CHRISTMAS DAY 2016 "WHY CHRISTMAS IS A BIG DEAL

Sermon Summary (12/25/16), “Why Christmas is a Big Deal”  Phil 2:5-11; Col 1:15-20

Have you ever wondered about the first Christmas Carol?  I mean the first one recorded, written down?  Mark was the first Gospel written and the birth narrative was ignored entirely.  It was the life of Jesus the mattered to Mark and his sources.  Luke and Matthew were written 10 or 15 years later telling the story of the birth and the angels singing to the shepherds.  Those stories weren't part of the letters and teachings circulating in the time of Paul.  But the Jews were singers (we have the Psalms!).  What were they singing about Jesus?

We have at least two hymns in the letters of Paul: First, Phil 2:5-11 is clearly a hymn of the early church and would have been established long before Paul wrote his letter.  In it, it says “and being born in human likeness, and being found in human form, he humbled himself.”  Being born in human likeness.  That my friends is the incarnation.  That is Christmas.  That is a Christmas Carol.

A second hymn is found in Colossians 1:15-20.  It tells us of the Supremacy of Christ, what Christ, Creator of all things who was before all things gave up to “be born in human likeness.”  The incarnation is a big deal.  We need to look beyond the manger to the One who came to reconcile all things, including us to Himself.

There was a time that I was far from Christ.  Oh, I believed in God, but supposed that he set all things in motion and we were pretty much on our own.  Our son, Curt challenged me saying “If Jesus came and stood right here in this room, you would think otherwise.”  In other words, if I believed in the incarnation, things would be different.

I gave it serious thought.  Suddenly it made sense.  God exists.  It takes far more faith not to believe than to believe.  And it makes sense if God exists, he would want to reconcile his creation to himself.  And it made sense that he would become like us to do so.  And it made sense that it would make sense that he would do so by doing the greatest act of love that one can for another, to give his life for us.  And if God would do that for me, he was a very personal God.

The incarnation is a big deal.  It is a big deal to me.  The incarnation is what we celebrate at Christmas.  God coming to stand in the room of the world as a very personal God, a sacrificing God, reconciling the world to him, me to him.  For me, Christmas is a very big deal.