+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Luke 2:10-11
Theme: God’s Interest In People
Dear worshippers of the holy Infant,
God is interested in people. Maybe that statement is so obvious to you that you’d classify it as a ‘no-brainer’. Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, creation, redemption, forgiveness, grace, all happen because God is interested in people. Yet, if we’re both honest and observant, we recognize that the pervasive power of sin causes people- people here right now, even people who come to the Lord’s house week in and week out- to doubt and even despair over God’s interest in people. The traumas, tragedies, failures and griefs of life shoot arrows of doubt at us with such velocity that even those with the strongest spiritual armor still feel the impact- even when those arrows fall harmlessly to the ground. God is interested in people and Christmas tells us He is so interested in people He became the Man who redeemed humanity. He became the Person who died for all persons. He became the Life-giver of all lives.
While God’s interests in you are genuine, there are others whose interests are more self-serving. The modern marketing of Christmas of relies on the propagation of sentimental feeling and magical sensation, along, of course, with greed. Rare indeed is the person who doesn’t like to be swept up into the enchanted atmosphere of a fairytale. The success of Disney validates this truth. Christmas is billed, commercially, as an opportunity to step outside of the grind of daily life into a world where everything is cheerful, magical, and…affordable. It is billed as a reprieve from the complications, complexities, and commitments of relationships and responsibilities. So, for many, the holiday season is an attempt to temporarily exchange reality for fantasy. But remember marketing is driven by the desire for revenue, not by realism, and the two need only coincide when the revenue cannot be obtained in any other way.
The real implications of Christmas are much more profound and durable than the fleeting merriment offered by carefree indulgence. In the true understanding of Christmas, the miraculous usurps the magical and actualization supersedes fantasy. The angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.”1 The embodiment of God’s love in the person of Jesus proves that He is not only interested in people, He is interested in sinners. The Child swaddled in peasant’s garb would, soon enough, be clothed in the guilt of transgressors. The sweetness of the nativity had to give way to the bitterness of the crucifixion.
And why did it have to be this way? Why couldn’t this infant Messiah have grown up, announced God’s favour, and then returned effortlessly back to heaven? Why? Because God is interested in real people who are real sinners. He is interested in you. Sin does not scare Him. How interested in sinners is He? He is interested in gossips. He is interested in idolaters. He is interested in fornicators. He is interested in liars. He is interested in worriers, cowards, cheats, and scoundrels… the list could go on endlessly. God is interested in failures; not because He wants in any way, shape, or form to encourage departure from the truth and transgression of His will. God abhors evil and will not suffer it. But He loves people profoundly and wants to redeem them.
Generally speaking, during Christmas people tend to be a little more thoughtful, patient, and forgiving than at other times. Maybe that legacy is one of the positive influences Christianity has had on the wider culture over the centuries? But people don’t cease to be sinners just because it’s Christmas. In fact, some relationships are damaged further by the hypocrisy that can accompany artificial merrymaking during the season. A veneer of politeness can be transparent even when we think it’s opaque. Selfish indulgence is inadvertently, but candidly, revealed at this time of year. Even the most diligent are tempted to rationalize excess in the ‘spirit of the season’.
The genuine excess of Christmas is the extravagance of God’s love. It’s hidden, of course, a splendid enigma. In a sanctuary for livestock the Prince of heaven takes up residency. He enters the human dimension through the womb of the Virgin and resides not in the temple but the barn. He commands the attention not of royalty but of commoners. Shepherds must revere Him first, bending the knee to look upon the Lamb who would take the sins of the world away. Fleet of foot and spirited in tongue they informed all whom they met.
While the shepherds advance, the angels retreat. Their retreat is a reverse parallel to the Saviour’s imminence. The angels are ever near but cloaked in heaven’s shadow. Christ is heaven’s light but remains cloaked in human flesh. When not audible to our ears the angels’ song is still ringing out through the heavenly dimension. The Infant’s murmuring is a prelude to the announcement that God’s kingdom has arrived.
The extravagance of God’s love is only partly veiled though. God is interested in people now, not just in the life to come. We hear it when the word of forgiveness sinks into the ear and heart of the penitent. We see it when baptismal water washes over the soul newly welcomed into God’s family. We taste it when believers take His body and blood onto their lips in Holy Communion. We grasp it by faith whenever we reflect on the historical events of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
God’s love is extravagant precisely because He is willing to lavish on sinners. And that means all people. His work is not provincial, but universal. He said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”2 The physical distance from Bethlehem to Calvary is short, nevertheless it spans the entire distance needed to atone for the world’s sins. Jesus died a short distance from where He was born, so that, believers, reborn in Him, could remain immeasurably distant from eternal death.
Christmas is about extravagance, the extravagant love of Christ. God is interested in people. He is interested in peasants, paupers, and, especially, penitents. His is interested in the high and the low and the in between. Don’t get too obsessed with all the temporary trappings of Christmas. Christmas means that God has a permanent interested in you. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +
The Nativity of our Lord
Christmas Eve
24 December 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Luke 2:10-11 2 John 12:32-33
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