December 24, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Luke 2:1-20
A Savior Then and Now
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Once again, we join the host of other Christians throughout the world. We celebrate the nativity of our Lord Jesus. Our adoration this evening is more than just marking an event that happened over 2000 years ago. It’s not just some dusty relic we bring up from the church basement every year.
It’s a living event. It continues to be as significant for us today as it was for the shepherds who first beheld a baby in swaddling clothes, lying in the sweet hay. It occurred long ago, but Jesus’ birth reaches across the span of time to touch our lives today.
Jesus was born and lived as a human being those many generations ago. But Christ our Lord is more than someone who simply lived and breathed all those centuries ago. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He continues to come to us. He still abides with us today.
First, let’s reflect on Jesus’ birth in the flesh. It was an earthly event which happened at a specific place and time. We mark this night because Jesus’ incarnation reveals the lengths God’s love will go to reach us, to redeem us. God the Son became the Son of Man.
As God the Son, Jesus is eternal. He reigned in heaven, he dwelt in the eternal, he was surrounded by divine harmony. But love compelled him to leave it all behind. For though he dwelt in perfect harmony, we did not. He looked upon humanity and saw our brokenness. He felt our sorrow and strife. And how can the eternal divine ring in harmony when the realm of earth cries with jagged dissonance? The object of divine love was in need of healing!
And so he came to abide with us. Equality with God was not something to be clung to. So he poured himself out, he became as one of us. The perfect eternal became vulnerable and mortal.
On that night among the hills of Bethlehem, he was born in a crude stable. He entered this world displaced and homeless and defenseless.
He could have been born in an ornate palace. He could have lived a privileged, gilded life. He could have been born with celebrity, renowned by all. He could have come among us with all the power and influence of our earthly, political leaders. But he didn’t come that way.
We celebrate Christmas because it shows us the lengths Jesus took to come to us. This night was the beginning of the measurement of his love. How far will he come to abide with us? To a stable, through the wilderness of temptation, among the haunts of the godforsaken – the lepers, the demon possessed, the shunned. He faced betrayal with a kiss, he carried his own cross to the execution grounds on the outskirts of Jerusalem, he was laid into a borrowed grave, and at last, he journeyed even to the depths of hell. His earthly, flesh and blood life reveals just how far he’ll go. And it all began with his birth.
And so tonight we lift up and celebrate the history of what happened in Bethlehem on that silent night.
But our celebration of Christmas doesn’t stop with the historical birth of Jesus. This one who was born in the flesh so very long ago didn’t just live and die and rise from the dead and ascend into heaven 2000 years ago. Our savior is not hemmed in by the boundaries of time and place. The eternal Son of God stepped into our human history on that Bethlehem night long ago. And so we know that his divine presence continues to come, he dwells with us yet today. Jesus still draws near into our present moment. He makes his presence known now.
He showed us then just how far his reach will go. And so we know that as he continues to come across the span of time and place, there is no place so remote, so without hope, where he will not enter in today.
The Psalmist testified:
Where can I go from your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I settle at the farthest limits,
even there your hand shall lead me.
I come to the very end, and I am still with you.
On this holy night, we celebrate the Christ child who came long ago. But we also rejoice that he still comes and abides with us. His eternal presence is with us now, no matter how lost or despairing we may be. He has shown us the lengths he will go to come to us. And he comes to us still. He brings with him the promise of his regeneration, his warm embrace, his unquenchable light. Still, our Savior comes. O, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel!
