Christmas eve is my favorite day of the year. Some of you may find that odd especially if you know that I love everything about Christmas. And, I do love everything about Christmas. I love the lights, the decorations, the eggnog, the cookies, and my grandma’s homemade banana pudding that my mom makes for me every year. I even love the electricity that seems to be in the air. People tend to be friendlier, at least when they are not shopping. Christmastime is my favorite part of the year, but Christmas day often disappoints me. Even though tomorrow is the fist day of the 12-day season of Christmas for the church, it always feels like its over. The presents are exchanged, the boxes and wrapping paper that looked so pretty under the tree are now in the garbage, and I have usually gained 5 pounds just from the banana pudding. When I was a kid, I loved Christmas eve, because we always went to my aunt’s house. Yes, I did get presents, but my favorite part of the night was the ride home when I got a whole half an hour to look at the sky to see if I could spot Santa and his Reindeer. I have to be honest, I have a nearly three-hour drive to my mom’s after this service, and I will probably sneak a few peaks at the sky to see if I might just see the big man and his sleigh. There is just something magical about Christmas Eve. As an adult, Christmas eve has never lost its specialness only I now describe it as holy rather than magical. It is the night or the day that the church gets together to remember that silent holy night on which the Christ child was born. The Christ child was given the name Jesus, and He is our Immanuel which means God with us.
The truth is there is nothing disappointing about Christmas day. Christmas day is one of the holiest days of the year because is the day we celebrate the moment that the one true God of the universe chose to become a baby to set in motion His perfect plan to reconcile all of humanity to himself by dying on a cross as a ransom for all of humanity’s collective sin. Could there be any grater gift than salvation from our sins? I would say no, but there is more to the story. After Jesus died on a cross as a ransom for our sins, he rose to life three days later in defeat of death in order to grant all who claim him as their Lord and Savior not only salvation, but also eternal life. Can’t possibly get better right? Oh, but it does. We don’t have to spend eternity in this sin filled world with bodies that are, well let’s just say far from perfect. No, we get to spend eternity in a new Earth and New heaven with new perfected bodies. That means no more pain, no more tears, no more cancer, no more disabilities, no more sickness, no more sin. We will spend eternity in a place that is perfect, and we will spend eternity in the presence of our creator. That is the message of Christmas. God chose an ordinary girl named Mary to be the mother of his One and only son, in order to reconcile himself with all of humanity. God created humans to live in harmony with him, but humans decided to sin against God. And, the moment sin entered the world the harmony between God and humanity ended. In fact, there was a separation between God and humanity, a chasm that no matter what humans did could not be crossed. The entire Old Testament is the story of God chasing after humanity through the nation of Israel, but no matter what God did humans choose their sinful ways over God’s ways. After a hundreds if not thousands of years God could have just wiped out humanity and started over, but after the flood God promised to never do that again, and God is a promise keeper. He could us at the very least just turned his back on humanity, and said I’m done you are on your own. But, praise be to God that we have a compassionate God who loved us too much to turn His back on us. So, what did God do? God sent his son to once and for all bridge the chasm that was between us and God, so that we could be reconciled to God. That is the story of Christmas. Christmas is about the moment a divine miracle happened, and God became flesh and dwelt among us because He loves us too much to turn his back on us. That is why we are gathered in this beautiful country church this afternoon. We are here to remember the divine miracle when Jesus was born in a manger. It was a holy moment in time, and we are here to pause and reflect on what that holy moment means for us.
Our Gospel lesson this afternoon is the story of the birth of Christ. In the birth narrative we are told that an angel appeared to some shepherds to announce the birth of the messiah. And after the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds who were just normal shepherds watching over their flock on what they thought was a normal night, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. Yesterday I preached on Mary whom the angel Gabriel called highly favored when he announced to Mary that she would give birth to God’s one and only Son. I said what made Mary highly favored was despite being a sinful human being, God poured out his grace upon her and chose to use her as part of his plan to bring salvation to all His Children. It is God’s grace that made Mary highly favored. That means every person who receives God’s grace is highly favored. If you claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are highly favored. I believe with all my heart that this is the message of Christmas. The angles announced to normal everyday shepherds “Peace to those on whom his favor rests.” God’s favor rests on all who call Jesus Lord and Savior. So, if you call Jesus Lord, you are highly favored!
To me that is why the Christmas season is so holy. It is holy because of God’s gift to us. Yes, His gift was his Son. The first Christmas gift was the Christ child who was born in a manager. Yet, I think the meaning of that holy event is the true gift of Christmas. Therefore, I would argue that the true first Christmas gift is value. God became flesh so that each and every person could understand that he or she is valuable in God’s eyes. It does not matter what sins you have committed, how often you go to church, what you do for a living, or what family you belong to, you are valued by God. It certainly doesn’t matter what others say about you. No matter what you think others think about you, or even what you think about you, your are valued by God. That is the miracle of Christmas, and if you get nothing else out of this service, even if you never walk back into a church again, I hope that you walk out of this church knowing that God values you enough to send his son to die for you on a cross as a ransom for your sin, and rose again in defeat of death to grant you enteral life, That is the holy miracle of Christmas. God loves you enough to call you his highly favored child.
You may be sitting there thinking that this holy miracle of Christmas is easy for me to believe that because I am a pastor, but I would never understand your life. If you are thinking that, you are half right. I may never understand your life, but I would like to try. You leave here one of my business cards. If you ever want to talk about this holy miracle of Christmas, please do not hesitate to call me. I would be honored to listen to your story. But, please don’t leave here thinking that my sermon is idealistic and that I just don’t understand how hard it is to accept this amazing holy miracle. I understand the struggle to think of one’s self as highly favored. For those of you who don’t know, I have cerebral palsy. The day after I was born my parents were told that I would never walk or talk, and they should just find a good home for me because I would be too much of a burden to care for. God had other plans. I have been able to do things like run track, go on a 200 mile bike ride, earn a bachelors and a master degree, and walk in to this beautiful church and speak the Word of God every Sunday morning. Even though I am often told that I am a walking miracle, I don’t often feel like one. Growing up kids made fun of me. You would think being made fun of would stop when you become an adult, but you should see some of the stares and looks I get when I am out in public; especially when I have shorts on and people can see my braces. I guess that is why my favorite shirt is a t-shirt that says keep starring I might do a trick. Despite having two degrees, when it comes to getting a job, it always seems that schools don’t want a teacher with Cerebral Palsy, and yes I have been in situations where it seemed as if the Church didn’t want a pastor or even a short-term missionary with a disability. So, I understand the struggle to feel highly favored by God when we live in a world tells me that I am anything but high favored. The world often tells me that I am too different, too much of a risk to employ, or too unhealthy to love. But I am not alone in this struggle, am I? I may be disabled, but you don’t have to be disabled in this cruel world to be told that you just aren’t good enough. So, do you understand why what happened on the first Christmas is such a holy miracle? God became flesh in order to tell us that despite what the world tells us, despite what we see in the mirror every morning, we are highly favored children of God. How, can that be anything but a holy miracle?
Christmas is about the miracle of birth of Christ, the moment that God became flesh. But the true holy miracle of Christmas is the reason why God became flesh. God became flesh because he wants each and everyone of us to know that we are highly favored children of God. Given the fact, that we are all sinful human beings, I can’t think of a bigger miracle than God calling us his highly favored children. In a few moments we are going to participate in Holy Communion. I pray that as you take the bread that is the Body of Christ, and the cup that is the blood of Christ you will do so as highly favored children of God, and then as we sing Silent Night, Holy Night to close our service I pray and hope you will allow the holy miracle of Christmas to begin to sink into every fiber of your being so that when you leave here you do so with the confidence of knowing the no matter what you encounter when you leave this place, you can get up tomorrow and everyday of the rest of your life, look at yourself in the mirror, and declare with the company of God’s great angels that you are highly favored by the one true God of the universe. Amen and Merry Christmas.
