TITLE: “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our text is the birth of Jesus Christ as found in the Epistle to Saint John chapter 4, In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (ESV).

There has been more talk this year about God than we have seen in an age. God bless America is sold at every street corner and in almost every store throughout the world. There is a heightened sense of spirituality in the air. People are paying more attention to family, to traditions, and yes, many are even paying a little more attention to church.

This fall has raised many questions for us, and it all comes to a point on this holy night, the eve of Christmas. How do I know that God loves me? How do I know what God’s will is for my life? Will God continue to take care of me and my family, or have I been left all alone in this world of violence and sadness? Many people this night are asking questions that perhaps they have never asked before.

They are the questions of our age. And in our multi-religious world, the answers are very different depending on who you talk to about God. For the Muslim, their god demands obedience to his will in all things. To the Jew, it is about keeping the Law. And to the pop-spiritual gurus of our day, like Oprah and others, “god” is whatever you make of it.

Frankly, it is a hard and sad life, to live under the Law and believe that you must please God, that you must love God enough to be righteous and holy in His sight. But thank God that it is not so for us.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (ESV). This Christmas night brings God’s greatest gift to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Babe of Bethlehem. It is this present, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, that gives you God’s love.

Jesus Christ is the love of God made flesh. Immanuel, as the prophet Isaiah called Him. God with us. If you want to know God, if you want to see God’s will for your life, if you want to find God in this crazy world, look at the manger. There is God’s will for you. He comes into the flesh, God’s love is true, it is reality like nothing else in all the world. But it can only be grasped by faith.

The love of God is that He loved you with an everlasting love. He loved you so much that He entered into your world. He takes on all of your hurts and pains. He embraces you in the flesh of His Son, Jesus Christ. To know Jesus Christ is to know God the Father, for it is only through Jesus that we know and understand God’s great love for us.

God is not the stern judge who comes to see whether we’ve been good or bad. We can answer that question quite well ourselves: we are bad. We are enslaved to sin and death. But God is not that sort of judge. When you fear God, when you are worried and afraid that God does not love you, or that you are not good enough for Him, look in the manger. Look at the dear Christ-child, cold and helpless. As Isaiah said, Behold your God.

That is why we rejoice this night. That is why we Christians see this night as the holiest night of all. This night is holy not finally because of the trees, and the flowers and the lights and the presents, as wonderful and special as all these are. This night is not holy because of peace and goodwill, as the world understands those things. All of those earthly gifts, as great and wonderful as they are, pale by comparison with the gift of the God who becomes man us..This night is holy because this is the night that God came into our world as one of us. This is the night our Lord took on our life.

Saint John writes that Jesus came into the world so that we might live through Him. What a message! My life is so bound up in God that I actually live in Jesus Christ. His life is my life, and my life is His. That is the God we worship as Christians: The God who takes our pain and sorrows; The God who takes on our very flesh; The God who loves me so much that He was born to die so that I might live.

So let no tongue on earth be silent this night. Rejoice and sing! For our God comes to us to bring life, to bring hope, to give us eternity wrapped up in swaddling clothes. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (ESV). In the name of Jesus. Amen.