Christmas Eve Sermon
for 9:00pm Service 12/24/2014
I heard about this baby boy who comes to
earth to
bring us joy. I just want to sing this
song to you …
The
image of a young woman, sitting in a barn-like structure, holding a swaddled
newborn baby, swaddled in that cloth is all the divinity of being God’s son and
all of the humanity of being Mary’s child, poured into this little baby.
The
Gospel writer declares that
"And Mary pondered all these things in
her heart." Many months had passed
with many events in her life to consider
-
An Angel visits, bearer of God's child,
-
trip to an elder cousin's home,
-
married to Joseph,
-
journey to Bethlehem while being great with child,
-
No room, birth in a stall,
-
shepherds who speak of Angels’ Choirs, “For unto us this night a savior
who is Christ the Lord …
and
after all these things came to pass we are told that Mary
pondered
and kept these things in her heart.
What new parent, holding their child for
the first time isn’t caught up with the wonder and potential that they hold in
their arms …
Mary’s baby boy would grow to be man and …
one day a voice from heaven would affirm
in his entrance into public ministry as “My Beloved Son” He became a wandering rabbi, teacher and
master to some and perceived threat to others and yet regardless of their
realization of who he was
-
He became just as the angels sang “Savior to all.”
-
He gathered a group of ordinary people around him: fishermen, tax collectors, and men and
women.
-
He taught people that God wanted them to turn their
life’s priorities toward God.
-
Scholars marveled as his teaching of the law,
-
His divinity was realized through the miracles he performed: healing the sick, raising the dead
and
he challenging the religious and political establishments of his day.
It goes like
this the fourth the fifth
a minor fall, the major lift,
and with every
breath I’m singing … Hallelujah.
A
minor fall, a major lift!
Mary’s baby boy would grow to be the Messiah. As God’s Son he didn’t herald in his Father’s
angel’s armies to bring about his kingdom.
Rather he entered Jerusalem on a donkey and marveled at the
receptiveness of the people who so wanted a Messiah to usher in God’s
kingdom. He turned over tables in a
temple, and he called the people to honor his father’s house as a place of
prayer, he cried tears in a garden and gave himself will over to his Father’s
“A minor fall” when human institutions would try him
and “a major lift” as he was raised up on a hill. Or could the “minor fall” be humanity’s
fallen state but because of the cross and empty grave the “major lift” was also
the life that we now have because of who Mary’s baby boy grew to be. I think the concluding verse tells it all …
I know that you came to
rescue me,
this baby boy would come to be
a man who one day, would die for me and
you.
My sin would drive the nails in you
That rugged cross was my
cross too.
And every breath you drew was Hallelujah.
There
is so much more to this night and this season
For this Baby Boy come to be the Savior of all
creation
For you
and for me … for which we sing
Hallelujah, Hallelujah … Hallelujah,
Hallelujah.
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