During my childhood my mom was well known among family, coworkers and friends as the Christmas Cookie lady. She would bake a dozen or more different kinds of cookies and Thanksgiving through New Years one of her cookie trays would appear at every event. Of course, with that much baking to do you have to start baking early in the season. Each year I would wake up on a Saturday morning at the end of October or early November to the smell of cookies baking and the sounds of Christmas music filling the house. Songs like Whitney Houston’s version of Joy to the World, Michael Buble’s Have a Holly Jolly Christmas and James Taylor’s Go Tell it on the Mountain.
When I was younger I thought my mom was insane for playing Christmas music so early and I would tease her or, if I was feeling grinchy, I would turn it off. But now as an adult I must admit that these are fond memories and I have now become just like my mother playing my Christmas music much too early in the season.
I inherited my mom’s love of Christmas music and to this day the Christmas song Go Tell it on the Mountain has been one of my absolute favorites. Go Tell it on the mountains, over the hills and everywhere! Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born! With those words images of Christmas joy fill my mind, people shouting from the rooftops the good news of Christmas: Jesus—Emmanuel—God with us and come to bring hope to all people. When you hear such good news you simply can’t help but want to go, to be sent out into the world to tell the story of God’s love.
All of our readings today, in one way or another, tell us about messengers with a story to tell. Our reading from Hebrews today reminds us of God’s story of faithfulness through the prophets, as well as points to the Son, saying:
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.
The story of God’s history with Israel (and the world) is one of persistent and unconditional love. The Bible tells us that in the beginning, God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) created the world and everything in it and called it good. God deeply loved God’s creation, and God wanted to be in relationship with the world and with humanity. But over time people began to go astray as Sin entered in. Humanity was becoming separated from God—even forgetting about God—and of course this broke God’s heart. So God began to send messengers—the prophets.
These prophets were sent by God as God’s way of calling out to God’s people, calling them to remember who God was and who they were as God’s people. Through the prophets God was seeking to reestablish relationship with the people and warning them to turn back from their destructive ways. Rather than an angry God, I imagine God here as a loving parent concerned for their child gone astray, as we too warn children when we see them doing something harmful to themselves or others. The prophets were God’s was of doing that, as well as God’s way of reaching out again and again to say “I love you, come back to me. I am yours and you are mine.” Of course, the people failed to fully receive this message through the prophets and eventually they ended up in exile, which is where our reading from Isaiah takes place.
Our reading from Isaiah 52 says:
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
The Prophet Isaiah, a messenger himself sent by God, points the way to another messenger who is coming who will announce salvation and the return of God’s reign. This was an important message for Israel, for during this time of exile the people had been scattered and they feared that God’s face would be hidden from them forever. But of course God was faithful and did not forget the promises he had made to Israel, and in time King Cyrus of Persia did send a message to the Israelites. Babylon had been defeated and the Israelites were encouraged to return home and rebuild the Temple. Because of God’s love and faithfulness, earthly salvation had come and God had returned to guide God’s people home. And yet, I wonder if the Israelites—or if even Isaiah knew—that God’s message through the prophet was also meant for something far greater than earthly freedom. Indeed, hundreds of years later another messenger of love would come—Jesus—to proclaim a different kind of salvation, the salvation from Sin and Death once and for all.
And who is this Jesus, Son of God? Our gospel today tells us that Jesus is the Word of God, the story of God’s love become flesh. Jesus is essentially the embodiment of God’s love, and that love has been with God since the beginning. Through love God created the world and all that was in it and to this day God continues to create and sustain life through this love. Yet, when humanity was unable to experience and understand God’s love on their own, God’s love put on flesh and came to us in love’s most tangible form, a tiny and vulnerable baby laid in a manger.
As many of us likely know, love is a powerful thing. Love has the power to bind people together in new and unexpected ways. Love can motivate extraordinary acts of kindness and guide our actions as we interact with those around us. Love has the power to overcome hatred and bring new life to places and people in conflict. Love is a powerful—even sacred—force and in a world that can seem so dark at times we need God’s love, the most powerful kind of love there is. God’s love brings hope, it conquers the darkness in our lives and the darkness of the world cannot overcome God’s love.
So today, on Christmas morning, we celebrate God’s love become flesh, a love that enters into our world and meets each one of us where we are and as we are. A love that sees us as beautiful and worth loving despite our mistakes or short fallings. A love that has gone willingly to the cross and back again to conquer Sin and offer us salvation and relationship forever. Jesus is God’s ultimate love story, the light of the world and the hope for all people.
This joyous news is worth celebrating and this story is worth telling again and again. So let us go tell it on the mountains, shout it from the rooftops and share it with strangers, neighbors, family and friends this Christmas. God’s love has come, and God’s love is for all people. Emmanuel—God With Us! Thanks be to God. Amen.