To You is Born a Savior

 To You is Born a Savior

Luke 2:1-20[1]

I saw a sign several days ago that said to “keep Christ in Christmas.” It’s a slogan that’s been around for a long time. It originated as a protest against the phrase “Merry Xmas.” So “keeping Christ in Christmas” meant spelling out the whole word, Christmas. But I really don’t know what it means more than that. It’s one of those slogans that’s been so overused I’m not sure it means anything anymore. Some of us might think it’s obvious what “keeping Christ in Christmas” means. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ, or the Messiah. So, keeping “Christ” in Christmas means making the celebration of Jesus’ birth the focus of Christmas. But I’m not sure a worn-out slogan can tell us much about how we’re supposed to do that.

In our lesson from the Gospel of Luke we heard the angel’s announcement to the shepherds, “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” That helps us, because it tells us that Jesus was born as the “Messiah” or the “Christ” and that means he’s the Savior. Those of us who are connected with a church have at least an understanding that we need a Savior, and we celebrate Jesus’ birth because he came to be our Savior. And the angel said this message was meant to be “good news of great joy for all the people” (Lk 2:10-11). But there are a lot of folks these days who don’t see that they have any need for a “Savior.” In fact, the very language of looking for someone to “save” us or “rescue” us, is considered to be unhealthy in relationships. And rightly so. It’s a mark of health to recognize that we’re all responsible for our emotional well-being.

But while it’s good to be self-responsible, you can take a good thing too far. When we turn it into the attitude that it’s up to me whether I thrive in this world, it can lead us to think we can dispense with “God” or any thoughts of a “Savior.” When we do that, we may believe we can live our lives, make our choices, and engage in our own pursuits without giving God or Jesus Christ a second thought. But living that way is an illusion. It really amounts to an effort to avoid facing hard truths. We may succeed for the time being at avoiding what we don’t want to deal with but living our lives without any reference to God will leave us facing a deep emptiness.

I don’t believe the point of our lesson from the Gospel of Luke is to “keep Christ in Christmas.” I think it goes far beyond that. Celebrating the birth of Jesus as our Savior means “keeping” Christ as the focus for all of life. We “keep” Christ in our lives when we recognize that the only way to truly thrive is through the hope and peace and joy and love that Jesus brings us. We “keep” Christ in our lives when we recognize that we do not live our lives to ourselves alone, or solely by our own efforts. Rather we live in a world that overflows with God’s loving presence. That’s why we celebrate the birth of Jesus as our Savior. He came to fulfill the promise of “Immanuel,” or “God-who-is-with-us.” He’s our Savior because he brought us the assurance that we are never alone in this world. No matter who we are, no matter what we’ve done, because of Jesus—his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his continuing presence in our lives—we are never alone, but rather we are constantly surrounded and embraced by the love of God. That’s what it means to celebrate the birth of Jesus as our Savior on this night!

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A Christmas meditation delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 12/24/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/5cHGVLyZwmo