Christmas Eve 2021

I want to start with a confession. I am terrible at waiting. I am truly the worst. I am the type of person that when I find something I want in like October or November, instead of telling something that I’d like it for Christmas, I find a way to buy it immediately. Usually, that means I’ll sell something I’ve got in order to get this new thing.

I am terrible at waiting. But Melanie is incredible at it. At home, we don’t drink many fizzy beverages, and so those rare occasions when we do get a sparking water or soda or something fun, we always split them evenly. I’ll get three, and Melanie will get three. By the third day, all of mine will be gone, and Melanie will have not touched her set. I’m always amazed, and I ask how have you not dug into the drinks yet? And she will say “because I am waiting for the right meal to have it with.” She’s great at waiting. I am not.

Some of you are great at waiting. You handle it well. Some of you are that strange sort of person where you enjoy the waiting and anticipation for the thing almost as much as the thing itself. I don’t understand you, but I hear that you exist. Wherever you are on the spectrum of how you handle waiting, one thing is true of all of us: we all know the experience of waiting.

The experience of waiting is a universal experience. Every person on earth, no matter their lot in life, every person on earth knows what it means to wait. Everybody is waiting for something. You are waiting for a job, or that special someone. You’re waiting for that raise or to have children. And if you have children, you’re waiting for them to grow up and leave, and if they’ve left the house, you’re waiting for them to come home for the holidays. You are waiting for weekends and vacations.

But you’re also waiting for really hard things. Some of us have been waiting for a long time, because we’ve come today with chronic pain. We have a loved one who is sick. We have children who are estranged. We have problems in our marriage. We are waiting and longing for everything to be right again. You’re waiting for joy. You’re waiting for something good to be established. You’re waiting for justice and righteousness and peace and love and acceptance and rest.

What we’re ultimately waiting for is the Kingdom of God. We were made to experience all of these things in the kingdom of God. And the process of waiting for God’s kingdom, where the world is set right, that process of waiting pulls at our heart -which is why the prayer of Advent is, “Lord, let your kingdom come.”

And this prayer has been on the lips of God’s people for millennia. Across the world, as Christians gather today, most will hear readings from the prophet Isaiah. God spoke through Isaiah at a particularly somber time in Israel’s history. Israel understood waiting. Part of what Isaiah does in his prophecy is he warns God’s people that on the horizon is an incredibly dark period of time. They will be invaded by a foreign super power, their defenses will fail, and they will be taken captive and exiled for generations. For 70 years they will live under an oppressive government. It’s going to be very, very bad.

And to those people, who will walk in deep darkness, who will walk in gloom and anguish- these are the words Isaiah uses to describe their situation - to those people he gives a famous prophesy that brings hope that they will not be left waiting there forever. Someday, joy would break into the despair, because the Kingdom of God will come. And it will come through the birth of a child. Hear the famous Christmastime passage in Isaiah 9:6.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, (he shall bear the weight of God’s kingdom on his own shoulder, by his own strength and power and will) and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah makes this promise to a people who are still in the midst of darkness. A people who are still waiting. The promise is that someday, a child will be born that will bring hope and joy to the world because he will bring a new kind of life to the world - a life where justice and peace and love flourish.

The promise was that someday, a child would be born and he would be called Wonderful Counselor. He will bring comfort to those who are in pain - to those who are hurting in mind, body, and soul, he will bring comfort.

Someday, a child would be born and he will be called Mighty God. He will have the power to defeat the greatest enemies of God which are sin, death, and evil. This child will come with power to restore every aspect of this world that has been broken.

Someday, a child would be born and he will be the image of the Everlasting Father. He will bring the unconditional love of the Father to the last, the least, and the lost. And he will offer a place of refuge in the midst of the storms of life.

Someday, a child would be born and he will be called the Prince of Peace. He will cause all of our sad divisions to cease. He will bring to an end all warfare, all bigotry, all oppression, all hostility. He will bring peace to all our divisions - whether that be in our marriage, our family, or our neighbors, and he will do this by ultimately bringing an end to our division with God. This child will bring us peace with God, for he will save us from that which separates us from God. He will save us from our sin.

The promise was that someday, God himself will come to earth. The text that we read today from Isaiah paints a thought picture for us. Isaiah places us on the ruined walls of Jerusalem, in the aftermath of Israel’s defeat to the Babylonians. Everything seems lost. There is fear, and there is confusion. But mainly, there is waiting. What’s going to happen next?

And just then, a watchman on the city wall spots a messenger on the horizon, running towards the city shouting at the top of his lungs that he has good news to share with those inside the smoldering city. And what is this good and wonderful news? The messenger tells the people that their God still reigns as king, and someday he, himself, will come to Jerusalem, and take up his throne on Earth.

Someday, God himself will come to us. And the way that he would come, would be through the birth of a child. And so Israel waited. And they waited. Some waited well, others did not. They waited for months, for years, for generations, until more than 700 years later, on a silent night in a little town called Bethlehem, something spectacular happened.

There were a few shepherd out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night, when out of no where, an angel of the Lord, a messenger of God, appeared to them, and they were terrified. But the angel speaks to them in their fear and he says, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” The angel tells these shepherd, but not just to these shepherds, the angel speaks into all of our fears that we carry today and says, “Do not be afraid. For I have good news for you, and this news will bring you deep and lasting joy.”

And again, it’s not just joy for the shepherds or for Bethlehem or for first century Israel - this joy is for all the people. This is joy for the world. What happened that night in Bethlehem is good news that brings great joy for you. The angel says, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

After more than 700 years of waiting, that “someday” became “this day.” It’s no longer that “someday” in the distant future something incredible is going to happen - no - the angel says it is “this day!” To you, this child has been born. He is the Savior and King, and he was born for your joy. On “this day.”

I fear that some of us still live in the midst of the “someday.” Someday, when I make enough money, I’ll experience joy in life. Someday, when I find that perfect relationship, I’ll know what it is like to be loved and accepted. Someday, when this pandemic is over, the world will feel less chaotic and I can feel rested.

But the call of Christmas is that “someday” is available to you now. It is “this day.” This day, a Savior is born for you. And he was born for your joy. Because this child was born to reconcile you to God, the fountain and source of joy.

Jesus entered our darkness, entered our broken world, and he suffered loss and pain and abandonment and betrayal. He suffered temptation and homelessness and poverty.

Jesus can sympathize with your sorrow because he is no stranger to it. And he carried that sorrow up a hill, where he was nailed to a Roman cross, not just bearing the sorrow of the world, but bearing the full weight of humanity’s sin. And on the cross, this Jesus who knew no sin, he became sin - this Jesus who had no part in the cause of the curse, he became the curse in order to remove our guilt and to bear our punishment - all of this so that we might be reconciled to God, the fountain of joy.

The child born this day, grows to be a man who dies on the cross, and is raised from the dead - he reigns as King today. And he calls to us today, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The wait for joy has ended. The wait for love and acceptance is ended. The wait for peace and hope and rest is ended. It will not come “some day.” It has come “this day.” That which you long for in the depth of your heart and in the quiet of night is the kingdom of God. And it has come to you and to me and to all people “this day.” For unto us this day, a child has been born. The king has come to earth.

As we come to his table, let us savor the joy that he brings.