Ah, Christmas time! Roaring fires! Beautifully lit and decorated trees. Treats and goodies. Presents for everyone under the tree. Families getting together to enjoy one another, to remember good memories past and to make new and happy memories. The soft sound of Christmas carols playing in the background. Singing "Silent Night" by candlelight in church. It all sounds so great! So cozy. So warm and fuzzy and happy! It's what Christmas should be like, right? Except it's not! Not for most people. Not for those families for whom getting together is actually a terrible burden because the hurt and bad memories of the sins of the past haunt and infect every gathering. Christmas isn't joyful for those who have bad times to remember around the holidays, thoughts and feelings of sadness over things that have happened in the past. Christmas can't be too joyful for those who have lost loved ones and know whether for the first time or the twentieth time that they won't have that child or parent or spouse with them this year. Christmas is hardly cheery for those who have to live away from home. Just think of people like our brother Paul at Fair Acres or our sister Betty in a rehab center. They'll see family. But it won't be like it was. Maybe Christmas isn't such a cheery time after all, despite everything the Malls and stores do to make it seem like it is. Maybe Christmas just plain stinks, like it did when Jesus was born. We love to have soft and beautiful pictures of the Nativity scene. But, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the birth of our Lord Jesus is not some picture to model our Christmas after. It's a Christmas story that shows that God comes straight into the dirty and nasty messes of our life! So if your Christmas isn't everything Hallmark says it should be, then listen up! There's good news to be had tonight!
When the Son of God is born of the virgin, where does He end up? In a manger! The animals' feed trough. The Bible says that he was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Did Mary put some hay in the manger first? We sure hope so. But there's not much you can do to change the fact that it's a manger. A trough for donkeys and cows and whatever else. Ever touched a cow's nose? They're pretty slimy and gooey! it's noses like that that dig around in mangers. Probably bits of chewed up cud and worse that make it into a manger! Listen closely, brothers and sisters: our Lord's humiliation is NOT that He became a man and took on flesh. It's that the Son of God, when He takes on flesh and is born, gets plopped into a stinky, smelly, nasty manger. And there's the good news for us sinners on Christmas: The Savior comes to us in our filth and sins! Is your life as gross and nasty as a cow's chow box? Your sins make it so. But that's where Jesus comes. And He'll go worse places than a manger, too! This is the Child who is going to grow up to get splashed in a river full of sinners' sins! This is the One who will be beaten and mocked and subjected to the filth of sinful men who despise Him. He is the One who is going to be flogged and tortured and dragged out to Calvary. He'll run out of gas and fall on the ground. He'll be nailed on a cross that's already tasted death and blood. But that's not the worst of it. The worst of it is that on that cross, He'll be covered in YOUR sins. Your filth. Your nasty stink! Because He didn't come to be clean but to get dirty with our sins so that He would take them away. There's good news for messed up families and sad people and sinners: Jesus comes to us in our sins.
Now, we all like to think that Mary or Joseph covered that nasty manger with some straw or hay or something. Something to put between Jesus and the stinky stuff. St. Luke doesn't say. But I do know that when it comes to our sins, we love to try to put some hay and straw between us and the Lord. After all, we don't want Him to get too close to smell us! Brothers and sisters in Christ, it's true! Just look at how the world wants us to celebrate Christmas: with fires in the fireplace and everyone dressed nicely and smiling and getting along! The world's version of Christmas is just straw in the manger! It can make it look nice but it's really just covering cow spit donkey goo. We do that too. Try to fool Jesus as if we aren't full of stinky stuff. We try to fool our neighbor too. We may even try to fool the pastor. But I'm not fooled and neither is the Lord. Tonight, many of you will come and kneel at the altar and then go right back to fighting and arguing and devouring one another. We'll come to church and even the altar of our Lord as if there isn't anything wrong in the world and we'll take the same anger and hatred and bad memories and sadness and frustration back out the door when we go. Is the Lord fooled? Does the straw keep the manger smell away? Listen carefully, dear Christians: Jesus is NOT afraid to go where it's stinky! He knows the filth of your sins, way worse than a manger! But the ones who suffer are our neighbors. Our husbands and wives. Our kids. Our parents. Our family and friends and everyone else we'll go right back to being mad at and hating. Therefore, on Christmas Eve, repent! Turn away from stuffing straw into the manger as if Jesus can't handle your smelly sins! And turn in faith to Christ who, as St. Paul says, has redeemed us to be His chosen people, who just can't wait to go and do good for others.
I said that Jesus is not afraid to go where it's stinky! He was laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. He was nailed to a cross, probably with no clothes. He was wrapped up and laid in an empty, borrowed tomb. But even now, after His resurrection, after His ascension to glory at the Father's right hand, Jesus is NOT afraid to go to some pretty gross places. Like your ears! He comes into your ears through His Word. Your gooey, sticky, wax coated ears that would rather be filled with great words about you. He puts His body and blood into your mouth which is coated not just with bad breath but the words we use to kill others. He even comes to dwell in our hearts, full of sin and wickedness. And there by His word and baptism He makes a place for Himself. No, indeed! Jesus is NOT afraid to come into our smelly sinful lives to rescue us and forgive us. The devil would like you to believe that you can't come to Jesus until you're all clean. But Jesus was born in a barn. From the day of His birth, He's been taking up in smelly places. It's nothing for Him to come to you and take away YOUR sins. That's what He does. That's why He came. To take away your sins. To cleanse you from your sins. To make YOU the soft, holy, precious, innocent, sinless sons of God.
For a true celebration of Christmas, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, don't try to cover up the smell! Confess your sins! Admit that what you have for God and your neighbor is nothing at all. Confess and admit that you would rather fake a happy Christmas than break down and weep because of your sins and sadness and having hurt others and been hurt. Don't be afraid! The shepherds knew that they were dirty smelly guys. They thought, as everyone does, that God doesn't have anything to do with stinky, smelly people. But that's exactly to whom to the Lord comes. "Don't be afraid" said the angel because He brought Good News. There's your good news. Have you got sins? Jesus takes them. They're all His now, so that you can love others as you have been loved. There's no doubt that each of us has made a stink for those around us. Husbands and wives and kids and parents and family and all of us. One way or another, by what we say and do, we make a stink. Far worse than a manger! But glory to God in the Highest! His Son has come down to smelly and washed it clean by His blood. Now, in Jesus, you are a fragrant offering. In Jesus, you DON'T smell bad to God anymore. Now, when your neighbor comes to you all smelly and sinful, don't just throw some straw down! Cover them with the blood of Christ which means the forgiveness of sins. And if that's too hard, and it's too smelly for you, then come to your pastor and confess that: "Pastor, I don't want to smell my neighbor! I should love them but I can't." And I'll do my job there, too, to give you the Jesus who comes to us sinners in our filth and shame and stands us up and His holy and chosen people, fresh and clean with sins forgiven!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I know there is a great temptation to fake like Christmas is supposed to magically make everything look nice and feel good. But you and I know that's not true. There's a great temptation to see a cute little baby Jesus in the manger and want to "cootchie coo!" Him! No, the manger is smelly. But that's OK. Jesus was born for smelly. Jesus was born for you. There are no sins you have that can cause Jesus to run away in disgust. He has come and taken them away. So this night, let us rejoice in the birth of our Savior. He who washes us, comes into our ears with His saving Word and fills our mouths with His body and blood! Glory to God in the Highest! Jesus is born. He is your peace with God and the true goodwill among men. Amen.