"Salvation, Gift-Wrapped" The Nativity of Our Lord Christmas Eve December 24, 2014 Luke 2:1–14
Tonight or tomorrow many people will gather around the Christmas tree and open up the presents sitting under it. They have been wrapped up and sitting under the tree now for a while and are just waiting to be opened. And part of the fun of getting presents is unwrapping them and opening them up. Of course, the main excitement is to see what you’ve gotten and especially if it’s something you love. But if all the presents were sitting under the tree unwrapped, it would be no fun to gather around the tree at Christmas and be handed something to you that’s not wrapped. In the Gospel reading for Christmas God is showing you that He has a gift to give you. It is salvation. You will be excited to get whatever gifts you get tonight or tomorrow morning, and rightly so. God loves to give and so we are blessed to give and receive gifts to one another. But take all those gifts away and you still have a gift beyond compare in the salvation God gives to you. We can see this with what Luke tells us about the circumstances of Jesus’ birth. He doesn’t say that it came to pass that God issued a decree that everyone should return to their hometown so that Joseph and Mary would make their way to Bethlehem so that Jesus could be born there. Rather, it was a ruler who was the most powerful ruler of the time. Caesar Augustus issued a decree for everyone to be taxed. That is how it came about that Joseph and Mary made their way to Bethlehem for Jesus to be born there. And so that the point is not lost on us, Luke describes in very simple and even sparse detail the setting of Jesus’ birth. While they were in Bethlehem Mary’s pregnancy came to full term and her baby was ready to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped Him up in swaddling cloths and she laid Him in a manger, because there was no other place for them to stay. In the palace of Caesar Augustus a child born to him and his wife would be wrapped in the finest of purple cloth and laid in a bed made of gold. Jesus was wrapped up in ordinary cloths. And there was no bed for Him, He was laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals. When you give a gift to someone either their name is on it so that they know it’s for them or you give it to them and you say, “This is for you.” After Jesus was born, an angel announced to shepherds of the birth of the Savior, Christ the Lord. This was the announcement to you and me and to the whole world of the gift of God of salvation. The gift of salvation was wrapped up in swaddling cloths. This was the Savior, Christ the Lord. This was Jesus, God’s own Son, gift-wrapped for the world. Caesar Augustus had more wealth than he could use. But it was all nothing apart from the gift that all the money in the world could not buy and all the power in the world could not take hold of. Salvation has come gift-wrapped and laid not under a tree but in a simple manger, a feeding through for animals. Salvation is God’s present to you, given to you in the city of Bethlehem, the city of David, from whose lineage would come the Savior of the world. In the Epistle reading Paul expresses it this way: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” You would never know the grace of God appeared. You would forever be in the dark that God brought salvation to all people. The gift was wrapped up. The angel announced that in that little baby was the gift of God, the gift of salvation. I bring you good news of great joy! Paul and the other apostles announced it over and over again. The Church down through the ages has continued to make known to the world that this little baby wrapped up in swaddling cloths is the gift of God, the gift of salvation. When a gift is wrapped, you know it’s a gift. You don’t know what it is, you can’t see it because it’s wrapped. You have to unwrap it in order to see it and enjoy having the gift. In the Epistle reading Paul goes further than just saying that God gave His Son for our salvation. It wasn’t just that Jesus was a baby all wrapped up and snuggled in His mother’s arms. Paul says that He “gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.” This is truly the greatest gift and perhaps the one most easily missed. How exactly did this baby born and laid in a manger give Himself over for us? Just as He was God’s gift but not laid under a tree but laid in a wooden manger, so He was affixed to a tree of sorts when He was nailed to a cross. On the cross He was wrapped up once again, this time not by His mother. On the cross you see your gift-wrapped Savior, wrapped up in the sin of the world. Covered in the guilt of every person, from the mightiest king to the lowliest shepherd. The gift God has given you there at the cross is the gift of salvation. This gift is continually unwrapped as it is proclaimed again and again. The angel may have been the first to announce the good news, but the Church has carried on this gift-giving work of announcing the salvation that is wrapped up in the Person of Jesus. It’s quite stunning, isn’t it, when an angel and a host of the heavenly angels appear to shepherds, and they have the opportunity to reveal the most spectacular of sights to these feeble shepherds, that what they do is say to them is, “This is the sign by which you will know that God has given His gift of salvation: you fill find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” That’s it. A simple gift. Wrapped up, for you. Given to you every time this Gospel, this good news of great joy, is proclaimed. Given to you when you first heard it and received it, when you were born anew in your Baptism. Given to you often when your Lord wraps Himself up in the clothing of bread and wine in His gracious Supper to give you His body and blood. God gift-wraps His salvation to you in these ways to give you your salvation, your Savior, Christ the Lord. God gives Him to you so that, as the Epistle reading says, He may “purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.” And what greater works could there be for us to do than to carry on the work of the angels at the birth of Christ, who declared that the Savior had been born — and the shepherds, who, having seen the Christ-Child, went on to tell the good news to all who would hear it — and the apostle Paul — and the other apostles — and the countless Christians down through the ages who have declared this good news of great joy. This is the Gospel which continues to be declared. A gift-wrapped salvation, given to every person, given freely, always being unwrapped. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
