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In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  All went to their own towns to be registered.  Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.  He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.  In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see– I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”  When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”  So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.  When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.  But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

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Grace to you all and Peace, from God our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord, and Savior, Amen.

Some hymns have been sung.  The sanctuary is packed.  We’ve heard some wonderful music.  And we are all very excited to celebrate this birth.  We have all been here before haven’t we?  Now, I want to share with you a pastor’s perspective on Christmas Eve sermons.  There is almost nothing I can preach that wouldn’t go over well on this evening.  I could end my sermon right now, and just say “Jesus Christ was born, let’s sing Silent Night,” and we’d light some candles, and everybody on the way out of the narthex would say, “Great sermon.”  This is because that is the atmosphere.  It is in the air.  You can feel it.

See, it’s as we know how the rest of the evening is going to go.  All of the gifts are bought and wrapped.  The hams are in the oven.  Plans are all set in stone – who is coming for supper, and everything.  Everybody is dressed in some of their best clothes.  The candles are on deck, ready to be lit.  It’s as though everything is as it is supposed to be.  Wrapped up in a nice, neat package, with a bow on top.  Everything is perfect.  Wrapped up with a nice bow.

Well, you know what?  I don’t think everything is as it is supposed to be.  I don’t think everything is wrapped up in a neat package with a bow.  Life isn’t like that.  I think our lives are more like the gifts I unwrapped in front of the children.  A broken picture frame.  A broken statue.

I was talking with someone this week about Christmas from their childhood.  They told me a story about when they were a little girl.  It was Christmas morning, and she unwrapped her gift only to find in the box there was a doll with its arms ripped off.  How did this happen?  Well, her brother had meant to rip the arms off of the doll that her parents had gotten for their sister, but he got it mixed up with her gift.  So he meant to rip off the arms of the doll of their sister.    He unwrapped the gift, ripped off the arms, and wrapped it back up.  If you all want to, you can laugh.  When she shared this story with me, she assured me she had forgotten it long ago.

But how true is this about us?  Broken toys.  We like to rip the arms off of dolls.  We all have, not just this little boy.  And in turn, we have all had our arms ripped off in the process.

Or, there is another broken toy story I have for you.  My mom was about 7 years old and her Christmas gift from her parents was a little red toy piano.  She loved it.  She absolutely loved it.  She played with it for a few hours on Christmas Eve before she went to bed.  Well, her brother received as a gift a bb gun.  He loved this gift too, and he managed to use my mother’s toy piano for target practice.  He ended up destroying the plastic toy piano.

But how true is this about us?  Broken pianos.  We like to shoot pianos with bb guns.  We all have, not just my uncle.  And in turn, we have all had our pianos shot by bb’s in the process.

We are broken.  Those gifts didn’t work out as they were supposed to.  That doll was supposed to be loved on by that girl.  That piano was supposed to be played by my mother.

Well, our Christmas story, the story from Luke that we have all heard before, it really didn’t go as everyone thought it should.  A messiah was to be a grand figure.  This messiah was born in a stable.  Mary and Joseph were engaged.  I hardly think giving birth to the Son of God was in her plans.  The shepherds on that night?  I doubt that they had thought the evening would be anything but normal, encountering thousands of angels praising God and then venturing to Jerusalem to see a newborn.  Our Christmas story doesn’t come in nice and neat packages.  Our Christmas story comes to us in unexpected and broken ways.  Jesus Christ, being born to a virgin, a poor woman, born in a stable, is kind of like a broken toy.  It isn’t supposed to be that way.  And that is the Gospel.

So what about these broken toys?  Dolls with their arms ripped off?  Pianos with bb holes in them?  Yes, we ourselves are like broken toys, and we break others… but more so than this, is the story in which nothing went as it was supposed to, God rushed in and broke sin.  Those broken toys… it is just like sin.  That is the Gospel.  Now imagine sin as that piano.  God broke into our world, and tore the arms off of that sin, making it no more.  Image sin as that piano.  Shot full of holes and destroyed.

The Christmas story is a story in which nothing happened how we thought it was supposed to.  But what was supposed to happen, was for God to come down to us, first in the form of a child, to destroy sin and death.

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

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