You might even be surprised that God’s Word can do what no other instruction can. He makes you like children again. Jesus softens the ossification of behavior and breaks the bad habits down one by one. Jesus reverses the normal course of aging, opening your hearts to a new life and innocence. He makes you curious and imaginative, delighting in things you’ve heard a thousand times before, giving you insight into yourselves, your neighbor, and the world that you’ve never seen before. In Jesus, you have child-like faith, hope, and love again.

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

We have heard the Word of promise and know and see the signs. They may not be what the world expects, but they are precisely what it needs. Look around and see! We are like the Magi in heeding our Lord’s call and remaining where our Lord is to be found. We feast upon His saving Word. We receive his body and blood in the most humble means: bread and wine. We receive the forgiveness of sins, the crown of life, and the exceedingly rich joys of eternity.

Therefore remove sorrow from your heart,

And put away evil from your flesh,

For childhood and youth are vanity.

What began on His eighth day culminates in your eighth day, the day of your baptism, the day of your resurrection! You are sons and daughters of the King through the new circumcision of the heart, that is, faith. As St. Paul writes, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). You have received this more excellent mark than circumcision, the giving you the new name, Christian. You are marked by Holy Baptism, wholly covered by Christ’s flesh.

That’s what Jesus does for you. He releases you from the obligation to treat every gift as a debt owed. The old way of gifting, the old way of defining a gift as an obligation, is put to death by Jesus at his birth, in His ministry, and at His death and resurrection. And that’s good news. The old way is awkward and hopeless, and it depends on your loyalty and service. God’s whole purpose for being bodied is to give you a graspable gift, the gift of Himself, as a constant reminder that the new way of gifting has come into the world, bringing joy, peace, and freedom with it. 

If the clouds are full of rain, They empty themselves upon the earth; And if a tree falls to the south or the north, In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap.

Jesus is the Light no darkness can overcome. This Light shines forth for you today in enlightening gifts, the brilliant flame of faith stirred by the mighty rushing wind of the Spirit. Every promise we once only saw as in a mirror dimly, now we see with the brightness of Christ’s rising. You cannot help but shine now aglow with Christ’s life because you are in Him, and He is in you. You were adopted, made new, and resurrected into Jesus by the washing of water and the Word. The joy of Christmas Day is the joy of those newly born who have unwrapped the greatest gift of all—Jesus, the light of the World.

The answer to all of these questions is the same: Emmanuel. God is with us. He is with us and comes closer to us than our next breath. Our God comes in the flesh, dressed in faithful, loving-kindness. He comes with words that bless, that forgive, that create a new life; a new husband and wife life, a new child and parent life, a new home life, a new church life.

In this unassuming ancient village, where the Bread of Life first drew breath, you find your breath in the breaking of this bread — Jesus, the Christ, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the source and sustenance of your life.

The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, But the lips of a fool shall swallow him up; The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, And the end of his talk is raving madness. A fool also multiplies words. No man knows what is to be; Who can tell him what will be after him?

So, John is a bridge between the old and the new. He’s there to announce that the old growth is being cut down. It has to go. It has to be cleared away so the ground can be prepared for this seed coming from above, the seed that will sprout and grow into a tree, and its fruit will feed all of God’s people. And who are God’s people? All the people baptized in the Name of the Tree, Jesus. He’s the Seed from above. He’s the shoot that grows out of Jesse's dead stump. He’s the tree of life that stands in this holy orchard of God’s planting.

The outsiders—shepherds, Magi, Mary, and Joseph—gather around the babe, who cradles all creation in His hands. In the simplicity of this scene, we find a cosmic reversal, where the high stoops low and the low is lifted high. The nativity story, a tale of outsiders invited into the heart of salvation, is spoken of throughout history because it is a divine declaration of love for those the world overlooks and judges unimportant.

These Old Testament images, like the joining of the ass and the ox in the depiction of the Nativity, are symbolic of the joining of extremes, the union of the spiritual and physical, the clean and unclean, the inside and outside, and ultimately, the uncreated and created in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Who did you come here to see? What do you expect to receive here today? What did you think was going to happen? Because your expectations are mistaken, you’re never satisfied. Until you get this straightened out, you’ll never be content—not with John the Baptist, not with Jesus the Christ, not with His Holy Church, and not with the gifts He freely gives for peace, joy, and hope.

13 This wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and it seemed great to me: 14 There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great snares around it. 15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man.

In each wreath, you see a symbol and a picture of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Light of the world. It’s a reminder that with and through him, hope is a perpetual flame, illuminating the path you tread from birth to death to new life. It’s a recalling of God’s ancient promises from the past that are received by you today to shine the light of hope on your future, a future that, like the past and present, is dominated by the love that God has for you in Jesus Christ. 

The Christmas tree is a sign for people today that darkness and death do not get the last word. That is reserved for Jesus, the Light of the World — the light no darkness can overcome. And he has descended to live amongst you and gift you with his life so that you too may live in the hope of Christmas — the time when Jesus wipes away every tear from your eyes, and death is no more, and neither is there any need for mourning, or crying, or pain anymore, because those things, which are leftovers of the old world of sin and death, have been chased away by Jesus, your light and your life.

9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.

10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

This is where the Church, wherever she lives, learns about who her Lord is and about whom she waits for despite all disappointment. And she can wait for Him because He is with her. That is the mystery of the expectation of the Church. She can wait because she is with Him, hidden under the means of grace, in the Lord’s Supper. That is the mystery of the coming of Christ.