What’s Your Christmas Response?

Christmas Day, 12/25/21 Romans 8:31-32 What’s Your Christmas Response? I. God is for us. II. God has saved us. The question is coming. I’m sure you’ll hear it asked of you. In fact, you might hear it already beginning tomorrow. And that question is this, “So, how was your Christmas?” And you likely know that the person asking that question isn’t interested in a detailed account. Instead, that question is asked as an attempt to be polite, to indicate that the person does care about you. So, how will you respond? Well, that question is a little premature, isn’t it? After all, there’s still more than 12 hours of Christmas to go. You likely still have presents to open. Christmas dinner isn’t even in the oven yet, let alone on the table. You’re still expecting guests to arrive. With all of those Christmas unknowns, you don’t yet have a complete Christmas 2021 experience in order to respond to the question, “So, how was your Christmas?”. But you certainly can respond to that question from a spiritual standpoint. Nothing that will happen between now and midnight will change how this Christmas is and will be for you spiritually. Even if there’s a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking and only an ugly Christmas sweater in a box under the tree with your name on it, even if your invited Christmas guests don’t show and the Christmas dinner in the oven resembles on Old Testament whole burnt offering, Christmas 2021 will not change for you spiritually. That’s because the only Christmas that truly matters—the very first Christmas—is something you had nothing to do with. It was all done for you by the God of your salvation. In Romans 8, St. Paul reflects on God’s tremendous saving activity. He notes how it began in eternity and continues through all eternity. And nothing can change that. He begins this morning’s sermon text with a penetrating question for every Christian to ponder. Listen to it once again. “What, then, shall we say in response to this?” That’s a great question. A great Christmas question. So, let’s ask it. What’s your Christmas response? Paul suggests some astounding answers. Let’s see what they are. Part I. Have you ever been in a relationship in which you weren’t sure how the other person felt about you? If it’s an employment relationship, you wonder what your co-worker or supervisor thinks about you and the work that you’re doing. Is your work thus far satisfactory? Or, perhaps it’s in a budding personal relationship. You just can’t tell how the other person feels about you. It seems as if they aren’t comfortable with you, and you don’t know the reason why. And it makes you feel like you’re living in some sort of twilight zone. You don’t know where you are and you don’t know how to proceed. Now let’s take that up a couple notches, at least in importance for your life, now and forever. Have you ever been unsure about how your God feels about you? We’ve all been there before, probably more times than we can count. That insecurity arises when one of life’s tragedies comes slamming into your life, and you’re led to ponder how it could have happened. All your life you’ve heard that your God loves you, but now you’re not sure. Or, you work hard at attaining something good and positive in your life, but your goal alludes you. Meanwhile, you watch as someone who obviously doesn’t have the same Christian values as you do, attains success, and rather easily. You wonder what your God thinks about you. If you’ve ever felt that way, you’re not alone. God’s people throughout history have faced the same insecurity. And God’s answer to that insecurity is Christmas. Listen to St. Paul’s first Christmas response. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” There’s no doubt that God is for us. We could re-translate that sentence this way: “Since God is for us.” But how do I know that? Paul would have you ponder three things. First, look to the past. In the verses preceding our text, Paul has listed God’s saving activity and he goes all the way back to before creation, before time existed. He reminds you that God knew you by name in eternity as one of his own children. Of all the things that God could have been thinking about and planning for, he was thinking about you and planning your salvation. And then, when the time was just right, when everything was in order from God’s perspective, he acted. He sent his eternal Son into the world in human flesh. God became a man. That’s what Christmas is all about. Jesus is God’s Christmas gift to you and he is exactly what you need. We just recited it from the words Luther wrote. Jesus is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity and also true man, born of the virgin Mary. He’s God’s perfect Christmas gift to you! And because his Christmas gift to you was perfect so many centuries ago, your future is absolutely certain. In fact, your eternity is certain. One Christmas hymn states, “For us he opens wide the door of paradise today.” Jesus came to remove the curse of sin. And, having removed it by his life and death, he won for us the blessing of eternal life. That’s how your God feels about you. He loves you so much that he wants to spend eternity with you. God is for us! Therefore, who can be against us? And the simple answer is “no one.” With God on our side, we conquer all and win the victory with our Lord, the Child of Bethlehem. So, what’s your Christmas response? God is for us! But do you feel like God is for you? If you look around you, you might not think so. A year ago, I thought Christmas 2021 would be much more like Christmas 2019, but that’s not the case. The pandemic is still a major concern as Christians make decisions on how to celebrate the birth of Christ. In so many respects it seems like we’re still facing the same problems we’ve been facing for years and there seems to be no end in sight. And God is for us? Indeed, he is! Recall that the birth of Christ did nothing to change the outward lives of God’s people. They still faced disease and oppression, injustice and prejudice. The Christ-Child didn’t arrive to overthrow society’s ills; He came to battle Satan for souls—your soul and mine. And he won that battle when he suffered and died as our substitute. His resurrection three days later guaranteed that the eternal victory belonged to him. And that victory is ours by faith in him. Yes, God is for us! Make that your Christmas response! Part II. Without a doubt, the Christmas season is the greatest gift giving and gift receiving time of the year throughout the world. The amount of money spent on Christmas gifts is beyond calculation. But what makes a great Christmas gift? Is it the amount of money spent? Is it the thought and effort that was expended? Does it depend on what the recipient needs? I’m sure you have your opinion. All three of those considerations played a huge role in God’s Christmas gift to you. Paul describes that gift with these words, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Paul argues from the greater to the lesser. God’s present to us was nothing less than his Son, his most precious possession. He didn’t give us an object; he gave us a person. And not just any person. He gave us the eternal Son of God. And the reason that he gave us his Son boggles the mind. Paul states he gave him to us so that he could give him up for us. God delivered Jesus over to his enemies so that they could deliver Jesus up to the cross. As heinous as that sounds, it was exactly God’s plan. God used their wicked plans and actions to carry out his saving plans and actions. What God had planned for thousands of years, he accomplished when he sent his Son into the world and delivered him up to the cross. What would cause God to do such a thing for sinful people like you and me? Only his love. Amazing love! Astounding love! Love like none other since nor will there ever be! And because he loves us with an eternal love, we can count on this great promise, “Will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” All things. So, what do you need most of all? Without a doubt, as sinners, we need the daily assurance of our forgiveness through Christ. Your God graciously gives it. With all the uncertainties in our lives, we need the assurance that eternal life in heaven is ours. Your God graciously gives it. What else do you truly need in life? Your God graciously gives it according to his infinite wisdom and love. How can we be sure? Because his greatest gift came us to wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger. So, what’s your Christmas response? God has saved us! The people of our world will be finished celebrating Christmas 2021 in a little more than 12 hours. What amazes me each year is how quickly people go back to living their lives just as they were prior to Christmas, as if celebrating Christmas had meant nothing. Fight the temptation to join them. Do so by pondering your response to the question, “So, how was your Christmas?” Recall from this word of our God that Christmas was everything your God intended it to be for you. It reminded you that God is for you. What comfort and confidence that gives! And it reminded you that your God saves you. That’s your Christmas peace and joy! Celebrate it! Amen.