In Jesus Holy Name December 24, 2008
Christmas Eve– Luke 2:8-12 Redeemer
“Can You See The Manger?”
The Christmas event that we celebrate this evening is God’s love story, visible and recorded in human history.
The message of Christmas is simple. “You matter to God.” You really do. You matter to God so much that He came to earth, wrapped not just in swaddling clothes but wrapped in human flesh and bone.
In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics 9based on Biblical principles) in public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage. They relate the following story in their own words.
It was nearly the holiday season, 1994 time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.
Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cord board to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. No colored paper was available in the city.
Following the instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully, laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out night gown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States.
The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy’s manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously.
For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately- until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, “And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay.
I told him I have no momma and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift.
So I asked Jesus, “If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?” And Jesus told me, “If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.” So I got into the manger, and Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him…for always.”
As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him for-always. (from Sermon Central –Matthew Rodgers)
How many of you have a manger set that you display in your home at Christmas? Christmas is such a wonderful time. Families celebrate. Gifts are exchanged. Even in difficult economic times people find a way to give gifts that express their love for one another.
Turn to the last page of your bulletin and you’ll see a manger scene underneath a Christmas tree. Christmas has become a powerful economic force in America. The consumer culture often shapes our holiday. Christmas is not the sole possession of the Church. Tiny white lights fill our shrubs and windows. We searched for just the right tree on which we placed ornaments accumulated through the years.
More and more gifts are purchased and placed under the tree…. But too often the reason for Christmas, God’s gift to the world, visible in the manger, is lost, hidden behind brightly wrapped packages.
2000 years ago in the quiet stillness of a Bethlehem stable, Mary knew the newborn infant in her arms was the Almighty God. She remembered the words of the angel: “He will be called “Emmanuel-God with us.” His kingdom will never end. How does one describe this event? Majesty in the manger. Holiness in a stable. The creator of the universe….entered the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager in the presence of a carpenter.” (Max Lucado God came Near p. 23)
Saint Augustine (354-430) used these words: “He who was the creator of heaven & earth was born on earth under heaven, filling the world. He lies in a manger. He is both great in the nature of God and small in the form of a servant.” (Christianity Today 12-7-97)
Martin Luther wrote:
“Ah, Lord, though you created all,
How weak You are, so poor and small
That You should choose to lay your head
Where lowly cattle lately fed.”
Christmas is the celebration of the “incarnation”. God became one of us. He took upon himself flesh and bone to save us from our sins.
The merchants of Bethlehem were busy with all the visitors to their village. The merchants were unaware that God had visited their village. The innkeeper would never believe that he had just given a young couple a quiet place for the birth of his Savior.
Those who missed the gift of God wrapped in a manger missed it not because of evil acts or malice; no, they missed it because they weren’t looking. Little has changed in 2000 years. The merchants of big box stores and little shops are happy to wrap presents to be placed under your tree. Is the manger hidden in your home?
Even those in the world who would never claim to be Christian understand the power of giving as an expression of love. Tonight and tomorrow millions around the world will be giving gifts to those they love, all because God first gave to humanity the gift of a Savior, whose name was Jesus.
He came into our hall of death to breathe our poisoned air. He did not come as a flash of light, an unapproachable conqueror but as one whose first cries were heard by a young girl and her carpenter husband. No silk. No ivory palace. Where it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception.
The Bible tells us: “God did not sent his son into the world to condemn it but to save it.” (John 3:17) the message of the angel was clearly heard by the shepherds: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born for you.”
Christmas is the celebration of God’s good news. When Jesus arrived in Bethlehem it was God’s way of saying three things: One, God loves us. Two, God is with us. Three, God is offering forgiveness and eternal life.
The bible tells us that God is love. God created the entire universe, this planet, so that he could create the human race, so that eventually he could create you and me. We are the objects of his love. The only reason your heart is beating is that God loves you. His love is the reason you are taking a breath. He loves you on your good days and bad days.
God knows we are not perfect. He knows that we act like a train that has jumped off the tracks. We have been derailed by our own sinful, selfish choices. So god sent Jesus to be our savior, to redeem us from sin.
Most everyone wants to go to heaven. But heaven would not be a perfect place if God allowed sinful, imperfect people into heaven. So He, Himself solved our greatest problem. He sacrificed himself on the cross. The Bible tells us “He canceled our debt, the list of the rules we failed to follow, the commandments we had broken, He took away our guilty record and nailed it to the cross.” (Col. 2:12)
Christmas would have no meaning, it never would have come about if Jesus had not grown up, lived a perfect life, then die on the cross and rise from death after three days. The Apostle Paul wrote: “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only ours but for the sins of the whole world.”
Recently, our nation elected a new president. Article II, section 2 of the Constitution gives the President the ability to pardon just about anybody he wants to pardon.
Think about that for a moment. Almost any criminal, for just about any crime, can be set free by the president. It’s the kind of thing that can give a prisoner hope and make victims of that prisoner’s crimes cringe.
No, past presidents have generally been discriminating in awarding a pardon…still they have been given a great deal of power.
As I thought about that power to set someone free, I thought of the pardon the Lord has given to me. For all my sins….transgressions of thought, word and deed… I have been given forgiveness.
But there is a difference between a presidential pardon and the forgiveness God gives. No president has gone to jail for the crime of another; no child of a president has ever been beaten, or spit upon, or crowned with thorns, so another might be released.
It would be too unfair for an innocent person to be punished for the guilty. Still, that is the unfairness our Savior endured to grant us pardon from our sins. That is why he was born. The prophet Isaiah wrote: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.” (Lutheran Hour Devotions 12/9/08)
Listen to the words of the Apostle Peter as he explained to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius, the gift God was offering. (read Acts 10:39-43)
God loves you and me. God wants us to be set free from the fear of death. He wants us to be in heaven for all eternity. That’s why he came to Bethlehem. That’s why he was placed in a manger, born to the Virgin Mary. He loves you and me when we think we deserve it. He loves you and me when we know we don’t deserve it. Because His love is not based on what we do; his love is based on who He is. God is love.
Christmas is simply the celebration of God’s love displayed in the manger. The manger is the place where He began his life on earth. If you accept the gift of God, visible in the manger; if you accept what Jesus did for you on the cross; if you accept his resurrection from the grave then your eternal destiny will be secure.
The bible tells us: “Since God’s children are human beings made of flesh and blood, he too became flesh and blood, by being born in human form, for only as a human being could he die and in dying break the power of the devil who holds people in the fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14)
If you ever visit a swimming pool or one of the beaches in Southern California you will always see a life guard. They are usually sitting high above the crowds, watching those who are swimming. When then see someone in danger of drowning it is there responsibility to rescue them. When people sense they are drowning they typically flail their arms, grasping for anything. Every life guard knows that if he tries to rescue someone who’s still full of adrenaline and fearfully trying to save himself, the victim will likely pull the life guard underwater with him. An experienced life guard knows he may have to stay back a foot, tread water, and wait until the drowning person gives up.
Then it becomes quite easy to make the rescue. When the victim finally gives up, he relaxes, and the lifeguard can take over. At that point the life guard simply puts his arm over the victim and swims back to shore. All the drowning person has to do is trust the lifeguard. But a person can’t be saved until he gives up trying to save himself.
Consider this: If it were possible for you to save yourself, then you would not need a Savior. God would not have wasted his energy, effort and pain to send his Son. God knows that we can not save ourselves. That is why he came to a manger, in Bethlehem and to a cross outside of Jerusalem to save us from our sin and self. It is an offer of grace, based on His love.
“If you sacrificed all you had to buy me a priceless and personalized gift and I never took the time to unwrap and open it, how would you feel? Would you be disappointed, hurt, angry at my rejection of your gift given in love? For me the gift would be worthless if I left it wrapped and sitting under the tree.” (The Purpose of Christmas Rick Warren p. 115)
Christmas is here. The greatest and most expensive Christmas gift is under the tree. Move the packages. Look in the manger and there you will find Jesus Christ God’s gift to you.
