John 7,28-29. Christmas Eve

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

John 7,28-29   513

Christvespers

Adam and Eve 

24. December 2012

1. Almighty God, who has given us Your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon Him and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin: Grant that we, being regenerate and made Your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by Your Holy Spirit (Book of Common Prayer 21-22).  Amen. 

2. So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple: „You know Me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of My own accord. He who sent Me is true, and Him you do not know. I know Him, for I come from Him, and He sent Me.“ 

3. On this holy night, we sing praise to the Little Child of Bethlehem, Jesus the Christ. During His ministry, Jesus taught who He was and from where He came. The 2. Person of the Triune God, the Son of God the Father, was incarnated in the womb of the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. Nine months later, Mary’s Son, was born in Bethlehem. Joseph then named Him Jesus, just as the angel Gabriel told him to do. 

4. As the Son of God, Jesus is the Crown Prince of all creation. When we celebrate His birth at Christmas we often picture Him as a peaceful baby sleeping in a wood manger. This gentle Child is still Divine with all His Godly attributes at his disposal. The little baby Jesus cuddled in Mary’s arms is the omnipotent, omniscient and eternal Prince of creation. To look at Him you would not realize this. He looks like any other crying baby complete with dirty diapers and other infant responsibilities. 

5. In Jesus we see God’s immanence manifested in all His loving glory. When the Triune God created human beings He created us male and female in His Divine image and likeness. God desired to dwell among mankind in the Garden of Eden. Jesus, therefore took up into Himself the human nature. The Son of God took on human flesh and blood. Just as Adam and Eve heard the footsteps of God in Eden, so too did Mary and Joseph hear the patter of little Divine feet when Jesus scampered around the house. 

6. Rationalists, Deists and Modernists prefer a transcendent God who is way up there in heaven while we are far below here on the earth so that only the barest minimum of contact between the spiritual and the natural realms occurs. The God revealed in the Bible, however, is an immanent and incarnational God who enjoys showing up in the very midst of His creation. Just as we converse and interact with friends and relatives is the way God intended to converse and interact with us. And so He does. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem is the culmination of God’s will. 

7. People get skittish with all this talk of God and man intermingling. Perhaps this is partly why people get their nose bent out of shape when they see a Nativity set prominently displayed in the borough square. Americans are comfortable with a separation between the Divine and the human as well as a separation between God and the civil realm. God, however, has different ideas about these things, and He will not be kept out of His creation. When God wants to show up and make His presence known He will do so and He will not worry about whose feet He steps on or whose opinions He offends in the process. 

8. For when it comes to saving fallen men and women, God has a plan and no amount of human interference will derail Him. God’s an to save His fallen creation culminates in the birth of Jesus. His arrival was the fulfillment of many prophecies that were given to comfort His people in their long, patient wait for His advent. The Prophet Isaiah acclaims Jesus to be: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (9,6). The angels heralded His birth, saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased (Luke 2,14)!  

9. Tonight we celebrate this Redeemer in Word and Carols. God is with us, and His name is Jesus, God’s chosen, the Christ, the Only Son of God. Jesus is sent, and He is born of the virgin Mary. The angel tells Joseph to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. The name Jesus translates as „Yahweh is salvation“, and Jesus is born to save you, me and all creation from sin, death and the devil. When your sins overwhelm you, when your friends are sick or when you are concerned about some situation, do not despair but rejoice, for you have an ally. God is with you. Jesus is in your midst to redeem you from your sins and help you in all your needs. Yahweh our God is a powerful ally and friend; He has saved you from whatever wickedness this fallen world can hurl at you. In the fullness of time Yahweh chose Mary and Joseph to be Jesus’ parents. Luke reminds you that God is your help in time of need. You can’t save yourselves from your sins or any other predicament you find yourselves in. God must work in your lives; He will work in your life. 

10. „Light breaks through Jesus’ birth in the middle of the night – it does not take much to experience this on Christmas Eve. It tells of the ancient promises of a King of Peace, who we find in Jesus, the descendant of King David and their fulfillment. He is Immanuel, God is with us. The night of His birth recalls the great mystery of God: truly in this little Child, in Jesus Christ, He shows Himself. God’s truth is located and veiled here and nowhere else“ (ELKB).  Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, both Son of God and Son of Man, the heavens are glad and the earth rejoices, for You have arrived to judge the earth. O Jesus, Your judgment upon us is not guilty; help us to rejoice in this marvelous justification so that we may live each day with the Christmas spirit of joy and peace.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1771 Oxford University Press. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.