He came down to earth from heaven
Sermon for Christmas Eve, year C
Bible reading: Luke 2:1-20
Tom wasn’t looking forward to Christmas. It had been a very difficult year for every member of his family. While all the other children were talking about Christmas and getting excited about all the presents they were hoping to give and receive, it just made Tom feel sad. One weekend as Tom sat at home feeling hungry because there was no money for food, and cold because there was no money for electricity he decided to write to Father Christmas, to explain the problems his family was facing and to ask for a little help. He wrote:
“Dear Father Christmas: I don’t know if you’ll get this letter, but thanks for reading it if you do. I am writing to tell you that things are very bad at our house. My dad is very ill and lost all his money because his friend ran off to South America with all his money. My Mum had an accident and must lie down and not move for six weeks. My brother had a good job, but was made something called redundant, and owes lots of money he can’t pay off. Our dog is sick but we can’t afford the vets bills, and there’s a hole in our roof and rain is forecast. Please could you send us $100 so that we can at least have a nice Christmas? Love… Tom.”
When Tom’s letter arrived at the post office, addressed to “Father Christmas, Greenland”, one of the post office workers opened the letter and said to his fellow workers: look chaps, this lad needs a bit of help. Let’s chuck in some money and send it to him and say it came from Father Christmas. They collected $80 and sent it with a note saying: “Here you are Tom. Love, Father Christmas.”
A few days later a letter addressed to: Father Christmas, Greenland, arrived from Tom, and the workers again opened it, and read Tom’s letter. It said:
“Dear Father Christmas. Thank you ever so much for the money. I only got $80 of it, but then, you know what those thieving beggars at the post office are like!!!”
Like Tom’s life, our world is in a hell of a mess. If it’s not your family, then there’s bound to be a family near you with a heap of problems. And if you don’t know a family that’s breaking down, then you do know that the world is in crisis.
In parts it’s over heating and in other parts it’s freezing or flooding. Some people are suffering from overeating, and many more are dying from starvation. We build ever-bigger homes for ever-smaller families, whereas much of the world is driven from its homes by war or drought.
And on this night we are introduced to a very troubled family, enduring the scorn of a pregnancy outside of marriage, traveling long distances to comply with government regulations while heavily pregnant, not welcome at any relative’s home, and turned away from the overcrowded inn. Pointed to a smelly cattle shed, just in time to give birth, and lay the baby in the manger that the cattle ate from. Not too much later, under threat of death from a near mad king, they escape to Egypt as refugees, and it’s not till some years later they finally arrive back home in Nazareth, where this whole saga began.
What is going on in this story of Mary and Joseph and Jesus? This is God’s messy way of rescuing a messed up world. God came down to earth from heaven, and entered right into the mess and brokenness of life. God became one of us & suffered with us in every way.
But God wasn’t recognised. Bethlehem didn’t recognize what was going on. Mary and Joseph’s families weren’t there and didn’t know. When Jesus grew up his own family and townspeople didn’t know. He came to his own people and they wouldn’t receive him.
The church leaders rejected him, and plotted to kill him. The politicians had no interest in him, and carried out his murder on the cross.
And are we much better at recognising that God has come to save us? O, we love our annual Christmas celebrations. We love to be in church and sing the carols. It’s all so nice. But it isn’t really so nice. For we’re in just as bigger danger that life goes on for another year and nothing changes between Christmases. Yet God is breaking into this sinful world tonight, to love us all, to forgive us all, to change us all, to call us all to follow him, to disturb us, to call us to a living faith. Jesus breaks into the failing kingdom of this world and calls us all to turns our backs on it, and come with him and live with him in his kingdom of love and joy and peace, right in the midst of this messy world.
Robert Browning once wrote a little poem about how nice life is, which concluded with the words: God’s in his heaven, and all’s right with the world.
It can feel like that on a nice sunny day at the beach, but the truth is all’s not right with the world. In fact all’s wrong with the world, and if God’s in his heaven, we’re in big trouble. Psalm 102:19 says: the Lord looked down from heaven to hear the groans of the prisoners on earth.
But at Christmas God does so much more than look down from heaven and hear the groans of Tom and all who suffer and sin. God came down
; The Word became flesh
; God was in Christ
; conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate
. Jesus was born and was called Immanuel, which means, ‘God with us’.
Thank God that God didn’t stay at a remote distance, where those who don’t want to follow God want God to stay. In Jesus, God comes down to earth, and enters into every pain and suffering that Tom’s family or yours ever endure. He endured rejection, shame, misunderstanding, homelessness, hunger, thirst, being single and celibate, suffering, betrayal, torture, and finally crucifixion and death.
And he did this all out of love for you. He did it all to pay the price for your sins and failures, for all the times you ignore God, and blame God, and reject God, and refuse to believe in Jesus and follow him. He came to earth and endured all this to forgive you, and to forgive the world for all that is wrong, and call us all to follow him in faith, hope and love.
Jesus was not born in a palace, but in a manger, in a stable, on the fringes of society.
For that we should be truly thankful this night. God came down to earth from heaven to have mercy upon all who live on the margins, all who are rejected and looked down on, all who know they are in desperate need for help that no mere mortal can give them. Tonight God entered our world to rescue Tom and his family, to become a child to welcome children who sing his praises and tell his story.
Tonight God came down in Jesus to welcome every sinner. Jesus came down and was placed in a feeding trough to be the food, which saves the world from sin and death, and brings it to life in the Kingdom of God. So welcome God when he comes to you in Jesus tonight, and tomorrow, and every day of every year of your life. He came down to earth from heaven, placed in a feeding trough, to be the food to nourish you for eternity. Amen.