Sermon -- Christmas Eve (December 24, 2023)

We followed the Service of Lessons and Carols at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.  There were eight brief homilies presented at the conclusion of each reading.  A few of them are below.

3^rd Lesson       Isaiah 11:1-10             

Our righteous ruler shall bring an everlasting peace.

         God so loved the world.  He loves his whole creation.  God was pleased with all that he had made, and he called it very good.  He is not pleased, however, that it has become corrupt.  He is not pleased with the sins of people.  He did not create animals to be predator and prey.  He did not intend the earth to destroy by quakes and landslides and volcanoes and hurricanes.  He did not design plants to prick or to poison.  But sin entered the world through one man.  That sin did not just affect people, it brought a curse upon all creation.  It is not just that our minds are warped and our hearts that are turned in on ourselves, it is also that the entire creation has been corrupted and subjected to death and decay.

         Nevertheless, God loved the world.  Rather than toss it in the trash bucket, he sent a Savior to reclaim all creation for himself and to restore all creation back to perfection.  The Savior comes to redeem everything.

         This righteous King brings back righteousness to you.  His own righteousness is put upon you in holy baptism.  By baptism, all that Jesus has achieved is given to you.  His innocent life answers for yours.  His sacrificial death is where he dealt with your sins.  His resurrection brings about your eternal life.  Though Jesus, you are declared innocent, righteous, and an heir of the eternal kingdom.

         Isaiah declared the perfection of that eternal kingdom.  This world remains broken and corrupt.  Disorder, destruction, death, and decay rule in a world of sin.  But when Jesus comes again, Eden will be restored.  Mortal enemies will live in peace.  Deadly threats will be extinct.  For, where there is no sin, there is no curse. Where everything has been restored, there is no corruption.
         No more let sin and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Let heaven and nature sing. For God so loves the world.

5th Lesson Matthew 1:18-25
The angel Gabriel visits Joseph in a dream.

         Joseph was a righteous man.  He took the word of the Lord seriously.  If you page through the Scriptures, you will discover that Joseph never says a word.  He has no lines.  But he is outstanding at listening to the word of the Lord and obeying it.

         Joseph was betrothed to Mary.  Betrothal was more binding than an engagement.  It was legally recognized by a ceremony.  The consummation of the marriage would take place a year later, but the bride and groom would rarely see each during that year.

         So, when Joseph learned that his betrothed was pregnant, he knew that the child was not his.  How disappointed, even devastated, he was!  She must love another if she carries his child.  What other conclusion should Joseph have drawn? 

         Joseph was a righteous man.  He was not out for revenge.  He did not seek to shame the young woman.  “Let her go to the man she loves,” he reasoned; and he resolved to divorce her quietly.  But before he could do that, the Lord revealed to Joseph what was really going on.  The angel appeared to Joseph in a dream to let him know what he could never have known unless God revealed it.  What was revealed to Joseph has also been recorded for us so that we will know it too: “That which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21).   

         So, Joseph learned that Mary was not only faithful to him, but was also virgin pure.  The child who was conceived was not fathered by another man, but by God.  Therefore, the child is Immanuel, “God with us.”  And since he takes on humanity in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the child is not only God with us, but God who has become one of us.  In this way, God binds himself to humanity.  He becomes God for us who will save his people from their sins.

         We hear not a word from Joseph, but we see that Joseph knew how to listen to the word of the Lord.  Perhaps he did not understand it.  Surely, he marveled at it.  But Joseph certainly believed it.  The Lord God would come through the Virgin Mary, but he comes for all of us.