Marilu Thomas, “Unto Us a Son is Given”

Good morning. Welcome to Jesus’ birthday party today at Christ Church! You are invited, whether this is the first time you have been here, come every year, or just happened to be passing by and heard music. Welcome. We’re so glad you’re here.

Today we celebrate Good News—which has been in short supply lately!

News is actually the plural of ‘new’- as in Isaiah 43, where God proclaims, “See I am doing a new thing…I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Two new things—therefore news. And those are two good things—so good news.

Today’s gospel tells us the News of Christmas; the Who- Jesus, the What- birth, the When- about 2025 years ago, and the Where- Bethlehem. The exceedingly good news is found in the Why. Why was Jesus born?

To explore that question, we can start with why were YOU born?

The older one gets, the more this question floats to the surface of the mind. What on earth am I here for? What makes me impressive—or at least impressive enough to be “a somebody.” Throughout our lives we try to impress those around us with how we look, what we know, what we own, what degrees we have, who likes us, who wants us or invites us to their party. Being impressive works—for a while—but it’s exhausting because it’s a masquerade. At some point, we don’t look great, we don’t know what’s happening, we feel that no one likes or loves us, or we weren’t invited to the party or the job, or on the date.

Journalist Elizabeth Gilbert says, “This is the formula we have been fed our whole lives. You’ve heard it in every inspirational speech, in every commencement speech. Each of you is born with a special gift. Each of you has one unique offering. That’s why you were sent here. To find out what that is. The one thing that you can do that literally no one else can do. It is your job in life to uncover what that thing is and, once you find it, you need to foster it and master it and then you have to monetize it and uplift other people and leave a legacy so that when you are gone, generations after you’re gone, the world is a changed place because you were here… No pressure.”

Kate Bowler adds, “In a culture that prizes purpose as a commodity, maybe the most radical act is to value presence, adaptability, and connection over the relentless pursuit of a single, world-changing mission.”

The pressure to impress is in this room right now. Can you feel it? Did I wear the right thing? I’m here alone and not with a family. My family is not like other families. Maybe I’m not really a Christian—can other people tell?

This is the message of the Christ child to us this morning and every morning, for that matter. It’s not about our impressiveness, but it is for us in our humanness.

Our text this morning reverberates with the Grace of littleness, leastness and lostness. The New comes first to the Shepherds, who were actually old men and young children, deemed useless for any other work. They were left out and alone on a dark hill when angels announced the birth of the Messiah to them. The New thing is that God is not far away any longer—but has come to live with us as one of us. Immanuel—God with us. As Eugene Peterson translated, “God moved into the neighborhood.”

Kate Bowler wrote, “This kind of love is earthy and inconvenient and beautifully ordinary. It doesn’t hover over us like a theory. It puts on skin. Moves into the neighborhood. Into our tired hearts. And stays…It’s the love that begins not with spectacle, but with a baby—tiny, vulnerable, unsteady—a God who decides that being with us matters more than being impressive.”

We heard in Isaiah 9, “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given.”

You may recognize this promise from Handel’s Messiah. A son is given. A gift.

Jesus Christ is the heart of God given to be with us. This means that God is relational. He wants us to know Him. Christians make the outlandish claim on Christmas that God didn’t want to be distant, so God became flesh as a baby so we could know him.

A friend of mine said that she explained this to her young son this way, “God knew we wanted to get to know Him but couldn’t see him, so he said, “Ok, I’m coming to let you know that I love you. I will squeeze myself into something you can understand, see with your eyes, communicate with—a human person. I am coming as a baby so you won’t be afraid of me and can feel close to me. I’ll go through all this so that you can know that I love you and care about what happens to you.”

Theologian Karl Rahner tells us, to be human in its most radical sense is to be the addressee of God’s offer of self, which is grace. Jesus is not just made of grace; Jesus is grace brought to earth. Grace became part of our human experience when God became human as Jesus. The word Christmas means “Christ was sent.” Christ is sent into your life.

Back to why you were born. Every gift needs a receiver. You are the receiver of God’s gift of grace. Not just as a baby, but as the Savior who relieved our guilt and shame of not being impressive.

All of us experience grace in our lives. In the moments when we feel least able to go on, or most hurt or imperfect, that is where grace shows up. Has someone ever forgiven you for your mistakes? Have you forgiven others? Have you been accepted just the way you are, warts and all by anyone—even your dog? Has someone called or shown up when you needed them? Then you have experienced the grace that God unleashed into the world through Jesus’ birth and death. Even once counts.

Like a magnet, Jesus is drawn to be with us in our suffering, not to our impressiveness but our humanity. Good news- God is with us. God is with you. Jesus flips the script on his birthday by giving a free gift to you. Like the shepherds, the angels tell you, “Do not be afraid, for see- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Hear the “for you” and “to you” in the news—you do not need to do anything to receive this gift. The joy of Christmas has your name on it.

Amen.