1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word as we celebrate
the glorious birth of our dear Savior Jesus is taken from Luke 2:8-20 and it’s
entitled, “Oh, Come, Let Us Adore Him.” Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. When God created the world and laid
the foundations of the earth, then the morning stars sang together and all the
sons of God shouted for joy (Job 28:4-7).
On the evening of the 6th day, God looked over all His work
and, behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31).
But there are no songs of joy in the third chapter of Genesis. After Adam and Eve sinned against God they
were cast out of paradise, and the angel with the flaming sword was placed at
the entrance to keep hidden the tree of life.
Sin had entered and spoiled all the good creation of God. The only rejoicing was in the pits of hell.
3. But there came another day. Again the gates of heaven open, pouring forth
all the hosts of angels, and they join in the most marvelous chorus ever heard. A new thing had entered, again to change
entirely the history of men; and all of heaven rang with joy. That’s the story St Luke tells us in our text
for this Christmas Eve.
4. But, do you have that same spirit
& joy of the first Christmas? Maybe
you don’t feel right now like the angels and the shepherds did to come and
adore the Christ child in the manger. Maybe
if we had only been there with the shepherds to see the baby in the manger that
would bring true Christmas joy. Or if we could be in heaven, where the
struggles of life are over, where there’s no sorrow or crying, where God
himself wipes away all tears and shares his eternal joy and light. . . . then
we could sing, “Oh, Come, Let us Adore
Him!
5. There’s joy to be had, but often we
think it’s either there at the manger or there in heaven . . . anyplace else
but here. In other words, not in a world filled with as much heartache and fear
as ours. That’s the problem with Christmas. It always seems to be for some
other setting or for someone else. We’re always dreaming about the ideal
Christmas, “just like the ones we used to
know. Where treetops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the
snow.” The Christmas we dream about is always better than the one we
experience. Do we really feel right now
the saying, “Oh, Come, Let Us Adore Him
Christ the Lord?”
6. Maybe that’s why some of us have
such a hard time with Christmas. We have such high expectations that maybe this
time we’ll be able to put it all together—just the right amount of gifts,
music, food, and people that will make our holiday great. But we never quite
pull it off, and so for many people Christmas is depressing. We get to feeling like Ebenezer Scrooge from
Charles Dicken’s, “A Christmas Carol,” and
want to cry out, “Bah humbug,” we
don’t feel like coming to worship and singing, “Oh, Come, Let Us Adore Him,” Christ the Lord!
7. But, I’d like you to have yourself
a “merry little Christmas” too. I’d
certainly like your yuletide to be bright, and I’d like all your troubles to be
out of sight. After all, being merry and bright have their place, but Christmas
goes far deeper than that. Christmas isn’t for somebody else or someplace else
or for some other setting. Christmas is for you, whoever you are, and right
here and now.
8. We have much to learn about
Christmas joy from the shepherds. Because the shepherds play such an important
part in our Christmas pageants, we tend to think of them as pretty important
people. But actually they were quite far down the social ladder of their day.
Their job wasn’t an easy one. It meant long days and lonely nights under the
open sky. It wasn’t a fancy job and not many young boys dreamed of growing up
one day to be a shepherd.
9. But these lowly shepherds were
recipients of an honor no king or emperor ever had. They were given the angel’s
message, “I bring you good news of great
joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has
been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10–11). And then the angel
threw in a good reason to go find the child: a manger, he said, would be the
clue as to where they could see him.
10. That was a privilege not to be
granted to Herod or Caiaphas, but given instead to very unlikely
candidates—these meager tenders of sheep, coarse, rough men with tough,
weather-beaten skin, whose manners no doubt matched their appearance. Down-to-earth,
ordinary guys, in other words, these shepherds were. But then, as Luther said
in one of his Christmas sermons, an angel of the Lord came by and made them
apostles, prophets, and children of God. So are we. “Oh,
Come, Let us Adore Him, Christ the Lord!”
11. The shepherds teach us that joy can
be found in the calling in which God has placed us. For when they had seen the
child, Luke says, “They spread the word
concerning what had been told them about this child. . . . The shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and
seen, which were just as they had been told” (2:17, 20). There was joy for
them in the manger. But then they returned, taking their joy with them as they
went back to their work and routine.
12. Today or tomorrow you’ll return to
your routine too—husband, wife, son or daughter, executive, homemaker, student,
butcher, baker, candlestick maker. But whoever you are, there is joy for you
this Christmas Eve. Not in some future ambition
or some other situation, but right here and now. Not in that special white Christmas you
remember from your childhood. Not in
family gathered around the table or good friends and good food and good fun, as
precious as they are.
13. But, there’s joy found first on
this planet of ours in the face of a newborn in Bethlehem, which was the very
face of God. There’s joy in this One, Jesus, who bore the sorrows and the
burdens of all the world in his own heart, which was the heart of God. There’s
joy in this One, Jesus, who took all our hurt and guilt into his own body in
his death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins, which was the death of
God. And there’s joy for you today,
whoever you are, in his Holy Gospel, which is the Word of God. So we can sing with joy, “Oh, Come, Let Us Adore Him, Christ the Lord!” Because He was born as a baby boy for you
to save you from your sins, to give you eternal life, and salvation! That’s Good News and that’s for you! Amen.
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