Free To Move About Creation
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7 [ESV]
What…? You expected me to preach on the Gospel…the Christmas story that so many have read and told and put into programs…and made movies about…
…what, aren’t you sick of it all by now? Bahhh….Hum… …
ah …No…
…and neither am I.
We should never get sick of Christmas!
But let’s not forget why we do hear it, read it…repeat it year after year…
Or WE WILL end up getting sick and tired of all the madness…the not so merry parts of the season…
And that is why I am preaching on the Epistle lesson.
Christmas is not an end unto itself…Christmas is not the high point of the year, but the start…Christmas is the beginning…just like Sunday is the first day of the week, not the last day of the week’s end.
The world and the devil like to try and change this around. They like to preserve their little way of doing things…
Sorry, but God won’t let His creation go that way for too long. He will not leave it in enemy hands so that it is permanently made the opposite of His design…
So, you see, Bethlehem is the beach head…of the invasion…the starting place…
…yes, like a Normandy…
Christmas is the feast before battle…the rah, rah and charge rally…
Then it starts…the beginning of the end…then the battle…then the victory…yes…
…and we can now…because of what followed…we can make that victory sign…
Not this V … but +
… as it is not just for the end of WWII…but all wars…
And this one started its invasion in a stable…
…in an obscure little suburb town…in a conquered and enemy occupied country…
…the start of the end…but not quite on that first Christmas…no, that was the landing on the beach…
The victory? That was about 33 years later…it was not until Easter.
You see, Christmas is meaningless if there is no Easter, just like there would have been no ticker-tape parade, no “V” for victory if Normandy…D-day…failed.
If Easter never came and it just remained Good Friday, or rather became bad or evil Friday…then…Bahhh Humbug…
Then that would be appropriate…
…like those disciples on the road to Emmaus…if you remember…dismayed…trodden down and defeated
…without hope…escaping…
Wanting to forget what seemed to be an empty promise…a no Christmas at all future…
…yes, they were Bahhh humbugging the lot of it…Christmas, yes, humbug to Christmas…
…well, truly…but, not even that…that phrase “Bah Humbug” would never have been known…heard…read or penned…
…as there just would have been no reason for Dickens to invent Mr. Scrooge. No Christmas to complain about…to get into…to be merry and of good cheer…about…
No real good cheer to be had. We would still be in our mess…still in our sins…
No, you see, there is just no Christmas without an Easter.
No presents—without Christ—THE PRESENT TO THE WORLD…I mean, what would have December 25th meant if the resurrection never happened?
Maybe just some obscure Jewish holiday…. then again, not even that.
Joseph and Mary just celebrating their children’s birthdays…without the baby Jesus as one of them. James might have been the first-born son of Mary then…fading into the past…just like so many other unfulfilled Jewish children…born…and then to just die over the centuries…
Mary would have just been another Jewish woman doing what they have always done…
…and Israel still without its answer…without the fulfillment of the promise that God made to their forefathers…to the patriarchs…to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…of a Christmas still to come…someday…
Israel would have been still waiting…we…the world, would have been still waiting for the Messiah to come.
And yes, the enemy would still be running the place, as always. Sins would still be left unpaid for.
But NO! Christmas DID come! Glory to God in the Highest….and really…peace on earth and Good Will toward men…because a Savior had been born to them…to us…for us…
Yes, God’s Gift did come…His invasion began…and yes, Good Friday is Good…as yes, it was His victory…He won…at Calvary…on the cross and then out of the tomb on Easter.
Yes, Easter morn appeared in Person…the Son Brighter than the morning…making Christmas…happen…and happen again…year upon year…gift upon gift…
…pointing to that Christmas that will be Easter too…together…one big and forever celebration Holiday…
Here…as He is coming again…
But Immanuel, God with us…is still…He is… still here…making Christmas itself…Himself to be…still giving Himself…and all and everything else we get….
That is the whole gift of Christmas. That is where all gifts come from…from Christ the Lord, the one in whom all things are made…every gift ever given and received is because and from Him.
He is the gift and the giver of gifts. He is the reason for all cheer…for all a Merry, Merry Christmas…
…and yes, a happy New Year, too.
Each new year…He gives…because of Grace and Mercy Himself coming and becoming flesh to dwell and then pay our way into a Christmas and Easter that will never end…
…that New Year in the gift of a New Heaven and a New Earth…all for us…wrapped in clouds of glory…with shouts a Hosanna again from the millions of Angels round about…
Christmas is here…yes, even this day…and He, the morning star…the star of Christmas…that is who is with us…Christ, the new-born King…Lord of Lords today, and forever more. Yes, a very merry Christmas.
Amen.
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