A sermon for Christmas Eve
Rev. Kurt Hering
Layton, UT
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the
Lord. ... Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Luke 2:11, 19
Why are you here?
Nothing else to do on Christmas Eve?
Motor vehicle didn't get stuck in the snow?
My spouse/parent/child made me come?
Tradition - it just wouldn't feel like Christmas.?
To show your love for God.?
The truth of the matter is you are here because God wants you to know His
love for you in Christ.
God uses ordinary means - even those meant for evil - to accomplish His
will. His will is that all people might be saved, and that only through
faith in Christ Jesus - the son of the living God who put His glory aside to
be born of a virgin in manger, to suffer at the hands of those for whom He
came, and to die a shameful death on a cross-for YOU.
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; Proverbs 25:2 God has concealed
His glory and His love in a little baby in a manger and in the cross. But by
the power of His word it is here, in His church, even in His little
congregation at Trinity in Layton, that His glory and love are also
revealed.
1 Cor 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did
not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached
to save those who believe. (NIV)
Life's most precious treasure here in manger lies. Christ is born today!
Christ is born today!
Born today? No He was born 2000 years ago.
Yet He is born among us today, every time you hear the Word rightly preached
and receive the sacrament Christ is being born, carried among you so that
you may be born in Him. To be born means to be carried or brought into life.
Christ was brought into earthly life 2000 years ago but He has been life
from the beginning, indeed as true God, He has no beginning. John 1:1-4 In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without
him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was
the light of men. (NIV)
You are here today so that God may be born among you and you may be born
from death into life.
Rom 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for
the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the
Gentile. (NIV)
Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. (NIV)
Matt 26:27_28 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them,
saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which
is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (NIV)
Because it is by these things God has ordained that you are brought from
death into life, He has given us The Third Commandment
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise
preaching and His
Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
Not that by our doing so we make ourselves holy/worthy but because that is
how God comes to us and how HE makes us holy.
The person who comes to church is no better, no less a sinner than the one
who stays home. "There is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God." But the one who comes and hears the Gospel and
receives the sacrament is certainly better off. Because this is where God
reveals himself and His salvation. It is here that sin is forgiven and faith
is created and strengthened. It is in these things that we can and do have
Christmas over and over again.
You may say, I believe in Jesus but I don't believe in the institutional
church. I can praise God anywhere.
But what does Jesus say?
Matt 16:15_19 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon
Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus
replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to
you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not
overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you
bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will
be loosed in heaven."(NIV)
Truly, you can give praise and thanks to God anywhere, but you can only
receive His grace and salvation where he offers it. And He has instituted
the church through which he forgives sins and gives life. Apart from these
ordinary means of Word and sacrament which God has entrusted to his church,
you will only find death. Education, occupation, recreation, mountains,
rivers, oceans, the far reaches of the cosmos, even family these will all
pass away. Matt 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will
never pass away. (NIV)
This or any other church is not the body of Christ because of anything that
people do or accomplish but because of what God does and offers there - His
Word of eternal life in Christ..
Luke 10:41_42 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and
upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what
is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
The One thing needed, that which the other Mary, the mother of our Lord,
treasured in her heart, is who Jesus is and what His presence amongst us
means and accomplishes for us.
Yes, you are here this Christmas Eve because God wants you to know His love
for you in Christ -- His Son that took on ordinary flesh to dwell and to die
among us, so that we might dwell with Him forever even though we die to this
world. And not only that, He wants you to come again often, as He bid His
disciples to partake of His supper often, and as Hebrews 10:25 says,
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but
let us encourage one another__ and all the more as you see the Day
approaching. (NIV)
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the
Lord. Today in Word and Sacrament a Savior is born to you; He is Christ the
Lord. Every Lord's day here and wherever and whenever the Word of God is
rightly proclaimed and offered in baptism and Holy Communion, but only
there, a Savior is born to you. And He bears you from death unto life. For
He is Christ the Lord. Like Mary, may you treasure and ponder, that is
recall and relive these things of God in your heart as He and only He can
bring them to you.
You are not here so God can say "See you next year at Christmas," but so
that He can say "here is my treasure for you. Come again, often, and receive
the good gifts I offer. Come again, its Christmas here every week. A blessed
Christmas to you today and always." Amen.
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