Merry Christmas to you all. As I stand here this morning basking in the joy that is Christmas Day, I can’t help but to think of some of my favorite memories of Christmas. My childhood Christmas mornings have become like one giant memory, all connected to each other. It’s hard for me to think about any one Christmas without the happiness and the joy of all those Christmas mornings flooding into my memory. The immense happiness of my childhood memories of Christmas has been overshadowed. They have been overshadowed by the immeasurable joy I feel as I watch my three children open their presents from Santa. Today was a particularly special Christmas morning. Once all the presents under the tree were opened, Kate and I brought out three more special presents from us to the children. We like to be dramatic in our house, it makes for great memories! The first one to open their final gift was Martha, who received the largest remote-control car I have ever seen. She will use this car to drive her American girl dolls around the neighborhood. MJ and Michael opened their final presents to reveal matching red rider BB guns, just like the one Ralphie received in A Christmas Story! The old saying holds true, it is more blessed to give than to receive, and we can be sure that those words are true because they are attributed to Our Lord himself.[1]
Jesus models this saying to us in the incarnation. God shows us that for us to be able to receive him, he must first give himself to us, for us, as one of us. If I had to pick out three words to focus on when thinking about Christmas, they would be glory, joy, and peace.
Glory to God in the highest, Gloria in Excelsis Deo, that God saw fit to make his Very word, that through all things were made, take on the flesh of humanity. Glory to God that while the world was incapable of knowing God, of knowing the vast love God has for his creation, God himself came among us to sanctify our flesh by making humanity one with the divine. Giving glory to God is what we do in every type of prayer we make. There are obvious prayers, like prayers of adoration, that give glory to God. But All other prayer does too. When you make a prayer of confession to God, you give him glory, in the recognition that in that confession, you receive his total forgiveness. In prayers of intercession, you give God glory, in that only he knows and can give to each of us what we need for true everlasting life. The fact is that all prayer means we have our faces turned toward God, and anytime we do that, we are glorifying our creator and redeemer.
Joy. Joy to the world the Lord is come. It is our great joy to call Jesus Lord. It is our joy to serve the king of kings, as his legion of faithful witnesses whose job it is to proclaim the love of God. It brings us great joy to know that he is the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome the light! One of the amazing things about having had a career as a videographer and photographer is that knowing how to adjust the settings on a camera, it is never too dark to take a picture! No matter how dark a room is, if you make the right adjustments and hold still enough, there is always enough light in the room to expose the shot. The darkness cannot overcome the light. The lack of something can never hold power over the thing itself. The lack of faith in God that humanity sometimes displays never makes it so that God cannot act. We should take great joy in knowing that God is acting in our world and will continue to act, to bring all people to himself.
Peace. Jesus Christ is the prince of peace. “how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns.” What brings us peace? It is not money or possessions. It is not power or prestige. It is not even receiving presents on Christmas morning. It is knowing that through the power of the incarnation of God, those of us who receive Jesus become children of God. We become born again, born of God because the word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth. The peace we receive in knowing Jesus is that no matter what the circumstances are in our lives, Jesus has a place for us by his side. Today we remember that the creator of the entire universe was contained in a tiny infant boy for the salvation of all creation. Today we are at peace knowing that God knows every trouble we face and every pain we feel because of the incarnation.
Perhaps, all those Christmas memories that have bundled themselves up into the immense Christmas glory, joy, and peace we feel each Christmas, are also the inherent memory of that first Christmas morning. Perhaps, the reason Christmas is so loved and celebrated by those who are religious and by those who are not is that there is in each of us, in our very DNA, the memory of God dwelling with us in time and on this earth. I pray that memory is so ingrained in humanity that we can truly have the hope that one day the entire earth will rejoice that Jesus Christ is king.
[1]Acts 20:35
Sermon preached by the Rev. Christian M. Wood
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
Christmas Day
25 December 2020