard of life, some rather good, others unbelievably bad. Yet all the while God is edging us toward the inevitable triumph—not over us, but in us.”
When you love someone, you build your plans around them. You’re intentional about creating good for them. When Adam and Eve sinned, God planned, through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to restore us to Him and to give us eternal life. That’s the first thing we learn from the birth of Jesus, love makes a plan.
The second thing we learn from the birth of Jesus is that love keeps its promises. It’s a fact, trust is essential to a healthy relationship. And when someone you love breaks a promise to you, it becomes difficult to trust them. However, when someone consistently keeps their promises, you feel valued and loved. So, what does it mean that God is always faithful to His promises? Look at verse 22-23 in our Matthew passage: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means “God with us”).”
More than 700 years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah was sent to bring a message to King Ahaz of Judah. Ahaz was a wicked man, defying God at every turn. During his reign, Syria and Israel joined together to attack Judah. It was during this time of tremendous stress and suffering that Isaiah was sent to both warn Ahaz and assure him that God was still with him. And part of that assurance was the announcement God gave Isaiah of the eventual birth of Jesus. It was an ironclad promise of hope and salvation for all people. In fact, the apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 1:20, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.”
Pastor Donald G. Barnhouse writes of a French woman during World War I who was overcome by fear and hopelessness. Barnhouse had taught this woman to meditate on the promises of God. At his prompting, she had created a promise box, a small box in which she kept slips of paper on which she had written the promises of God. Each day, she would pull out a promise and meditate on it and on the faithfulness of God. But the war presented a tremendous challenge to her faith. Her family was hungry, their clothing ragged, their nerves on edge. The situation was desperate, and this poor woman couldn’t see how God could be working in the midst of a war.
So she prayed a desperate prayer and asked, “Is there a promise in here that’s really for me?” But when she reached for the promise box, she accidentally knocked it into her lap. It fell open, and all those little strips of paper spilled into her lap and onto the floor around her. Her hope was restored as she realized that all the promises of God were for her and were ‘Yes’ in Christ. When you love someone, you keep your promises to them. God has always been, and will always be, faithful to fulfill the promises He makes. That’s the second thing we learn from the birth of Jesus, love keeps its promises.
The final thing we learn from this passage is that in the birth of Jesus, love becomes a Person. The Creator God, the Great I AM, loved us enough to be known by us. Immanuel—God with us in the flesh, through the birth and life of Jesus Christ and in our hearts and minds as the Holy Spirit continually grows us in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. God’s continual presence with us is proof of His never-ending love for us.
Years ago, Bono, the lead singer of U2, tells of a Christmas Eve service that changed his life. His band had just come home after a long tour. He went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland for the Christmas Eve service. However, he was feeling sleepy and started to nod off. To keep himself awake, he began reading the Bible story himself. And as he read about the birth of Jesus, he began to cry. He said, “. . . love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered. To me, it makes sense. It’s actually logical. . . Essence has to manifest itself. It’s inevitable. Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh. Consider what Bono is saying here: Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh.” In Jesus, God became mortal. Love in human flesh.
The oldest known Christmas hymn in the Western world is our sending hymn for today, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Its Latin roots can be traced back to sometime between the 8th or 9th century. Over the centuries, verses have been added and changed, the version we’ll sing today is one from the German Catholic Psalter of 1710. Pastor Daniel Im states that this hymn was originally a Gregorian chant performed by Benedictine monks. The original hymn has seven verses. In the week leading up to Christmas, they would chant one verse each day to prepare themselves for receiving the truth and joy and transformative promise that’s ours through the birth of Jesus.
How do we prepare ourselves for Christmas? Are we ready to receive the truth and joy and transformative promise that God has for us through the birth of Jesus? It’s such a simple, yet powerful, story that we hear each year and it’s easy for us to take it for granted. In Jesus, God made a plan for us, God kept a promise to us, and God became a Person for us. That’s how much God loves us. My prayer for each of us, as we look forward to the Christmas season, is that we revisit this story anew, and then prepare ourselves so that we’re ready to receive God’s love and to accept Jesus as our King of kings and Lord of lords, and may all God’s promises be made complete in our lives.
Amen