What do you want for Christmas? If you were sitting on God’s knee, and God asked you what you wanted for Christmas, what would you tell him?

Well, I’ve been thinking about that question, and tonight, I want to
share with you what’s on my list. I’ve narrowed it down to four things.
But first there are a couple of things you need to know about God’s
gifts …

• They are gifts – you can’t earn them!
• They are all available to us through the gift of God’s Son.

Love
The first thing I’d ask God for is love.

God is Love …

• “God is love.” (1 John 4.8, 16)
• “We love, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4.19)
• “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5.6)
• “For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son, so that
  whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John
  3.16)

It’s clear that God loves us! Not because we deserve it, but because
that’s who God is – God is love. And because of the gift of God’s Son,
our life, in turn, is a life of loving God and people.

Life is about relationships! We can have great relationships with
people, and most importantly, with God, because God has given us the
gift of love through his Son, Jesus Christ. We get to love, because God
has so generously loved us!

Joy
The second thing I’d ask God for is joy.

We can have joy in both the good times and in the bad. When we
experience victories, we are filled joy. For example, after the Exodus
from Egypt, the Israelites celebrated with winging and dancing (see Exodus 15.1—21). And, in the bad times, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8.10).

I’m not talking about happiness; that kind of emotion is dependent on
our circumstances, but joy isn’t. We can have joy, even when things are
not going well; we can have joy even when we have no reason to be
happy. That’s what I want! I want to have the joy of the Lord no matter
what life throws at me!

Peace
The third thing I’d ask God for is peace.

“God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.” (1 Corinthians 14.33)

“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1.7)

“… Prince of Peace …” (Isaiah 9.6)

“I am leaving you with a gift–peace of mind and heart. And the peace I
give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or
afraid.” (John 14.27)

“God’s peace … is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.” (Philippians 4.7)

Just as you can have joy no matter what happens, you can have peace,
knowing that even though it makes no sense at all, you can trust God,
and that God will bring you through, and that all things will work
together for good, because God loves you!

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!” (Isaiah 26.3)

Hope
And finally, the fourth thing that I’d ask God for is hope.

Hope is especially appropriate to talk about during Advent. Hope is
connected to waiting. And that’s what we do during Advent. Advent
means, “coming,” or “arrival.” During Advent, we prepare ourselves to
celebrate the birth of Christ! It’s a time of waiting and anticipating
the gift of Christ! We wait because we hope! Our ultimate hope is that
we have God’s forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ!

Matthew’s gospel quotes Isaiah, talking about the Messiah … “his name
will be the hope of all the world.” And, near the end of Acts, the
story of the first century Church, Paul says, “I asked you to come here
today so we could get acquainted and so I could tell you that I am
bound with this chain because I believe that the hope of Israel–the
Messiah–has already come” (Acts 28.20).

The Psalms are filled with expressions of hope …

• “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.” (Psalm 39.7)
• “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put
  your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
  (Psalm 43.5)

“Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.” (Hebrews 10.23)

The Passing of the Light …
One of the ways that God leads us is through the light – the
Light of Christ. Tonight, we light our candles to reminder us that God
has sent his Son
into the world, to be the light of the world, and that his light,
shining through us, is the hope of the world!

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain,
glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light under a
basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the
same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that
everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5.13–15)

Whenever we gather for worship, we light candles to remind us that we
are in the presence of Christ. And at the end of our gatherings, we
extinguish the candles. But before we extinguish them, we light the
candle-lighter, and the acolyte carries the light to the exit,
reminding us that we are to carry the light out into the world.

God didn’t send light to be contained in our hearts or in our church
buildings, God sent light to be displayed everywhere on the planet! Now
that we have received the Light of Christ in our hearts, let us carry
that light into all the world!

Luke 2.8-20

The Wait of Advent
Children anticipate Christmas with a vibrant expectancy and excitement that compares to little else. Even the shyest or quietest of children cannot contain their enthusiasm at the splendor of the season, the beauty of the Christmas tree with it’s lights all aglow, and of course, the gifts they await, that are yet to appear under that tree.

Throughout Advent, we have waited for this night-the night we celebrate the birth of Christ. The night that the greatest of all gifts was given. The night that salvation came in the birth of a child, the son of God, God incarnate, God come to earth cloaked in human form and flesh.

The waiting of Advent used to be much more emphasized than it is today. It actually used to be a somber time – a time to remember our sins and how desperately we need and wait for a Savior. Advent was a time of starkness in the church when no decorations would appear until Christmas was actually here, until the birth of Christ was actually celebrated. Some churches still may wait on the decorations. I don’t know if any of you noticed, but I made you wait to sing Christmas carols until tonight. Yes, you sang them as a part of your Christmas programs, but not as a part of our regular worship services. And how I am ready to burst forth in song tonight!

The wait is over. We can sing songs of the birth. And tonight we will finally add the baby Jesus to our Nativity.

But now what? Now what do we do after the wait is over? When all that we have anticipated is behind us?

The same thing happens when a family expects a baby. Mom and Dad-to-be anticipate something they have yet to receive. They have nine months of excited preparations. They watch as sonograms show the development of their child. They look carefully … is the child a boy or a girl? They wonder and dream. They shop and buy. They decorate and prepare a nursery.

But then the child comes. The anticipation is replaced with responsibility. There are late night feedings. There are the baby’s who have their nights and days confused. There are the dirty diapers. The baby cries, and mom and dad look at each other as if to say, “It’s your turn.” The expectation has become assignment.

And so it is with Christmas. The long-awaited Christ-child is here. Now that the wait is over, now that we know the Christ is come, we have responsibilities. The responsibilities are many, but let us look at two that surface as the story of the birth is told to the shepherds in the Gospel of Luke.

The angels proclaim
An angel appears to the shepherds saying, “I bring you good news of great joy …” The literal translation is, “I evangelize you to great joy.” Our word evangelize comes from the Greek word used here. The angel comes to proclaim the good news of the birth of Christ, the coming of a Savior. The entire story of Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension is the story of the Gospel, and the proclamation of the Gospel is the good news that brings joy to all humankind. So the angel proclaims the good news.

The angels praise
Following the proclamation, a whole host or large group of angels appears praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all men and women on whom his favor rests.”

They can’t help but praise God for this wonderful thing which has happened: that salvation has come in the birth of the son of God.

Proclamation and Praise mark the words of the angels as they speak to the shepherds. And the shepherds respond with Proclamation and Praise.

The shepherds proclaim
Without being told to go, the shepherds rush to see this thing they have been told about. And having found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger, they leave “spreading the word” about this child and all that has been told them about this child.

“A baby was born in a barn,” they may say. “Angels came to us in the fields and told us about it. We were engulfed in a bright light, but they told us about this child, and where to find the child and we went off and saw everything, just like they told us,” they proclaim.

The shepherds praise
After circulating around the town and to the people, they return to their fields and to their sheep, “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” The shepherds are also moved to praise.

Their response is proclamation and praise. They are done waiting for a Savior. The Savior is come, and they proclaim and praise.

I don’t think proclamation and praise can be separated. How can one proclaim something one is not excited about? How can one proclaim and praise something one has not come to see, to hear, to experience in one’s own life?

When the shepherds heard the proclamation and praise of the angels they went to see. And they in turn proclaimed and praised what they had seen. Tonight I stand before you and proclaim and praise, God has come in the flesh, born of a virgin. He has come to be your Savior. Will you come to see him? Will you come to the Communion Table, to encounter his grace, to receive his salvation that he offers freely to you? Will you light your candle, symbolizing God’s light has come into your life?
Will you go from this place proclaiming and praising?