Christmas Eve 2018

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: Luke 2:11
Theme: Fulltime Saviour


Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

Christmas can be frenetic for the average person. The expectations of family, friends and society can become too much. The quiet stillness the Prince of Peace brings is sacrificed. Yet, Christmas also lends itself to escapism. Christmas has the power of arresting the turbulence of life, of holding it in suspended animation. It enables people to temporarily push aside many of the pressing headaches, the heartaches, and the anxieties that dominate our attention so regularly. The resolution or collapse of other things can wait a little bit longer…if we can just pause to enjoy the season.

And yet the desire of God’s Son is not that we pause for a moment to peer reverently into the manger. He seeks to enter right into the turbulence of your life and accompany you over the peaks and through the valleys. He didn’t come to provide a brief distraction from the daily grind. He didn’t come so we could add another public holiday onto the annual calendar. He came to bear sin and conquer death. He came to journey with us all the way to the grave and beyond. So, Christmas is not really an opportunity to escape per se. It’s an opportunity to embrace the presence of God in human flesh. "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel (which means, God with us).”1

Our society is moving away from objective truth in preference to validation of the experience of the individual. The implications are far-reaching. Therefore, the historical grounding of the Christmas narrative is important. The modern tendency is to ask, “What does Christmas mean to you?” And then to answer that with any number of subjective responses. They may focus on the gathering of family, of activity and indulgence, of tightly held traditions, both religious and secular. None of these are necessarily wrong in and of themselves. But they may be incomplete. They may be skewed. They may be naive.

The intention of the angels, of the shepherds, of the evangelist is not to communicate what Christmas might mean for individuals, but what it does mean for all humanity. Our personal views, ideas, and tendencies must be filtered through the prism of truth. We can’t see clearly until we see through the lens of faith. The Child lying meek and mild is strong and mighty. The Child in the manger is our flesh and blood. The Scripture says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.”2
The manger is filled with gentleness, but it is also filled with strength. It is hallowed with purity but is not an ivory tower for an aloof Lord. The Child of holiness will immerse Himself into the filth of sinfulness. Bethlehem is His portal to the fallen world. A cross will soon cast a shadow over the manger.

Dear friends, the meaning, the message, and the truth of the nativity gospel is that God came to stay, He’s playing for keeps. So, if you have a God that’s only present in your happiness you only have a “fractional” God, a part-time deity. He may or may not get passing or partial credit for your prosperity. Other times you take credit for your own success or call it good fortune. God is then left sitting in the background. The Holy Spirit calls us to repent of such ideas because a part-time deity is really no God at all.

And if You only have a God who’s present in your joy, you only have a half-time God. He’s conveniently absent in the difficult times. The Scriptures tell you that you have a God who is present in your darkness. He is present in your mountain peaks of joy and in your deep valleys of sorrow. He is present in your struggles and failure, there in our deep disappointments. He is the only one that can truly understand grief. This God, your God, the Child of Bethlehem and Redeemer of Calvary: The Wonderful Counsellor and Prince of Peace3 is 24/7 all in, all of the time.

It was a difficult Christmas in the year 1524 for one particular family. Katie and Martin Luther’s daughter, Magdalena had died in September of that year. She was the tender age of thirteen. The grief was palpable. Yet, the Luther’s had the quiet, firm confidence that Child born in the manger would raise their daughter from the sleep of death. They would see her again because the Boy of Bethlehem is also the resurrection and the life4. Hope is never lost when it’s placed rightly.

Maybe this is your most difficult Christmas? Maybe it is your most relaxed, your most lavish, or your most peaceful? Maybe it is none of the above, just an average Christmas for you and your family? If your heart is filled with anxiety hear the word of the angel, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”5 If you are skeptical about God’s presence hear the ancient word of the prophet long since fulfilled in Bethlehem, “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”6 May the newborn ChristChild fill your hearts with joy, your minds with peace and your lives with love. Amen.







+ In nomine Jesu +

The Nativity of our Lord
Christmas Eve
24 December 2018
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 Matthew 1:23
2 Hebrews 2:14
3 See Isaiah 9:6
4 John 11:25
5 Luke 2:10-11
6 Psalm 46-5, 7