The sermon for December 25 was based on John 1:1-14.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Every year the same delicate and urgent question arises is household after household. Parents and Grandparents and even older siblings are called upon to provide the crucial answers to the one big question. Is he or isn't he... real? Does he really know if we've been naughty or nice? Does he really have a list? How can he visit every home in the world in the same night?

Those who have grown weary of the world may not consider these questions to be very important but to the young and young at heart they are of vital importance. So much of our happiness and innocence and peace of mind hang in the balance. We need to know for sure.

Can every one of you grown ups or big brothers or older sisters turn to the little face in your life and give and honest and convincing answer to the question. Can you say with genuine conviction that Jesus is real? More importantly, would the little person to you speak have any reason to believe that you yourself believe it? As the slogan goes: If you were accused of being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you? Do you act as though Jesus were a real man who is truly present and active in your life or is he merely a beloved but fictional character?

Real Christians, and by that I mean Christians who worship a real God, born of a real virgin and really risen from the death which He suffered to forgive our real sins, have to make real choices. Are you brave enough to insist upon justice especially for those who cannot defend themselves or are you one of those who won't take a stand? Will you confess with the Church that divorce and abortion and feminism and adultery and homosexuality are sins that damn or do you still doubt that these are real sins and that Jesus will send unrepentant sinners to a real hell?

Are you strong enough to show mercy to those who have sinned against you and your loved ones without denying that you have been sinned against? Jesus' death on the cross was for real and He really does require us to forgive those who trespass against us. This may be the hardest part of the Christian life, forgiving one another. It is never more difficult to forgive than when the one who has sinned against us refuses to admit or recognize or confess their sin. We don't always have to forgive the unrepentant but we must be willing to and that is really hard.

It is so much easier to think of Jesus as if He were Ebenezer Scrooge or the young husband in the gift of the Magi or any one of the characters in our favorite and inspirational Christmas stories. But Jesus is not George Baily. He is a real man, born of Mary and He is the very Son of God, begotten of His Father from all eternity. He lives and breaths and reigns over our lives. He is no mere embodiment of our sentimental ideas, He is not simply an idea which we personify for easier understanding. He is as real as you and me and more so even. Jesus is real.

Today we celebrate His birth. God almighty has become a man. He is not an angel. He is not an apparition. He's not even a woman. He is a man with man parts and man hair and a manly disposition. God is a guy. Not just any guy, of course, we never want to become flippant about the incarnation but neither do we ever want to neglect it's huge and stunning significance. Jesus Christ is a specific living human being who is also the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus is our Lord and Savior. He will not settle for being one or the other. It has to be both or nothing.

Assuming we're all willing to recognize once again that Jesus is real and incarnate, the question you must be asking is why is Pastor making such a big deal of this? How we relate to Jesus depends very much on how we think of Him. He became human for our sake. Jesus did not need to become human to do battle with Satan. Satan is an angel. Jesus could have dealt with Him without having been born. In fact, it was another angle, Michael that cast Satan from heaven in the first place. Jesus didn't become man for the devil's sake. He became a man for your sake.

He didn't come to Earth to wrestle with the devil. He came to Earth to wrestle with us. How goes that contest in your life? Are you wrestling with God like Jacob did, struggling with a real person, grappling with every fiber of your being, and I mean muscle fiber and tissue here, until He blesses you but not before He breaks down your pride? Do you embrace Him like Mary at the tomb? Do you let Him embrace you as He did His mother? Jesus is real and physically present with His people and we interact with Him in physical and bodily ways.

We Christians taken together are the Church, the Bride of Christ. He gives us His body and blood in the one flesh union of bride and groom that is the Sacrament of the Altar. In the Lord's Supper we eat His body and we drink His blood. We are born again with water and the word. When we are baptized our heads get wet and the Holy Ghost comes into our hearts and minds. When we go to the Pastor to be absolved of our sins He places His hand on our heads and speaks to us with the very voice of God Himself, either absolving us or condemning us.

Christmas can be a wonderful time. And we all hope to extract from the holiday something transforming and lasting. But if Christmas is nothing more than an occasion to aspire to be better than we are I'd just as soon skip it and get on to something more useful. We didn't come here to collectively yearn after something better. I certainly didn't come here to help you find the magic within yourselves or any such nonsense. If the only help you look for is the help you provide yourself you are doomed to an unspeakable fate. We came here for a miracle...

and nothing less will do. Jesus is real and present here. Not just in the bread and wine but in those who eat the bread and drink the wine. He is in your heart and not just figuratively. He is in your heart muscles and in flowing through your veins. His spirit is in your lungs and His words are in your brain. He has invaded you for a purpose, to sanctify you and make you holy, like Him.

The miracle of Christmas is not just that Jesus became man but that men became as God. Holy and righteous and reconciled to the Father by grace through faith for Jesus' sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes . . .

Last Updated: 7/15/2008