"The Awesome Miracle Of Christmas" Bishop Richard Lipka December 24, William Wolf

Transcription

1 "The Awesome Miracle Of Christmas" Bishop Richard Lipka December 24, 2018 William Wolf

2 Haste, Haste to bring him Laud the baby boy, the son of Mary, and in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. Before I begin, I wanted to just, want to give you a Christmas greeting from our deacons and myself and our staff here, Karen Phillips, Karen Graulich, and Gloria Dzambo. We're so glad you're here to worship with us tonight to worship Christ our savior and king. We wish all of you and your family's a blessed Christmas and we do invite those of you who are not part of part of our church family to worship with us again. Oh, holy night. The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth, long lay the world in sin and error pining until he appeared and Christ was born. Here we are at Holy Trinity Cathedral as Christians are gathered all around the world today joining with the whole church of Christ, the whole body of the faithful. joining with the whole Church of Christ, the whole body of the faithful on this pivotal night, this night when BC comes to an end and dawns the age of Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. Tonight, we are privileged to be a part, not just to be spectators from outside, but to be a part tonight of the awesome miracle of Christmas. Oh, holy night. The stars are indeed brightly shining. It is the awesome miracle of Christmas, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful story is. We've heard it so many times and I pray that it hasn't lost its luster on you. It hasn't on me. I always, always, always hear the message of the angels. Let's hear it again tonight, and let's with them go to Bethlehem to see the things that the angel said and observe the sign that he gave them. You should see a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and laying in a manger. Let's stop and think about that. On this glorious night, our story begins as luke always begins, many of his stories with a historical note. He places when he can, all the stories that he tells in the Bible at a particular time in history, a particular moment when the sovereign God overrules the nations and the kings and the emperors and does his thing using the things that the earth earthly kings think that they did. Our story begins by telling us about Caesar Augustus. He was the emperor of Rome. He was the most powerful person in the world, and his people after his death worshiped him as a god. They burned incense to him and it became accustomed to see all Roman emperors as gods to be worshiped and adored, and Quirinius was governor of Syria. As we tell this story tonight, we might begin by saying, when Donald Trump was president of the United States and John was governor of Delaware, Larry was governor of Maryland, and Ralph was governor of Virginia. Page 1

3 God, the sovereign God of the universe entered into human history in an awesome, miraculous way. He called for census. This was not unusual. Our extra biblical sources tell us that the Romans, they issued a decree of a census every 14 years and the census was for the construction people to the military, the Jews were exempt from that, but also to raise taxes to support the Roman government, the Roman military, and the Roman worship centers, and so Joseph and Joseph and Mary. Now here he was awesome king, this awesome emperor of the whole, the most powerful man in the universe or on earth rather than you have Joseph and Mary, two which most people would consider pretty much nobody's ordinary people, no claim to fame, and here Joseph Responds to the decree by taking his betrothed. They're not married yet fully, completely taking Mary, his betrothed who was with child on an 80 mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. You see all we're required to return to their cities of origin to the place that the tribe, where they were from the city of David. Joseph and Mary were both of the House of David, the tribe of Judah, and so they took that long arduous task. You women who have had babies. Can you imagine your last trimester getting on a donkey If you were lucky or walking 80 miles to comply with the Roman emperor's decree, but it was more than a decree, wasn't it? It was God's plan. We heard it yesterday, actually in the Prophet Micah. God said that he would be born in Bethlehem of Ephrathah though and that he would be the ruler of all nations and his kingdom would be eternal. I love that. Don't you That God overwhelmed. Oh God. His will done by using a pagan emperor whom people thought were was the king, and so they come to Bethlehem and we know the story. They came there and there was a no vacancy sign on the only Inn in Bethlehem, filled with people who had come to register. Sometimes people think as I prayed this and thought about this. Think about how horrible it was for the innkeeper to turn away Joseph and Mary because there was no vacancy, but I think it was pretty pretty compassionate guy. Actually. I think he looked at Mary and Joseph and he saw the anxiety and Joseph's eyes and he saw this stress have on Mary's body as she went through this 80 mile journey and he looked at them, said, we have no room, but I do have a stable where I keep my animals and the animals with my guests. You can use that Mary and Joseph for your shelter. And so they go into the shelter of the stable in Bethlehem. By the way, Bethlehem means, House of bread keep that in mind, and they go into the stable and there Mary has her baby and wrapped him in swaddling cloth and lays him in a manger. The manger was a solid rock. It wasn't a comfortable crib. You would think if God was planning this, and planned it well that he had Jesus born in the palace of the emperor are in one of the governors or perhaps in one of the high priest a palaces, and he had been laid in a ivory laden cradle. But now we have this Jesus laid in a manger, a hard rock manger which was used to feed animals. Page 2

4 Remember Jesus later on in his ministry was to talk about himself as food. You said, I am the bread of life. You would come to me, will never hunger. He who believes in me will never thirst, and so there that baby is, and then the shepherds in the field, Perhaps you know this, but the shepherds were looked upon as dirty, filthy people. They weren't ritually clean, so they couldn't come to the temple because they couldn't keep all the purity laws. They were out there in the field. Did you know that they were so untrusted and lacked so much integrity in the eyes of the people, their own people, that they were not allowed to give evidence in a court of law, because nobody would believe them. And the first people, the first men to hear the good news, were those shepherds tending the flocks. The flocks they tended in Bethlehem where the flocks that were being that were intended for for the temple, they were to be blameless and spotless and be used in the morning and evening sacrifices for the sins of God's people. And the angel comes and announces to them the lamb of God, the lamb of God who can take away the sins of the people, like the sacrifices in the temple could not. And so you have these angels come in and let's just listen. This is the Christmas story, at its heart. The angels come and said to the shepherd in verse 10, Chapter Two, if you have a bible, but you probably can't read it because it's so dark out there. But anyway, listen to what the angel said. You'll probably be familiar with the first part of his message. It could have been Gabriel again. The first thing he said was, don't be afraid. Remember what he said to Zechariah. Don't be afraid. Remember what he said to Mary. Don't be afraid. You see living in a world of darkness. We're consumed by fear. We're consumed by stress. We're consumed by all the wrongs that are going on in the world. It seems that we're caught up in troubles and things that are in the world and in our own lives that there doesn't seem to be any, any ray at the end of the tunnel, and the angel says, don't be afraid. That's the word for us tonight, isn't it Don't be afraid. Listen to the rest of this is the heart of the good news. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Good News. Gospel cause great joy, not just for you shepherds, but for all people. It's good news, not only for those in Bethlehem's field are those who have lived in the past centuries. It's good news for us here at Holy Trinity after all, we're people, aren't we? Good news for all people. What's that Good news, What's the good news? Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. The angels continue. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Let's take that apart. Let's tease that a little bit and see what that's all about. Let's go to Bethlehem. Now with the shepherd, the shepherd said, when the angel left, they said, let us go to Bethlehem, well let us go and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So we with them, go to Bethlehem. We go to the stable where Jesus has just been born and we see a baby, a child with our eyes. We see an ordinary helpless, just born infant cradled in his mother's arms. That's what we see with these eyes. Page 3

5 But when the shepherds came, they saw with the eyes of faith through the message the angel gave them. They saw a baby who was Savior, Messiah, and Lord. Savior, what does that mean? You see with their eyes, all they saw was a little baby, but with the eyes of faith, they saw their savior and what did that mean to them? What does that mean to you and me? They saw a savior, they saw a liberator, or they saw a rescuer, they saw a redeemer. Someone who could pay the price for something we could not possibly pay. A debt brought about by our sinfulness and our fall. They saw a savior, not with the eyes of their physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith, and then they saw in that little baby the messiah. The Word Messiah in Greek is Khristós. Our word Christ comes from that both in Greek and Hebrew and in English it means anointed one. They saw the one who was told about by the prophets of old that he would come as the anointed of God and he would have three things that he would be for all of us, all people. He would be a priest who would offer a sacrifice and the sacrifice he would offer was due to the fact that on this day, at this awesome night, in this miracle that priest, the high priest, became a flesh, became a human being and becoming a human being. As priest, he offered himself for our sins. You would be a king. He was born in the city of David and he will reign over the house of David. The Angel told Mary and his kingdom would be forever. He'd be a prophet, a great prophet. The greatest prophet, he would speak the word of God to his people, word of mercy, a word of compassion, a word of love, a word that speaks to our heart, at least to my heart for this day when I read this Gospel, to say, God loves me so much. God loves you so much that he would give the most precious thing in his life, his eternal life. He would give his son. Imagine that, he stopped Abraham from doing that in the Old Testament, but he didn't stop himself because he knew that someone was die for sin and Jesus said, I'll do it. I'll pay the price that I don't owe, for those who have a debt, but they can't pay. So he became our prophet, our priest and our king. All they saw was a baby. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people, when they think of Christmas and they think of Bethlehem and the Christmas story, they haven't gone beyond with their eyes, can see a baby, a helpless powerless infant in the arms of his mother. But when the shepherds left, they told about everything they had seen the baby, the powerless infant, but everything they had heard, the message of the angels, the angels gave them a sign, a sacrament, if you will, you will see the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. That's all they had. Is that part of God's message through his angel that when they see this baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and laying on a on a rock hard manger, that's the one I'm talking about. Gabriel said, and they believed. Page 4

6 You see, unless we see through the eyes of faith beyond this little baby, this infant. Christmas really doesn't have any meaning, n either does Good Friday, neither does Easter Sunday, because if God didn't come into the flesh, then Oh, the only one who died on the cross was a man. Many men die, many of our American heroes die in war, but they're men not God. If all you see as a child, the resurrection probably didn't happen, so all little hooks, because dead men don't rise, but God does. See how important a miracle this Christmas is. You see, if we don't catch it, saints, if we don't grasp the truth of this amazing miracle of Christmas, then all of our faith is in vain because all we have is a little baby born in a stable 2000 years ago. But if, but if we're willing to open the eyes of our faith tonight and hear the message of the angel with the ears of our hearts and the ears of our minds, and look at that baby and say, yes, he is my savior. Yes, he is my messiah. He is my prophet. He's my priest. He's my king and he is my Lord. He's divine. He's God. Unless we accept that new good news, that message of the angels, well, we're just wasting our time. Let us accept the message of the angel. It's a great message and all soon we're going to have communion. I just thought of this on the way here, so I'll put it in here. I'm still running pretty good. According to bill soon, we're going to have holy communion and what you're gonna see with these eyes is bread and wine, but if you hear the message of Jesus, this is my body, this is my blood, and you accept that message like you accept the message of the angel of this evening, you will look. You will take that bread in your hand and you will see Jesus Christ and his body and you go take that cup to your lips and you will drink the blood of Jesus. That's where faith kicks in. That's where faith kicks i n at Christmas time. Faith is so important things. When we receive communion and you look at that, that bread you eat, do you have the eyes of faith that have accepted the fact that he said, this is my body, and so it is, and he said, this is my cup of the new covenant in my blood, and you look at that wine in the cup and you say, so it is, and the response we ask all of you to say is amen. So be it. It is message of an angel, the message of a poor bishop trying to communicate one of the greatest miracles that God ever did, and he did it all because of his great love for you and me in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. You can hear sermons like this one at Holy Trinity Cathedral, located at Worcester Highway, Berlin, MD Worship Service is at 10:00 AM on Sunday Mornings, followed by a social time after worship. For more information visit our website at older sermons are on our website at our is trinitycathedralberlin@gmail.com, we are on Facebook at and our telephone number is (410) Come and worship with us! Page 5