Bloghardt's Reflector

St. Luke 2:1-20 – Christmas Eve

Rev. George F. Borghardt III – St. Mark Lutheran Church, Conroe, TX

Merry Christmas! In the Name of Jesus. Amen. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room And heaven and nature sing.” (TLH 87)

He is come. That's the great news of Christmas! Emmanuel, God with us, whom we have prayed to come. The Long-Expected Jesus, has come. He has actually come – not to condemn us and destroy us but to reconcile God and sinners. God has come for us.

The chasm between God and men has been bridged – not by us building a tower up to God, but by God becoming one of us – right down to our flesh.

When children draw pictures, they usually draw God in the sky and themselves as little bitty stick people with big heads at the bottom of the page.

Not after Christmas! God has taken on the little bitty. He has come to earth. Talk about glad tidings of comfort and joy! God has come to the bottom of the page to be with us and one of us – and most importantly to save us!

The hymn says, “He is Alpha and Omega, He the Source, the Ending He...” (TLH 98, 1)

Yet, Mary holds Him. She holds Almighty God in her arms. He can't hold up His neck yet, she holds Him gentle. God can't. Wow. That's what God did to save us – He took on our flesh and it's can't's and redeemed them.

He has this stuff – body, soul, eyes, and ears. He even had that reflex that babies have to wrap their fingers around your finger.

What you do, He did. Right down to stinky diapers. And crying, sometimes no crying He makes, other times lots of crying He makes – especially when God had a bit of rumbly tummy. That's how iddy-bitty He was. That's how one of us, He is.

What a miracle! When God becomes flesh, things can be said of God that could never have been said before: God gets hungry. God eats. God drinks! He does that thing where the little ones walk around the edge of the couch. God toddles. God trips. God picks Himself up. God cries. God plays in his food. God is bathed, washed behind his ears. God falls asleep.

O ye heights of heaven, adore Him; Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him And extol our God and King. (TLH 98, 4)

Yet, He cooos! He laughs. You can tickle God and play peek-a-boo with Him. He gets cold. He sweats. He feels – all of your emotions, all of your cares and your fears.

And when Jesus grows up, you can betray God and turn Him over to evil men. You can beat God with your fists. You can slam Him to the ground. You can whip Him. You can make Him bleed.

Can God make a rock He can't pick up? What foolishness! When God becomes Man, we can beat on Him so much that He can't carry His own cross.

Then, on a hill, outside town where the sinners and the unclean hung out, at the bottom of the page, the Babe of Bethlehem, the Son of Mary, now all grown up, died. God died.

It took God being born to die to save us. That's what wins our peace with God. Yes, we can rock around the Christmas tree, because Christ was born to die for us on the Tree.

“No more let sins and sorrows grow Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found.”

And now that He is come there's no end to the joy! There's no end to the Jingle Belling Rocking. Rock on cause this isn't a story. It's not a myth. It actually happened.

There was actually a Joseph and Mary. Mary really was a Virgin. She conceived by the Holy Spirit, just like the angel Gabriel said.

Joseph, her betrothed husband, a righteous man who heard the angel in his dream to not fear what was going on with Mary and to name the child Jesus, because the Child will save His people – save us from our sins.

The couple really did take the long sixty mile plus trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem because there really was census. That's what Caesars and Kings do - they count people for the sake of taxing them.

Then, at just the right time. At the time we needed most. Mary gave birth to her first born son. God's Son is born, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem – to buy back us from under the Law, so that we might receive the inheritance as sons of God.

An angel, on the midnight clear, show up not for Caesar Augustus or Governor Quirinius. No, God avoids the big wigs. He but to Shepherds watching their fields by night.

“How silently, how silently, The wondrous Gift is given!”

You can't get any more bottom of page than shepherds! Lowly, despised, shepherds. Sinners. They are the first to hear about the Savior's birth.

And speaking of down to earth: An angel stood on the earth. Why not on the earth? That's where the Savior is now. If God is on the earth, the angels have no reason to hang around in the sky. The bottom of page is where God is reconciling sinners.

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:10-12 )

And if our Christmas joy couldn't be any more full, then an army of angels showed up and break forth into song.

We haven't stopped singing since...“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!

And for our salvation, the shepherds found the Baby where the angels told them. He was adorn not with fine jewels, but wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. She laid God, not on royal throne, not in a gold crib, but in a trough where animals feed.

It happened. It actually happened. More than anything else that surrounds other holidays – this one actually happened.

Mary, Joseph, Jesus, no room for them in the inn, Shepherds, Sheep, Angels, singing, it happened. And better than that – it happened to save you. All of this is “for you” and your salvation.

He comes to you tonight not wrapped in swaddling clothes, but wrapped in the Word. His Word calls you out of your sins, your darkness, your loneliness, to raise you from the dead, and bring you life.

And since Christmas literally “Christ's mass,” He comes to you morning, on the mass of Christ, in the Sacrament – wrapped in bread and wine.

He gives the gifts earned by his birth, obedience, suffering and death. That's His way. He gives on Christmas. You receive His presents: His Body and Blood given for us to eat and drink for the forgiveness of your down to earth, bottom of the page sins.

Savior of the nations, come, Virgin's Son, make here Thy home!
Marvel now, O heaven and earth, That the Lord chose such a birth.

Takes such a birth for you – to save you, me too. That's what Christmas is all about. That's what tonight is all about it.

God is come. No more sadness. He is come. No more sorrow. He is come. No more sins. He is come. No more sickness. He is come. No more death.  Merry Christmas! In the name of Jesus. Amen.