Sunday, December 25, 2022

Sermon (Christmas Eve) by Rev. Robert McDowell




    For the past several Sundays, we have been preparing for this holy night by singing and reflecting on the Charles Wesley Advent hymn, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” If you’ve been hanging out here at our church these past several weeks, tonight marks the 5th time you have sung this hymn. 

     And if you come back here tomorrow morning to worship, you will get to sing it a 6th time! See what I’m doing here? Extra points if you come to church tomorrow morning!

     But after tomorrow’s worship service, we are going to retire this hymn until next Advent. It needs some well deserved rest from it’s busy schedule this year. But I sure hope that we will continue to sing this hymn in our hearts well into the New Year!

     I love this hymn. The lyrics are meant to help us receive the joy of this holy night in all of it’s fullness and glory.

     Over these past several weeks, we have been focusing on this line from verse 1. Let’s say it together in unison:

     “Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.”

     Tonight, we are going to conclude our focus on this hymn by looking at this last phrase in verse 1, “Joy of every longing heart.”

     So be prepared, because later in this service, after the goose bumps part of the service where we sing Silent Night and light our candles, we are going to raise this roof when we sing these wonderful words, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!”

     “Joy to the world!” “Joy of every longing heart.” 

     Christmas is about joy.

     So as I’ve been reflecting on the Christmas story, I am struck by just how much joy was present when the shepherds were told that the Savior of the world was born. We are told that while they were tending sheep that night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them saying, 

     “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.”

     There’s the Christmas joy! “Good news of great joy,” the angel told them. This is one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. What a great way to describe our faith! “Good news of great joy!”

     I think I’ll start introducing myself to others by using this phrase. “Please say your name and what you do for a living.”

     “Hi, my name is Robert McDowell and I’m a preacher of good news of great joy for all the people!” 

     No wonder Charles Wesley included this phrase in his hymn, “Joy of every longing heart.” If you have a longing heart, the angel has an important message to give you, “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people!”

     I mentioned this a couple of Sundays ago when we were looking at the first phrase of Wesley’s hymn. Notice the creative poetry Charles Wesley uses in how he repeats the word, “born” several times in these two verses of his hymn. 

     “Born to set thy people free,” is what we sing at the beginning of verse 1. And then he creatively uses that word three more times in verse 2. Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king, born to reign in us for forever.”

     Jesus was born a King to deliver us from our fears and sins, and to reign in us forever! The birth of Jesus is good news of great joy!

     As a pastor, I have always worked really hard in having the Season of Advent be a time for us to wait expectantly for the joy of Christmas. I’ve always looked at Advent from our perspective in how we need to patiently wait for Christmas to come.

     This year, I’ve been thinking more about what it must have been like for God to wait for Jesus to be born.  Just think what that must have been like for God to wait for the right time to send Jesus into the world. 

     The reason I say this is because this is a God who yearns for our world to be made new again. This is a God who longs for our world to be filled with peace. This is a God who desperately wants there to be justice and righteousness for all people. This is a God who wants to reconcile the world to himself. And this is a God who longs to be in a loving relationship with each and everyone of us.

     Just think what it must have been like for God to wait for Jesus to be born in this world. God knew that the gift of his Son would make all the difference in our lives and in our world. The good news of Christmas is that there is hope for our world.

     In Marilynne Robinson’s book, Lila, one of her characters says this powerful line, “If there is no Lord, then things are just as they look to us.”

     The good news of Christmas is that there is a Lord who has sent us Jesus to help us see things not just as they look to us, but in a new way and from God’s point of view. Maybe this is why Christians get up, get dressed and come to church every Sunday morning when we could just sleep in and do whatever. 

     The good news of Christmas points us to a God who isn’t just some distant deity, wishing us good luck from afar. This is a God who was willing to become one with us by sending us Jesus and who points us to a new and transformative way of looking at ourselves and the world around us.  

     I’m sure that God couldn’t wait for Mary to give birth and for this good news to be unleashed in the world. What else would you expect from a trinitarian God who speaks, who shows up, and who intervenes? This is a hands on God who is willing to do surprising things like have some shepherds out in the fields to be the first ones to hear about Christ’s birth.   

     Speaking of hymns, there is this wonderful line in the hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” that we will be singing a little later in our service.

     “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin Where meek souls will receive him still The dear Christ enters in.”

     “Where meek souls will receive him still, The dear Christ enters in.”

     We receive the joy of Christmas when we, like Mary, become Christ bearers. God invites us to give birth to Jesus Christ in our own lives. This is what changes the world as we all give birth to this good news of great joy.

     Spanish, mystic, St. John of the Cross who lived during the 16th century once said, “For each of us is the midwife of God, each of us.” 

     Christmas is a time for us to open every aspect of our lives to God’s transforming and redeeming love, which in turn leads us to seek the change that God wants to see in the world. It’s what reminds us again and again that things don’t just have to be “as they look to us,” to quote that line again.

     When we allow our longing hearts to be filled with the joy of Christ’s birth, we become a transformative force of love that changes homes, workplaces, communities, and even the world. And our work continues until Christ comes again in final victory and reigns over all creation. 

     The good news of great joy that the angel shared with the shepherds that the Savior of the world was born, led them to go to Bethlehem to experience it for themselves. And then Luke tells us that after they saw Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger, that they made known what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.  

     The last verse is the really fun verse in the Christmas story. Luke says that these shepherds, who probably weren’t what you would call the most religious people that God could have chosen to first hear the good news of Christ’s birth… these shepherds, we are told “returned, glorying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

     That night, those shepherds found joy!

     Last year, one of our neighbors told Penny and me that we needed to go and see a house that was known for having a lot of Christmas decorations. They said, “You won’t believe how many Christmas lights and decorations this family has around their house. You really need to go see it.”

     Looking back on that day, this neighbor reminds me of that angel telling the shepherds to go and see this good news of great joy.

     So, one night we decided to drive around in the different neighborhoods and see Christmas lights which were nice. We were going to head back home when we remembered about this one house that our neighbor told us we needed to go and see.

     It’s a house that is kind of tucked away off a main road. We only found it because our neighbor gave us very detailed directions in how to get there. It was kind of off the beaten path. Maybe a little bit like Bethlehem, not the place you would expect to find anything special.

     And so, we followed this narrow dirt road toward this house. We kind of wondered if we were heading in the right direction. This is where he said we would find the most amazing Christmas lights? This house was tucked back in the woods.

     And that’s when we noticed the radiating and beaming glow of lights that were just ahead of us. And as we pulled up to this house, we realized that this family took Christmas decorating to a whole different level!

     Here is what greeted us upon our arrival at this house…



     The word, “Joy” with spectacularly large letters and all lit up so brightly! 

     I took a picture of it and then later posted it on Facebook with the caption, “I found joy!!!” And we did that night!

     The angels have announced to us where we can find true joy. Go to Bethlehem, down this dirt road, and you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

     This is where you will find the joy of every longing heart.

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