This is my favorite moment of the entire Christmas celebration, because in this moment there is nothing for us to do but to be still. I’m not sure what your day was like today, maybe you worked all day and rushed to get here, maybe you have been madly getting the house ready for company or cooking all day for family. Maybe you have been finishing up your Christmas shopping or wrapping all those Christmas gifts. Maybe you’ve been stressed out because you bought too much or think you bought too little. I know many of you have spent the last 2 days here at the church getting ready to serve and deliver hundreds of meals tomorrow at the Christmas dinner. It doesn’t matter what we have been doing or how busy we have been, and it doesn’t matter how much we still have to do tonight or tomorrow, in this moment there is nothing to do but to be still. So take a deep breath and enjoy this moment because it may not last. For many people tomorrow will bring a whirlwind of activity and the days to come will bring travel, family and friends, so enjoy this moment, this silent night, because in the stillness of this holy night – we can experience the grace and the love of God.
That’s what happened on the night that Jesus was born, the message of Christ’s birth was not announced in the overcrowded city of Bethlehem, it was proclaimed on the quiet hillsides of Judea. I’ve often wondered how a heavenly host of angels wasn’t noticed by more than just a few shepherds and I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone else was just too busy, no one else was quiet enough to hear the message and the song of the angels. I wonder sometimes if the heavenly hosts of angels are still proclaiming that Christ has come and we don’t hear that message or notice the glory of the heavenly host because we are too busy and we aren’t willing to be still and quiet.
We can’t let this night go buy without hearing what the angels said and taking it to heart, because their message can change our lives. Listen again, be still and hear the message of the angels, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. What the angels are saying is that there is a hero who has come to save us and that hero is God himself who enters into our world as a tiny infant child, and God comes to save us, to forgive us and to bring us into an eternal relationship with Him. While some heroes may serve and save those around them out of a sense of duty or an obligation to do the right thing, God is motivated out of love.
In John 3:16 it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. In Romans 5:8 it says God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. But before that, God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ was born for us. You see God didn’t wait for the world to get its act together before he came, God didn’t wait for people to start living holy and righteous lives before he entered into the world, God came in the midst of the darkness and God still comes to us in the midst of our darkness. Whether it is the darkness of our doubt or fear or sin – God comes to us tonight. Maybe it’s just the darkness of having lived a long time away from God and from God’s will and God’s presence and God’s purpose for our lives. If that’s where we are, it doesn’t matter, God still comes to us. There’s a hero who has came to save us Can we hear that message of the angels, unto us is born this night, a Savior. God isn’t waiting for us to get it all together or to clean up our act, God is right here right now to love us and in his love he save us.
God comes to us in the person of Jesus to be our Savior. Jesus is the hero who comes to save us from our sin, and he didn’t do that by being laid onto the wooden slats of a manger the night he was born, Jesus saves us from sin when he is willing to stretch out his arms onto the wooden beams of a cross. We can never forget that the child who was born that night in Bethlehem grew up and was willing to take our sin onto his cross. We can’t look at the simple beauty of the manger without also seeing the simple beauty of the cross because it was on the cross that Jesus saved us by paying the penalty for our sin and it was three days later at an empty tomb when Jesus rose from the grave that offered us forgiveness and a new life, not just an eternal life in heaven, but a new life that can be lived right here and now. God wants us to live a life in this world that is filled with his presence and love and power and we do this when we reach out and allow God’s love and grace into our hearts and lives. We experience the fullness and abundance of God’s presence and love when we live in a relationship with God and it’s that relationship that Jesus came to establish and we know this is what God wants because when God entered into the world on that silent night in Bethlehem it was as a child.
Look at the last part of the angel’s message, and this will be a sign unto you, you shall find a babe wrapped in strips of clothes and lying in a manger. Of all the ways that God could have enter into this world as a savior, God chose to come as a baby. Think about that, the very first time God reached out and physically touched the world he created - God was reaching out of a manger with a tiny little hand. Have you ever had an infant hold on to your finger? Most of you probably have, either a child or grandchild, maybe a niece or nephew. You place your finger in the infants hand and what does it do, it slowly closes its fingers around yours. It’s a strong grip and in that moment we know that the child is totally dependent upon us. It needs us for life, love and protection. Everything they need in life they need from us. Everything God needed as an infant he needed from Mary and Joseph. He needed them for food and protection. God needed them for love and nurturing. He needed them to clean dirty diapers or swaddling clothes. It amazes me that the God of creation allowed himself to be that vulnerable, but God did it for a reason, God came as an infant because God wanted a relationship with us. God not only wanted to hold us – God wanted us to hold him. God not only wanted to talk with us, God wanted us to talk with him. God wants a relationship with us.
Tonight God wants us to hold him in our hearts and lives and God wants us to talk with him. God wants us to share with him our hopes and fears. God wants us to share with him our joys and our sorrows, our dreams and our disappointments. God wants us to reach out to him so that he can reach out and take hold of us. You see when a child grabs hold of your finger, they’re not just looking for strength and love – they are giving strength and love. Every time a child grabs hold or our fingers or holds tight to our hands, don’t we feel loved? As we allow God’s gentle yet strong fingers to wrap around our hearts and lives we know that we are loved and we know that it’s God’s touch that can heal us and God’s love that can change us. It’s a love that saves us. God came as a child because God wants to build a relationship with us, a relationship where the love that is offered can make us whole, but that relationship won’t be forced on us by God. God doesn’t grip us with an iron first or crush from the outside. God reaches out with an infant’s hand and allows his love to change us from the inside. God’s love can change us if we will allow God’s love to hold. God’s love can save us if we will open our hearts to God’s touch and our lives to God’s presence.
God came in the person of Jesus to be the hero who not only saves the world, but saves each and every one of us. And Jesus saves us by forgiving us of our sin and by reaching out in love to be a part of our lives. God still invites us to enter into a relationship with him, the message of the angels still rings out over all the earth, can we be still and silent enough to hear it? Will we open our hearts and lives and receive it? I invite you, as the angels did over 2000 years ago, to enter into a relationship with God through the savior Jesus Christ. The ultimate hero is Jesus and he has come to save us, so I invite you to reach out and take hold of the hand that extends to us from the manger. I invite you to allow the touch and the love of God that comes to us through Jesus to forgive you and bring you new life.
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