The Love of God Made Manifest

1 John 4:7-16 There are very few things more beautiful than the scene we have before us tonight in this place.  Seated in this gorgeous sanctuary.  Hearing the Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel.  Singing familiar Christmas carols by candlelight.  Surrounded by family and friends and fellow believers.  These moments are beauty and blessing.

For many of us, this is our favorite service and our favorite time of the year.  In this time of worship there is a deep sense of peace—a brief respite from the hustle and bustle of daily life—an intense inner longing that says, this is the way life ought to be:  surrounded by those we love, in a place of beauty, the darkness of this world kept firmly at bay by the light of our candles and the sound of our voices.

But the true wonder and beauty of this night can also be found in the halls of a nursing home where there are no visitors; in the hospital rooms where there is no hope of recovery; in the streets of Damascus and Baghdad where there is no peace.

That may seem beyond our comprehension sitting here tonight in this sanctuary, surrounded by those we love, but it is not only possible but true-- because the real wonder and beauty of this night can be found wherever there is a human heart that remembers they are loved by God with an everlasting love—that his love does not depend on our circumstances—but is true and beautiful and unchanging in the gift of his Son Jesus Christ.  The Bible says:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.   Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

            It is easy for us to know and feel and experience God’s love sitting here tonight.  I pray that God would grant you and your family many more occasions just like this where there is plenty and peace. 

But of course we know that our human situation can’t help but change and for so many Christians, already has.

            In the Middle East, in places where there have been Christian churches since the time of the apostles, the sanctuaries churches lie in empty, dark ruin.  The Christians who used to worship there have either been martyred or they are found in refugee camps.

            There are fellow believers who are no longer with us this Christmas.  There are family members who are usually with us who just couldn’t make it home this year.  There are those whose ill health keeps them away.

If our certainty of God’s love depended on any human, earthly standard of “friends and family and festivities”-- we could never really be sure about it at all.  There would be some doubt. But the love of God was made manifest in this:  he sent his only Son into the world. 

That word “manifest” means obvious, plain, certain and visible.  That is the undiminished beauty of this night—whether we are in a hospital room, or a refugee camp, or an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean-- we can be certain that we are loved by God because he has sent his Son into the world to give us life and hope-- in place of death and despair.  The Bible says:

This is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

            The story of the birth of the Christ Child—with a young mother and a manger and barnyard animals and angels singing and shepherds worshiping is a sweet and tender story. 

But we must never forget that standing at a distance, past the manger and stable and beyond the shepherd’s fields-- is a cross.  We must always remember that what can be heard over the cattle lowing and the angels singing is the sharp ring of a hammer upon a nail.

 That is what this night is all about—not just the gift of God’s Son—but the gift of a Son sent into this world to be the sacrifice that reconciles us to God—a gift of forgiveness and reconciliation from God to us.

When we open gifts later on this evening or tomorrow morning we will be on both sides—we will give and receive.  But the gift God gives at Christmas goes only one way—from him to us. 

When we open gifts later on this evening or tomorrow morning the gifts we give will be given to those we love and who love us.  But the gift God gives to us, and the love he has for us in Jesus Christ, is for those who do not by nature love him.

That is difficult for us to hear—particularly on this night when our hearts swell with love at the goodness of God in Christ!  But the love we have for God did not begin in our own heart, it began in the heart of God. 

He is the one who sought us out when we were lost.  He is the one who planned for our rescue when we didn’t even know how desperate our situation was.  And he is the one who made a way back to him by sending his Son to be the sacrifice that would wash our sins away and remove God’s wrath over our love-less-ness.

 The glory of the Christmas story is the Good News THAT God’s love and the gift of his Son does not depend upon us and our love for him-- but rather it rests safe and secure in his love for us.  It is that kind of selfless love that inspires our love for others.  The Bible says:

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

            Our calling as those who are loved by God, is to share that same love with others.  Certainly that begins with our family and friends and fellow believes like we experience here tonight-- but our love for others must extend far beyond these walls and these people.

We are called to show forth the same love with which we have been loved in Christ—a love for others that is willing to sacrifice for their good.

There is a natural love that all people have—a love that finds something lovable in another and desires to hold onto that.  But that is not the love that God has for us.  He loves us despite what he sees.  He loves us because that is who he is. 

So it must be for those of us who know the love of Christ—that we too love those who are different than we are, those who do not share our culture and values, even those who are our enemies. 

It means that our love for others goes far beyond mere words, to a willingness to sacrifice for- and act with mercy towards -those in whom we find nothing lovable, even to those who do not return our love and care.

That was the mission of Jesus Christ.  His love for the world is the reason for this holy night.  And his love for all people is our mission as well.  The Bible says that:  We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

What we experience here tonight in the fellowship and music—in the beauty of this candlelit sanctuary and the story of God’s love in the gift of the Christ Child-- is meant by God to be shared by those who know it and believe it.

Praise the Lord that we have heard it and seen it and experienced it!  How can we ever thank God enough for his mercy in sending the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and ears of faith so that we can see and understand the greatness of his love for us in Jesus!?

But that vision- and that experience- and that story- is intended by God to move us into action—doing our part in God’s mission to save the world by testifying to his love for the world.

After the ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost the disciples could not stop speaking of what they had seen and heard in the life of Jesus Christ.  So it must be for us as well! 

With the eyes of faith we have seen the birth of the Christ Child and his terrible death on the cross and his glorious resurrection.  With the ears of faith we have heard the testimony of angels the he is the Savior of the world and his words at the cross that we are forgiven and salvation is finished.

And having heard these things and seen these things and having been transformed by this good news of Jesus, we are called by God to testify to the world about the gift of God’s Son so that they too can confess that Jesus is the Son of God and be saved.  The Bible says that:

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

            We are blessed by God to be here tonight in this beautiful candlelit place surrounded by those we love.  But when this service is over we will go back into the darkness of the night.  Over the next several days our loved ones will go home.  All of the decorations will be returned to the attic.  And life will go on—but not as before.

The good news for us tonight is that God goes with us from this place.  Jesus is Immanuel—the God who is with us.  His love will not leave us but instead his presence and his powerful love will abide with us tonight and throughout our lives, no matter where that journey takes us. 

May the love of God revealed in the Christ Child abide with you and yours tonight and always!  Amen.