God is Not Silent on this Silent Night ~ Christmas Eve ~ Luke 2:1-20

In silence, we pause from the busyness and stress of life...

In silence, we step away from the hustle and bustle of months-long preparations to celebrate this very day...

In the silence of this night, God is breaking into world

to be with us

bringing hope and salvation to all.

In silence we join some lonely shepherds, living in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks in the night...

For them, it’s just another long night of a very hard life—a life of extreme poverty and isolation…  These don’t even have a place to spend the night.  They live outdoors with their sheep… 

Like the shepherds, we bear hurts and hardships and fears this night—and these weigh especially heavy on hearts this time of year…  

But we have something else in common with the shepherds: God is speaking good news to us tonight…  So let us journey with the shepherds to the manager in Bethlehem.  But we go to witness more than a newborn baby lying in a feeding trough.  We go to receive a gift-- and with that gift, a whole new reality.  We go to see the salvation of the world coming to life. 

In this newborn child, God is joining us in human existence.  He comes to share in our suffering and in our pain.  There is nothing that we can experience that he has not experienced himself.  He is God with us. 

We don’t have to try and find Jesus—Jesus finds us.  He meets us wherever we are in life.

And as our Savior, he is born to deliver us from all that stands in the way of our living in God's love.  Jesus saves us from the sin that separates us from God.  He delivers us from the powers of evil that destroy both our bodies and our souls. Because of Jesus, we need not live in fear of death-- or anything that would come our way in life, because Jesus' claim upon us is unbreakable.  Our poverty and our pain are only temporary.  Hope is our reality; eternal life is our destiny... 

Tonight we celebrate God’s gift of our salvation—but Jesus’ birth is only the beginning of the story.  To know Jesus Christ as our Savior, we must also journey with him to the cross—because that is where his great love for us is revealed.  Jesus was born for the cross; to lay down his life as a sacrifice for our sin.  Without the cross, there would be no salvation. 

But the story does not end there…  Beyond that cross lies the empty tomb, where Jesus wins his victory over the powers of evil and death. At the empty tomb, we witness we see our future.  One day, we, too, shall rise from the dead.

But the story does not end even there…  The living and risen Christ is present in your life and in this world.  He speaks to us in the promises of the Gospel…  He delivers you and strengthens you in your most difficult times.  He shares your sorrows and your pain.  He hears your prayers, even in those times when we feel alone and forgotten.  And he forgives you when you stumble into sin and reject his will. 

So on this Christmas Eve, let us not just hear the story of Jesus Christ…  Let us receive Jesus Christ and his gift of new life. 

And when we go from this place tonight; let us join Mary in holding God’s promises in our hearts…

And in a few days, when our Christmas celebrations are ended and we return to the rhythms and routines of life, let us join with the shepherds in telling others of all these things that God does for us. 

Christ was born for everyone-- and not everyone knows of the life and the hope that he gives to us.  We will never know Christ for the true treasure that he is unless we commit ourselves to sharing his love with others and inviting others to come and receive the treasures of his love in the Water and the Word. 

In this silent night, God is anything but silent when it comes to loving us and saving us.  God speaks to us always…  God guides through all the dark valleys of life to the eternal home prepared for us.  So receive him today—and not just today, but every day. 

Let us live in the peace and the hope that is ours today—and may we never be silent in making our Savior known to a world in need.