Sunday Before Christmas 2022

Glory to Jesus Christ. Well, as you can tell

from that long list of names, one of the great

themes of the Christmas season, it's not just

because you hear it in the media, one of the

great themes is family. Getting together with

family, reconnecting with family. with friends.

Watching the Golden State Warriors losing season,

I saw a car commercial and was told that the

holiday season is about creating memories. That's

what they tell me. Well, memory certainly enters

into it all, but it's expectation of what has

happened, not So much creating new ones. Sometimes

those don't work out so great, I've seen. We

forget that Christmas is all about how God made

us his family. And how our fellow believers,

you are brothers and sisters in Christ by water

and the spirit. Not by blood, but by the spirit.

St. Matthew. Begins his gospel. Very strong.

You know, when you read a novel, we all have

those favorite opening paragraphs of a novel

that grab you, that take you right in. St. Matthew

begins very strong. The book of the genealogy

of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of

Abraham. Then you go, wow. What happened, Matthew?

Why are you telling us all this? You just lost

everybody. The names may not mean much for us

because we don't know the Old Testament as we

should. St. Matthew is using this list of names

as a shorthand. He's not telling you the whole

history. You can go back and read that yourself.

He's telling you that each name represents a

community. Each name represents some good people,

some okay people, some really dreadful people.

It's a family. It's a family story in interaction

with the God of all who is guiding the history.

The story begins. The gospel. The gospel is what?

The good news of salvation. It's the victory.

It's the story that the king has come so that

we aren't put in the grave and that's it. But

we have life eternal. And not only that, we're

transformed in this life. We become images of

him who created us. We are not enslaved to that

grave, the dust of the earth, the corruption

of sin. We become children of God. That's the

gospel story, and it's beginning way back when.

It's as if it's the resistance movement for the

enemy -occupied territory. And this resistance

movement has some great people in it. King Josiah.

On and on and on. David. Judah. And it's got

some sketchy people. Manasseh. And so forth.

But this... resistance movement is gaining ground,

surely gaining ground, each person's leading,

each begetting, slowly, to Jesus Christ, the

Son of God, the Savior of the world, born of

Mary, begotten, not by Joseph, but begotten of

the Father before all ages. wondrously, of the

pure and ever Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ, the

light, the Savior, coming to the world to save

it. Now a Savior presupposes that salvation is

from something that's dreadful, that we need

salvation. Like a drowning man needs to have

someone pull him out. Like someone in a burning

house needs to be rescued. In a recent essay,

one of my former seminary classmates said this.

He said, 2 ,000 years ago, the people in Judah

and Israel were praying for a Messiah that would

bring the wealth and the glory of King David,

equal to the Romans, back to their nation. by

saving them from the oppressing enemies, the

Romans, the Greeks, the Persians, you name it.

Is this what the Messiah was born to do? To come

rolling in like Eisenhower on D -Day with tanks

and machine guns to obliterate the enemy? I read

the lives of the saints. And it's clear that

for those in the resistance movement, and that's

us too, there is a great deal of difficulty,

hardship, carrying the cross, sorrow, and suffering.

And most of us aren't perfect at it. In times

of ease, that's not what the Savior has come

to give us. That's good. We need those material

blessings from God. enjoyment, and comfort. They're

not bad in themselves, but that's not why Jesus

came to supply all that. What's the heart of

the problem that we have? And I mentioned this

at the beginning just a few moments ago. It's

not bad people. It's not armies. It's not political

parties we don't like. It's not TV talking heads.

It's not different kinds of people. That's not

the authentic problem. The Messiah announced

by the prophets from the very beginning would

be the Messiah who would be sent to save us from

the triple tyranny. You heard of the tripledemic,

right? The flu, RSV, and COVID, those are terrible

things. We don't want those. But this is saving

us from the triple tyranny. frightening, dark,

corrupting. That is sin, the devil, and death.

That's why the resistance movement started, and

then we have the king, our savior, born. Not

in a famous way, not in a noticeable way, but

in a quiet way, in silence, in Bethlehem. And

then you read the gospel, you think, how is this

good news? Herod is killing a multitude of children.

The holy family has to flee to Egypt. Jesus is

baptized, he goes into the desert, and he's tempted.

Where's the good news, Lord? But as you continue

to read, and as you continue to act in faith,

brothers and sisters, as Christians, who know

that they have been born again by water and the

Spirit, you see the transformation. You see the

demonic power cast out. You see the healings

that occurred. You see the good news preached

of salvation and deliverance. You see joy and

peace on earth and glory to God in the highest.

This is our experience of being a Christian.

And if it's not, then perhaps... You're like

one of those names in the Old Testament. You

don't know anything about. They're foreign to

you. But you need to start learning how to be

born again in Christ. Because you've been saved

from the triple tyranny of sin and death and

the devil, which even the most rich, the most

popular, the most... physically ripped people

are going to experience. We are reminded that

Jesus has come to deliver us also from ourselves.

That's why we make confessions so frequently,

because piled on top of our soul are all things

that are foreign to it, and we need to be light

and purified, each and every one of us, whether

we know it or not, whether we... commune regularly

or not if we let those sins pile up they become

forgotten and just part of the scenery but they're

not they are foreign objects within us we're

saved from our willfulness and foolishness from

the inner death of the soul that our sin has

caused so as we prepare ourselves for the celebration

of Christmas the Lord gives us all these names.

The Lord and the church gives all that account

from the book of Hebrews of those famous men

and women who acted in faithfulness. That's what

should be in our minds as we're preparing. That

we become part of the Savior's family tree also.

That we live in faithfulness. We act in faith.

We remember that God is establishing a city,

not a theocracy, because he's coming in glory,

not of this world, but of the world and kingdom

to come, a city whose foundations are built by

God, filled with saints. Glory to Jesus Christ.