The Light of Heaven On Earth

St. Luke 2:1-20

In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.

St. Luke 2:7 “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  Most everyone knows the popular story, originally titled, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” attributed to Clement Moore in 1837.  The opening words are, “’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”  

Well, on that first Christmas night in Bethlehem there were creatures stirring in the fields all around.  Wild dogs and hungry wolves were prowling in the shadows eager for the opportunity for a mouthful of mutton.  Shepherds had to have sharp eyes to watch over their sheep; they had to guard them from any and beasts that might, at any moment, spring out from behind a rock to capture and kill a defenseless lamb or a sheep which was too clumsy and slow to escape.  Indeed, creatures were most certainly stirring on that first Christmas night.  

But predators, sheep, and shepherds weren’t the only creatures stirring about.  Scripture records that here were heavenly creatures stirring this night, too.  God sent His holy angels into the darkness of that Judean night.  These angels would break the stillness and silence of the evening with a sermon and a song that human ears had never heard before, and that the voices of Christians have been singing for hundreds of years since.

The shepherds, of course, were overcome with all this heavenly stirring.  It is certain that they did not expect to see the glory of the Lord revealed from the skies that night.  Luke reports that “the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were greatly afraid.”  Well, who wouldn’t be afraid at such a sight?

But the shepherds had no need to be afraid.  Those heavenly visitors were not an omen of some great evil about to come upon these poor herdsmen; it was nothing at all like that.  Instead, they came to announce the birth of One who would dispel all of our fears and give us the peace of heaven, the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that passes all understanding.

In our text for tonight we have, if you will, the first Christmas sermon, and it is preached by an angel: “Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

“Do not be afraid.”  That is the first gospel message of Christmas.  “Do not be afraid,” because God had stepped into the darkness of this dark world.  God has not left us alone in the black night of sin and in the shadow of death.  The baby who is born this night is the very Sun of Righteousness.  He is Jesus Christ, “the Light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome,” as we sing in the Order of Evening Prayer.  

The Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, wrote this of death: “Do not go gently into that dark night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.”  Jesus, our Savior, comes gently into this dark night. “How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given,” we sing in the Christmas carol.  In the silence of the stable, our Lord comes to us as the very best Christmas present ever. 

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But Jesus comes not wrapped in festive paper; He has no bow around His neck, no garland or tinsel.  He comes wrapped in human flesh – our flesh – He comes with our blood flowing in His veins.  He doesn’t come in might and majesty; He comes quite unassumingly in the gentleness and tenderness of an infant.  He does not rage against a dying light.  He does not swear at a dimly flickering wick.  As the old saying goes, “It is better to a light a candle rather than curse the darkness.”  That is what God does in giving us His Son.

God does not stand outside and curse the darkness that our sin has brought upon us.  He does not rage against the dying of the light.  He does not wait for us to figure out a way to make our own light, for He knows and we know that cannot work.  Instead, He comes into this dominion of darkness to bathe us in the glory of His light.  He comes that we might become children of the light and of the day, people who do not cower and hide under the cover of night, but walk in the radiance of His redeeming grace.  As we sing, “Son of God, love’s pure light radiant beams from Thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.”

The cross, the cross upon which our Savior died, does not snuff out the light of Christmas; instead, it magnifies that light, and brings it into sharper focus.  The One who was born at Bethlehem was born to be our Savior.  He took on our flesh so that in His flesh He might die our death, and in doing so destroy death’s grip on us.  He was cradled in a borrowed manger and He was buried in a borrowed grave.  He comes to us by way of the crib and the cross.  All of that He does for us.

That is why the angel announces that this Child is our Savior.  If we had needed information, God could have sent us an educator.  If we needed technology, God could have sent us a scientist.  If we needed money, He could have sent us a financial planner.  But we need something more than our feeble minds can imagine.  Our deepest need – and it is the deepest need of all of mankind, whether people believe it or not – our deepest need is the need for salvation; our deepest need is for life with God through the forgiveness of our sins.  And that is exactly what Jesus came to bring us.

Apart from Jesus, of course, there is no salvation.  That is why the angels direct the shepherds to go to the place where Jesus is: they point them to His manger bed, they point them to His physical presence.  And it is there in that lowly manger that they will find God Himself – the God of all creation, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords – presented not in fabulous king’s clothing, not with glorious pomp and circumstance, but feebly wrapped in swaddling cloths.  

The angels do not invite the shepherds to look within themselves for the light; they tell them to go to Bethlehem where the Christ Child is bedded down in a borrowed feed box.  They go to Bethlehem not to look in pity on this child whose first hours are spent in such crude conditions, but rather to see with their own eyes the pity that God has on us sinners in His coming to be our Savior.

And that Gospel, dear friends, is what stirs us this day.  For it is the good news – no, the great news – that “unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”  Your Savior is born to you; your Savior is born for you.  Your Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, is born to you, for you.  His life was one of sacrifice, suffering, and death for you.  His body, on the tree of the cross, bore the burden of your sins – all of them – for you and in your place.

In our Lord’s death His body was placed in a borrowed tomb, for there was no grave of His own, just as when He was born there was no room for Him in the inn.  In our Lord’s death His body was wrapped in the same strips of linen in which he was wrapped on the day He was born.  He was laid gently in the grave, as gently as He lay in the manger.  He rose from the dead to give us victory o’er the grave.

And in His Church, Christ the Lord is the giver of the best gifts anywhere, for He gifts us with Himself.  He is wrapped in the voice of your pastor who preaches Jesus to you and absolves you of your sins in Christ’s stead and by His command.  He comes to you in your Baptism to give you His forgiveness and His rescue from death and the devil.  And He comes to you in His holy Supper wrapped in bread and wine which is His body and blood.  In all these things Christ is our life and light – the light of heaven on earth.

So let every creature stir this night, in heaven and on earth.  Let them stir in praise of the Father who has given us His Son.  Let no tongue on earth be silent in His presence.  The Son is cradled here this day in Scripture and in Sacrament to touch you with the tenderness of His mercy, to cast out your fear, and to give you heaven’s peace.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.