+ December 24th, 2024 – Christmas Eve: Service of Lessons and Carols +
Genesis 3:8-15; 17-19; Genesis 22:15-19; Isaiah 9:2-7; Isaiah 11:1-9; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:1-20; Matthew 2:1-12; John 1:1-14
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Have you ever noticed how many of the classic Christmas movies – old and new - feature some kind of journey or a quest? Clark W. Griswold takes his family out to find the perfect Christmas tree in their 4-wheeled, Ford Taurus sleigh. Buddy the Elf leaves the north pole, heads into the candy cane forest, over the sea of swirly twirly gumdrops and finally through the Lincoln tunnel to arrive in New York City. And of course there’s Ralphie’s famous quest for his Christmas dream of a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle.
Now, as goofy and silly as these family favorites are, they reveal a rather important truth about Christmas. The story of Christmas is the story of a quest and a journey. Not our journey to find the perfect tree or perfect gift, not even our quest to find God, but rather God’s journey into his creation to find you. Christmas is the story of God’s journey to save you in Jesus.
That’s the story we’ve been hearing in the Scriptures and singing about tonight – the greatest quest and the most miraculous journey of all: Christ is born for you. From cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation, the story the Scriptures tell us time and time again is the story of God’s Christmas quest to rescue and deliver you in Jesus: born for you.
God’s Christmas quest to save you begins (at least from our point of view) back in the beginning. In Genesis. In Eden, where God gave Adam and Eve a whole garden full of trees covered in edible ornaments. God gave them gifts on and under every tree except for one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And yet, Satan in the form of a serpent is on a quest of his own. Like the Grinch trying to steal Christmas from Whoville, Satan slithers into Eden hell-bent on sabotage and corruption of God’s good creation. With crafty words and empty promises, he deceives, tempts, and leads Adam and Eve astray in sin. Setting them and all creation on a death march to the grave. God’s good creation was now full of curse and sin and shame and guilt and exile out of Eden. And yet God did not let Adam and Eve wander aimless in the wilderness or sojourn alone as vagabonds. He clothed them and gave them a word to hold onto. A promise of a Christmas quest to come. One day there will come a child. Born of a woman. And his quest will be to crush the serpent once and for all.
In Genesis 22, God’s Christmas quest continues. Abraham and Isaac journey to the mountain God chose and told Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son whom he loves. Abraham doesn’t know the details of God’s itinerary of him and Isaac on Mt. Moriah, but he knows and trusts this: despite what he sees and what he’s tasked to do, he believes that YHWH will raise Isaac from the dead. “The Lord will provide the sacrifice, my son.” And he does, only not on this mountain of Moriah, but on another mountain of Calvary. There, the Son of God in the flesh will make a journey of his own and the Father will provide his Son, his only Son whom he loves, as the sacrifice promised to Abraham, Isaac, and to you.
Down through the pages of Scripture and the ages of history, God’s Christmas quest continues. Through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Through Israel’s journey down to Egypt and out again 400 years later. Through the exodus. The Red Sea. The wilderness wandering. Into the promised land. The time of judges and kings and division and exile and return.
All the while, God sends his prophets, like Isaiah, to lead his wayward sheep back onto the path of his ways and his word. God gives hope and comfort to those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death. Once again, God sends his people in and out of exile but not without a promise. A word of good news.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
God’s Christmas quest continues in the most unexpected of ways. God promises to send his light into the darkness in the form of a little child. For unto us a child is born and unto us a Son – God’s Son – is given. Through all of their sinful wanderings and failings and fallings, from all their walking in their own ways – and we’re no different – God sends one to lead us out of darkness and death into light and life. The One Isaiah calls the Shoot from the stump of Jesse and the Branch of Jesse’s roots. Who will lead God’s people on such a great journey of salvation from death to life? From the grave to resurrection? A little child shall lead them.
A little child shall lead them. Lead us where? First to Nazareth. To the Virgin Mary to whom the angel Gabriel journeys to tell her that her womb will be the place where God’s Christmas quest finds its stage of God’s great sojourn of salvation. behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
From Nazareth, Mary journeys to Judah to visit Elizabeth, and eventually she travels with Joseph to Bethlehem. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger.
God who sent his angels to guard the way back into Eden now sends his angels on another holy journey. To lowly shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. A Christmas quest full of good news: Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And the shepherds, well, they’re sent on a Christmas quest as well. To Bethlehem. To find the baby foretold by God in Genesis. The beloved Son of God Abraham believed in and the sacrifice provided by the Father to spare Isaac. To find the child who’s David’s son and David’s Lord. To meet their Good Shepherd, and ours, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
There is no greater journey than this. No greater quest than Christmas when God becomes man to save man. That’s the joyous, mysterious good news we’ve been singing and hearing tonight. The birth of Jesus brings God down to man so that in the cross and death of Jesus, man is brought back to God.
If the Scriptures were an atlas, all journeys, all the wanderings and exiles, all of God’s words and all his promises, lead to the joyous good news of God’s greatest journey of all: Jesus birth for you, Jesus’ death for you, Jesus’ rest in the tomb for you, Jesus rising again on the third day with new life for you. In the Scriptures all roads lead to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, to the manger and to the cross, to Jesus born for you and Jesus crucified and risen for you. All of history, the patriarchs, kings, and prophets – it’s all been leading us down the road to the place and time where God fulfills his Christmas quest, here in the manger, and on ahead to the cross.
So tonight, we sing with shouts of victory for this infant boy has come to crush the serpent under his feet forever.
Tonight, we rejoice with Abraham and Isaac that God has not withheld his Son, his only Son to be our sacrifice. Our Savior. And the one who sojourns with us all our days.
Tonight, we join Isaiah’s hymn of praise for unto us this Christ child is born, and his resting place in the manger and on the cross is glorious for you.
Tonight we journey with the angels and the shepherds and the magi, and all the faithful to that little town of Bethlehem bursting forth in joy: Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Glory to God in the highest, who makes his bed in the lowest place for me and for you and for all.
For tonight, we celebrate the good news of God’s Christmas quest to save you in Jesus born for you.
A blessed Christmas Eve to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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