Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
December 24, 2009
Christmas Eve
Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King; Peace on
earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!” Joyful, all ye
nations, rise, Join the triumph of the skies; with th’ angelic host
proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!” (TLH #94 v.1)
Two hundred seventy years ago God gave a gift to His church that keeps
on giving. That gift is the hymn we just sang, Hark the Herald Angels
Sing. The hymn’s author, Charles Wesley, wrote over 6,500 hymns and
was himself a gift, because music and theology are inseparable. While
there can be singing without faith, there can be no faith without
singing.
We first encounter music in Genesis 4:21 where a man named Jubal is
credited with inventing the world’s earliest musical instruments, a
flute and a small harp-like instrument known as the lyre. Music
played a vital part in Hebrew culture. It was present in their work,
their worship, their merrymaking, and their military activities.
The same is true for the New Testament church, the angels sang at
Christ’s birth and the song begun there will never end because God’s
people will chant “glory to the Newborn King,” throughout eternity.
The first thing the hymn invites us to do is to Hark, which means to
Listen; listen to the Herald Angels as they proclaim their two-fold
message. And the first part of it is this “Glory to God in the
highest.” Indeed, our Lord’s incarnation is God’s most wondrous act!
Creating the universe was glorious. Combining the art of a thousand
Michelangelo’s and the science of ten thousand Albert Einstein’s God
fashioned a universe so dappled with beauty, and intricate in function
that we will never be able to take it all in. We might look outward
to discover its enormity, to gaze at the countless galaxies and try to
comprehend their breadth, but our tiny brains are not equal to the
task. Or we might look inward to discover the tiniest building blocks
of matter, but each time we think we’ve found the bottom we see that
the onion has yet another layer.
And if Creation brings glory to God, how much more worship is due Him
for the wonders of Preservation? For the remarkable balancing act of
keeping all the balls in the air at once? The Bible says that “in Him
we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Properly speaking
there is no such thing as nature, but there is God. He is “the man
behind the curtain,” and we should pay very close attention to Him
because “nature” stalls without His blessing. David states in the
127th Psalm that: unless the Lord build the house, the workmen labor
in vain. We could add to that line of reasoning that without the
Lord’s tender mercy: food doesn’t nourish, water doesn’t quench and
medicine doesn’t heal.
But as breath-taking as these works of the Lord are they are not
nearly so glorious as the miracle Jesus reveals in John 3:16, “For God
so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
By this Holy Birth God and sinful man are now reconciled, and that
means that we don’t need to be afraid any longer. Afraid of God,
afraid of sin, afraid of death, afraid of the present or the future.
Nor need we fear God’s judgment because the sins that would otherwise
condemn us to hell, were redressed on the cross and now we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Next the hymn incites all nations to Rise with Joy because Jesus is
the Savior of all men without exception. If you are human Jesus is
your Lord your Savior and your God. There is no other. Though men,
nations and even many churches have banished His message of
repentance, and the blood of His cross from their presence, the Holy
Spirit continues to use this Christmas Carol to call men everywhere;
to rise up from the darkness of death and find Life, Light and Healing
in Christ.
What else can make the nations of the earth rise above their endless
envy, endless wars and endless assaults on one another? Can the
United Nations do it? Can ‘globalization’ (that devilish word) do it?
Can it be done in Copenhagen or Kyoto? Our idolatrous hearts answer
“Yes We Can,” but O how wrong they are!
And what can bring Joy to the World and her people? More technology?
Money dropped from Federal Reserve helicopters? Or is universal
health coverage the missing piece of the puzzle that will finally
bring lasting peace on earth and good will to men?
And what can lift up your heavy head tonight, a new life, new husband
or wife, a new job? Don’t count on it, Beloved, because whatever
changes we make, our sinful hearts go with us and will always sabotage
our lovely plans.
Learn tonight from this Sacred Song that only Jesus can bring Joy to
the world. He is Immanuel, “God with us” at all times in all places.
He is the Prince of Peace who breaks the oppressor’s rod (Isaiah 9:4).
He is the Sun of Righteousness who was born to raise the sons of
earth, born to give us Second Birth. So with the angelic hosts, let
us too proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem!
The hymn also invites us to Join the triumph being proclaimed in the
skies. This notion that God can be born of a human mother, and exist
in human form taxes our logic, and violates everything our reason
tells us about both God and mankind. The idea of a virgin giving birth
to God the Son, by way of God the Father, through God the Holy Spirit,
is why Christmas is such a wonder. The moment Mary conceived, the
fabric of the universe wonderfully and irrevocably changed! The Holy
Trinity acted in space and time, a virgin conceived, and God became a
Man of both human and divine natures.
In one magic moment God took on flesh and from that time on God became
a baby. In this miracle known as Christmas God comes to us. God
preaches, heals, and works miracles in our midst. God proclaims His
kingdom. God forgives sins. God dies an ignoble death on the cross,
pays the price of the entire world’s sin, and imparts eternal life to
all in fallen creation who believe and are baptized (Mark 16:15). God
rises bodily from death and continues to be with us by Word and
Sacrament until the end of the age when “He will come again with glory
to judge both the living and the dead.”
What can be our response to this Christmas Gospel? There’s only one,
that we join the triumph in the skies by our faith, our songs, our
praise and thanks. And likewise by renouncing worldly passions, and
living self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age as
we wait for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus
Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and
to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous
for good works. (Titus 2:11-14)
Glory to the Newborn King!
Amen.
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