St. Matthew Lutheran Church

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve
Monday, December 24, 2012

“The Gift, the Announcement, and the Exclamation Mark” (Luke 2:1-14)

Suppose I got a Christmas present for you, but I didn’t tell you about it. I didn’t tell you that I had something for you, and I didn’t tell you where you could find it. Well, it could be the greatest Christmas present in the world, but if you never find out what it is or where you can find it, it won’t do you much good. You need me to tell you about it.

Well, that’s the way it is with Christmas. God has given us the greatest Christmas present we could ever hope for, but if it had stayed hidden and we didn’t know about it or where to find it, it wouldn’t do us much good. But as it stands, God not only sends the gift, but he has an angel announce it, telling us what it is and where to find it. On top of that, a whole choir of angels caps it off with a glorious hymn of praise. Their song, the Gloria in Excelsis, puts an exclamation mark on the proceedings. So we’ve got three things going on here: “The Gift, the Announcement, and the Exclamation Mark.” We’ll take them in that order.

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The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve
Saturday, December 24, 2011

“Home for the Holidays” (Luke 2:1-20)

“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays.” So goes the familiar Christmas song. And it is good to be home, with family, at Christmas time. Renewed relations, good food, smiles on all the faces. There’s a fire in the fireplace, and you’re sitting in the living room, opening presents by the Christmas tree. Perry Como is singing in the background. Como, cocoa, cookies, and kids–a Christmas right out of Norman Rockwell. Very nice.

But tonight I want to tell you about something even better than that. What it really means to be home for the holidays. Really home. Your true home. For the holidays, the holy days, and beyond. It’s all wrapped up in the Christmas Gospel you just heard. Where your home is. And the answer is, where Christ is. To be where Christ is, that is really what it means to be “Home for the Holidays.”

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The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve
Thursday, December 24, 2009

“The Baby and the Birth Announcement” (Luke 2:1-14)

The birth of a baby is a joyous event, but only if you know about it. With the birth of the baby, you need a birth announcement, in order to know what kind of child it is, when it came, and so on. Only then can you rejoice, when you know what has happened. If that is true with ordinary births of ordinary babies, how much more is it true of the birth of a certain child in Bethlehem so long ago, the most extraordinary birth of the most extraordinary baby ever born. The miracle of Christmas is both “The Baby and the Birth Announcement,” and it is only with both that we can have a merry, joyous Christmas.

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