Sermon: "Christmas Sermon"

Buying Christmas gifts or even Christmas cards needs a little imagination.  Sometimes receiving gifts and cards does also.  The best Christmas gifts are often what we call the useful gifts. 

I remember as a child being given a complete model railway layout one Christmas morning.  It kept me occupied all day and for a few years beyond that !

 So when we receive a gift, we make the best use of it when we do something about it.  A new camera for example would make us go out and about to get some interesting photographs.

 We all notice people around on the afternoon of Christmas Day and most of the day on Boxing Day with their new Christmas gifts. People wearing new coats and scarves, children on new bikes,  then people flock to the sales to spend vouchers and gift tokens.  As we look at Christmas in the past, one of the things we most remember is our gifs and what we did with them.

 The Christmas story as Luke tells it doesn’t say anything about gifts, but has a lot to say how events stirred people into doing something.

 This happens three times. 

 Firstly we are told that the Emperor Augustus ordered a census.  People didn’t really have much choice on this one, so almost everyone took part. In what may seem strange to us, everyone went to their home town to register. Imagine the chaos with people travelling around, maybe not unlike people in our own day travelling “home” for Christmas.  So in Luke’s story Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, Joseph’s home town to register, even though they lived in Nazareth.  I wonder how Mary and Joseph felt about this. Probably not pleased at having to make the journey, especially as Mary was pregnant.

 Now Luke tells of the second event where people respond by taking some action.  Mary and Joseph have to find a practical solution quickly. They are somewhat upset they are not at home. It would have been so much easier if they were, but the truth is they are not, so they must get to Bethlehem as soon as possible and when they get there, they must act quickly to find somewhere for the baby to be born  in a crowded city where accommodation is at a premium. The best they can find is a humble place to say the least.  Luke does not tell us what the place was like, but only tells us that after being born, the baby was placed in a dish used for animals to feed from.  What a wonderful and imaginative piece of improvisation.  The Bible texts call it a manger, a word we never use today apart from in this story.  I’ve never heard a farmer speak of the farm cattle eating their feed out of a manger, but that’s what it is.  That’s what a Bethlehem farmer would have called it when Jesus was born. For this reason we assume there were a few animals around when Jesus was born.  In another brilliant piece of improvisation Mary and Joseph tear off some strips of rough cloth to wrap the baby in.

 In order to tell us of the third event where people take action as the result of an event, Luke switches the story to another place, a hillside where some shepherds are at their work, on the night watch.  We may ask, what does a baby being born in the city have to do with these country shepherds?  They indeed were probably asking the same questions themselves.  Of all the babies being born in the city that night, why are they being told about this baby?  Why is this baby any different from any other baby?

 They get the news from what we are told is a vision of angels who tell them the birth of this baby is good news for them, and indeed for everyone. According to Luke’s story the birth of this baby has everything to do with them, because this baby is their Saviour.

  These tough working men are not the most likely of people in their own opinion be chosen to get a vision from God, but clearly something happened, and like all religious visions and experience this one was no exception in that it was difficult to explain.  Luke tells is they were terrified.  How would you feel if you experienced something like this? Would you be afraid?   Would you even believe it?  Would you dismiss it and think nothing more about it?   Would you say,  “Well the vision was an interesting experience, but let’s forget about it now and get back to work.”   That was the choice the shepherds faced,  either to forget about this vision and go back to work or to do something about it. Thank God they chose to do something about it. 

 They went down to the city,  but how were they to find the baby?  In their vision the angels had not given them any directions, and there was no satnav in those days,  but they gave them just one clue, or rather one sign, how they would find the baby.  Once again it’s the manger, the cows’ feeding trough that is the sign.  There would not be many places in the city where animals were kept, most were kept in the fields, Also not many babies would be placed in a cow’s feeding dish, they would have a ready made cot. Also not many babies would be wrapped in rough pieces of cloth, a shawl would have already been made for them, even in the poorest of families. We may ask why didn’t Joseph make a cot for Jesus, he was a carpenter after all, and why didn’t Mary weave a shawl.  The probably did, but they had to leave Nazareth quickly and travel light.

So the shepherds find the baby, and for the third time, Luke tells us that it is in the manger, the feeding trough, that the baby is found. Then they returned to their sheep. They had to be practical. They couldn’t leave them too long with the one shepherd that had stayed behind to watch the flock on his own. 

These shepherds would never been the same again. Luke tells us that they returned praising and glorifying God.  All this was because they chose to do something about the message they had received. 

Tonight we have come to hear that same message; the message that a baby born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago has a very real significance for us.  We may well ask like the shepherds did , maybe even more emphatically “ What does a baby born all that time ago have to do with us? “  Yes,  we can celebrate his birth. We can rejoice at the truth of the wonderful Christmas story. We can sing the carols. We can exchange gifts  but what about when the holiday is over? What about when we return to work?   Will all this be forgotten for another year? - or even forgotten for ever?   I hope not.

I hope this is not forgotten because this baby is no ordinary baby. This baby is our Saviour, Christ the Lord.  This baby is good news for us.  He’s not a baby now.  He lived a life as no one has ever lived. He preached, taught and healed as no has ever done.  His opponents got him convicted on a criminal charge and had him executed, but he was the real winner. He rose from death.  He’s alive now and he understands every human feeling and emotion because he’s been through it all himself.  This is the Saviour. This is the King. So like Mary and Joseph and like the shepherds, we ourselves are called tonight to do something about what happened in Bethlehem and to welcome Christ into our lives, not just tonight, but every day of our lives as both our Saviour and our King.  He is good news for us all, for ever.