[Machine transcription]
But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children
of God.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
What a day.
The wait is over.
You made it.
You’re here.
In preparation for this day, I have pondered the readings that have been read before us,
and I thought to myself, and I’ve lifted prayer to the Lord in saying something like this,
what could I say to these that are faithful, who gather here in this place on this day
to celebrate one of the two most important days in the history of the world, and what it means for them.
They have attended Sundays during the Advent season, hearing about the days for which they
were to prepare and wait.
Many of them even doubled up by coming back on Wednesday nights during those same weeks.
They heard the Christmas story through the telling and the singing of St. Paul’s children
and youth at the annual old-fashioned Christmas pageant.
And then there was yesterday.
They were here in the morning to conclude the season of Advent, and once again coming
back in the evening to hear the good news about the birth of your Son, Jesus Christ,
in the little town of Bethlehem, surrounding in this place with the chorus of angelic voices
and the blend of heavenly music.
Now, and on top of all of that, between last night’s Christmas Eve service and this morning,
there were those family gatherings in their homes immersed in the joy of food, fellowship
in the opening of their Christmas presents.
And now this morning, they’re back sitting in these same pews on this Christmas day.
Not only that, they have gathered friends and family to join them.
And you, O Lord, have brought others to be among us.
O Lord, bless them all. Amen.
Dear Redeemed, you remind me of a story of an old member that was at my last parish,
Hope Lutheran Church in Winnie, in southeast Texas.
He would always tell this story. It was in the early 1950s when he was just a
little boy. His father was a farmer and rancher in the lands between the bayous
and their Lutheran Church was over 30 miles away near the Louisiana border.
Between the church and their house was an asphalt roads and then they would
turn to gravel roads and then they would turn to mud roads, those dirt roads. One
evening, one winter, as he was telling me this story, he said his father would use
a tractor to pull their car full of the family three miles through that mud to
the gravel road so that they could go to church. And then reverse that same
process that afternoon. This particular story he tells happened one of those
years when Christmas Eve was on Friday, Christmas Day was on Saturday, and the
Divine Service was on Sunday. When he pulled up to the farmhouse with his
family that afternoon after driving to town three days in a row to go to church
with the two boys in the backseat, the farmer turns to his wife and asked,
have you had enough yet? She simply said to him in a soft and calm voice, no. He
bowed his head, opened the door, exited the car, walked across the driveway, and
went into the house. With all that you could have done this morning, you’re here.
On this day, you celebrate the arrival of someone of whom the majority of the
people of this world do not see, do not know. The birth of a child who was
swaddled in a cloth, laid in a stone manger, an animal’s feet trough in a
little town called Bethlehem off a beaten path in a land far away over two
millenniums ago. The child that Mary knew was the Messiah promised of old by
God himself. For the angel Gabriel visited her in her hometown of Nazareth
proclaiming the good news that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son and
and she shall call His name Jesus.
And He will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give to Him
the throne of His father David,
and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
In His kingdom, there will be no end.”
And Mary’s response was,
how will this be?
I’m a virgin.
Gabriel answered her with,
the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you.
Therefore, the child to be born
will be called holy.
The Son of God.
As John writes in his Gospel
to the Christians scattered near and far,
he wanted them to be grounded
and he wanted them to be growing
as the Lord inspired him to write,
in the beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The little baby boy named Jesus is the Word who is eternal God in the flesh.
He is the Creator who entered His creation with a mission.
What exactly are we celebrating?
This is how I explained it to the students at the Texas School for the Deaf who walked
across the street to Jesus Lutheran Church last Wednesday. I showed them a
little three-inch by three-inch by three-inch container box that I had made
from paper. I was the maker and this thing is what I made. I was the creator
and it was my creation. Then I told them that I was going to climb into it where
So I proceeded to try to put my foot in it, and then I tried to put my chin in it, and
they reacted with,
You can’t.
You’re too big.
And then I drew a simple drawing of a house on a whiteboard, and I told them the same
thing, and their response echoed their first,
You can’t.
You’re too big.
It’s two-dimensional.
Then I told them that God
had created all things.
Things that we see
and the things that we do not see.
He made our world,
including everything in it,
on it, and around it.
And my question was,
can the all-powerful, all-present,
all-knowing God come into the world?
Can the Creator enter His creation?
Can the infinite enter the finite?
Using their reasoning, they said, no.
I said, yes.
And He did.
And I proceeded to tell them the Christmas story,
supported by the drawing on a whiteboard
showing no connection between Mary and Joseph,
but an arrow from God through the Holy Spirit to Mary,
and with another arrow pointing from Mary to Jesus’ name,
which was above the words that I wrote,
true man, true God.”
During the middle school session,
before the 7th grade girls and their staffer at that moment,
one of the girls’ eyes became wide,
and her mouth opened and she signed truly Jesus is God with the indicators
of a question but before I could pick up my hands and sign one of the other
students and the staffer turned to her and they signed yes Jesus is God Jesus
Jesus is the light that shines
into the darkness.
The angel in the brightness of God’s glory
appeared before the shepherds
who were tending their flocks by night,
saying, fear not.
For behold, I bring you good news
of great joy that will be for all people.
For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior
who is the Christ the Lord.
Lord, Jesus is God holy, who came to live among sinful people in a sin-filled world
where the devil is constantly prowling, engaging in proclamations and actions that are contradictive
to God’s revealed Word.
During the coming months of the church year, you will see Jesus continue to fulfill the
prophecy spoken of the Messiah of the Old Testament as He preaches, as He teaches,
as He performs miracles, along with other activities. During His public ministry
many will see and hear Him, but they will not know Him. Even though Jesus is the
true light, which gives light to everyone which is coming into the world, He was in
the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He
came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. For they were looking
for a king to sit upon a throne in Jerusalem, embellished in gold, with the
goal of throwing off and defeating their enemies and oppressors of Rome. Jesus’
Jesus’ focus was a throne on a cross
wearing a crown of thorns.
Instead of shedding the blood of others
through warfare,
He would give His own bloodshed on the cross
where He would pay the cost
for the sins of the world,
where He would defeat death and the devil.
Through faith in Him,
there is forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life.
This rescue from spiritual darkness and death,
the spiritual life and light is not possible through a person’s works,
but it is the free gift through His means of grace.
Salvation is not obtainable through one’s bloodline,
nor through one’s intellect, emotions, or merit,
nor through the desires of another. Matter of fact, it is impossible for any
person to become a child of God by their own subjective activities. The Apostle
Paul writes to the church in Galatia, but when the fullness of time had come, God
God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that we might receive the
adoption as children.
You know that the adoption of a child is initiated, planned, selected, and cost paid by at least
one adult, where the child is the object of His love and is the one that is brought into
His family.
through the power of God’s Word and the working of the Holy Spirit, God has
created faith in you to trust in the words in the works of Jesus for you. For
you. Thus God has adopted you as his children and showered upon you all his
as benefits and blessings as a member of His family.
So we echo the words of the Apostle Peter
as he confessed the faith before Jesus.
Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life,
and we have believed
and have come to know
that You are the Holy One of God.
So when you hear, when you hear the Word become flesh and dwelt among us, you know that Jesus, it is He, He is the Word, and you have seen His glory, the glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So, like the farmer’s wife, when someone asks you,
have you had enough?
You simply say in a soft, calm voice,
no.
For after tasting the sweetness of the gospel,
you only want more.
You only want more.
but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right
to become children of God. Amen. The peace which passes all understanding, keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
