The sermon for December 24 was based on Matthew 1:18-25.

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

Christmas pageants are always interesting, little summations of daily living. "How come she gets to be Mary. I want to be Mary." "I don't want to be a shepherd. I was a shepherd last year." "You can't make me sing. I'm to old (or too young) for it." "Can't I just be a stage hand?"

Some of us hate to be defined, to be assigned roles that we didn't choose, to have our options limited. Some of us hate not knowing exactly who we are and what is expected of us. Whatever our preferences though, we're all in the same boat. None of us likes to told that we aren't who we think we are, especially if we turn out to be less than we imagine ourselves to be.

Part of what makes the holidays so wonderful are the family gatherings, the familiar traditions, the almost universal longing for contentment and the sense of community among neighbors. Part of what makes the holidays so dreadful are the family gatherings, the familiar traditions, the almost universal longing for contentment and the sense of community among neighbors. Family, for better and worse, is knowing that there will always be a place set just for you at Christmas dinner but that it will still be at the kid's table even when you're pushing forty.

Christmas brings chaos to some people and stifling rigidity to others. But let's not blame Christmas for that. After all, Christmas is just a distilled and intensified expression of daily life. During the holidays our hopes and fears are revealed in stark relief. Our loftiest ambitions and our basest weaknesses are likewise magnified. If you're a whirlwind of disorder in July nothing is going be different in December. If you're a Yellowstone geyser on holidays you'll be ready for Christmas at Halloween. Christmas does, though, give us a chance to reflect and experience.

When the whirlwind comes to visit old faithful, each experiences the other as a challenge to his own self-imposed identity. There is an underlying insecurity in every reaction to one's opposite personality. What's wrong with my chaos that she doesn't behave the same way? What's wrong with my regiment that he doesn't follow suit? Next we try to impose our ways on those around us even as we are imposed upon and then the ugliness really takes off. Its been happening that way since Adam and Eve first chafed at being pigeonholed by God in the garden.

In the garden, while we're on the subject, God saw to it that everything was given a purpose and with that purpose came a name. God called the light day and the darkness He called night as so on right down to every individual animal and even Eve was given a name and a specific purpose. When God had to curse Adam and Eve for their rebellion he cursed them according to their God-given purposes and He cursed them by name. The name and the purpose go together. The man is called man because he is made of and for the earth. The woman is called woman because she is made of and for the man. Neither, though, is allowed to name himself.

So Jesus, when He comes to redeem us from the curse, allows Himself to be named. Jesus, whose name that is above every name, is not above being named. The angel tells Mary that her Son will be called Jesus. When Joseph is told what to call Jesus he is given the purpose that goes with the name. She will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. When Jesus is born He receives a name and a purpose, just like the rest of us, which is the whole point of His being born at all. He is just like us, fully human.

Unlike us, though, while He is fully human, He is not merely human. Jesus is the Son of Mary but He is also the Son of God, begotten of the Father from all eternity and conceived n Mary by the work of the Holy Ghost. Jesus comes to forgive our sins by dying for them on the cross and paying the penalty for our relentlessly selfish rebellion. Over and over in His life we see what we should be. He lies quietly in the manger where we bristle at the slightest slight. He says "Thy will be done" where all we can seem to utter is mine, mine, all mine.

But that's what He comes to rescue us from. He comes to forgive our sins and give us new life. Which is to say that He's come to give us new names and new purposes. Christians have long been in the habit of giving new names at Baptism. We even call them Christian names. It is Holy Baptism, with its forgiveness of sins and gift of the Holy Spirit that God begins to muffle the shrill cried of the world for godless and individualistic self-fulfillment. Someone else brings us to baptism. Someone else names us. All of which indicate that someone else saves us.

We are not saved or even to be praised for our wanton carelessness about time and duty. Neither are we admitted to heaven because of our assiduous devotion to detail and accomplishment. God lets into the banquet halls of His heavenly kingdom because we are His children. Jesus dies to forgive our sins and whosoever believes this truth is a son of God and the brother of Christ. These are our new names, son and brother. With those new names come new purposes. We live to praise and serve God, to receive good things from Him and to share them among ourselves. These tasks are timeless and we'll do them even in Heaven.

Its true though that we still have and will always have limits imposed on us. In Eden there was the forbidden fruit. Out here in the world there are the realities of life. Men are men and women are women, different kinds of humans with very different roles and responsibilities. Children are not adults and subjects are not masters. Even in heaven we will be male and female, and of higher and lower rank. Some will be nearer to Jesus than others but we'll all be at peace. We will no longer be slaves to the devilish lie that all people must be equal in order to be happy. God does not say or mean for us all to be equally beautiful, equally free, equally strong, equally intelligent. He doesn't squeeze us into the tyrannical cookie cutters of so called equality.

He does the exact opposite. He calls us by name and makes us His own. In God's kingdom the whirlwind does not destroy the lives of her neighbors neither does old faithful douse the spirits of his. Even in this world we begin to appreciate the blessing of being given names and purposes not of our own origin. The Christian, whatever, his or her God-appointed station and role in life, is like a diamond in the right setting. We each have a chance to shine, to radiate a reflected glory as if it were our own.

God is with us tonight and always, radiating His grace and mercy, shining His face on us and being gracious to us. He has called us by name and we are His. He has saved us from our sins and gone on to prepare a place for us, not a generic, one-size-fits-all, cubicle but a mansion built by Christ with His own pierced and human hands and designed especially for each of us individually. Merry Christmas brothers and sisters. God is with us. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes . . .

Last Updated: 7/15/2008