+ Christmas Midnight Mass – December 24th,
2014 +
Redeemer
Lutheran, HB
Isaiah
9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
There you are sitting in driver’s seat. A cramp in one leg.
The other leg asleep. Disney’s Frozen
soundtrack has been playing non-stop for the last 725 miles. At any moment
someone’s bladder will remind them it’s been twenty three and a half minutes
since the last rest stop. Everyone’s tired and hungry. When the single most
quoted sentence in all of travel history is blurted out.
“Dada…Are we there yet?”
Our Advent waiting, preparing, and longing is a little like
that, isn’t it. O Come thou Key of David,
come…and open wide our heavenly home. Are we there yet? Is it is Christmas?
Count the candles: 1 -2 – 3- 4; purple, purple, pink, purple…and tonight…white
at last. The fast is over. Let the feast begin.
Don’t you think Mary was thinking the same thing as she was
traveling pregnant on that luxury donkey? Joseph, are we there yet?
You see this in the holiday movies too. The agonizing journey
home, where everything that could go wrong does, and everything: traffic,
weather, mechanical failures, gets in the way of a smooth trip, like Steve
Martin in Planes, trains, and automobiles
or Kevin’s mom racing home to New York in Home
Alone. Even the radio blares it into our ears: there’s no place like home
for the holidays. I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.
Are we there yet?
Well, wake up, you sleepy heads. This is no dream. St. Luke
places Jesus’ birth right up there in the halls of history next to Caesar
Augustus. And it came to pass in those
days.
Christmas
is finally here.
You can just imagine the relief. Bethlehem on the horizon. Candlelit
windows. Finally some rest. At last they had made it to Bethlehem, David’s home.
And so it was, that, while
they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
Rejoice
for this little child was born in darkness and in his gentle, fragile infant
flesh we see Light of light, very God of very God. Rejoice, for we who dwell in
the land of the shadow of death Jesus’ birth shines forth with uncreated light.
Rejoice,
for tonight… Jesus makes his home with us at Christmas to bring
us home with him.
She brought forth her
firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger;
because there was no room for them in the inn.
Note well that though Jesus is a greater King
than Caesar he is not born in the gilded, marble hewn Imperial palace in Rome
or a picturesque seaside villa overlooking the Mediterranean. They laid him in a manger.
For all of us city-slickers, that’s a feeding
trough. You can just imagine the look on the donkey’s face when he stares into
his food dish only to discover a baby…and no ordinary baby at that…his Creator.
The beasts of the field bow their heads and worship as the angels before the
Creator clothed in humanity.
Jesus is born as you were. Born of a woman. Born
under the Law to redeem us from the law. Born as we are: a son of man, to make
us as he is: a son of the Father. Born homeless to bring us home.
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus is born homeless for us who wander in sinful exile. Many
long years we’ve wandered in the desert wasteland east of Eden. At times God
has tested us. Other times the devil has tempted us. We’ve lost loved ones
along the way. We’ve wrestled with sin. We’ve lost our way. Our sin which
promised such pleasure, leaves only guilt and despair in us. We have not become
gods like the devil promised. We’ve become orphans. Death hounds us at every
turn. And we’re far from home. But all of that ends tonight. Your wandering is
over.
Jesus
makes his home with us at Christmas to bring us home with him.
Jesus is born in humility to bring you perfection in his life,
death, and resurrection. Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes so that you
would be freed from the snares of death. Jesus had no other place in the inn,
so that you might have a room in his heavenly mansion.
Your exile is over. The powers of hell flee before the little
child. Death shivers at Jesus’ birth. Jesus, the rightful King, comes to bring
you home from behind enemy lines. He is an infant warrior. Born to fight and
die for you. This little baby, though being rich, for your sakes became poor,
so that by his poverty you might be rich. He will be wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in a virgin tomb. Jesus made his home in our flesh, to die for
you, to make his bed in our grave, and to raise our flesh in his resurrection.
In exchange for our lawlessness of sin Jesus bestows safety
and security in his heavenly kingdom. In place of our loneliness and despair, Jesus
gives us joy in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the life
everlasting. In place of our deathly exile, Jesus gives us a heavenly home.
Jesus makes his home with sinners…to bring you home with him. For unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
The angels announce the message of salvation, not to the top
of the social-political ladder, not in the halls of Caesar…but to lowly
shepherds, with dirt under their finger nails, sheep manure covering their
garments, and sinful hearts just like ours.
Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Peace isn’t a feeling. Peace is a person: Jesus born for you. Born
that man no more may die. Jesus is born to make makes his home with us at
Christmas to bring us home with him. Death’s silence is broken by the shouts of
good news and great joy. Sin’s darkness is dispelled by the Light of the world
in a manger. The infant Son leads you back to your heavenly Father.
Welcome home for the holy days. We’re here at last. Christmas
has arrived. And once again, Jesus makes his home with us, and in a magnificent
feast. The host you receive is Jesus’ house of bread. His body born for you is now
present to forgive you. This cup you drink, it is true communion with his
blood, shed for your forgiveness.
The Promised Land is in view. Bethlehem is on the horizon.
Christ is born for you. Welcome home.
A blessed Christmas to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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