Christmas Celebrations '2010

The Word of God for our sermon meditation this Christmas Eve
was recorded for our faith and life in the Gospel of St. Luke, the
2
nd
chapter, beginning with this 10
th
verse Then the angel said to
them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this
day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this
will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling
cloths, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory
to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

The story is told of a king who once issued a challenge, with a
reward, to the artist who could best depict peace. Many different
paintings were created showing serene scenes of meadows, calm
waters, mountain views and the like. These paintings were also
populated with rabbits, doves, and various animals one would
associate with a peaceful setting. Sunshine and brightly colored
flowers brightened the canvasses in an effort to win the king’s
reward.

One painting, however, was unlike the others. It was dark with
storm clouds filling the air and lightening strikes in the
background. The scene was anything but pleasant as it was a
rocky and jagged shoreline with angry waves crashing and
pummeling the rock face. Nothing living was included in this
picture except a little child who sat under an outcropping of rock
with a smile on her face. No fear was in her eyes. No terror was
etched on her face. She wore merely a smile of joy and
contentment amid that fearsome storm. It was this painting that
received the king’s reward for it showed peace as no other.

Peace. The world has its ideas of peace and it is often depicted
as those first artists sought to depict it. Peace is said to be a life
free of conflict, fear, and uncertainty in life. It is said to be a life
where all is going well with nary a trouble and sorrow in sight.
When the world speaks of peace it wants the perfect life, the
shimmering meadow scene where waters are always calm and life
is always agreeable. It was a world where everyone gets along,
where all differences are set aside, and all are happy.

Though this is what the world often depicts as peace, we, as
God’s people, know that this is not true peace. We know life in this world is anything but peaceful and not just because of the war
on terror and other threats to our nation and persons. Life in this
world is usually stormy, confounded by conflicts, filled with fears,
and full of confrontations with others who are often Scrooge-like
all year long. Though greatly desired this time of year, peace
often seems to be the most elusive guest of all.

Yet, there is a peace that can stand up under life’s everyday
pressures, stresses, and sorrows. There is a peace that can bring
healing to families fraught with friction. There is a peace that can
comfort and assuage even the most guilt-ridden soul. There is a
peace that is not dependent on anything in this world – not money,
not friends, not decorations, nothing in all this creation. The
peace that endures even when all of life is crashing down on us,
when our best laid plans have gone down the tubes again, when
all seems to conspire against us is found not in this world but
rather has come from heaven. It is God’s Christmas Peace.

This is what the angels announce to those fear filled shepherds
the night of Jesus’ birth. God’s Christmas peace is given us in the
Babe of Bethlehem born of Mary in the shelter of a cave. He is,
as Isaiah the Prophet told us, none other than the Prince of
Peace, the Author and only Source of peace that has no end. For
only Jesus can dispel our fears. Only the Lord can assure us that
all is well with God on high, that we indeed enjoy His good will and
favor. Only Christ the Lord can guard and keep us safe through
all things to heaven’s peace.

Only He who is our Peace can remove the guilt and shame of
wrongs that have been done, of deeds that have remained
undone. Only the Divine Savior of the world, born into this world
that first Christmas, laid in a feeding trough and worshiped by
angels and shepherds can give the peace that surpasses all
understanding. Only the Lord Jesus who entered and lived in this
sin-fallen and conflicted existence of ours can give us the
confidence and contentment that allows us to smile at all our fears
and through all the storms of life.

For God’s peace, rather than removing all of our troubles and
woes in this life, rather than setting us up in a paradise on earth,
actually equips us to endure the sorrows and afflictions of this age
no matter how threatening and tempestuous they might be. God’s
peace enables us by faith in Jesus to look at our conflicted,
troubled, topsy-turvy lives and remain confident that even if the
world be turned upside down, we are still standing on He who is
the solid Rock of our salvation.

God’s peace is the conviction that all things – our lives, our souls,
our family, our friends, our finances, our eternal rest – all these
and more are in God’s hands, the hands that reached out to His
mother Mary, the hands that were fastened to a tree on Calvary’s
hill, the hands that spread out on us in benediction and will
welcome us into His eternal glory. God’s peace in Jesus Christ is
the assurance that with God on our side, He is all that we need.

That He is our Peace is stated by the angel that first Christmas
night. For Jesus was born on this earth to be our Savior, to reveal
to us that instead of God’s wrath for sins we now will receive His
good will and favor. Jesus’ birth into the world announces to you
and me that God desires that we all be saved and come to faith in
His Son. Jesus’ incarnation proclaims that God wants nothing
more than you and I to enter Paradise, enter heaven where there
is peace without end.
For Jesus is God’s message of peace to all mankind. Firstly, He
is our Peace before God on account of our sins. This is the very
reason Jesus is even conceived and born into this world as the
angel Gabriel announced “He will save His people from their sins.”
For without Christ we would remain at odds with God and be
subject to His punishment and wrath. Without Christ, God’s
Christmas Peace, we could only expect to endure the torments
and agonies of hell. Without Jesus born in the city of David, we
could never enter the eternal city of our God.

For our sin, even our sins of buying into the world’s ideas of
peace, created a state of war and hostility between God and us.
God’s wrath and displeasure had to be satisfied for we can never
stand in His presence and face Him in our sins. This is why the
shepherds are first filled with fear. They know of their sin and that
the holiness of God that accompanies the angels means certain
destruction for them. They know that unless the conflict between
the holy God and sinful man be ended, they and we have only one
end.
But the angel announces to them and to us this night that we do
not have to fear. The angel brings us good tidings, glad news of
God’s Christmas Peace in the Child of Mary born in Bethlehem.
The angel tells us of peace, of good will for us from God wrapped
up in this Babe who is swaddled and laid in a manger. In the Son
of God Incarnate the solution to our warfare with God is given, the
answer to our sin is given, peace and pardon has been given in
He who is the Prince of Peace.

This peace with God is now ours through the blood of Jesus’
cross. Forgiveness and pardon before God is ours through faith in
that Babe of Bethlehem who was laid in wood, who grew up
working wood, and who was nailed to the wood of the cross for
our salvation. Through faith in Him, having been justified through
faith in His name, we have peace with God. Our sins have been
taken away. God’s punishment has been served. His displeasure
and wrath have been turn to good will and favor. In Jesus, by
believing on Him as the only Savior of the world, of each of us
individually, we have peace with God.

That means we never have to wonder where we stand with God
since we stand on Christ. We know that we are no longer subject
to His condemnation and judgment on sin because our sins,
through faith in Jesus are no more. Feeling guilty over a wrong
done or some deed left undone? Fear not for I bring you good
tidings of great joy – in Jesus you are forgiven and are at peace
with God on high. Are you dreading the day after, the Christmas
let-down? Fear not for in Christ Jesus you are promised and
given all the strength and support you need for your every life
situation.

Are you wondering how you are going to make it in the coming
year, how you will cope with your or another’s failing health? Fear
not for in Jesus you have the One who has borne your sicknesses
and sorrows and promises to give you rest. Are you questioning
how you forge ahead on the daunting and dark path before you?
Fear not for Christ is with you and has surrounded you with His
angels to watch over you and keep you. Are you looking for relief,
for some sign from God that He cares about you and what you are
facing in your life? Fear not for He has given you that sign in His
Son born of Mary that first Christmas.

For in Jesus we have the One who can and who promises to give
us all that we need for this faith and this life. In Him our
forgiveness has been secured. In Him our eternal rest is
guaranteed. In Him we have our life and being. In Him we have
the conviction, the assurance, the confidence that in the midst of
all of life’s storms, no matter what they might be for each one of
us, whether relationships, health, finances, and more, He is our
Savior and Lord come to be our Brother and King. He is on our
side. He is Immanuel, God with us.

It is He that in the end that enabled the shepherds to dismiss their
fears and run to His side to worship Him the first Christmas. It is
He who gave them the joy that led them to tell everyone about all
they had seen and heard. It is He who saved them and us from
our sins. It is He who can cause us to smile on all our woes, face
our troubles, and live our lives no matter how harsh the winds,
angry the waves, and sore the tempest because He is our Peace.
For each and every day, to each and every one He is God’s
Christmas Peace Amen