+ Christmas Eve: Lessons and Carols – December 24th, 2022 +
Genesis 3:8-15; 17-19; Genesis 22:15-19; Isaiah 9:2-7; Isaiah 11:1-9; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:1-7; Luke 2:8-20; Matthew 2:1-12; John 1:1-14
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It’s a daily activity. Going to your mailbox. Unlocking it. Opening it. Peering inside, perhaps with a wince or a grimace, as you brace yourself for the bills and junk mail you know is waiting for you. And then, to your delight and surprise, you see a card-shaped envelope. A Christmas letter. Whether you open your cards artfully or swiftly, whether it’s an 8-page letter or a few kind words, there’s a simple joy that comes in receiving, and sending a Christmas letter.
Those little cards are a reminder that Christmas is a time for sending and receiving. Because it’s not about the letter so much as it is the love, care, of someone who took the time to send you that card.
Our Scripture readings this Christmas Eve reveal how true this is, only on a far bigger – even cosmic - scale. For if the simple sending and receiving of Christmas letters brings us joy, how much more then, how much greater of a joy it is, when God himself sends his own series of Christmas letters to you in his holy word.
Year after year after year, God sent us his own Christmas letters, revealing his gracious, loving heart; his care, mercy, and grace towards us. As we heard in this evening’s lessons and carols, this is what God has done throughout history ever since he sent us that very first Christmas letter in Genesis 3.
There, in the midst of God’s curses and condemnation of Adam and Eve’s sin; as his good and perfect creation lay in ruins, God sent his first Christmas letter. A letter of hope in the midst of sorrow, of promise in the midst of judgment, of life in the midst of death.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15).
That Offspring of the woman God spoke of would not be a son of Eve, but the Son of Mary, the Son of God, our Savior Jesus, come to rescue us from sin and death by his death for us.
Later on in the book of Genesis, God sent Abraham another Christmas letter. A promise. I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his[d]enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
In time, God sent a son to be a sacrifice. Not Abraham’s son, Isaac, but God’s Son, his only begotten Son, whom he loves, and in whom you are loved. In Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, every letter of God’s promise to Abraham and to you is kept.
Years later, God sent more Christmas letters through his sacred postmen, the holy prophets. Men like Isaiah, through whom the Lord spoke, declaring, 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. For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given.
Year after year, down through the prophets, the Lord continued to send his Christmas letters promising to send his righteous branch, the root of Jesse, Emmanuel, God with us. Until finally, the day arrived when God the Father did not send his Christmas letter through a prophet like Isaiah or John. This time, the Father sent his own Son; and the Word became made flesh, and dwelt among us.
That was the Christmas letter Gabriel delivered to the Virgin Mary. 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.”
It’s hard to imagine that, a kingdom without end. But Such is the Father’s love for you in Jesus. In Jesus, in his manger and on the cross, he has come to rule and reign for you. Jesus came to bring an end to our seemingly endless cycle of sin by his endless love revealed as he was born for you, lived for you, died for you. There in the womb of the Virgin Mary, in the manger, and later on the cross. In the Son of Mary, the Son of God, we see the heart of the Father’s love and grace revealed. From his manger and his cross, Jesus shines forth as the light of the world sent to swallow up the darkness forever.
There in Bethlehem, God sent his Christmas letter once again. To shepherds watching their flocks by night. To Mary and Joseph. But also to you and me and all. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And what a marvelous Christmas letter that is. The Author of life was born into his own story. The Almighty Lord of all creation became a humble, helpless creature for you.
Jesus is sent to take the punishment of every letter of God’s law that we had broken upon himself; we receive his perfect life lived on our behalf. Jesus is sent that he would inscribe into his outstretched hands a holy Christmas letter of God’s grace and mercy as he hung on the cross for you; we receive his promise, forgiveness, and grace. Jesus is sent that he would write your name forever in the Lamb’s book of life; and we receive the notice that all our sin has been blotted out, cancelled, and washed away. Oh tidings of comfort and joy!
Jesus stepped onto the pages of history, into our real pain, real sin and real death to die for you in real time and place. Jesus learned to crawl, walk, and talk in order to make his way from Bethlehem to Jerusalem where he would reveal the Father’s love for you. Not in that lowly manger, but on that humble cross, the Lord would post his greatest Christmas letter of all, the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to save and deliver you.
Christmas is about sending and receiving. God the Father sends Jesus by his grace. And by His grace, we receive him. And rejoice in him who is born to save us.
Tonight, rejoice and give thanks, for God has sent you the greatest Christmas letter of all: His only begotten Son, Jesus, born to save 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.
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