“BOY, HAVE I GOT GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!”

                              Christmas Eve—Dec. 24, 2006          9:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.                                                                                                    United Lutheran, Redwing, Minnesota.

LUKE 2:1-20-The Christmas Gospel

              The rehearsals were over, the costumes assigned and fitted for the characters, and the Christmas treats were ready to be handed out after the Christmas Program.   The night of the program had arrived, the crowds of parents and grandparents filled the church to overflowing.

Standing room only!  And he had rehearsed and rehearsed his lines which were the words of the
Angel of the Lord appearing to the shepherds in the fields.

              How many times had he spoken the lines over and over again, “DO NOT BE AFRAID; FOR BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GOOD NEWS OF A GREAT JOY WHICH WILL COME TO ALL THE PEOPLE; FOR TO YOU IS BORN THIS DAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID, A SAVIOR, WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD.  AND THIS WILL BE A SIGN FOR YOU, YOU WILL FIND A BABE WRAPPED IN SWADDLING CLOTHES AND LYING IN A MANGER.

              But now, tonight, in front of the crowds with his parents and grandparents sitting there, his big moment had arrive, and there were no words…the speech was gone from his memory. Not a word of it came to mind—so finally out of his mouth the only words that he could muster came out…”BOY, HAD I GOT GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!  HAVE IT GOT GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!”

              I’ll take that!  GOOD NEWS!  On this Christmas Eve, if we can settle on that simple expression, it would be sufficient.  That’s what this night and tomorrow are all about—GOOD NEWS!  An all-sufficient message.  “FOR UNTO US IS BORN A CHILD…A SAVIOR, WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD!  For unto us hope is renewed.  The chasm between what God has wanted for the whole of creation and what in fact humanity and our world has become, is wide. The two are not the same.  All the good, all the justice, all the caring, all the faithful living, which God has hoped to see in all of us in all of our daily lives has not come to be.

              And all around, within earshot and eye’s view, we hear and see the faults of all the world, the inhumane treatment of sisters and brothers, the evidence of brokenness and disobedience.

And, we evidence such brokenness and disobedience with us as well.  There is room for news, good news that doesn’t hurt, that doesn’t destroy, that doesn’t simply perpetuate a life lived separate from our Creator God.

               But how to convey that good news and how to make that impact.  Soren Kierkegaard in one of his writings seeks to explain God’s plan in a story of a King and a maiden.  The King fell in love with a young maiden but the barriers between them were those of class and race and nationality.  For all its potential beauty, the King found it difficult to resolve.  So, racking his brain on how to declare his love, he summons the wisest minds in the Kingdom and puts to them the question and dilemma.  They responded as one, “SIRE, NOTHING COULD BE EASIER, YOUR MAJESTY HAS BUT TO APPEAR  IN ALL YOUR GLORY BEFORE THE HUMBLE MAID AND INSTANTLY SHE WILL FALL AT YOUR FEET AND BE YOURS.”

              It was precisely this thought that troubled the King.  In return for his love, he wanted hers. he wanted her endearment; to exalt her, not for her to exalt him.  What a dilemma; when to declare your loves means the end of your beloved.  Night after night he paced the floor, until at last he saw love’s truth.  Freedom for the beloved means equality with the beloved one.  And so, late one night when all in the palace were asleep, he slipped out the side door and appeared before the maiden the next day dressed in the clothes of a servant.

              “FOR UNTO US IS BORN A CHILD”…He comes to us as one of us.  God doesn’t try to frighten us.  God doesn’t try to overwhelm us.  Although, the angels overwhelmed the lowly shepherds out watching their flocks by night and “they were sore afraid.”   God doesn’t try to bring more bad news.  But God comes to us to renew and to restore hope.  What a nice touch God adds to the Christmas story. First to the shepherds, for the news comes to the despised, the poor, the powerless.  Those who looked after the sacrificial lambs were the first to know and the first to see the True Lamb of God. Jesus, born to be the Savior of the world.

              That’s the first Christmas message.  That’s all we really need---a Savior.  We want to know forgiveness, we want to know peace, and we want to know salvation. “BOY, HAVE I GOT GOOD NEWS FOR YOU.”

              You’ve received many invitations during this season, but NONE is more important nor equal to the one sent from God at Christmas.  In Christ each of us has a personal invitation from God, to receive the gift.  It is the gift, the unique and living gift; not a thing/object.  But a person!

Christ Himself.  No longer is it just things which God creates of has created. But God’s own person, God’s own suffering, God’s own solitude, given to us.

               It’s bad news for Mary and for Christ who would be nailed to the cross eventually.  But Good News for us and for all our world. Good news at Christmas!  For Jesus declared as he turned to the Cross later…”GREATER LOVE HAS NO ONE THAN THIS, THAN THAT WE LAY DOWN OUR LIFE FOR A FRIEND.”  This gift of all gifts is the self-commitment of God’s very being.  The almost unbelieveable news of this revelation is…that this really is a gift! Free, without reservation, without recall.  Whatever our virtues may be and whatever number may be our times of confession and repentance, they are all unequal to the payment of such a treasure as this gift.

              So it is, that God offers the gift freely.  It was already paid for, not with silver and gold, but with Christ innocent suffering and death.  The erasure of all our failings, all our remorse, all of our regrets, and all of our rebelliousness.  WHAT A GIFT THIS IS, WHAT A GIFT INDEED!  “BOY, HAVE IT GOT GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!”  The best news the world has ever heard!

              In Christ each of us has a personal invitation with an R.S.V.P. to celebrate this good news.  Yes, there’s evil in the world and we are called to rise above it.  Yes, there’s ugliness and hatred in the world, but it’s possible to be changed and to live exemplary lives. Yes, there’s death still with us, grief and sorrow, but death no longer has the final word for us.

              New life begins in a manger, in Christ.  It makes good times great and bad times bearable.  God made Christmas for us.  But there is a sense in which all of us make Christmas. The gift of God is finished and completed in the manger and through the cross.  Yet it is still offered to us again and again as if to complete it in our lives.   I love the words of that 3rd verse in “O Little Town of Bethlehem” which we sang a few minutes ago. 

              “HOW SILENTLY, HOW SILENTLY, THE WONDROUS GIFT IS GIVEN.

              SO GOD IMPARTS TO HUMAN HEARTS THE BLESSING OF HIS HEAVEN.

              NO EAR MAY HEAR HIS COMING, BUT IN THIS WORLD OF SIN,

                            WHERE MEEK SOULS WILL RECEIVE HIM STILL,

THE DEAR CHRIST ENTERS IN.”

              “A SAVIOR FOR YOU IS BORN THIS NIGHT!”  Tonight as we sing these beloved carols, tonight as we share in the prayers, tonight as we receive once again the body and blood of Christ through Holy Communion with the forgiveness of sins, life, and life eternal, and tonight as you greet one another with Merry or Blessed or Joyous Christmas…let it be once again a reminder, a sign or your salvation.  Let it be a reminder of Christ’s offering of himself for you and for one another.

          We are saved through the life, death, and resurrection of the ONE BORN THIS NIGHT SO LONG AGO IN THE LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM.  It was for you, and you, and you!  You are forgiven!  You are loved! You are called to follow and serve!  To bring and to be, PEACE ON EARTH!  To bring and to be, GOOD WILL TO ALL!

              “BOY, HAVE IT GOT GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!”  CHRIST IS BORN!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MAY GOD BLESS US ALL!    AMEN

                                                                                                                              Pastor Clark Cary