Do I Love?

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon is entitled Do I Love? My focus is our Gospel (Luke 2:1-20). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

I started reading “A Year in the Gospels with Martin Luther,” which prompted me to ask this question – Do I love? Do I love Christmas? Do I love Christ? Do I love my neighbor?

Do I love Christmas? I love Christmas. I have always loved Christmas. As a boy, I loved all the trappings we place around our celebration of Christmas. Growing up in the 60s and maturing in the 70s, Christmas was about gifts received and given. What child does not love to receive gifts?! What child does not learn to give gifts to parents and siblings? Whether it was candy in our stockings, a drum, a new railroad car for the train set, sports equipment or new clothes, I loved Christmas.

I loved visiting family. Since four of my mother’s sisters lived in Ambridge, we would visit them December 25 or 26, and on December 29, my mom’s birthday, they all would visit us in our 800 square foot home that had expandable walls whenever company appeared. The food – ham, kielbasa, chicken, stuffed cabbage, pierogies, and so on – was always delicious. And who doesn’t love Christmas cookies?!

I loved hanging all the Christmas cards with hand written letters on the hallway doors; listening to Christmas albums; decorating a live tree and placing the manger under it. I loved attending church because everyone was in a festive mood, and sang on Christmas even if they never sang on any other Sunday. I loved Christmas because it brought out the best in everyone.

Today, I still love Christmas, but for different reasons. I love the fact that the Son of God, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary – is fully human, fully divine and lovely to behold. I love that our God who is Love in the flesh was born like each of us in order to save us from sin, Satan, death, and may I add, ourselves. I love having the opportunity to meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation. Each of us has the opportunity to reflect upon what it means for me to be saved by our God who became one of us. I love Christmas because of the reason we celebrate it – the Incarnation. And if you still love to receive Christmas presents, the Incarnation is God’s greatest gift to you, to all of us.

Loving Christmas leads me to my next question: Do I love Christ? To answer that, let me return to what I said at the beginning of this sermon – that I have been reading “A Year in the Gospels with Martin Luther.”[1] In his sermon on our Gospel, Luther wrote on the arduous trip that Joseph and Mary made from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Surmising that like most people, Joseph and Mary were poor, they most likely made this trip on foot. Scripture never mentions a donkey. So, Joseph and Mary, nine months pregnant, walked over 100 miles. When is the last time you walked 100 miles? Their journey offered no comfort or leisure. There was no guest room for God and the birth scene was pitiful.

Luther wrote that no one took pity on Mary. No one saw the strange place where she gave birth, and that she had nothing necessary for a delivery. It was midnight. There was no light. No fire. “Everyone was dead drunk in the inn, a crowd of guests from all places; no one thinks of this poor woman.”

We have few details about the birth, and being the teacher, Luther reminds us to turn to the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed – that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. Luther wrote that Jesus was her natural son and she was his natural mother, continuing that “she gave birth without sin, without shame, without pain, and without injury, just as she also conceived without sin. … When we look at this birth and recognize the work of God in it, only modesty and purity flow from it.”

Luther turns from what was happening in Bethlehem to what was happening in heaven. This obscure birth, despised by princes and powers, is honored a thousand times more in heaven. “If an angel came from heaven and praised you and your work, would you not regard it of greater value than all the praise and honor the world could give you and for which you would be willing to bear the greatest humiliation and contempt?” The angels could not contain themselves and broke out rejoicing so that even the poor shepherds heard them.

Now, we cannot receive Christ’s birth in a bodily way, but we all receive it spiritually through God’s Word. And God’s Word demands that “you firmly believe that Christ is born for you, and that this birth is yours and occurred for your benefit.” This birth frees us from our sinful birth from Adam. Because of original sin, “Christ wanted to be born, so that we might be born a new and different way.” As Jesus himself said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3). So, before we give any Christmas gifts to one another, we must first receive God’s gift to us, for the story of Christ’s birth is not history nor an example. Receive Christ’s birth as your own. Trade places with Him so that you can be freed from sin and death, but keep in mind that this happens only if and when you believe in Christ.

Luther’s understanding of this Gospel (Lk 2) is that it all points to Christ, and because He was born at midnight indicates that all the world was in darkness, which means that Christ cannot be known through reason alone. He must be revealed from heaven. The light that shone around the shepherds – the glory of God – is God’s love and goodness that saves us through Christ.

The angel is the preacher of the Gospel to the shepherds who are the hearers. The angel said, “I bring you good news.” Christ is given for you. You are saved through Him by Baptism, and are fed by Him through His Body and Blood.

Today, you are hearers of that Gospel. You are the shepherds. And what did the shepherds do after leaving the crib at Bethlehem and seeing all that the angel told them? They returned to their flock (family) and glorified and praised God for all they had heard and seen. And what will you do after this Divine Service? You will return home to your flock, your family, and hopefully, you will praise God for the Good News you heard and saw here.

Shepherds, I have no doubt that you love Christ. You fare hearers, learners not in the comfort of your own living room, but in the fields at night – in a dark world. Like the shepherds, you too are poor, for the poor have the Good News preached to them (Mt 11:5), and are blessed with the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 5:3).

While your life may be obscure and insignificant on the world’s stage, you are the ones who carry the Gospel to others. In the words of Luther, “No one is to hear the Gospel for himself alone, but everyone is to tell it to others who do not know it.” Luther did not leave his hearers with that. He went on.

“Each one should compare himself to the Gospel and see how close or far he is from Christ, and what is the character of his faith and love.” Here, he challenges his listeners who cling to dreamy devotion to turn their gaze to their neighbor. That brings me to my third question: Do I love my neighbor?

Do I love my neighbor? Do I look next door to see how many of my neighbors need my help or do I ignore them and leave them as they are? Each of us has “poor, miserable, sick, erring or sinful people around him.” Luther asked, “Why does he not exercise his love to them? Why does he not do for them as Christ has done for him?”

Citing the parable of “The Rich Man and Lazarus,” he asked, “if your neighbor were now what he shall be in the future [that is, one comforted at the bosom of Abraham], you would surely wait on [the poor beggar]. But now, since it is not so, you pay no attention to him and do not recognize your Lord in your neighbor; you do not do for him as He has done for you. Therefore, God permits you to be blinded, deceived … so that you squander [your money rather than] help your neighbor.”

Such words stung the ears and pierced the hearts of Luther’s original hearers, but it’s where the rubber hits the road. Loving Christmas and loving Christ requires that I love my neighbor. So, I thought, “How do I love?”

I love my stepchildren, grandchildren and in-laws by loving my wife, Cindy. By putting Cindy before me, I love her family members, our family members. By completing my mundane household duties – daily cleaning the dishes, feeding the dogs and cat, removing the trash, maintaining our vehicles, helping her in her duties – I place her ahead of myself. By praying together daily in the morning, before meals and before we retire, and worshipping together in the same church, I place her spiritual needs on a higher plane. Now, I know that each of you loves your spouse and family members. I have seen it in your relationships here and in your homes.

How do I love my neighbor? I have needs that my neighbors fulfill, and we try to fulfill our neighbor’s needs. We offer hospitality and garden-fresh vegetables. We offer greetings on our walks, kind words and prayers for them. When our teenage neighbor helps with landscaping chores, I am overly generous with his pay.

I know that each of you loves your neighbor, but how do I love you? Maybe your initial thought is that I do not know you. That may be true if you are visiting here for the first time or you are making your annual pilgrimage to church, but I am here every Sunday, and if you are here on a regular basis, you know that I love you. In addition to getting to know your name, I take a personal interest in you.

If you had someone confirmed in the last few years, I took time to teach the faith to them. If you had a child baptized, I welcomed them into the Church. If you have a family member who is hospitalized, elderly or physically challenged, I come to them. Every month I visit those unable to worship with us. I sometimes take Maggie, our younger Golden Retriever, to offer comfort. More importantly, I bring to them what I bring to you today – the Good News of salvation, God’s Word. I offer them confession and absolution, and the ultimate gift – the Body and Blood of Christ. The elderly, especially the elderly, are deeply grateful for these gifts, and they tell me with their tears.

Many of you know that the highlight of my week is worshipping here with you. I know that you love not only Christmas, but Christ, and that’s why you worship weekly. I know that you love your neighbor, and if you do not, take to heart Luther’s words on that. Now, if you have any doubts if you should love Christmas, Christ or neighbor, let me answer that by posing three questions. Does God love Christmas? Undoubtedly. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit love Christmas. Does God the Father love His Son? Definitely. Does God love you and your neighbor? Absolutely. Not to would go against the nature of God who is divine love.

My friends, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. We ae all aware of the blood spilled in Israel, Ukraine, Nigeria and Armenia, but sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness. No one is shut out from joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.

Christian, remember your dignity. You now share in God’s own nature, and have been brought into His Kingdom. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. God has shown you what is good. And so, one last question: What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic 6:8). Love like that, and when you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] A Year in the Gospels with Martin Luther: Sermons from Luther’s Church Postil, Volume 1. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (2018). For quotes, see Luke 2:1-14, pp. 90-109.