On Christmas morning in my family, before we open our gifts, we light a candle, symbolic of Christ’s presence and the light he brings to the world. Then we read the Christmas story as found in Matthew and Luke, and then we pray. It seems appropriate to end these reflections in the same way. I invite you to read the Christmas story as you celebrate on Christmas morning this year.

The Christmas Story in the Gospel of Matthew

            Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded himl he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25)

 

The Christmas Story in the Gospel of Luke

            In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and they glory of the Lord shone around them, “Do not be afraid; for see-I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child ling in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered tehm in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luke 2:1-20)

 

            Lord, thank you for coming to us in Jesus Christ. Thank you for the salvation he brings. Thank you for your love, mercy, and grace. Thank you for Christmas. Help us to live as Christ-followers and to take your light in to the world. Amen. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

            No one knows when Jesus was born. December 25 was chosen not because someone had a copy of Jesus’ birth certificate, but because, as the early church pondered when to celebrate Jesus’ birth, the winter solstice seemed the perfect time. They chose this time, I believe, not because it was already a pagan festival, though it was. I believe they chose this date because on this night the heavens themselves seemed to tell the Christmas story.

At the winter solstice, the world seems to change. Up to that day, the nights have been growing longer and the days shorter, Darkness has been defeating the light. But after the winter solstice, the days grow longer and the night grows shorter. Light overcomes darkness.

We have focused in this book on Matthew and Luke’s telling of the Christmas story; but John, too, tells the story of Christmas. He does not include shepherds or angels or wise men. He tells the story thus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” When better to celebrate the one who himself was light, who defeated the darkness, than on the winter solstice!

We observe candlelight at Christmas in part to commemorate the triumph of light over darkness that happens through Jesus Christ. The candle lighting portion of the service begins by extinguishing all the candles and turning out the lights in our sanctuary. We stand in the darkness, recalling the moments in our lives and in our world when darkness has seemed palpable. You can’t appreciate the light of Christ that comes to us at Christmas until you’ve first felt and known the darkness. Finally in our candlelight service, we bring in one candle from the back of the room-the Christ candle-representing Jesus himself. We then begin to pass the candlelight throughout the room, lighting one another’s candles as we sing “Silent Night.”

When we finish passing the light, we invite everyone to hold their candles high in the air, and we all just look around. The room that was pitch dark a few minutes before is now filled with the soft glow of candlelight. And this, we note, is the point of Christmas-God came to us in Jesus Christ to dispel the darkness with his light. Hate, violence, bigotry, war, poverty, disease, and even death seem so often to rule the world. But Jesus came to show us that God is, that God loves, and that hate and evil will not ultimately prevail.

I remind the congregation as we stand holding our candlelight that at one point in his ministry Jesus said, “I am the light of the world!” But as he called his disciples and invited them to follow, he said to them: “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). In this moment we see that Christmas is not only a gift from God-light piercing our darkness-it is also a calling from God to take his light into the world by our acts of love, mercy, and justice.

I’ll offer just one small example of the simple ways this mission is lived out: A couple of years ago on Christmas Eve, Karla, our pastor to senior adults, went to a nearby nursing home and went room to room, offering to read the Christmas story from the Gospels. After reading, she prayed with the residents and then moved on to the next room. She came to a room that was dark; the lights were off and the shades were drawn. She hesitated to go in but then noticed a woman sitting on the edge of the bed in the darkness, her hands folded in her lap, as though she were waiting for someone or something.

Karla asked if she could come in and read the Christmas story, and the woman whispered, “Yes.” After reading about the birth of Jesus, Karla prayed with the woman and then invited her to join in the Lord’s Prayer. Karla wished her a Merry Christmas and slipped out of the room. As she left, Karla heard the woman weeping quietly. She turned and stood at the door for a moment and heard the woman praying, “Lord, you didn’t forget me. I prayed that you wouldn’t forget me, and you didn’t.” Karla went back into the room, wrapped her arms around the woman, and held her as she wept. There in the darkness, light had come. It came because Christ was born in Bethlehem. It came because Karla had seen the light and felt compelled to share the light.

Christmas is God’s gift to us, a gift of light and life, hope and grace. The gift is a reflection of God’s concern for the world, and God’s desire to heal it and drive away its darkness. The gift of Christmas therefore comes with a mission, a calling, and a responsibility. We must bear Christ’s light into the world by our love, expressed through works of mercy and justice. At Christmas we are invited to bear the light, but not only to receive it. We are invited to bear the light, to walk in the light, and to take the light into the world.

 

            Lord, I accept your light, your love, your mercy, and your grace. Fill me with your love. By your Holy Spirit help me to reflect your light, to walk in your light, and to take your light into the world. Amen.

            In the times of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observe hos star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” (Matthew 2:1-2)

 

Luke tells us about the shepherds and the manger. Matthew doesn’t mention these at all. In fact, Matthew merely states that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He then tells us that sometime after Jesus was born., “wise men from the East” came to pay him homage. By the time the wise men arrived, Mary and Jesus were staying in a home.

I invite you to review what I have written about the wise men in The Journey  and what I mention there concerning King Herod the Great. Here I simply want to point out that the wise men were likely Zoroastrian priests from the area that today we call Iran. They were also likely astrologers, a profession which at that time was highly regarded. Somewhere between modern-day astrology and astronomy.

God beckoned the wise men to make several-month journey to see the infant Jesus, even though these men were likely not Jews. What does this tell you about God’s concern and interest in the nations of the earth, not simply in the Jews? In some ways this story reminds me of the story of Jonah, the reluctant prophet whom God used to call the Assyrian people to repentance.

When the wise men hound Mary and Jesus they were “overwhelmed with joy.” They then presented gifts they had brought all the way from Persia-gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

You may know that these gifts were signs pointing toward Jesus’ future identity. Gold is the gift of kings, and Jesus was the “King of kings.” Frankincense was used by priests in their offerings to God, pointing toward Jesus’ role as our “high priest.” And myrrh was used in embalming the dead, a gif that pointed, even then, to the fact that Jesus would one day die. The Christmas gifts of the magi also likely sustained Joseph, Mary and Jesus when they fled to Egypt, becoming refugees there, after learning that Herod wanted to kill Jesus.

Our congregation’s offering on Christmas Eve are one way of identifying with the magi in worship and of helping children in poverty. I’ve mentioned earlier in this book that on Christmas Eve night, our congregation gives away its entire offering, half to causes in a developing nation (currently, Malawi, Africa) and the other half to initiatives for children in poverty in Kansas City. This practice has proved to be very compelling not only for our members, but for the many visitors at the Christmas Eve services. Last year a young man came to me after worship and said, “I’m a Buddhist, and my friends invited me to come tonight. I loved the music and your message, but what most moved me was the fact that your congregation voted to give away the entire offering tonight for children in poverty. I’ll be back!”

Christmas has become, for most Americans, a season for gluttonous and overindulgent excess. But the wise men model for us a different approach to Christmas. They were not seeking to get more, but to give what they had to help the child and his family. Today we give what we have to help others in Christ’s family.

In recent years, a younger generation has sometimes accused Christians of judgmentalism, hypocrisy, and insensitivity to the needs of others. Yet this same generation is drawn to people and causes who, in the words of Micah, “do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” It may well be that when our celebration of Jesus’ birth begins to mirror the magi’s celebration, then a younger generation will begin to see the power of the Christian faith.

For more information about how you or your church can give as the magi did, or for possible projects to consider, go to www.JourneyThisChristmas.com.

Lord, help me to look for ways, in my sphere of influence and in my daily life, that I can “do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly” with you. Grant me a generous heart. Amen.

 

“This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:12)

 “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” (John 6:35a)

            After Jesus was born, he was wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a manger. A manger is a feeding trough from which donkeys, horses, and other animals eat. While we usually picture the manger as constructed of wood, the only examples we have left in the Holy Land from ancient times are actually large stones that have been carved out on top to hold straw.

Luke mentions the manger three times in just a few verses as he tells the story of Jesus’ birth. This is unusual and should lead us to ask why. Why does Luke feel it important to tell us about Jesus’ first bed? And why does he mention it three times?

One reason is obvious: the manger points to Jesus’ humble birth. It embodies a profoundly moving truth: that on his first night on this earth, the King of Glory, the Son of God, slept in a trough where the animals fed. What a picture of God’s desire to identify with the humble and the poor.

But I think Luke had something more in mind, something I had not seen in twenty-five years of preaching the Christmas story. I believe Luke mentions the sign of the manger three times to communicate the powerful image of Jesus’ first bed being the place where God’s creatures come to eat.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a town that means “House of Bread.” John would later describe Jesus multiplying the loaves of bread and saying, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry” (John 6:35). Jesus was, of course, speaking of a spiritual sustenance the world would receive from him. Matthew, Mark, and Luke record Jesus taking bread at the Last Supper and saying, “this is my body, which is given for you.” (See Luke 22:19.)

The manger-the feeding trough-was a sign of what Jesus came to do. He came to offer himself as bread for our souls. He came to satisfy a hunger that could not be satisfied any other way.

When Jesus was tested in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry, the devil tempted him to turn stones into bread. But Jesus responded by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “One does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4). Yet one of our greatest struggles is that we forget this. We come to believe that if we have enough bread-enough money, enough stuff-we will be satisfied. But here’s something I am absolutely certain of: there is nothing you or your family members will open on Christmas morning that will ultimately satisfy the deepest longings of your heart.

I have watched people in the congregation I serve who forgot this. They found that the “cares of this world and the desire for wealth” choked out the gospel. They lived their lives for more and bigger and better; but the more they had, the less they were satisfied, like someone with a disease that leaves them always hungry, and through they eat and eat and eat, they are never filled.

Our hearts hunger to know that we are loved, that our lives have meaning and purpose, that we can be forgiven and find grace, that we are not alone, and that there is always hope. We hunger to know that even death will not be the end of us; and we hunger for joy, and peace, goodness, and grace.

In this life, we wrestle with the temptation to believe that if we just had enough bread we would be happy. Luke, in the sign of the manger, is reminding us that Jesus is the only one who can truly satisfy the hunger of our hearts.

 

            Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more, Help me to trust in your love and to live in your grace. Help me to be a part of your purpose. Fill me with your Spirit, and guide me by your love. Amen.

 

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the  manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luke 2:15-20)

The shepherds had heard from heavenly messengers that a new king had been born in Bethlehem. They would find him in a parking garage the one (that’s what a stable was), lying in a bed of straw where the animals ate.

How would the shepherds respond? Would they stay in their fields; or would they leave their flocks, risk losing their jobs, and hike over the hillsides to Bethlehem in search of the newborn King? Scripture tells us what they did: The shepherds “went with haste” to see the one whose birth would be a source of “good news of great joy for all the people.”

When the shepherds arrived, they saw with their own eyes “Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger,” and they became God’s messengers-God’s angels-telling others about the child. This is important. It demonstrates a rhythm in the Christian life: Others tell us about Jesus, we see with our own eyes and believe, and we tell others what we’ve seen. Then we return to our daily lives with joy, changed forever.

It is Christmas time, and there are many people who typically don’t go to church but are searching nonetheless for the “good news of great joy for all the people.” They’ve been searching at the mall, at their Christmas parties, even sitting in font of a decorated Christmas tree, but they still haven’t found Christmas. And they won’t find it, unless someone plays the part of the angel and invites them to come and see the child “wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in the manger.”

Ann’s husband invited her to attend our candlelight Christmas Eve services one year. She wrote, “If my husband hadn’t invited me to Church of the Resurrection, I would still be searching for a way to fill the hole in my heart that God now fills.” That was many years ago; today, Ann has gone on to become a leader in our congregation.

Each year, we give away our entire Christmas Eve offering to two projects benefiting children in poverty. Half of the funds last year went to projects in Malawi, Africa, and the other half to renovate and support inner-city schools. Ann has become one of the leaders in our work with the inner-city schools, which includes tutoring, installing playgrounds, repainting buildings, and supporting teachers.

After we had completed a playground at one of the inner-city schools, a man at the school asked Ann, “Why would you do this for us?” She told him, “It’s our way of showing God’s love for you.” Both began to cry as they stood on the playground that day.

Ann’s angel was her husband, who invited her to “come and see.” She came on Christmas Eve and heard the story of the child, born in a barn, who slept in a feeding trough. She discovered the “good news of great joy for all the people.” When Ann returned home, “singing and praising God,” she went on to become a messenger who has shared God’s love with hundreds of others. They  world was changed because of that one invitation.

Who is God calling you to be a messenger for this Christmas?

 

            Lord, please use me to invite_________________ to Christmas Eve services this year. Make me one of your messengers. Then help _____________ to hear the “good news of great joy” that you have come to us in Jesus Christ.  Amen.