Christmas Eve

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0:00 So I feel like I can't get away from reading the story, the version that Luke tells us. So we're going to start with this story. Hopefully you've heard it before if you haven't. It's the most comprehensive telling of the birth of Jesus. That first time it's in Luke chapter 2 and it goes like this, in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. And this was the first registration when Coronius was governor

0:34 of Syria and all went to be registered. Each to his hometown and Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David and he went there to be registered with Mary his betrothed who was with child and while they were there the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a

1:07 manger because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with fear and the angel said to them, oh fear not. For behold I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all

1:39 people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David Savior who is Christ the Lord and this will be a sign for you you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude in the heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When angels went away from them into heaven the shepherds said to one another let's

2:13 let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us and they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger and when they saw it they were they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the baby and all who heard it wondered and what the shepherds had told them. You know Mary she treasured up all these things pondered them in her heart and the shepherds returned glorifying

2:47 and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. That's the story that we hear maybe every year that that Charlie Brown and Linus remind us of on some cable channel buried or in some classroom. I remember it read by a guy with a much better reading voice than me when I was a kid at the live nativity growing up you know outside playing my roles of sheep or shepherd.

3:19 This is the story that is told get told and is preserved over and over again. It's funny it's told so much is the Christmas story that you might think if you go and look in the gospels you see it every time. The fascinating thing is that you don't it's only in Luke that it's told this way. John and Mark just about skip over completely the birth of Jesus Matthew mentions it but just one little line and then he comes down to the Magi. It's right here where we get the

3:53 story the deeper story we get to historical context there's a lot of reasons for that probably. Chief among them is two things one Luke rewrote the story after the fact he was kind of a documentarian he had ended up following fall on the missionary journeys wrote most of acts went back and interviewed Mary to get the story of the birth this is why he gets so much of that story even the business of the shepherds coming even the business of the shepherds coming that slipped out of notice everywhere else he captures that for us

4:28 because Mary remembers it and pondered it all in a heart we also get the business about Quarianius as governor of Syria because Luke was interested in writing a definitive biography of Jesus and so he wanted to locate Jesus in historical facts and so you want to know when Jesus of Matthew was born it was during the period of this first registration when when Quarianius was governor right first time so now we know when it happened and we know the people that were there because Luke went down and asked Mary about it about the birth story I got started

5:05 thinking about these stories and our time together this evening what did a week ago when they had the the things the planet synced up right and they said this is the star I was busting Mike's chops he was telling me this is a star I said my god made the world in seven days we don't even wait for planets to align for for there to be a star right but maybe it was right but I was starting to think about that star that appeared and how it pulled these magi in their

5:39 whole crew a lot of people think that the magic if you go into Matthew's story it's clear actually that by the time the magic get there Jesus and Mary and Joseph are living in a house they're no longer in a stable it says they come into the house to see Mary and Joseph and and that the the Pharisee the the church leaders with Herod when they tell the magi where to go they tell him to go to Bethlehem but then the star reappears and guides them we think

6:10 somewhere else we think by the time the magic get there they're in Nazareth and then when Herod tries to try to retaliate and kill the king that might be an upstart he kills all the boys that are two years of age and younger and he does that because he asked the magi when the star would appear so it seems like that star the story of Jesus pulled the the wise men the magi from the east on a two-year journey one way so it wasn't just three it's not three dudes that go

6:46 off on camels and come from the east on a two-year journey that brings something like gold frankincense and mer valuable things they had a whole entourage when I thought about that star that Mike told me about which is the planets and then this the star of Bethlehem I thought about the magi and then my next thought was this little baby Jesus was relevant at the moment to all sorts of people like all kinds of people like the reason that Matthew calls

7:22 them mad guys because Matthew's writing mostly to a Jewish audience and the term magi for them would mean some silly stargazer who knows nothing about the law and the prophets it's almost like these silly magi were clued into the coming of the Messiah and the church leaders of Herod didn't even know it happened it's an indictment right but what's so fascinating to me is that this little baby Jesus is relevant to the magi all the way off in the east right but

7:56 but now we don't these are wealthy people far removed from Jewish culture and Jesus is relevant to their lives I wish we had the stories of what happens where those magi go where they take the story of Jesus how they understand what they encountered and what comes in the wake of that understanding one day we'll ask them hey guys good job catching on how was the rest of your life I'm very

8:30 curious but Jesus was relevant not only to the magi I write to Herod very clearly like powerful the magi and Herod have money Magi are probably more powerful than Herod Herod's kind of a puppet king but he's important enough to be able to when he gets scared all of Israel gets scared right Jesus is relevant to Magi and to Herod and to the shepherds we've talked about the shepherds

9:01 before but shepherds were the bottom rung of the economic kind of ladder it's like an equivalent might be like sharecropping or migrant workers there are people who can't get a better job and they're staying out in the fields because it's the sheep are having their babies out there so they've got to birth the babies and Jesus is so relevant to the poor migrant worker that they leave

9:33 their responsibility and come into town Jesus is relevant at all levels in all cultures hello this is why we're still here you know we didn't start celebrating Christmas on the 25th until the mid 300s it's because Constantine had made Christianity the dominant religion of Rome and there was already a holiday that he wanted to change on the 25th was to the pagan gods and we needed to

10:07 worship the one true God so he moves the celebration of the birth on to the 25th the further you get into the story of Christianity of our people the people of Adam and Eve of Abram and Sarah of Isaac and Jacob and Rebecca of Christ of Paul of Peter the further you get into our story the more you realize it is a story of a nation of people right a team of people a tribe of people committed to the way of Jesus that is that's that's build on this story that hangs on a

10:40 tenuous stretch the only way it works the only way the story endures is because it is relevant in all lives and every situation wherever you are at today wherever you come from whether you have money or none whether you have family

11:12 or are alone whether you from the east or the west whether you believe or you do not believe today the person of Jesus of Nazareth is relevant to you significant important the person of Jesus of Nazareth has been changing lives affecting lives for millennia in every situation and you can do it for you this

11:48 was the rub for me when I started to think about the star my point out to me the planets aligning might be the star of Bethlehem and I thought about the mad guy and that Jesus is relevant to the mad guy then then that Jesus is relevant to Herod and then to the shepherds and to Mary Joseph and then they do this relevant to everyone and that his story endures I thought how did how did this how did the story endure like we don't know anything about the mad guy anymore

12:19 two years they wander they fought they follow a star they get there and then the only reason we hear about him is because Matthew thinks to write him down to take a shot at the is the Jewish people that he's trying to say wake up to the story of Jesus the only reason that we know about the shepherds is because Mary remembered them enough to tell Luke so that he would write it down the story the passing on of Jesus is hanging on this really interesting thread like like the the incarnation is this momentous event that changes the course of all

12:54 human history that's relevant to all lives everywhere all the time if I were doing something like that I would drop it in Corinneus's lap not Mary and Joseph's lap I would put it out wrong all roads lead to Rome I'd put Jesus Jesus's little nativity set right where all roads meet right it's fascinating to me endlessly fascinating that that the God of creation in life

13:28 accomplishes the information and to give anybody to pay attention have to send a military host of angels to appear in the sky just to get someone to show up and celebrate the fact that he did it and that once he's done it we have to rely on the fact that Mary took all these things and pondered them in her heart because after he's born the shepherds go home Mary and Joseph are still in the

14:03 end the story doesn't go once they figured out who Jesus was they got a nice bed sleep in and people took care of them everyone promptly forgot about it Jesus gets lost when he's 12 because he's just one of the kids running around I think that is fascinating it I was trying to square it and I found this

14:34 little phrase from Paul that's important because I think is helpful for us this year Paul is writing to the church in Philippi and he's trying to explain a couple things about God to them he's trying to explain the character of God to them and let me make sure I don't read you too much because I can get carried away and nobody wants that Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 oh here it is

15:15 Paul is saying here's the character of God that you can emulate have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus this is the mind you should have which belongs to you because of the work of Christ Christ who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of

15:49 men think take notice of the character of your God he birthed a human who is in likeness of God the creator and sustainer of the world the re-creator of all things the font and source the end and the beginning the alpha in the omega all things in one person and how does he do it he doesn't like ascend full human like Captain Marvel style emanating light for all the world to see how

16:22 glorious he is he does it quietly in the back room of a stable and just because he wants some celebration he sends a whole host of angels to the forest in town and ask them to come celebrate his birth with him this is intense humility on the part of God that he has launched the project that will save humanity that is relevant to all people for all time he has launched the product into the

16:52 world and doesn't even like the neighbors don't even know I thought about that sometimes like like Jesus as he grows up he gets the following you know at one point he's got five thousand men plus women and children following their teaching I wonder if if there's anybody in that following her or maybe they're at the triumphal entry right before his crucifixion or maybe even one of the 500 he appears to after his resurrection I wonder if there's any who did the math

17:25 and found out that they were there in Bethlehem and that they missed it it's not about that sometimes Quiranias sits somewhere in Rome certain that he is in control of the world the Roman emperors would often call themselves the son of God completely unbeknownsting and the son of God is launched into the world God is accomplishing his purposes in and among the mundane and and those enamored with their own power and problems might walk right by the stager

18:00 of the world and forget not even know it happened this is the turns for me of the Christmas story oh good Lord don't let me be the neighbor that missed it look a lot has been going on in your life this year if you're alive thank God some of us have lost there there have been more deaths

18:30 this year in our country than ever this has been a perilous year right cratering job spaces like who knows what's coming in our economy and lives who knows we don't know I do know that in it all quietly the God of Christmas is at work

19:08 the God of Christmas is at work he accomplishes the incarnation very quietly and bothers very few people he might be slipping into your life and you don't even know it he might be moving in

19:39 the lives of the people in your very own house and if you're not slow and quiet you'll miss it he might be stirring up compassion charity love service in your own heart and if you're not moving slow enough you'll walk right past it good Lord Christmas if anything might be a call to you tonight to just pause

20:13 for a minute and if he won't send you a host of angels maybe one like Elijah if you won't come in fire and earthquake maybe he'll send you a still small voice to clear clue you in on where he's working in your life and around your life this year if Christmas teaches us anything it ought to be that God can do

20:47 anything and he does quietly around us all the time look this year is hard but it does not mean God has gone Christmas is our evidence that he is very very here and committed my prayer this week has been

21:18 Lord let me be a part of it I'd I'd much rather be the shepherd that's there than the neighbor that missed it even if I've got to be the mad guy on the two-year journey to get the glimpse I'll take that as long as I'm not the church leaders who had no clue that's my prayer I'm gonna pray that for you now and then we'll worship together a little bit hey Lord make us the people who get

21:50 it or we don't want to be disengaged from the world you were not we want to find solidarity with the suffering and the poor like you did we want to celebrate your reign on earth and walk in the reality that you've given us the spirit or we want to be active and engaged but Lord please not so engaged

22:26 that we are too busy to afraid too sad too hopeless to see you hey this Christmas or we would like to be people who have seen you work work kindness in our heart work generosity work faith in our loved ones work prosperity where it's needed

23:01 Lord and generosity where it's not maybe with us now in Jesus' name we pray