Stream services online at www.sjlc.com/live

December 24, 2009

Sights and Sounds

Preacher: Pastor Braun Campbell Series: Lectionary Category: Biblical Scripture: Luke 2:1–2:20

Christmas Eve
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Luke 2:1-20

“Sights and Sounds”

Here we are, and it’s Christmas Eve!  What have you seen over the past month or so while you’ve been preparing for Christmas?  What have you heard?  Maybe your family likes to sit down in front of the television to catch the sights and sounds of one of the season’s many Christmas specials, like my family did when I was little.  You’ve probably watched one of my favorite specials of all time, the classic, Chuck Jones-animated version of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”  This tale of the Grinch often kicks off the Christmas programming season with its encouraging message.  If you’ve seen this story on TV or read the book, you’ll know that the Grinch (his heart, two sizes too small), frustrated by and envious of the Christmas celebrations of all those Whos down in Who-ville, decides to keep Christmas from coming.  He attempts to do so by stealing away all the Christmas presents and decorations in the town – even morsels of food too small for a mouse – and to dump them all off the peak of Mount Crumpit.  But Christmas still comes for the Whos down in Who-ville, and as the sounds of their singing on Christmas morn rise even to the top of Mount Crumpit, the Grinch realizes that Christmas isn’t about presents and decorations: it’s not what you can buy in the store or find under the tree.  Christmas, it seems, is something much more.  But we never do see or hear what it is that Christmas is all about.  Well, this Christmas Eve, let me tell you: Christmas is about you!

“But, wait,” you might say, “that can’t be right!”  “That sounds like what I’ve been seeing and hearing from TV ads and stores for the past couple of months!”  True enough: our society does focus on the commercial drive of this season.  And even folks that aren’t all that caught up in shopping might think that Christmas is about being together with family, visiting Santa Claus, or celebrating other Christmastime traditions.  That’s what we see.  That’s what we hear.  So was Dr. Seuss wrong?  Does God say that Christmas is about you, too?  What do the sights and sounds of Scripture tell us?

Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth is another Christmas classic; it even shows up in “A Charlie Brown Christmas!”  Joseph, having heard of the emperor’s decree that all the people needed to head to their ancestral homes to be registered, goes with Mary, his betrothed, to Bethlehem.  And it is there that Mary gives birth one night, laying baby Jesus in a manger because no guest room was available for their family.  In that night, that first Christmas Eve, amazing sights and sounds are seen and heard.  It starts with the shepherds.  Out in the fields, in the middle of the night with their flock, they’re doing what they usually do, watching puffy white clouds of wool, dimly shifting shapes in the dark.  And then, out of nowhere – flash! – an angel, a messenger of God, appears to them and the glory of God shines all around them!  Imagine that sight!  But then the shepherds, who are understandably scared out of their minds, hear the sound of the angel’s message: “for there has been born for you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  And as soon as this angel has spoken that good news, a great company of the heavenly army appears – an even more overwhelming sight – and breaks into song, praising God and proclaiming peace to all those who know His favor – an even more extraordinary sound!  Having seen and heard this mind-blowing, heavenly message, what do the shepherds do?  They go!  They head into Bethlehem “with haste” to see the thing that the Lord made known to them.  And they see it, the sign that the angel had promised: a baby, just born, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.  Seeing the sign, they recounted what they had heard from the angel about this very baby, causing all who heard them to marvel.  The baby who was the sign to the shepherds was himself the subject of their message.  And how do the shepherds respond to these spectacular sights and sounds?  What do they do in the wake of these extraordinary events?  They go back to the fields, to their flock, glorifying and praising God for all they’d witnessed.

Can I still say that Christmas is about you?  Where were you in Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth?  Were you with the shepherds?  Were you in Bethlehem with those who marveled at what the shepherds said?  Even so, Christmas is about you.  Christmas is about you because Christmas is about Jesus, the Christ – and Jesus is about you.  You are the reason that Jesus, God’s Son, came into the world in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago.  You – and I – needed a Savior.  We know that there have been times in our lives where, like the Grinch, we were as cuddly as a cactus or as charming as an eel.  We have lived in darkness, wanting to believe that everything is about us, about what we want.  We were off on our own, away from God, hiding in a cave on Mount Crumpit.  Our hearts were full of unwashed socks, our souls were full of gunk; the best three words that described us were, quote: “Stink. Stank. Stunk.”  But God loved us, even still, and sent a Savior to us on that first Christmas Eve.

The angel’s message to those shepherds is the message that brings us here tonight, the Good News of a great joy that will be for all the people – you and me, included.  Like the shepherds, we could not have expected what would come.  God has broken in to the dark night of our lonely world with heavenly light.  We hear the proclamation of the Gospel: that a little baby who once lay in a manger would become a man who would die on a cross to win our forgiveness, that he who would lay in a borrowed tomb for three days would rise again and break the chains of death.  In Jesus, God brings peace between heaven and earth, for you.

How will you respond to the sights and sounds of that first Christmas Eve?  As you return to home and family, as you wake on Christmas Day, how will it change your routine, knowing that Christmas is about you?  I pray that you might experience the true peace that comes through God’s forgiveness, given and received.  I pray that you, like the shepherds who heard the very first Christmas carol sung by angels, would be moved by the Holy Spirit to glorify and praise God for all the things you have heard and seen.  I pray that you would know the great joy that is ours, for there has been born for you a Savior, Jesus, who is Christ the Lord!

The Grinch had a change of heart on that Christmas morning upon hearing the song of those Whos down in Who-ville; indeed, they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.  This Christmas Eve, may the light of the glory of God that surrounded the angels, along with the news carried by the shepherds into Bethlehem – all the sights and sounds of Jesus’ birth – enlarge our hearts as well.  Our savior has come!  Blessed Christmas to you!

Amen.

other sermons in this series

Feb 11

2024

Jesus Only

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Scripture: Mark 9:2–9 Series: Lectionary

Jan 7

2024

Star and Dove

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Scripture: Mark 1:4–11 Series: Lectionary

Dec 31

2023

Depart in Peace

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Scripture: Luke 2:22–40 Series: Lectionary