So This Is Christmas

What is it that makes this day, December the 25th, special?  What makes today “Christmas”?

For most Americans, there is hardly any day of the year more important, if only for the sake of the economy, or perhaps because it is the primary “family gathering” occasion.  It’s certainly become a significant festival of the Church Year, as well, albeit a relative late-comer, historically speaking.

By the early fourth century, it does appear that some Christians (in and around the city of Rome) had come to identify December the 25th as the “birthday” of Christ Jesus — although He was far more likely born in the spring of the year, much closer to Easter.  “Birthdays,” in general, have never been prominent in the Church’s liturgical observances, but the Nativity of Our Lord is of course uniquely significant.  Even so, the occasion was not observed with any major festivities for many years.  The focus of the Church’s faith and life was rather on His Cross and Resurrection.

As for the coming of God the Son in human Flesh and Blood and His appearing as the God-Man on earth, the Christian Church (especially outside of Rome) originally celebrated that awesome, divine Mystery on January the 6th — what we know as the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord.  Until the end of the fourth century and beyond, that was the big celebration for most of the Church.

Many are convinced that December the 25th came into its own among Christians as a replacement for the pagan festival of the sun god — the victorious, “unconquered sun.”  This seems not only likely, but appropriate, since Christ Jesus is the true Sun of Righteousness who has come into this world as true Light in the darkness, and who has conquered all the enemies of man by His Cross.

Nowadays, we might wonder whether our culture and society have not turned the Christian Feast of Christmas back into another pagan festival, only without anything so specific or worthwhile as a sun god.  Be that as it may, let us not point fingers at the world outside.  Let us rather ask, what is it that makes this day, December the 25th, special for us?  Why are any of us here this morning?

The answer is nothing you have done or said or felt.  It is nothing in yourself or of your own doing.  It is, rather, “of the Father’s Love begotten.”  For it is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who makes Christmas happen by giving His own dear Son, His Only-Begotten, in the Flesh.

That is what Christmas is about, or, better to say, what Christmas is.  That is why the angels from the realms of glory appear and sing to shepherds here on earth — and why we sing with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  For the Nativity of our Lord binds together heaven and earth, God and Man, which is something neither you nor anyone else could ever have done.  For you could not, by your own reason or strength, believe in God the Lord or come to Him; and in your native sinfulness, you did not even know Him or want to have anything to do with Him.

Yet, He has ever desired in love to give you true and lasting Life in and with Himself.  Therefore, since you could not come to Him — nor did you even want to come to Him — the Lord your God has come down from heaven to you in the Person of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, begotten of the Father from all eternity, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the fulness of time.

He does so entirely in “Love.”  For God is Love.  That’s not just what God does or what He’s like, but “Love” constitutes His very essence as the Holy Trinity.  The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, in the perfect unity of the Holy Spirit.  And it is in that divine Love that He acts.

It is in that divine Love that God the Son comes in the Flesh as your Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is in divine Love that He gives His Body into death upon the Cross and sheds His holy, precious Blood to make Atonement for the sins of the whole world.  It is in divine Love that He has come to you in the waters of your Holy Baptism to cleanse and sanctify you, within and without, by His Word and Holy Spirit, and to make you a beloved and well-pleasing child of His own God and Father.  And it is in divine Love that He gives you His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Thus does God the Father love you in and with His own dear Son, and by and with His Holy Spirit.  It is a divine, eternal Love that never ends or wavers, because it does not depend on you in any way, but it depends entirely on Him, on who He is.  It is as sure and certain as God Himself is true.

So, then, returning to the question of what it is that makes this day “Christmas” — which is to say, the “Christ-Mass,” the celebration of the Eucharist in celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord — it is because, not only “once upon a time,” but here and now, in this place, God the Father gives to you His only-begotten Son in the same Flesh and Blood that were conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Indeed, the same Flesh and Blood of the same Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, are given and poured out for you here at this Altar in His Holy Supper.

The King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth He stood, the Lord of lords in human nature, in His Body and His Blood, gives Himself to you and all the faithful as heavenly Food.

So, the fact of the matter is that today is Christmas Day because the Christian Church around the world is celebrating the Holy Communion and receiving the true Body and Blood of Christ Jesus in this Holy Sacrament.  Otherwise, December the 25th would be no different and no more special than any other day of the year.  By the same token, every day in which the Church celebrates and receives the Holy Sacrament is a Christ-Mass — and Epiphany, and Good Friday, and Easter!

It is the flesh-and-blood presence of Christ Jesus that does indeed make this day special.  For His presence as your Savior and your King, and the priceless Food and Drink with which He feeds and serves you, makes this Day and this Divine Service a festival and a Feast of His great Salvation.

Thus, “for you there is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  And as Dr. Luther has said concerning a similar Word of promise, “These words, ‘for you,’ require all hearts to believe.”

For you, right here and now, and for the Christian Church around the world, the “Christ-Mass” truly happens on this Holy Day — as the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus are given and poured out for you to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins.  Here this morning, on the corner of Milton and Dale, in the frailty of bread and wine (no more impressive than a manger), everything that matters in the world happens for you.  The Savior comes to you in His own human Flesh, as surely as He was conceived and born of St. Mary, in order to give to you His own divine, eternal Life, that you should live with Him, and with His Father and the Holy Spirit, in body and soul forever.

As I’ve delighted to say many times over the years, this Sanctuary is your Bethlehem.  This Altar is for you the stable of the Lord Jesus Christ; the Patten and the Chalice are the manger that bear His Body and His Blood for you.  And as He once came to dwell in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, so does He come to live and abide in you, that you might also live and abide in Him.

That is what makes the 25th of December so special.  Not the historical accuracy of the date, which is likely off by several months.  Not the nostalgic memories of the past.  But the coming of Christ Jesus in the Flesh for you and your salvation, that the Love of God the Father and the Communion of His Holy Spirit might also be yours in the Body and Blood of the same Lord Jesus Christ.

Be certain that this true meaning and significance of the “Christ-Mass” will continue throughout the coming year, come what may — and so long as day and night, seasons, and years persist on this old earth — as your Lord and Savior comes to you, week after week, to strengthen and keep you steadfast in the true faith, in His Word and Spirit, Flesh and Blood, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul.  So do you abide with Him in peace and joy.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.