Year C

Luke 2:1-20

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn 6:30 pm

The Real Meaning of Christmas

It’s Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus! What a birthday gift in that God chose to come to us not as a king but as a baby. Into the ordinary of this world, the holy has come. How remarkable! Born in simple surroundings, this baby who experienced the full range of our human experiences from cradle to grave, the King of Kings came to show us what true love is. God loves us and has come to us as an extraordinary gift in the flesh to save us. It’s what the writer of Titus calls “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior.” Yet, when we look out into the messiness and business of our world we can’t help but wonder what’s happened to Christmas? It seems that the real meaning of Christmas has been lost in the rush of buying, wrapping, and parties.

We might think, if only we could get back to the real meaning of Christmas. After all, Jesus is the reason for the season. Christmas is about what God in Christ is doing in and for the world. God is with us and it may seem sad to us, who celebrate the remarkable birth of our Lord and savior, that Christmas must take place in a materialistic world that tends to obscure its splendor and holiness. Yet, Luke is careful to remind us tonight that whenever we long to have a Christmas as pure and as holy and as innocent as the scenes on our Christmas cards, we may be missing the whole point. That first Christmas, that day of Jesus’ birth, was not a holy day. It was anything but holy.

Jesus was born to the ringing of cash registers, the filling out of 1040 forms, people standing in long lines to beat the deadline, crowds so thick there was not a hotel room to be found. He was born in the messiness of a stable. And when the angels announced Jesus’ birth, it was to working shepherds out in the fields. God didn’t enter into a safe place but into this messy real world of flesh and blood in Jesus Christ. God entered into a world filled with fear and anxiety; to a world where every human being longs for a savior of some type. We look for someone or something that will solve our problems, ease our pain, or grant the most elusive goal of all, happiness.

This is where the good news and promise of Christmas breaks into this messy world. The promise of Christmas, as Isaiah put it, is that the oppressor’s rod will be broken, the government will be upon his shoulder, and his rule will be a time of peace and justice without end. This “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” is for all time, for all people and will be the light until all manner of things shall be well. The Christ child, born to save is the great light that has come into our darkness, and knowing this and accepting his salvation means we accept him into our lives and this makes us strong enough on the inside to manage any difficulty.

We become so full of grace that we love in ways we didn’t think we could. This one holy night changes everything and we see all the other days and nights in a new light. God has come to love us and as we experience that love we move into the new being God has offered in Jesus’ love.  As we turn toward the light of love in the birth of the child, we realize that we may not be able to change circumstances; but we can engage them with the confidence and power of God’s love. God’s grace as Titus reminds us today, empowers us to live God’s way of love.

We have all walked in the messiness and darkness of the ordinary and may walk there again. But finally, for sure, we see a great light and the start of God’s new creation. So when we wonder what has happened to the real meaning of Christmas, we can know that the news of Christmas is truly for all who get caught up in the messiness and business of the season, and for us, too. This child born in the messiness and business of his day came to show us God love for all days. This is the real meaning of Christmas and good news of great joy, “Too you is born this day a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”