Love is Born Anew: Sermon Luke 2:1:20

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Well the time has just about arrived. I hope that you have all your presents bought wrapped and put underneath the tree. If not, I think Wal-Mart will still be open for a little while longer. I can remember when I was a kid, just bouncing with excitement for Christmas, I was primed and ready to rip and shred the wrapping paper in order to see what was inside. As, I have grown older I have learned that one of the true joys in this season is no in receiving gifts but in giving them. There is nothing like the reaction of a loved one to a gift that has been thoughtfully picked out. That also seems to be one of the hardest things to do also. I don’t know about you, but my family and friends always seem to be hard to shop for. I always have a hard time picking out something. You always want to give something that the other person will use and every time they do use it you want them to think about you.

We have spent a lot of time in the last few months talking about gifts. We spoke about how the kingdom of God is a gift, a gift that must be received as a child and used in our lives. So this Christmas Eve Day we remember and celebrate the gift the God gave to all of humanity, Jesus. The gift of Christ is most perfect act of love that is ever been done. Jesus is the ultimate demonstration of the love of God. Jesus is born as the embodiment of God’s love. Every aspect of the birth, life, and death of Christ shows God’s love for humanity. Each aspect in the story of the birth of Jesus demonstrates

Last week, we talked about Mary and Joseph, two people whose lives were forever changed when God happened. God could have chosen someone else to bear his son, he could have chosen royalty or someone wealthy, but instead he chose Mary. Why? If Jesus had been born of a queen whose house was filled with wealth then what would that mean for us? If Jesus had been raised in the midst of wealth then he would not have had the love for the poor. By Jesus being born of a peasant girl God demonstrates that the love of God is not only for the rich and powerful but also for the poor and meek. God does not just work in the lives of the wealthy, but can change the life of all people. God’s plan is not just for a chosen of select few, but for all of us no matter how young or old, rich or poor we are. God’s love and God’s will is for all God’s people.

Let’s turn to the location of Christ’s birth. Christ was born in a stable, which in those days probably consisted of a cave hewn into the rock. Now some of us here are familiar with barns and with livestock and we know that sometimes the places that livestock live and sleep are not the most pleasant of places. There would have been hay and straw strewn about and also the by products of the livestock eating the hay if you know what I mean. This was the place for the birth of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, one of the most humble places possible. But why? We sing about that place of Jesus’ birth and we have our Nativity scenes that depict it, but have you ever given thought as to the reason why? I mean God could have provided a better or grander place for the birth of his Son, so there must have been a reason why? I believe it is a continued demonstration of God’s love for us. Jesus never shied away from the lowest members of society. Jesus got right in there with them, he touched the leper, he spoke with the gentiles, and he ate with sinners and tax collectors. Jesus was always willing to get down on the level of the poor and homeless. He himself was born not in a house but in a stable and spent much of his ministry without a roof over his head. How many times have our lives ended up in the muck and the mire? How many times have we put ourselves in the lowest of positions? Just has God allowed his son to be born in a stable filled with livestock and just has Jesus was placed in a feeding trough for those animals, God’s love will meet us no matter how where we are and no matter how far we have fallen. If Jesus had been born in a palace then the poor would feel left out. However, Jesus said several times that he had come especially for the poor and downtrodden. Most of his messages were about the poor and so it is fitting that Jesus would be born in the lowliest of places. Jesus was born away in a manger to show the world that God’s love knows no boundaries and is willing to meet us wherever we find ourselves whether we are rich or poor.

Jesus was born in a time of oppression. The place we know was Israel had been conquered and made into a vassal for the Roman Empire. Luke 2 begins by saying the Emperor Augustus had ordered a decree that all people should be registered in a census and that all people would have to return to their places of birth. Now there was only one reason why the emperor would have wanted this and that would be to enact more taxes on the people. The Roman Empire allowed the Jews to keep their religion, as long as the taxes were not late. The time that Jesus was born was one of great tension what little freedoms the Jewish people enjoyed only hung by a thread.

Most of us just assume that the decree was made to place Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem so that the prophecy of Jesus’ birth would be fulfilled. However, I think there might be more than meets the eye. Jesus was born when and where he was in order to fulfill God’s plan. This plan was not just for God’s Son to be born, but also to die at the hands of these Roman oppressors. This shows two things, 1) God can work in spite oppression. There are so many people in the world today that live in fear for there lives. They live in fear because they are Christians and to proclaim Jesus as the Christ is punished by death, but God still works there. We live with religious freedom in this country. We have the freedom to go to any church, synagogue, mosque, or temple we want to and we have the freedom not to go. In that sense we are free, but we still live with oppression. We sometimes become oppressed by our own lives. We have health problems that cause medical bills to pile up. Our mortgages and car payments come due and sometimes past due. We work and work and never seem to get ahead. But despite of all the hardships we face and in spite of pressures of life that seem to crush us, God still reigns and God’s love is still there. God’s love is more powerful than the oppression of the Roman Empire and God’s love remains more powerful than anything we might face.

In those days the birth of a king was something to be heralded in all the land. Who does God chose to announce the birth of his Son? “In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.” God chooses shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. Shepherds were among the poorest of the poor. They were surrounded by animals all day and so they didn’t particularly smell good. They did not dress well and were not highly educated, but still God chose them. Why? We have said it before, the life and ministry of Jesus was about giving good news to the poor and so who better to announce his birth than the poor shepherds. Also, it is fitting because Jesus will become the Good Shepherd for all people and will reunite God’s flock. The shepherds were given the task of not only proclaiming news, but the greatest news ever proclaimed. The poor proclaimed the birth of the greatest advocate of the poor who ever lived. God’s love is the good news that was proclaimed that night 2,000 years ago. God loved us so much that he became one of us so that God could experience all the pain and hardships that we face so God could understand what it meant to be human. Jesus was born so that through his life, ministry, death, and resurrection all of humanity can be reconciled back to God. This is the good news of Christmas and this is the reason we gather here this morning.

Each aspect of the story of the Christmas birth demonstrates God’s love for all of us. It shows that God works in all our lives no matter what situation we find ourselves and that God works in spite of the oppression in our lives. God’s love is fully embodied in the person of Christ and this Christmas let us celebrate this love born anew.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.