+ Nativity of Our Lord, Christmas Midnight – December 24th, 2021 +
Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
At some point, some party, somewhere, we’ve sat down in a circle of chairs with family, friends, or coworkers. Pass left. Pass right. Draw a number. Pick a gift. Yankee swap. You know the drill. Some love it. Some loathe it. The annual white elephant gift exchange.
No matter which way you slice that fruitcake, though, there’s a glimpse of the true Christmas gift exchange in this famous, or infamous, Christmas tradition. Think about that one person who brings a top-shelf gift to a clean-out-your-closet gift exchange. You brought junk, but uncle Fred over there brought treasure.
That sounds an awful lot like Christmas. After all, Christmas is the true and wondrous story of the world’s greatest gift exchange ever. The Almighty Son of God becomes man, and is born for you. He who is the greatest becomes the least for you. He who is the Son of the Most High becomes lowly for you. He who is exalted is born, and lives, and dies in humility for you. He who is the Son of God is also the Son of Mary, born to save you. And in doing so, Jesus takes on our junk, our filthy rags, our sinful, broken mess of everything, and in exchange, give us the treasures of his grace, cloth us in his righteousness, and heal, forgive, rescue, and save.
Christmas is, what Martin Luther called, the true and beautiful story of the great reversal. “That is the mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ’s and the righteousness of Christ is ours. He has emptied Himself of His righteousness that He might clothe us with it, and fill us with it. He has taken our evils upon Himself that He might deliver us from them.”
Tonight Isaiah, St. Paul, and St. Luke gather us around the sacred Scripture to witness, receive, and rejoice in God’s great Christmas gift exchange. The precious Son of God is given as a ransom and sacrifice for us, that we too might be called children of God.
In Isaiah’s day, the children of Israel, revisit the golden calf gift exchange of the Exodus. They exchanged the words, ways, and covenant of YHWH for false teaching, false belief, and false gods around them. So they sat in deep darkness. In the shadow of death. A blanket of black. That’s how bad their spiritual condition was in Isaiah’s day. Are we any different, any better off? Not a chance.
So, YHWH sent his prophet Isaiah into the darkness of Israel’s sin, into the pitch black night of our sin, to proclaim and declare God’s gift exchange in Jesus, the coming Savior. A reversal was on the horizon for Israel, for you, and for all nations. 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. Hail redemption’s happy dawn. That light, the gospels tell us, has two legs, two hands, and a mouth that would cry out as an infant, that would out-rabbi the rabbis in the temple at age 12, that would teach his disciples, and finally cry out on the cross, “It is finished.”
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. Isaiah foretells a great Christmas exchange in the birth of Jesus. In Jesus’ birth, God has brought us out of darkness, into Christ our true Light. Out of the shadow of death and into resurrected light and life in Jesus. Out of the oppression of sin and the power of the devil, and into glory of Christ who is born for you, crucified for you, and risen for you.
Admittedly, this a lopsided, uneven, unfair exchange. We bring all our sinfulness. Our unholiness. Our pride, guilt, shame, and idols, and in exchange, our Lord gives us his perfect obedience. His holiness and humility. His honor and forgiveness. Even his very life to save you.
This is what St. Paul is writes to Titus and us. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
As he did in Isaiah’s day, so too, God sends his messenger Paul to preach to God’s 1st and the 21st century people. He preaches the great exchange. In exchange for our lawlessness, Jesus keeps the law perfectly for you. In exchange for our worldly desires and passions, Jesus’ passion is to save you; He desires and accomplishes your redemption. In exchange for our selfish, sinfulness, Jesus selflessly gives himself. He is made man. Born for you. Lives for you. Sacrifices himself for you.
A great Christmas gift exchange indeed! Luke invites us to receive and rejoice in the story of the world’s greatest gift exchange of all.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Jesus is born in humility, lowliness, and poverty that we, by his poverty, might be made rich in his grace, raised up by his mercy, and exalted by his birth and life and death for us. The crib and cross of Christ is our glory. Jesus’ birth and death is our victory. God credits all our guilt to Jesus on the cross. And God credits the righteousness and innocence of Jesus to you. Our sins aren’t even ours anymore. They all belong to Jesus. And all that Jesus has belongs to you.
Bethlehem and Jerusalem weren’t the last of Jesus’ great gift exchanges though. When you hear and read His word you are brought out of darkness into His marvelous light. You are his baptized child, clothed in his righteousness by water, word, and the Spirit. Kneeling here, as the shepherds once did before our Lord, you receive a profoundly gracious, and great exchange. Jesus’ body for your sinful body. Jesus’ blood to cleanse you from your sin.
Tonight, tomorrow, and forever, rejoice in God’s great Christmas gift exchange in Jesus, born for you.
A blessed and Merry Christmas to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment