Christmas eve BCP

Dan Leathers

Christmas • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

Matthew 1:18–23

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At the heart of Christmas, the God of love and his message "Do not be afraid"

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At the heart of Christmas

Now I want a show of hands, how many of you started baking your Christmas cakes in November? Early December? Last week?

How about the shopping for friends and family? Before December? Early December? The last two weeks?

Is there anyone who still has some last minute preparations to do after this service?

Honestly?

We come today to the end of our advent preparations. As Christians we haven’t only been getting ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but we’ve been preparing ourselves for when he returns to take away all pain and suffering, to judge the living and the dead and to usher in the recreation of heaven and earth as unified reality.

We’ve spent time in prayer and bible study checking our hearts, and allowing him to transform our broken motivations.

The heart is possibly the most important part of our bodies. It certainly is for life. It’s the vital organ which pumps blood to every part of our bodies. And when there’s an issue with our heart, it effects the rest of our lives.

In amongst the tinsel, the tress and the turkeys, we find people. People who are excited, people who are itching to get to those presents, desperate to see loved ones, people who love the fun and fantasy which Christmas brings. The imagination of Father Christmas and his elves, and the joy those stories bring to children’s minds. But there are other people in amongst the mistletoe, the mince pies and the mulled wine, who are not looking forward to this time of Christmas. They may be experiencing the first or another Christmas with out a loved one. Perhaps they long to be with others on Christmas day, but experience loneliness. Perhaps the financial burden of giving the family the dream Christmas, is looming over them.

Wherever you are today, whatever your Christmas looks like, we need to look past the snowmen, the Santa's and the stockings to the heart of Christmas, the heart which beats for you and me.

At the heart of Christmas is more than a baby, it’s more than a fantasy about a quaint couple travelling many miles to give birth to a fabled Messiah. At the heart of Christmas is the love of the God of all creation. The God who sees us, who knows us, who loves us. The God who was prepared to step down from heaven to earth to rescue us from the mess we find ourselves in.

In that feeding trough, as a fully helpless human child, lay the God of all creation. Entrusted to two very human, yet faithful and obedient parents. God the Son came to experience life as we know it, to make a way for us to be free. The God man, fully God and fully human.

As we look to the heart of Christmas, to the God who loves us, this year I believe God wants us to hear His message which was brought through the Angels.

To Zechariah the priest in the temple, Father of John the baptist, the Angel said “Do not be afraid”, and then the Angel told Zechariah the next part of God’s plan for his life.

To Mary, the virgin, the Angel said “Do not be afraid”, and then the Angel told Mary the next part of God’s plan for her life.

To Joseph in a dream, the Angel said “Do not be afraid”, and then the Angel told Joseph the next part of God’s plan for his life.

To the shepherds, the Angel said “Do not be afraid”, and then the Angel told the shepherds the next part of God’s plan for their lives.

To his disciples, Jesus said 8 times in the gospels “Do not be afraid”, and then Jesus told his followers the next part of God’s plan for their lives.

To the women who arrived at Jesus’ tomb only to find the stone had been rolled away, and Jesus’ body wasn't there, the Angel said to them “Do not be afraid” and then he told them the next part of God’s plan for their lives.

Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the disciples and the women at the tomb were all experiencing something sudden, to some extent shocking or terrifying.

Zechariah was fearful of dying as he entered the Holy of Holy’s to attend to God’s alter, Mary was shocked at the sudden appearance of the heavenly messenger and then of his news. Joseph finally managed to get to sleep after hearing that his fiance was carrying someoneelseschild. The shepherds were in fright again at the sight of an angel.

But Jesus’ disciples were fearful of rejection for teaching the message of Jesus’ kingdom love; they feared Romans coming to kill them, of how they would provide for themselves, of a man walking across the water which turned out to be Jesus.

The women at the tomb were fearful of what had happened to the dead body of their Lord.

All these people knew what fear felt like, and they had allowed it to creep into their lives. Fear was starting to take up residence when the message of God was spoken over them. “Do not be afraid.”

In these days of pandemic, variants, restrictions and that’s only the fear that comes from an unseen virus, let alone the fears we know so well.

The closest earthly friend Jesus had, the disciples John, writes that

1 John 4:18 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We need to live sensibly, to use our God given brains to work out what risks we take in life and what we don’t. Unnecessary risks are rarely wise to take, but we mustn’t allow the Spirit of fear to take hold of our hearts and minds this Christmas. If we are governed only by fear, we won’t experience the peace, joy, light and life which Jesus Christ brings us.

To us Jesus says “Do not be afraid”. He promises to be with us. He promises to walk alongside us in our financial struggles, our mental health crisis, our family breakdowns. He promises never to leave us or abandon us. And when we spend time with him he tells us the next part of God’s plan for our lives.

At the heart of Christmas is the God who loves you, who came to rescue you. He thinks that you are worth dying for, so will you accept his invitation to experience him now. To be reconnected in the relationship you were created for today? Will you invite him close, and as we welcome in Christmas morning, let us invite Jesus to be close to us.

We’re going to spend a couple of minutes in silence now, inviting the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit to fill us, to meet with us and to bring us his peace in this moment.

Come Lord Jesus, Come Holy Spirit.