Scripture reading: Isaiah 9:2-7.

Sermon text: Luke 2:1-14.

Devotional

Has God ever answered a prayer as anyone expected?

Seven hundred years passed after Isaiah’s prophecy of light. The throne of David flamed briefly in righteousness a few times, but darkness prevailed more often than not as most of David’s descendants plunged into the night of idolatry and oppression. The throne of David finally ended in a bright light: The light of Jerusalem, the City of David, burning to the ground as the Babylonians hauled the last of its inhabitants into exile. The light of the last embers of Jerusalem ebbed and, finally, dwindled into ash.

Yet, God had promised light in darkness. God had promised that a child would come in David’s line to bring light to the world. This Child would bear the government of the world upon His shoulders, ruling with wisdom and peace. This Child would rule on the throne of David and fulfill God’s promise to David that his throne would last forever. Surely, God would answer this prayer with a Child born in Jerusalem, David’s royal city….

Except that God works in unexpected ways. The Child came, bringing light into a world desperately needing help from the darkness. The Child came, sending wise men on a months-long journey following the light of a new star. The Child came, and the light of angels threw shepherds into panic. The Child came, but not to the City of David as the capital of the nation. Instead, the Child came into humanity in David’s birthplace, not his capital. God chose to send His Child in a town long considered nothing but an afterthought on the national scene. God answered the prophecy, but totally unexpectedly.

Today, we live in a world where the darkness seems overwhelming. We pray that God will bring light to our families, churches, communities, and nations. I believe God has heard every prayer we’ve prayed when we’ve cried out for light. Today, we need to remember that God has never answered a prayer in a way we expected. Perhaps we need to stop telling God how to answer the prayer and, instead, ask Him to use us to bring light to those living in darkness around us. The God who sent His Son to Bethlehem will use us in unexpected ways to bring light — if we’ll only obey His call.

Sermon

Great things often begin in small places.

Consider the birth we celebrate this week, for instance. No one in the last years of the Old Testament era could have predicted that anything of importance would happen in Bethlehem. In its heyday, over a thousand years before, Bethlehem had boasted of great citizens like Boaz, his Moabite wife Ruth, and their great-grandson, David. However, a thousand years is a long time, and no one really thought much of Boaz and David by the time Caesar Augustus (Octavian) decreed a census of his empire during the time Quirinius governed the Roman province of Syria. Most likely, Caesar Augustus never knew Bethlehem existed.

The Roman census threw much of the imperial population into chaos as people traveled back to their home towns for registration. The wave of travelers included a young couple from another backwater village called Nazareth, about 70 miles north of Bethlehem. Seventy miles doesn’t sound far, but we must recall that, since this couple was Jewish, they would have bypassed Samaria, stretching the trek into at least an 8-day ordeal.

At least two other factors added to the misery of the trip. First, Mary was pregnant and due to give birth any day. Ask any woman who’s ever experienced a pregnancy if she’d willingly travel 8 days riding an animal or walking, and you’ll get a quick answer that, at best, questions your sanity.

Secondly, with so many people traveling, small towns would fill up fast with families who may not have lived there in decades. This apparently happened to Mary and Joseph. If some of Joseph’s family still lived in Bethlehem, the couple could have stayed in their homes, no matter how cramped the quarters. However, Joseph instead found himself trying to find a room in an inn, only to learn the inn had no rooms left. I can’t imagine how he felt trying to find a place for his pregnant wife to rest and possibly give birth to their firstborn child.

Most likely, despair had set in before Joseph finally found somewhere to house his family. I can’t imagine any other reason for Joseph to accept an offer from an innkeeper to house his young wife in a stable, but I can somehow imagine his emotions as he explained to Mary that she’d have to sleep with the animals that night. Mary apparently accepted the offer, as only a desperate person would.

So it was, that the most miraculous birth in history occurred in a stable in an ancient, tiny village south of the capital of Judea. Jesus, the promised Messiah, the Son of God, whose birth was prophesied by Isaiah 7 centuries before, came into the world in the most unlikely place on the planet.

God never works in ways we puny humans expect. Yet, His results always exceed our wildest expectations.

Today, we’ve gathered here to celebrate that birth with another unexpected way God works. The Child born in the ancestral City of David — Bethlehem — would, in His adulthood, gather His disciples in Jerusalem, the traditional City of David, for a final meal to celebrate Passover, the greatest of the Jewish festivals. This Man, Jesus, gave His disciples a means to remember the victory His death would achieve. The next day, the Child who was born in one City of David was executed in another City of David. This celebration that we call Holy Communion reminds us that Jesus offered Himself for our sins. Our rebellion against God finally cost Him the ultimate price. Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, died to conquer death for us, a victory we remember every time we gather around this table.

As we gather here, we do so not to merely remember His death. We also gather to celebrate His victory! We cannot forget that Jesus rose from the dead in a garden outside Jerusalem, the City of David. Humanity’s ultimate victory occurred in the City of David.

We remember more than the birth that brought God to us, the death that restored our relationship with God, and the resurrection that conquered death for us. We also recall that Jesus promised His disciples that night in the City of David that He would come again to take who confess Him as Lord into a new creation, with a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem, an eternal City of David.

Today, I invite you to come into the Church, the Body of Christ, by confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in His resurrection. I invite you to draw near to this table to celebrate His victory and anticipate His return. I invite you to consider that God can use you here in Romulus to continue what He started in Bethlehem, the City of David. Lastly, I invite you to live with joy in this life as you prepare to live eternally in the New Jerusalem, the everlasting City of David.