Romans 1: 1-7

(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 12/23/07)

INTRODUCTION:

I’ve started reading through a great book by Martin Luther College Prof. Lyle Lange called For God So Loved the World – A Study of Christian Doctrine.  The section on the doctrine of God starts off by making the point that there’s plenty that we don’t know about God because God has chosen not to tell us everything about himself.  There are some very relevant truths that flow out of that teaching.  For 1400 years now those who follow the religion of Islam have considered Christians the enemy.  Why didn’t God completely prevent the rise of that religion?  Or for that matter, why did he allow the rebellion of Satan, or sin to come into existence in the first place?  Or after those things did happen, why didn’t he destroy them?  For 6000 years people have been trying to figure out God with questions like that.

The answers to such questions are not going to show up, because God has chosen not to tell us such things.  He is in many ways a hidden God, but that’s only because he wants us to stop banging our heads against the wall trying to figure things out about him that can’t be figured out and to concentrate instead on what he has told us.  Forget about the whys and focus on the what of world history.

As we gather for Christmas the next few days, we are part of a story that started 6000 years ago when God spoke to Satan and told him Jesus would crush his head.  That’s what all of history is all about, and that’s what our part of history is still all about.  There’s good news about Jesus, and what God has always wanted for everyone is that they hear it and believe it.  That’s what all of history is about, and that’s what God is all about.  Christmas Eve on Monday and Christmas Day on Tuesday mark the fact that God carried out what history is all about – good news about Jesus.  Through Paul’s first sentence to the Romans…

The Timeless Message Of Christmas Rings Out Again

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise.  He was promised already to Eve but later to King David as well.  The one who resolves sin and defeats the enemy and delivers us from the evil that exists for reasons we don’t understand is the human descendant of David.  The focal point of all history is a flesh and blood human being, so that all of us human beings can have one human being who represents us before God and substitutes himself for us.  On Monday night and Tuesday morning the birth of that one human being is worth celebrating.

When you try to picture that child in the manger and calming storms and feeding thousands and hanging from a tree, he doesn’t appear to be anything special.  But when you hear Easter angels saying, “He is not here; he is risen,” and you see him appearing in a locked room and ascending into heaven, then you are to know that that human being who is the focal point of history is also no less than the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.

The Jesus of Christmas is the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Savior for all people.  Abel was not only the first murder victim.  He was the first person to set foot in heaven, saved by Jesus.  Noah didn’t merely ride out the storm in the ark.  He was a sinner saved by Jesus and he’s enjoying heaven.  King David didn’t only kill Goliath and murder Bathsheba’s husband and write many psalms and plan the temple Solomon built.  He had a divine and human descendant who bled and died for all his sins and he’s praising Jesus in heaven.  Add in all the nameless Israelites in Jerusalem who heard about Jesus from Isaiah and Micah, the many Israelites in Babylon who heard about Jesus from Daniel and Ezekiel – those believers in Jesus are with Jesus, too.  That’s real history.

Take your place next Monday and Tuesday – take your place with believers throughout all of history in celebrating what God says history is all about – the Savior is born in Bethlehem.  Why God does all that he does I can’t say, but that God did what he did – that is the heart of Christmas.  One pure person who is both divine and human showed up as planned and as scheduled – Jesus Christ our Lord.  Now there are four words that could be a Christmas celebration unto themselves – Jesus Christ our Lord.  There’s no good reason that we should be able to call him our Lord, other than that God has let us know him and have him and hold onto him as our Lord.

Jesus is the source of grace and peace.  I’m not going to finish with this point but I do need to make this point.  Christmas won’t mean a hill of beans for you unless gaze deeply into all the reasons that God shouldn’t love you.  Children and adults, pastor and people, one and all, look into the dumpster, the huge, industrial-sized dumpster that holds all the reasons God should hate you.  If it doesn’t seem very full, read the commandments a hundred times and it will be full to overflowing.  That is not Christmas cheer.  To look there is pain and guilt and torture and hell. 

Now look at the manger at the child whose mission in life was to be crucified.  The contents of the dumpster were dumped on him along with the full strength wrath of God.  Children and adults, pastor and people, one and all, that is what you have to celebrate on Monday and Tuesday.  The dumpster has been emptied and dragged away by the one who was placed in a manger.  That is Christmas cheer.  That is the sheer grace of God.  The peace God put in place on earth through Jesus’ birth spills into and fills up your soul when you hear Paul say, “You also are among those who belong to Christ Jesus.  You are loved by God.  God has called you saints – holy people.”

There will always be those who continue their efforts to slaughter the true meaning of Christmas, who think they’re actually going to mute the gospel by insisting that it be called a holiday tree or by ridding all front yards of nativity scenes.  Forget about them.  Nothing like that stands a chance of changing the truth of 6000 years of God’s history.  The story of the season is nothing less than the story of all history continuing for you and me: undeserved love from God for someone as wicked as me, but love just the same and love that can never be stopped; peace with God through Jesus, peace that gives a stability to my life that nothing can shake.  Believers in Jesus of all ages have experienced the same and we’ll experience it again this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

For all that we can’t know about him now, here’s what can be known about our hidden God.  The timeless message of all of history comes from God to you in one precious line: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

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