Christmas Eve Homily
Luke 2:1-20
12/24/08
The children have just told us the Christmas story
by pointing us to various decorations that we hang on the Christmas
tree, using them to teach us something about Jesus - from bells which
ring out at Christmas to celebrate His birth, to angels who proclaimed
to shepherds the good news that God had sent the world a Savior and
that they would find Him lying in a manger, to candy canes that teach
us about His innocent suffering and death. In fact, there are
many different signs and symbols that we could use to tell the good
news about Jesus. From stained glass windows (which depict
various scenes from the Bible), to crosses and crucifixes (which remind
us of our Lord’s sacrifice for our sins), to banners (which
illustrate and proclaim the Word of God), to candles (which remind us
of the Light of the world and the light of His Word), to the many
colorful paraments and stoles (used to teach us something about what we
are celebrating at various time during the Church year). Luther
teaches us to make the sign of the cross upon ourselves, in order to
remind us that we have been redeemed by Christ the crucified and that
in our Baptism we were marked with this sign to show that we now belong
to Him. Even water itself, every time you use it (especially when
you bathe with it), can be a sign, reminding you of your Baptism.
But it’s Baptism itself, along with the Word
of God and the Lord’s Supper, that are the signs that God Himself
has given us. These He uses not only to teach us about Jesus and
His work for us, but He also connects Himself to these signs, so that
they deliver Jesus and His work to you. Just as the angels
directed the shepherds to the manger where the baby Jesus lay, so the
Holy Spirit directs you today to His Word and His Sacraments.
These are the manger where Jesus locates Himself for you and delivers
the benefits of His life, death, and resurrection to you. In your
Baptism, God gives you Himself and claims you as His child. He
also clothes you with Christ and cleanses you from all sin. In
His Word He tells you what Jesus has done for you, and that while you
were yet a sinner, Christ died for you. For His sake God now
speaks His Word of forgiveness to you and promises you His grace,
mercy, and peace now and forever. And in the Lord’s Supper
Jesus invites you to the greatest feast of all, one in which He feeds
us on Himself, putting His body and blood into our mouths to eat and to
drink for the forgiveness of our sins, a foretaste of the heavenly
feast to come when we dine with our Lord face to face in glory.
These signs, coupled with all the other signs of
God’s goodness towards us in providing for all our needs of both
body and soul in this life, teach us of His infinite love and care for
us, as well as His concern that we confess our sins, repent, and trust
in His mercy towards us in Jesus, so that we might not perish but have
eternal life. These are surely among the things that Mary
pondered in her heart throughout her life. She is a model for all
Christians in this way, that not only at Christmas time, but daily and
throughout the year, we should turn our eyes to these signs and ponder
anew what the Lord has done for us. It’s these signs that
will renew your hope when you are discouraged. They will comfort
you when you are sad. They will quiet your conscience when guilt
strikes you on account of your sin. They will remind you that
this world is not your home and that everything that can be seen is
passing away. But you are citizen of heaven and your inheritance
in Christ cannot be taken away from you. These signs remind you
that the Lord is with you always, that the Holy Spirit has been given
to you as a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance to come, and that
even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death you need
not fear any evil. When you fall asleep in the faith, you will go
to be with your Savior in paradise and be raised from the dead on the
Last Day when He comes again to make all things new.
In addition, these signs help you to live as the
children of God that you are now in Jesus Christ. Through these
signs God has made you a new creation. You are no longer children
of the darkness but children of the Light. You have been
transferred from your slavery under the kingdom of the devil to freedom
under your merciful Lord in His kingdom of grace. The Word,
Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper help you to die to what you once
were and to walk in newness of life. This newness of life could
be seen in the lives of those shepherds on that first Chistmas.
Once they had seen their Savior, they glorified and praised God, and
then they went back out into their calling as shepherds and told others
whom they met what God had done for them. When God’s signs
have their way with us, they produce the same things in us as they did
in the shepherds: we will praise and glorify God, both in what we
say and what we do, and we will tell others what He has done for us,
that they too might know Him as their Savior.
Keep your eyes on the Lord’s signs, then,
especially when there are all kinds of other signs in this world sent
by the devil, that would suggest that the Lord’s signs
can’t be believed. Suffering, sickness, and death, false
gods, false doctrine, and alluring temptations, as well as war,
poverty, and natural disasters are just some of the signs the devil
tries to use to get our eyes off of the Lord’s signs. When
kids go to public schools, they’re taught that all the signs
point to the fact that there is no God, that everything just happened
by chance, and that we all evolved from apes. They even try to
prove their case using science. But science points us to its
Creator. The Bible says that even the heavens themselves are a
sign that God exists. As David writes, “The heavens are
telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of
His hands.” When you keep your eyes on the Lord’s
signs, you won’t be led into disbelief by the signs of the devil.
We adults need to become more like children in this
respect, just as Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, whoever does
not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter into
it.” Let us again receive our Lord’s Word and His
signs with a child-like faith, not a childish faith, which has no
reason to believe what it does, but a faith that holds to the certain
signs of God’s promises, which have been stamped with the blood
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who was crucified and resurrected in time,
but now lives and reigns for all eternity. May He fill you with
all joy and peace as you receive Him and His gifts to you again this
Christmas season as we celebrate His birth. Amen.