The house was decorated for Christmas. The Christmas tree was up. Lights were on.  The festivity of the season was upon this family.  And they were ready. They had a hard year. Both of them had a parent die over this last year. Their kids, who were grown up with families of their own, were both getting a divorce. But now, it was Christmas with all the joy and happiness that comes along with it.

There was just one problem.  They had to make a trip to the emergency room, with what turned out to be more serious than anyone thought.  Now, there they were, a husband and a wife who had been married for around 40 years, spending what was about to be their last Christmas together.  In the peaceful advent evening the ghostly sound of a man’s last breaths interrupted all the holiday preparations. Christmas would now forever be tainted by this day, this death.

A few years later, another father and a mother struggle as Christmas approaches.  Each year, they attempt to put up the decorations but this year is different as they are overcome with sadness and memories.  Memories of a son who used to decorate the tree with popcorn strings and construction paper rings.  A young boy who couldn’t sleep the night before Christmas because of the excitement. But that child is no longer with them.  He died of cancer at the age of seven.  His parents can never forget his infectious laugh and bright smile, but to their increasing sadness, his younger sister barely remembers who he was apart from a few pictures.  

At Christmas, it all seemed out of place. The cheerful ornaments, the happy songs, the most wonderful time of the year that doesn’t feel happy anymore. In fact, for these families, and for so many others, it is the most painful time of the year, the wounds of their sadness and loss opened deep.  Perhaps you today feel like this, of know someone who does.  You know you should be happy, you want to be joyful, you want to feel the excitement of Christmas like you used to during those your past.  But you just can’t. Christmas is a celebration of life, the life of the world, the birth of Jesus!  And yet death, sadness, and loss seem to fill the day. And then there’s the fear.  That once again, another Christmas ruined, forever staining the memories of these people, forever dimming their Christmases.

In the darkness of this night, in the darkness of this church building at the end of our service, we will stand together by candlelight to sing.  Seemingly a simple thing, but a profound observance.  Over 2000 years ago, shepherds kept watch over their flock in the darkness of night. Normal people, doing a normal job.  And there was light, for the glory of the Lord shone around them, filling them with fear.  And an angel “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  We are those of whom Isaiah has spoken, “On those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2).

And this isn’t just any dawning light.  This isn’t just something that chases away the darkness for a time, a candle that gets put out at the end of our time together. This is Jesus, the Light of the World, the light that no darkness can overcome.  For all too many Christmas is interrupted by the effects of a sinful and fallen world.  But this is where things are backwards.  Death hasn’t interrupted Christmas! O no! Christmas has forever interrupted death!  The Savior interrupted the cycle of sin and death when He was born.  God, mingling His life with ours even bleeding on the cross and laying in a grave. Christmas literally robbed death, sadness, loss, loneliness of its power.

If Christmas belongs anywhere it belongs wherever death is knocking, or sin is creeping. If Christmas is for anyone, it is for the lonely, the dying, the helpless, the guilty and ashamed, the lost and forgotten. There is not a person here who does not have someone that they miss, either because of death or distance. We are not here tonight because our lives are perfect and wonderful and great. We are here because they are not.  Because we hurt, we suffer, we are sick.

Christ’s birth gives us reason to have joy and peace of which the angels sing even when we don’t feel it, when we don’t see it, even at the grave. Christ has taken away our sin, our shame, our guilt, our pain, and returned our immortality! In the manger, we have the proof that God cares for His creation, that God loves us, by sending His Son into the world to die for the world. Because of Christmas we look forward to a joyful reunion; an everlasting Christmas feast! As we long for those who will not be present with us in the pews at church or around the table at home or opening their gifts with us, let us renew our hope this night in the promise of the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting which God has prepared for all who have loved our Lord's appearing.