Sermon for December 25, 2011: The Signal

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for this Christmas morning is from the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 52, verses 7-10:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.
Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,
     Merry Christmas! In the interest of full disclosure, this is my very first Christmas morning service. At least so far as I can remember. So, if my sermon this morning lets you down, if it disappoints you, it’s likely only because I have never heard a Christmas Day sermon. I will just attempt to do what I can do, and that is to preach the Word of God.

     You see, the Word of God is not a sermon on why it’s better to say “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays,” though this is debatable for sure. The Word of God is not a sermon that is going to tell you to focus on Jesus alone and not Santa Claus. The Word of God is not a sermon that is going to tell you that we should be out giving to and serving others rather than receiving and taking gifts from our family and friends. In fact, the Word of God is proclaimed in a sermon when that sermon focuses on Jesus Christ, when that sermon tells you what a wretched person you are, when that sermon tells you what an amazing and forgiving God we have, when that sermon proclaims to you the salvation and forgiveness won for you by Jesus Christ Himself. And God willing, that is what this sermon, that is what the Word of God, will proclaim here.

     How many times have you prayed, “God, just show me a sign that you’re there?” How many times? Likely more than you can count. How do I know this? I’ve prayed that prayer, too. So often, we feel alone. And that’s weird, because by faith, we know we’re not alone. We hear about God in Christ Jesus here in this Church. We are surrounded by God’s people here in this sanctuary. And yet, we feel alone. We look for a sign. We look for a signal.

     It was no different 2,000 years ago. People have always wanted a sign that God was with them. For the Ancient Israelites, they had this sign. They could walk by day with a pillar of cloud leading them, they could see by night with a pillar of fire in their midst. These were manifestations of the Lord Himself. They walked through the waters of the Red Sea, which drowned the hard-hearted Pharaoh and all his host, coming out the other side new Israelites, free from the sinful Egypt. They ate the manna that God Himself provided. They drank the water that God gave them. They saw the fire from heaven come down and lick up the sacrifice on the altar. They saw the lightning and heard the thunder. They witnessed the prophets and their prophecies come true.

     We read the Scriptures and can’t help but think that the Ancient Israelites seemed to have a leg up on us, don’t we? They were witnesses to the physical God, the acts, the presence, the Word of God.

     What we don’t realize is that this wasn’t enough for them. God was among them through the very power of His Word, through a very physical and real presence and that wasn’t enough for them. They consistently fell away from God. They consistently turned away from God and went their own way or towards the way of other gods. But God loved them. Because of this, God always desired to bring them back to Himself. They heard the voice of God saying that they were doomed for exile because of their works. But they also heard the voice of God say that there was hope, for one day God Himself would bring them home.

     Even with their signs, they still turned away from God. And even with all of our asking for a sign that God is with us, I tend to think that we’d be no different. If God came and dwelled bodily in our midst, if we saw the Lord Jesus face to face, I still think that we’d turn, we’d sin, we’d fall, we’d fail, we’d falter.
How do I know this? Because it’s already happened. Jesus Christ was in the midst of His people, He Himself was the sign that God was truly with them, and God’s own people rejected the Son. They rejected and despised the Son of God.

     The Israelites asked for a sign, a signal, and Isaiah had prophesied that it would come. “The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” The Lord has bared His holy arm…

     This is the sign that all people have been waiting for. You see, when it comes to the Scriptures, every time that the arm of the Lord is mentioned, it is referring to the specific power of God, the might of God, the all-encompassing action of God. When you see the arm of God, when you see His power, there is no doubt as to who will win. When God fights, the outcome is predetermined. When He displays His arm, so to speak, the demons tremble.

     But God’s arm, His power, it was ignored, not only by the Israelites, those chosen people who were to seek after God alone, but also by us, when Jesus first came as that infant child of Bethlehem and even still today.

     God Himself, the very God, the very infant God we celebrate here this Christmas Day, came to us. He came, not in power and majesty and might, but as a helpless infant, a child completely dependent on His parents, completely dependent on His Father in Heaven. God’s power, God’s arm of might, often does not look like what we expect. And so it was in the infant Christ. We expected a king to come and save us, and we received a babbling, gurgling, cooing infant.

     This child came naked into the world. God’s power does not look like the power we want. Yet, this naked baby, this naked Jesus, His naked arm bared before the World, this naked infant was born for us, so that in His flesh He took on our flesh. If Christ were not born as all children are born, Christ could not redeem all children. If Christ was not born as all children are born, then Christ could not assume all of our sins unto Himself. If Christ was not born as all children are born, then our faith in this God-man is pointless, for a spiritualized God is worthless to a physical people. The bared arm of the naked infant Jesus, was missed by most people. The shepherds, the wise men saw it. But by most, it was overlooked. It was forgotten. Even Jesus’ own family, over time, forgot that this infant was the Christ. After all, He looked just like a man. Isaiah has told us that He had nothing in His appearance, nothing in His outward, visible nature that would draw men to Himself. God doesn’t appear as we think He should, but He has come to us in the power and humility that He desired for Himself.

     And this wasn’t the only time that God bared His arm in the midst of His people. No, we know from the Scriptures that Jesus was the son of a carpenter. Jesus was a carpenter Himself. He worked with wood and stone. He sweated and labored over exacting measurements, the lifting of heavy objects, the building with His hands. And as with any labor, sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and get your work done. But it was not just this. Jesus reached out and bared His arm and healed. Jesus reached out and bared His arm and fed the 5,000. Jesus reached out and bared His arm and stilled the waves. Jesus reached out and bared His arm and served those around Him.

     You see, Jesus Christ lived as a man. Jesus Christ lived out His daily life and has daily vocations: son, child, teacher, rabbi, healer. We tend to make this work of Jesus Christ just an example. It goes like this: Jesus worked hard, so should we. Jesus served others, so should we. Jesus lived an outstanding life of faith, so should we.

     How dare we! How. Dare. We. Jesus didn’t live to serve as example for us. Jesus shows us His mighty power here in His life, and we take away that it was an example? Oh, how pitiable we are! How dare we?
No, Jesus Christ lived as a man to assume all righteousness. Jesus Christ lived as a man to do His duty. Jesus Christ lived as a man because we can’t! Jesus Christ lived perfectly because we can’t! Jesus Christ lived righteously because we can’t! Jesus Christ did all this, not so He could keep it to Himself, but that He gives it freely to us. His righteousness, His perfection, He gives it freely to us and takes our sins. Jesus lived His perfect life, not to hoard up treasures for Himself, but to fulfill righteousness for His people. Don’t you dare make that an example for you to live by! You can’t even if you tried!

     But try we do. And because we will fail, we have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Oh, what wretched people we are. We are to be pitied above all, for we have tried to turn the righteousness of a physical, active, forgiving God into something we should try to do for spiritual gain… as if we could. And for this sin, and for all our sins, for all our wrongs, we deserve death. We deserve punishment.

     But even in this, God gives us a final signal, a final sign in the person Jesus Christ that God is always with us. Jesus Christ, for all our sins, for all our unrighteousness, bared His arm one last time. With His arm stretched out and naked, bared for all the world to see, with the power of God looking nothing like what we expect, the broken and bloodied and beaten Jesus Christ, died on the cross. His arms, which had been holding Himself up for so many hours, gave way, they collapsed, and the God-man Jesus Christ breathed out His last. In His weakness, in His death, this is where the power of God, the power of God’s bared arm, lies. This man who had been an infant, this man who had worked to fulfill all righteousness, this man, who is God, died on a cross, in your place.

     This man, this Jesus, He went to the cross for you. He bared His arm for you. In His power, He took all your sin. In His power, He gave you righteousness. We asked for a signal, a sign, that God was still with us, that God is still around us. And God gave us that sign. God put a signal on top of a hill for the whole world to see. Isaiah said it: “The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

     The salvation of our God. The salvation of our God that was given to His people. That salvation which is a free gift of the Holy Spirit is yours. This Christmas gift, this working gift, this Easter gift, is a freely given to you. There is nothing you can do to earn it, there is nothing you can do to make yourself worthy of it. Jesus Christ is the only one who is worthy of it and He gives that worth to you freely. God has bared His arm and has shown Himself to His people. He has bared His arm and has bought His people back from the clutches of sin, death, and the devil. God’s power is in His bared arm, and nowhere is this arm seen but in the person of Jesus Christ. God can do all the miraculous stuff that He wants to do, but it is always through the bared arm of Jesus Christ.

     So, I ask again, how many times have you prayed, “God, just show me a sign that you’re there?” God Himself has given us this sign, this signal we ask for. We need look no further than the cross. And yet, God even gives us more. By faith, we know we’re not alone. Each week, the Word of God is proclaimed from this pulpit. The Word of God, Jesus Christ, is with you. Every other week in this church, we receive the Lord’s real, true, physical body and blood with the bread and the wine. The physical body of Christ, in His body and blood, they are with you. Each baptism, the pastor, speaking the literal words of Christ, claims that child of God, whether infant, toddler, teenager, or adult, is now brought into full salvation, their sin is forgiven, and they have the gift of the Holy Spirit laid upon him or her. God is here. We believe Him, we believe His words, we read Him, we hear Him, we receive Him.

     The regeneration and rebirth given to us from God, they are with you. We hear God. We taste God. We eat God. We drink God. We are washed by God. We are forgiven by God. We are claimed by God. We have looked for a sign, we have looked for a signal. Look no further. Your search is over. God is here. He is in the text. He is in the Word. He is in the words. He is in your ear. He is in the message. He is in our mouths, our hearts, our minds. Bur first and foremost, God, the same God who is here now, has given you His sign, God shows you His cross. God has shown you His signal. He has bared His arm, He has displayed His power, He has won your salvation and His bared arms are now open to embrace you. Jesus is here and He loves you and he forgives you. Amen.

Now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.