“Home for the Holidays” (Luke 2:1-20)

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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Published in: on December 23, 2011 at 9:00 pm  Leave a Comment  
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“The Era of Big Government Is Just Beginning” (Isaiah 9:2-7)

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve
Friday, December 24, 2010

“The Era of Big Government Is Just Beginning” (Isaiah 9:2-7)

“The era of big government is over.” So declared President Bill Clinton in his State of the Union address in January of 1996. Of course, in the fifteen years since then, our big government has gotten even bigger. The size and scope of the federal government, its power, its spending, its intrusion into our lives–way beyond the limits set for it by the Constitution–big government is bigger than ever. “The era of big government is over”? Really? I must have missed it.

As you may have guessed, and as anybody who knows me could tell you, I am an adamant opponent of big government. So it may come to you as a bit of a surprise when I tell you that tonight’s message–and this is something I’m actually happy about–the message for us on this Christmas Eve is this: “The Era of Big Government Is Just Beginning.”

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Published in: on December 24, 2010 at 12:35 pm  Leave a Comment  
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“The Baby and the Birth Announcement” (Luke 2:1-14)

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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Published in: on December 30, 2009 at 12:35 pm  Leave a Comment  
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