Savior of the nations come,

Virgin’s Son, make here Thy home!

Not by human flesh and blood,

By the Spirit of our God,

Was the Word of God made flesh—

     Woman’s Offspring, pure ands fresh.

Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child

     Of the Virgin undefiled!

Tho’ by all the world disowned,

     Still to be in heav’n enthroned.

From the Father forth He came

     And returneth to the same,

Captive leading death and hell—

     High the song of triumph swell!

Brightly doth Thy manger shine,

     Glorious is its light divine.

Let not sin o’ercloud this light;

     Ever be our faith thus bright.

                       (TLH #95 vs. 1-4, 6)

Hymn 95 above is listed as a Christmas Hymn in the TLH and an Advent hymn in our Synod’s new hymnal, and it does, indeed, fit the character of both seasons very well. That’s why it’s usually used on the last Sunday in Advent. Advent is a penitential season calling us to take a deep hard look at what Christ’s coming meant in His first advent and also to reflect on His second advent at the end of time. The joy of Christ’s first coming at Christmas is really the kind of joy God intends for His people to have at Jesus’ second coming when He gathers His Church to heaven.

A major focus on these two seasons is found in the sermons the pastors preach. Some are good and some not so good. Some get sidetracked from the appointed texts, and some never follow the texts at all. Some are too long, and others are just plain boring. They will have various names such as homilies or messages or addresses, but most of the time they are just called sermons.

There was a Christmas sermon preached over 1500 years ago that is probably better than most sermons one will hear today. It was written by Pope Leo who served as Bishop of Rome from 440 to 461 A.D. The Church at the time referred to him as Leo the Great, and the following is one of his sermons.

Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy and the promise of eternal happiness.

No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.

For the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.

And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to his people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?

Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.

Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.

“Christian, remember your dignity!” What an appropriate imperative for us in our day and age! The Child in the manger is our God in the flesh come to take our place on the cross of Calvary—to suffer for us and to die our death that in His resurrection we might have the promise and certain hope of eternal life. Leo was right in recalling our baptism. In those waters God called us and claimed us and cleansed us, making us fit for His Kingdom.

“Christian, remember your dignity!” It is difficult, however, to remember this dignity with the devil prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). It is difficult to live in this dignity with our sinful nature constantly attacking our new man of faith (Romans 7). And it doesn’t get any easier to remember and live in this Christian dignity at this time of year.

C.S. Lewis, another writer from a past time said that three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival, obligatory and of interest to Christians and no one else. A second is a popular holiday filled with merry-making and family gatherings. But the third thing to go by the name Christmas is a commercial racket. Just like the devil is constantly around us, that last part of Christmas is also all around us and seems to be getting worse ever year. From sight and sound, from the printed page to the media, it’s there at every turn bombarding our senses and drawing us away from our Christian dignity to be caught up in the sentiment and commercialism of humanism.

“Christian, remember your dignity!” For it was for the sake of your Christian dignity that the innocent babe lying in a manger was willing to give up all of His dignity. That little baby that evokes so many different feelings came for one harsh reality—to die an ignominious death on the cross! The Son of God willingly suffered the indignity of being mocked and flogged and spit upon and stripped naked that mankind might have the dignity of His righteousness.

“Christian, remember your dignity!” Those are good words from 1500 years ago to hang onto, especially in the busyness and bustle of this season. Remembering our dignity as redeemed children of God can go a long way in keeping the season in its correct perspective, not to mention keeping our priorities in order as we decide what specific Christmas services to attend. Christian dignity calls us to build our secular festivities around the pertinent services of the season—not vice versa. It means that without receiving our Savior’s gifts of forgiveness in our special Christmas worship, Christmas can never have the Christian dignity God intends it to have.

That’s not to say that we are to have little joy or fun outside of church at Christmastime. Decorating our homes and baking special treats and getting together with family and friends and exchanging gifts at this time of year is part of what makes us human. God doesn’t want us missing out on anything good in this world, but He also knows how evil this world really is, and He wants us to remember that too. For you see, that’s really what Christian dignity is all about. It’s about living in this world as aliens and strangers and fighting against sinful desires which war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11).

So as we look at another Christmas fast approaching, perhaps it would be good to consider one more sermon. It’s not a Christmas sermon as such, but it could be. It was written by a man named Paul about five hundred years before Leo wrote his. Paul’s words bring to mind the Christian dignity that Leo spoke of.

[Dearly Beloved,] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

                                                     (Ephesians 2:1-8 NIV)

St. Paul could very well have ended his sermon with the words, “Christian, remember your dignity!”

God grant all of us here at Trinity to remember our Christian dignity in the midst of the popular holiday and commercial racket of the season. Most importantly, God grant us to remember why the Christ-Child came in the first place, and why He was born into such a lowly position in life. He gave up His dignity that He might be our substitute before the wrath of God against sin. So in the midst of all our own gift giving to family and friends, God grant us to remember to receive His Son’s gifts of forgiveness and life as the most important gift of all. It is a gift to be treasured above all else, for this gift given by the Christ-Child is the only truly “free” gift there is. It was paid for in full by His blood, and it is given out right here in the public worship of His Church.

Please have Karen’s and my sincere wish for each of you to have a blessed Christmas in Christ and as good a new year as can be had under God’s grace. For under God’s grace, there really is no such thing as a “bad” year.