This is our text for the morning, words which the Angel Gabriel spoke to Mary:
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Remember those words! Write them down on a slip of paper and save them. And if there is ever a dark day in your life, take them out, ponder them, pray over them. This is the promise of God and you can trust it:  “Nothing will be impossible with God.”  Among the most blasphemous words in the English language are the words”  It’s too good to be true.”

Let us pray.
How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.  So God imparts to human hearts the glorious love of heaven.  No one discerns God’s coming, but in this world of sin, where yearning souls receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. In the spirit of the Christ child, Amen.

Today, on this fourth Sunday of Advent, commonly known as Christmas Sunday, all roads lead to Bethlehem. Our text this morning is from the Gospel of Saint Luke:  The evangelist’s account of the birth of our Lord. It is what my wife, Della, calls the greatest story ever told, in the greatest book ever written.  Saint Luke seeks to remind you that all that happens in Bethlehem takes place in the real world. Augustus was Emperor of the Roman Empire; Quirinis, Governor of Syria.  You remember those days, Luke is saying – harsh, cruel bitter days of oppression and suffering.

Jesus was not born into a ”I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” world.  Jesus was born into a world much like our own.  At Christmas all roads lead to Bethlehem.

O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light,
the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

At Christmas all roads lead to Bethlehem. The word “Bethlehem” means “House of Bread”, so named because it was located in a fertile field where grain and fruit could be grown and there was fresh water in the wells. In Bethlehem there is a monument to Rachel, for it was here that this wife of the patriarch Jacob died and war buried. This was the village of Ruth, who lived here with her husband Boaz and became the great-grandmother of King David, who was born in Bethlehem.  Therefore, the village is known in the Gospels as “the city of David.”

Della and I have been to Bethlehem, as I know many of you have. We have had the privilege of visiting the Church of the Nativity, which according to tradition marks the birthplace of Jesus. The church was considered old in the time of Emperor Constantine.  Beneath its high altar there is a cave-like crypt, where seven lamps burn eternally.  It is believed to be the place where Jesus was born.

The entrance is enclosed by bricks and mortar, leaving only a small opening so the pilgrim is forced to enter almost on hands and knees.  There are two theories:  one, it was closed so people would be compelled to enter in a posture of reverence.  Two, it was closed so unbelievers could not defile the sacred place by riding in on horseback.  Those familiar with the history of Old South can understand that motivation.

It is one of the most sacred places of our faith.  In the tiny village of Bethlehem, God chose a baby to show God’s great love for the world and for each of us.  Here in “the house of Bread’ God gave us the one who said of himself “I am the bread of life.” The miracle of Christmas – the wonder of it all – is that God cared enough to send the very best and that God continues to do this by being with us day by day and in the gifts now given to us in one another.

Remember:  the best gifts of Christmas come wrapped in people loving one another.
Christmas is grounded on the love of God born in Bethlehem’s manger. The wonder of it all is that what we see in Bethlehem is that God’s love and grace are the ground of our hope. Christmas is about Hope and it comes at a time when the world desperately needs a reason to be hopeful.  Even before September 11, there was emerging in American culture something of a crisis of hope.

Andrew DelBanco, a Columbia University professor, wrote a highly acclaimed book: The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope in which he says: “Our hopes are a measure of our greatness. When they shrink, we ourselves are diminished.”  He argues that our hopes have diminished a lot in recent years. He says that in the early years, the new England Puritans set their hope in God.  In the nineteenth century, America placed hope in the nation – “The last best hope of mankind,” as Abraham Lincoln put it. But in the late 20th century, America’s hope began to be focused on self.  He writes:  “The late 20th century conspired to instill instant gratification as the hallmark of the hope of the good life.  By that time the horizon of hope had shrunk to the scale of self pampering.”
No one of us can be sustained – especially in a time of either personal or national crisis – by such a feeble hope.  Someone writes:  “I sometimes watch the travel channel.  You see a lot of people who are relaxed on the travel channel.  No one seems to be worried that his or her suitcase has been sent to Peoria instead of Acapulco. They sit beside the pool, looking as if they had enjoyed a sauna and a massage earlier in the day.  A smiling waiter in a white coat is leaning over to hand them a frosty drink with a little pink umbrella
“I like to think that all the trips I take will be like that.  I like to think that the journey of the rest of my life will be something like that, but life is not the travel channel.” There are terrible and challenging problems to deal with and real fears to be faced.  Now especially, with the threat of war, the darkness grows ever deeper.

You and I urgently need a faith which will empower us to face life and live abundantly. Christmas celebrates the grace and love of God which calls us out of self centeredness into a living hope.  Against the backdrop of an increasing narrowing of hope comes the Christian faith and the Christian church with its message of hope.  Not because of anything we have done, but because of what God has brought to pass in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of this baby who grew to be our savior. Hope is born anew. This is the miracle of Christmas.  This is the wonder of it all.

Many of you have read the delightful book Tuesdays With Morrie.  Two years on the best seller list.  Now…months on the paperback best seller list. It is about the lessons Morrie, a dying professor, teaches Mitch, the author of the book, who was once one of his students. Morrie teaches Mitch that his life can be different.  He says, “So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half asleep, even when they are doing things they think are important.”  “This is because they’re chasing the wrong things:  the way you get meaning in your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to the community around you, to devote yourself to creating something that gives meaning and purpose.”

This is the invitation of Christmas.  This is the challenge of Christmas.  To turn aside from instant gratification and self-pampering as the goal of life, and to discover that life’s meaning and purpose is finally a product of our behavior, not our ideas.

These are great days to climb off the treadmill of our lives and look at what claims our energy, what captures our time. We need to inquire of ourselves why we are so busy and    yet seem to have so little energy for what is lasting and enduring in life.  It is when we are willing to try to love as God loves us, when we are willing to be gracious as God is gracious to us, when we are willing to be generous as God has been generous to us that we will discover the deep meaning and the rich purpose of our lives.

Every year at this time some seminary professor or newspaper columnist writes an article:  Is the Christmas story as found in the Gospels true? Last year there was a program on television entitled:  Encounters with the unexplained: Is the miracle of Christmas true? This is no longer an issue for any one of use, for us the challenge of Christmas is not to waste our time wondering, “Did it happen two thousand years ago,”. . the only important question now is will it happen?  Will it happen in your heart and in your home this Christmas.

Whether every event in the Christmas story as found in the Gospels is accurate is of little consequence.  The Christmas story is true in that it embodies timeless meanings. Allow it to change your life.  Transform your life. You see, all that really matters now is the difference it will make in your life, in the lives of those you love and in this city and in the world.  The miracle of Christmas. The wonder of it all.

What is it?
Is it the star?
Is it the angels singing in the night?
Is it the shepherds running to the manger?
Is it Mary and Joseph, the loving parents?

Not really. The wonder of it all is that heaven touches earth.  It is the old, old story in reverse.  Instead of log cabin to White House, it is from heaven to a manger in a stable in Bethlehem.  The wonder of it all is that we see so clearly at Christmas that nothing is impossible with God!  Yes!

There are no more blasphemous words in the English language than “It is too good to be true.”  In the spirit of the Christ child who grew to become our risen and reigning Lord.  Amen.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.  The virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one!  The Lord is with you.  But she was much perplexed by his words, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.  The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.  He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”  Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”  The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.  And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”  Then the angel departed from her.