Christmas Eve, 12/24/2011

Sermon on Luke 2:10-12, by Steve Saxe

The Creator Clothed!

the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

This is a night of great joy! For the coming of God in our human flesh brings with it a marvel and wonder beyond compare. So all of us; even many in the world out there who will not darken the doorway of a church over the next few days will celebrate. They will observe "holiday" but we, on this most festal of nights, we feast a holy-day, for Christ is born!

I can't help but notice that some of you are dressed to do that now! You have put on your best seasonal holy-day apparel that marks the feasting we begin at this service of Vigil.

Many of us can remember the day when you wouldn't think about attending a church service without dressing up in fine clothes. And while we live in more informal & comfort-seeking time, putting on our winter best is meet right & proper for this night! For we gather to rejoice in the the confession that on this day, God the Son, eternally begotten of the Father clothed Himself in the humility of our humanity. Jesus Christ is born of the Virgin Mary! And He whom Mary wrapped in bands of cloth & is placed in a manger is a new born.

So let us wonder that He through whom all things were made needs the protective cover against the chill of the night that His virgin mother provides. For Luke tells us that she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths. Let us marvel that He who is laid in the manger is the One by Whom all things were made! Let us bow our hearts if not our heads in the acknowledgement that He is subject to over-exposure from elements that He will later control. How odd that this infant who could still the storms of Galilee subjects Himself to the cold of night weather that would harm any normal newborn!

We who sit here in the comfort of this warm place heated by modern HVAC technology forget how coarse and primitive our Lord's Nativity is! Few of us would endure sitting long in the environment XC thatwas born into; imagine giving birth in such a place!

In the security and comfort of our modern day, we sentimentalize and sanitize this night nearly beyond recognition! And in so doing we fail to recognize the grand paradox of God the Son born in such a place! It is truly as Giovani Papini says: The filthiest place in the world was the first room of the only pure man ever born of woman!

Over the years of Christmass observed in sanitary sanctuaries with nice nativity sets, we have seen characters who look fashion models! And so have minimized the grand mystery of an infant God wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. Is it any surprise then that we fail to appreciate the "down & dirty" that attends the Creator becoming clothed in our humanity. And who does so that we might be clothed in His righteousness!

Let us make no mistake about that: we DO need to be clothed! Our splendid holiday apparel cannot hide our true dress, for we have been born into sin & exposed to its dread consequences. So wrapped up in ourselves that we reject communion w/ the true God, exchanging it for the god of self. So clothed in corruption that St. Paul describes our human

righteousness before God as filthy rags! Unfit to live in, much less wrap any baby in!

Because of this age old human rebellion that we inherit, we find ourselves dead in trespasses & sins.

But the wonder of His birth on this night is that He puts on our human frame so that we might be wrapped in His divine life...and so He is born naked, as all infants. Born naked for two reasons:

First, to strip us of all human pride & pretense in the exposure of our sin. Just as Adam and Eve found themselves naked in sin and attempted to cover themselves up... so do we find ourselves "covering our tracks" and "covering up" so that our sin might remain hidden. Such attempts require an act of God to help us realize that we are the ones who are naked before God! Stripped of all righteousness and goodness through our self-determined sin that can only result in self-destruction. It is because of our nakedness and exposure before before a holy God that Christ comes! So that by His birth, His life, and His death, we might through faith in Him be wrapped in the righteousness of God that He comes to give.

So it is that He born & clothed in bands of cloth. Clothed that we might know that God has clothed Himself in the weakness of our humanity in order to bring us the divine and glorious strength of His divinity. Clothing us in the righteousness of this infant born in such a mean estate, whose praises we sing this night!

For He who is exposed by birth to the cold of night is hymned by angels & seen by Shepherds.

He who is wrapped in bands of cloth, lying in a manger is our Savior, XC the Lord. He who is rich becomes poor in assuming the poverty of our human existence even unto death naked, upon a cross, naked as the day He was born!. For living as the first true human in complete

communion with God, Jesus is born to give Himself, so that by His birth, death & resurrection, we might be wrapped in the life and forgiveness that He brings.

So by all means, let us dress up and celebrate! Not sentimentally, but in spirit and the truth of God born into the world for us. For XC is born to grant us a new birth.

As Pr. AC Piepkorn: The Child in the manger is the Word of God made man, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God." This tiny Infant is the Maker of the world, the Lord of eternity, the Prince of Peace. "Ye shall find a Babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes," the shepherds were told. But the discerning eye of faith sees Him as the medieval painters portrayed Him, wrapped in the glory that marks Him as the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

So let us also wonder & celebrate!

Many of us will do that with gift giving. As you commence with the unwrapping of whatever nice new item of apparel that someone has seen fit to give you, remember to say "thank you" and then rejoice in that incorruptible nature that God gives in the birth of His Son wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

Jesus, who empties Himself in His Nativity that we might share in His fullness as people made truly alive by faith in the righteousness that He comes to clothe us in.

Because of this night, and the child, born for us, and wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

Is it any wonder the angels sing Glory to God! So we also join in their song of praise!

Amen

Pr. Steve Saxe
Greenville
E-Mail: LCGS1601@aol.com

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