Christ’s Promising Word

Christmas Eve
December 24, 2009
God Delivers
Luke 2:1-20

A Baby is Born

Every Child is a Gift from God

This is the holy night that echoes with the cries of joy that came the night that Christ the Lord was born. “Do not be afraid,” the angel said, “for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will be to all people; for to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”

The hearts of parents quiver and shake at the sight of every newborn child. The angels sing at every birth. Each child is a precious gift from God.

But, never did the angels sing like this. Never was a child born equal to this child. For when Mary’s labor had ceased and the baby washed and wrapped and swaddled, what the angels had to say about it was that it was not so much Mary who had delivered a child that night as it was God.

God Delivers in the Baby Jesus

God delivers in the baby Jesus. God delivers. God delivers on every promise made through the ancient prophets.

God comes through with our deliverance from sin and death and everything that makes our life so dreary and so dreadful. God comes through for us in this small child. “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”

From the deep, rich depths of God’s own heart, God sends a package U.P.S.—for Us, Personally, Specifically—a Savior, a Deliverer, who is Christ the Lord. That is the angel song, which rings out still (as clear as a bell) this Christmas Eve.

But, Did God Have To Use Such Plain Packaging?

But did God have to use such plain, ordinary brown paper when God sent to us the Savior? And did God have to set him down so silently that night?

Quite frankly, the Savior that God delivered at the stable door is not the package people had expected.

It is like when a child eagerly rips open a long awaited gift there beneath the tree, only to discover underwear. Plain, ordinary underwear.

Here we ask for deliverance…we await for a Savior..and God first gives us a child wrapped in swaddling cloths and then a man who dies just as naked upon a cross. What kind of deliverance is that?

What Good is Jesus For the Problems of Today?

We need real deliverance.

We need an end to war and terrorism. A stop to bombings and killing in the Middle East. A cure for AIDS and heart disease and cancer and for viruses of every kind including those that attack our body and our software.

Caesar could deliver

We need to get our economy going again, boost the job market, fix health care, save the environment. We need to feed the poor and homeless here and abroad. What good is a child born in David’s town—a Savior wrapped in diapers—for the problems of today?

Now Caesar August, there was a king who could deliver! Two centuries of global peace, safe cities and safe travel, efficiency of government, food for the poor and hungry shipped from Egypt at his own expense. Divine Augustus, people called him. Soter. Savior.

And what do you want to bet that people still today look for their salvation more in the halls of government than they do in Bethlehem’s stable or at the foot of the cross (the one that Jesus died on)?

Jesus Gives us a Salvation Unlike Any Other

But the angels know that there will come a day when the eyes of all the world will realize the Jesus gives to us a salvation unlike any other. And so, they made a loud and joyful noise and honked their horns the day that Christ was born: “To you is born this day…a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

From the depths of God’s eternal love, God delivers. God sends a package UPS—for Us, Personally, Specifically—a Soter, a Savior. A deliver-er who is greater than any president or Caesar. For consider now what he has done.

Christ puts an end to war and establishes a peace between sinners and their God. Christ heals our divisions and terminates the hostile way we hammer at each other. Christ gives a boost to our economy by canceling the debt we have to God, which we could never pay.

His rule is redeeming because he gives himself in service. His kingdom is healing and restoring because he reigns in love. And best of all, he feeds poor sinners with the Bread of Life—the food of our forgiveness purchased at his own expense…at the cost of his own blood.

The Christ-Mass Reveals Christ's Love

The meal that we eat tonight—the CHRIST-MASS—reveals the measures that Christ took to deliver us from sin. This Savior, Jesus Christ, delivers the goods far better than any Caesar.

The only difference is God wrapped him in swaddling and laid him a manger and then hung him naked on a cross. That is the way it had to be for Christ to deliver us. He had to crawl into our human skin to take on our sin and death.

The Very Savior We Need

From the depths of God’s eternal love, God sends a package UPS. God does not give us another bureaucrat. God does not create another politician or statesman. God knows we have enough of that. God gives us the very Savior that we need to deliver us from everything that makes life so dreary and so dreadful.

God sends a package UPS and God lays him at our door wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

Yes, he does look a lot like plain, ordinary underwear—especially with those diapers wrapped around his tiny legs. But then, sometimes underwear is the very gift we need the most.

Christ is born! God delivers! And angels sing. “Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on earth.”

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

December 28, 2008
First Sunday of Christmas
The Word of Life
1 John 1-2:2

John, Patron Saint of Masons

Saint John Evangelist

Once again a word of welcome to our guests: the baptismal party from California and the masons from Elyria Lodge 787. As I said before, one of the favorite patron saints of masons is the Saint John and you have chosen wisely for John is a great saint to have as a patron, especially during the Christmas season.

And you have also made a wise choice in picking as your Worshipful Master, Ron Van Dyke. When I came to Elyria 21 years ago, Ron was the first full-term president I had. The congregation had a vision then of becoming a “people with a mission.” Rather than just being ministered to by the pastor, some insightful folks here had a vision of the people of Emmanuel being equipped to do the work of ministry to the world. In fact, that’s what we put in the worship folder each week: People of Emmanuel, Ministers; Paul Jaster, Pastor.

And I credit Ron for being the very first person in this parish to put that vision into action. He took the first step. He got the ball rolling. Ron made the first concrete move in changing the culture of this congregation to the many active ministries we have today. For Ron is not a man of just talk, but action. And I can see why you have chosen him as your leader.

Divisions in the Church

Sometimes masons get a “bum wrap” in Christian circles. Masons get labeled as a “weird secret society” and an “alternative religion.” But let me remind you all that masonry got started at a time in history when the Christian church was not all that inclusive and loving. Blood was being shed. There were brutal wars and cruel in-fighting all in the name of God and Jesus.

And so there arose a group of men who used images of stonemasons’ tools and craft to describe what a godly people were meant to be: a “trowel” to apply the “cement” of brotherly love, the “square” of moral actions, the “compass” to keep their desires and passions with the proper bounds.

First read the gospel of Saint John and then read his three letters towards the very end of the New Testament and you will see there were divisions in his churches. Can you imagine this: there was in-fighting among Christians? They were drawing sides very much opposed to one another. And much of it had to do with Jesus. Was he really human? How did his “humanity” square with his “divinity” and was it in any way “essential” for our salvation?

Jesus: 100% Human & 100% Divine

And the answer that Saint John gives is a resounding “Yes!” Jesus had to be fully 100% human to save us from our sin…and yet Jesus also had to be fully 100% God. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” That’s what Saint John says. And then he goes on to add, but “if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Certainly none of us should “try” to sin. But if we do, we have an advocated with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is “the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the entire world.”

And suddenly I hear echoes of the poem that begins Saint John’s gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” “And the Word became flesh and lived among us full of grace and truth.” And “to all who receive him, who believes in his name, he gives power, the power to become the children of God.”

The Christmas Gospel is the “Word of Life

The Christmas gospel is the “Word of Life.” That’s what Saint John calls it “the Word of Life.” And John was an eyewitness to that word. Maybe he did not see Jesus birthed, born, washed and wrapped in swaddling clothes like the Shepherds did.

But John did see him crucified, dead, buried, sealed, risen and live. And Saint John says “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.”

It is through Jesus, the earthly Jesus, the babe wrapped in swaddling and lying in a manger and the Savior dying on the cross. It is through the seeable, touchable, hearable Jesus, the one who came from God and returned to God, that we know what God is really like. A God of love, who loved the world so much “that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

That’s why parents bring children here to have them baptized. So Jesus might be able to get his hands on them in a physical and tangible way and to bless them and to save them. They come here so that they too can be born anew of water and the Spirit.

A Life of Love

The "cement" of brotherly love

And where this leads us all is to a life of love. Read on in Saint John’s first letter. No one has ever said it any better. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” “We love because he first loved us.”

“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars’ for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” “Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

If Saint John the Evangelist was a mason as some would like to think,  then John would certainly use the tools of his trade to tell you this: Love must be tangible and “concrete.” Real words. Real deeds. Really actions. And our behavior must “square” with what Jesus has done for us on the cross. And “love ‘encompasses’ all.” And in the middle of it all a big “G” that stands for God and “grace,” God’s love and grace for us in Jesus Christ.

What Saint John heard from the beginning, what he saw, what he looked at and touched, he has passed on to you. And that is the “word of life.”

The Christmas gospel is the “Word of Life.” For in that gospel we have true “fellowship” with God the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

© 2008 Pastor Paul Jaster

December 24, 2008
Christmas Eve
Now Appearing!
Titus 2:11-17

Christmas is the “Grand Premier”

If the life of Jesus were a movie, then Christmas would be the “Grand Premier.” The great opening. And thanks to the angelic host, there would be a brilliant sign across the sky far better than anything George Lucas has ever invented: “Now appearing. In human flesh. The grace of God.”

And I can see it now. The original cast present for this great opening. The leading character, God, playing himself in the little baby Jesus. And Mary the leading woman, amazed, exhausted, dumbstruck—treasuring all the words being said about her newborn child and pondering them in her heart. And Joseph, of course, the strong, silent type in a lead supportive role.

And then there are the extras. The Shepherds, those startled shepherds, who were simply trying to do their job and keep awake at night; and who ended up praising and glorifying God for all that they had heard and seen as it has been told them. And Wisemen opening up their treasure chests of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And the music. Oh, the music! Composed by God and performed exquisitely by the angelic host: “Glory to God and peace to God’s people on earth.”

Christmas in a Nutshell

Towards the end of the bible there is a tiny book called “Titus,” which is the Apostle Paul’s letter to his favorite apprentice by that same name. His name is Titus. And in the second chapter, Saint Paul has a line that captures Christmas in a nutshell. It is the shortest lesson that you will ever hear on Christmas Day: This is “the grace of God appearing,” Saint Paul says, “bringing salvation to all.”

How could we say it any plainer? This is God appearing! This is God now appearing in human flesh & blood. This is no stunt man standing in for Jesus, especially when he dies upon the cross. This is no “body double.” There is no trick photography or a computer generated image. This is God himself “who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people who are zealous for good deeds.”

And we need to say that loud and clear this Christmas Eve. For certainly this is not what anyone expected. No one expected God to come in human flesh and form. No one expected God to be wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. No one ever expected God to have a birthday. What kind of a God ever has a “birthday?”

Holy Family from The Nativity Story

And what kind of God puts himself into the place of sinners…and dies upon a cross…and suffers sin away? A loving one. A gracious one. A God who is on a mission to save us from ourselves and bring a loving peace on earth. Which means we have a mission, too.

Meant to be the Best Supporting Actress or Actor

Oh…you thought that you could just slip in here on this silent night now did you? You thought that you could get lost in the crowd and hidden in the pews? Oh, no. You are part of this cast. You have a role to play. You are not just part of the audience. And you are not an extra standing in the background pretending to ignore what is going on in front. You have a supporting role to play. You are meant to be the “best supporting actress or actor.”

Maybe on this holy night all eyes are on Jesus cradled in the manger—the way he was when he first came to us. But for the rest of the year all eyes are on YOU. People judge Jesus by looking at you—at your ethical or your unethical behavior.

And when Christians behave badly it is a pretty poor witness. It scandalizes Christ and people dismiss him. But when Christians behave with kindness and compassion, Jesus is praised and glorified just as he was on that first Christmas night: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on earth.”

You are the Movie Christ is Making

And so it is no wonder that in the book of Titus and the other books around it, there is page after page of ethical urging and instruction. And these books get very pointed and specific. Duties for elderly men and elderly women, the gray hair set —that they be godly in their conduct, sound in love and faith, teachers/models/ mentors for the younger generations.

And duties for young men and young women—that they model the life of Christ and give no one any cause to say anything bad about “us,”—that is, something bad about Jesus and his mission. And duties for children—that they obey their parents and grow in bonds so that parents and children have full respect for one another.

The way that Christian people behave has a bigger reflection on Jesus that even this “holy scene”—the manger scene— that we ponder on this holy night.

For in the end you are what the baby Jesus is all about. You are the movie that he is making. Jesus is out to make a godly people. People who renounce impiety and worldly passions. Jesus is out to make a “people of his own” who have become zealous for good deeds” because they have been redeemed and purified for Christ.

Zealous for Good Deeds

Are you zealous? Are you zealous for good deeds? Are you ready to give witness to Jesus, not only in your heart and on your lips, but also by your behavior and your life? The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. It appeared the night that Jesus was born. And it appeared the day he died and rose again for you and for me. And it will appear again on the day of his great coming. The only question that is left is: Does it appear right now TODAY through YOU?

Be a person zealous for good deeds so that you might be another epiphany, another revelation, another witness, another star, another light, another baptismal candle, another manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For this is what we want people to know that in Jesus Christ “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.”

Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on earth.

© 2008 Pastor Paul Jaster