Today the second candle in our advent wreath has been lit. This candle is called the love candle. This is a very fitting candle to light, especially this time of year because Christmas is a great time to show the people you care about that you love them.
There are all sorts of way to show people that you love them. The highly organized individual might decide to show someone they love them this year by planning a trip. Who wouldn’t want to spend a few days sipping a cocktail while sitting on a white sandy beach under a hot sun? A trip like that requires planning and preparation, it requires forethought and follow-through. Such things let a person know that you have been thinking about them a great deal and for a long time. The trip itself is great, but it is the planning and preparation involved that really lets a person know that you love them.
But what if you don’t have the money to plan a trip or what if you are 10 and travel agents won’t take you seriously? Well, if you are creative, another good way to show someone you love them is to make them a present; something that you spent time and effort on; something that you formed and fashioned with your own hands. With a little inspiration from from Martha Stewart and some instructional You Tube videos you could make this year a crafty Christmas. Your gift may not be as flashy as other presents, but that’s what makes it so special. It isn’t like any other present. It is a unique hand made one of a kind.
Finally, this time of year, the most obvious way to show the people you care about that you love them is to buy them a Christmas present. But you don’t want to just buy them any present. It’s got to be the right present; the kind of present that lets them know that you have been listening to them, paying attention to the hints that they have been giving you. It doesn’t matter how cool you think the gift is, if they don’t need it, they won’t like it. You see, showing the people you care about that you love them is not about spending a lot of money it is about giving them right gift at the right time.
Christmas is a great time to show the people you care about that you love them. In our Gospel lesson for this morning that’s exactly what God does. In Luke 2:1-7 God shows us that He loves us. The gift He gives us required a great deal of planning and preparation, the gift He gives us is a hand made one of a kind, and you can tell He has been paying attention to us because the gift He gives us is exactly what we need.
In verses 1-3 Luke gives us an idea of the kind of planning and preparation that went into our gift. There Luke writes, “1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register.” The prophet Micah foretold that our gift would be given in Bethlehem Ephrathah.[1] But getting that gift to the right place at the right time took an astronomical amount of planning and preparation.
It was a time when Octavian ruled Rome and therefore the world. (It is estimated that he ruled over 70 million people or a third of the world’s population.) Having successfully defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian became Rome’s first dictator. Drunk with power, Octavian adopted the title, ‘Divi Filius Augustus’ ‘the revered son of god’. We know him simply as Caesar Augustus. Managing a Diva with delusions of divinity like Octavian was no easy task, but that is exactly what God did.
Luke tells us, God arranged for our gift to be delivered by a simple peasant girl named Marry. But Mary Lived in Nazareth, about 100 miles from Bethlehem. So, God arranged for this simple peasant girl to be engaged to a man named Joseph. Joseph, a carpenter by trade, was a good man but nothing extraordinary. But what made Joseph so important to God’s plan was, he was a descendant of King David who,1000 years earlier, God arranged to be born in Bethlehem.
In order to get the gift to Bethlehem God needed to get Mary to Bethlehem. In order to get Mary to Bethlehem God needed to get Joseph to Bethlehem. And that is where Octavian comes in. Octavian’s census required for everyone to return to their hometown to register. For Joseph that meant a return to Bethlehem which meant Mary would go to Bethlehem, which meant our gift would be in the right place at the right time.
When you think about all the planning and preparation that went into the gift that God gives you this Christmas, you start to get a sense of just how much your God loves you. You also get a sense of how much your God loves you we you consider that the gift He gives you is a one of a kind.
In verse 5 Luke simply and succinctly describes our one of a kind gift when he tells us Mary was “pledged to be married” to Joseph “and was expecting a child.” Mary was “pledged” to be married to Joseph, that is the two of them were bound by all the commitments of marriage but were not yet enjoying all the benefits of marriage. (That’s my tactful way of saying Mary was still a virgin.). Talk about a unique gift! To say that the baby in the virgin Mary’s belly is a one of a kind, is a bit of an understatement.
How could a virgin become pregnant with a baby? That’s a good question, a question that countless theologians have asked, and yet a question that remains unanswered. Here Luke simply says Mary was “expecting a child”. But the Greek word he uses focuses more on the state of the pregnancy than it does the event of conception. Mary herself asked “how will this be” “since I am a virgin”. The explanation she received was “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”[2] How will this be? How could a virgin become pregnant? God does not give us the details. All we are told is God Himself would form and fashion the child. It is true that God knits every child together in their mother’s womb, but with them He uses the natural DNA of a mother and father to do His knitting. This child had no earthly father. The knitting together of this Child was a miraculous undertaking. The DNA of a woman was woven together with the Divinity of God. This child is unique; a child like no other.
When you think about the handmade; one of a kind gift that God gives you this Christmas, the love that your God has for you starts to sink in. But if you really want to know just how much your God loves you, think about the thought He put into your gift.
In verse 7 Luke invites us to think about the thought God put into our gift when he tells us Mary, “gave birth to her firstborn, a son.” The secret to good gift giving is spending some time thinking about what the person you are giving a gift to really needs. That is precisely what God has done for you. God has the ability to shower you with riches this Christmas, but, as much as you might enjoy riding around town in a Porsche 911, God knows riches are not what you really need. God has the ability to make you famous, but, as sassy as you might look sashaying down the red carpet, God knows fame is not really what you need. God has the ability to grant you unlimited power, but, even though you might use that power to solve the world’s problems, God knows power is not really what you need.
God could get you any of these things, but He wanted to give you something more meaningful than wealth or fame or power; He wanted to give you something that you really need. He examined your soul to determine what it is that you need the most. And when He did, He saw “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”[3] He saw sin. He saw people who have fallen short of the glory of God. He saw lost and condemned creatures.
God examined you and He knew exactly what your greatest need was. You needed a substitute. You needed someone who was without sin; someone who could live perfectly in your place. And you needed a sacrifice. You needed someone who was willing to pay for your sin. You needed someone who was willing to offer their life as a sacrifice in your place. God knew what your greatest need was. That is why He gave you His Son.
Think about that for just a moment… tell me if that gift doesn’t show you how much your God loves you.
This Christmas, God shows the people He cares about how much He loves them by giving them a gift; a gift that required a great deal of planning and preparation, a gift that is a handmade one of a kind, a gift that shows He took the time to think about what the people He cares about really need. This Christmas God gives you the gift of His Son so that you can know how much He loves you.
I told you, Christmas is a great time to show the people you care about how much you love them. Amen.
[1] Micah 5:2
[2] Luke 1:34-35
[3] Matthew 15:19