Luke 2:1-16

December 24, 2021

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA

Things Ain’t What They Used to Be. It’s a jazz standard from 1942, written by Duke Ellington’s son Mercer. It’s increasingly how I feel: Things ain’t what they used to be. In Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of the characters observes, “Everything is getting terrible.” Perhaps you’ve felt that way. “Everything is getting terrible.” Things ain’t what they used to be.

What does any of that have to do with Christmas? Much in every way. The cultural Christmas event is all about experiences. Adults want to recapture and experience anew our childhood Christmases, when things were better. We want to create great memories for our children.

Feelings of nostalgia are powerful. But they might just be a sin. We can’t recapture a golden age. Since man’s fall into sin, there never has been a golden age. The meaning of Christmas is not found in sentiment. The meaning of Christmas is not found in giving. As much as we should love our families, the meaning of Christmas is not found in family time.

Hidden beneath the happy exteriors, our families have flaws: problematic people; financial stress; declining health; addictions; relationships shattered seemingly beyond repair. There are those whom we have hurt, and those who have hurt us.

But the news of the birth of Jesus doesn’t come to happy people whose lives are all together. The news first breaks to shepherds who’ve pulled the third shift. It’s a garbage job that quite literally stinks. The angel who lights up the night doesn’t tell them that their economic circumstances are going to improve and they won’t be working nights anymore. The angel tells them that God has kept His ancient promise. To our first parents, at the time of their expulsion from Eden, God promised a Son who would crush the serpent’s head.

That serpent lied to our first parents, and they were deceived. His lie now envelops the world as a strong delusion. He calls good evil, and evil good. Humankind embraced the lie. We are now mired in corruption and death. Our desires enslave us. Our words hurt others. Anger, anxiety, loneliness, lust, these become our daily bread.

Into the world God sends His Son to stamp out the lie. Into a dying world God sends His Son to restore life. That’s the big story behind the Christmas story.

As literature, the Christmas story in Luke 2 is not very well written. We don’t learn the details of who is in the guest room that won’t give up their bed to a pregnant woman. We don’t learn the names of the shepherds, or how Mary really felt about putting her Baby in a feeding trough with the fragrance of cow pies filling the air.

Those details would make it a story like any other. But the Christmas story is not a standalone story. Together with the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christmas story is the pivotal moment in the larger story of the world. And you are in the story.

To understand the Christmas story, we cannot be spectators standing afar observing shepherds and angels and a mom with her baby. You are in the story. Before the events even happened, the prophet Isaiah was putting onto our lips, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” The angel who speaks to the shepherds tells them those words are fulfilled: “I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

This Savior is your Savior. Savior from what? He comes not to improve the circumstances of this age: this age is passing away; this world is dying. That dying the Son of God has taken into Himself. Jesus is wrapped in swaddling cloths in anticipation of being wrapped in the shroud when they place Him in the tomb. God assumed human nature to take that human nature through death into the resurrection.

That’s not just a spiritual thing; it’s bodily. God has taken a body, a human body like yours to redeem and save your body through death. God’s “goodwill toward men” is going to recreate the world.

So Christmas is not about your present experiences. There’s no need to recapture a lost past. You can let the nostalgia go. Now that you’re a Christian, everything that counts is getting better. The birth of Jesus is about your future: your future resurrection, and about how you pass the remainder of your time in this life. Your sins are forgiven. You forgive others. God’s goodwill is toward you. You now have a good will toward others. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ, your Lord.

+INJ+