NRS John 3
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Dear Friends in Christ, may the Lord bless you with all grace and good cheer on the birth of the Messiah. Amen.

Christmas can get complicated, and that includes even the biblical testimony to Jesus' birth. We have, you know, not one but two accounts of the birth of Jesus. Luke and Matthew each offer their own unique perspectives on the Christmas story, and sometimes the differences are striking. For the most part, Luke tells the tale through the faithful heart and obedient soul of Mary. But to that viewpoint Luke also adds the fearful faith of the astounded shepherds, as well as the awesome glory of the angelic host.

Matthew mostly relies upon Joseph to give heart and voice to the birth of Jesus. To the testimony of Joseph Matthew also adds the story of the Wise Men, giving us a glimpse of how the Gentile world likewise anticipated the Messiah's advent. In contrast, Matthew shares the plotting of Herod as a way for us to see Christ's birth through the jaundiced eyes of a doomed and desperate world.

It's a lot to take in, but of course, it's not just the Bible's richness that complicates Christmas. Each of us sees Christmas through the lens of our personal experiences. We see the saga of Mary and Joseph and the babe in the manger unfold in the light of our own Christmases past and present. Like no other season or holiday, Christmas stirs in us the fond hopes and sometimes the bitter disappointments of earlier days, often reminding us of what our families were and weren't and might yet be. To the flood of our own personal memories, the culture adds still more sights, sounds, and images. Christ Child and Santa Claus meld into a great commercial blur of flying reindeer bearing x-boxes and i-pods to the good girls and boys who've e-mailed their gift lists to the virtual North Pole.

It can get pretty confusing. It doesn't take much for the Holy Day to become a holi-daze, a fractured fairy tale full of much sound, some fury, and signifying -- what? Which is why I hold before you tonight one simple verse -- John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."

Not a son, not just any good, righteous person, not even a prophet uniquely gifted, heavenly sent, divinely ordained, but the only Son, "true God of true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, through whom all things were made," God gave the only Son. And not loaned, lent, or leased, not shared or outsourced, not rented out, farmed out, or sublet, but God gave the only Son, no fine print, no hidden clauses, no strings attached. Not as pretext, context, or subtext for a winter festival, not as a year-end boost to retail sales, not as a reverie on the way we were or weren't, but God gave the only Son for the healing of the world. That death might be overcome, that the darkness be banished, that light and life without limit might pour into this poor, benighted planet, God gave the only Son. Out of love so deep, so high, so wide that no mind can fathom it, no heart contain it, no will master it, God gave the only Son, "that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."

It's the Son given who moves Mary to faithful surrender. It's the Son who casts out Joseph's suspicions and shapes him to obedient service. It's the Son who draws the Magi away from their old familiar gods to worship the newborn king. It's the Son who drives Herod mad with the prospect of a world ruled not by terror and tyrants but by the good and gracious hand of God. And it's the Son who stirs in us the hopes and fears of all the years. It's the Son who brings us here tonight. It's the Son who captures our minds and imaginations, who will not let us go even when our hearts are tired and our souls numb. It's not the season. It's not the winter solstice. It's not the time of year or the position of the earth in relation to the sun. It is the Son, otherwise it's all tinsel and glitter, hollow and hopeless, "the smell of hospitals in winter, and the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters but no pearls" (Counting Crows, "A Long December").

There is reason to believe that this year will be better than the last. "For God so loved world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."

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