Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this evening's message is based comes from our Gospel lesson (Luke 2: 8-11, 17-20) read earlier.

Last week we focused on "Christ Our Hope" as we await his Second and final Advent, that is Coming into our world. Next week we will focus o "Christ our Peace". Tonight we turn our attention to that glad news foretold through the centuries by the prophets, announced by the angels and shepherds at the first Christmas, and still proclaimed by us, the Christian church today.

Luke writes: "But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." In Word and in song this night we celebrate the Good News of "Christ Our Joy."

Our world and our sinful flesh look for joy in all the wrong places, in all the wrong ways. An old motto that is still heard today goes "He who dies with the most toys WINS!" We live in a world, in a culture, that is constantly looking for happiness and joy, pursuing it with a passion, striving to collect more and more, newer and newer toys. Obviously the phrase "He who dies with the most toys wins" is not alluding to only children's toys, but to adult toys as well, those things we clamor for for entertainment. The world's idea of joy is to have one's fancy tickled, to be constantly entertained, to be amused incessantly. The world's thinking about happiness is that as long as we can get what we want when we want it, then we will be happy.

But from the opening chapters of the Bible to the end we find the opposite is true. When man pursues and gets his own way, enough is never enough. When one's sinful self directs life and actions to pursue joy and self-satisfaction, what follows is often misery and sorrow. One person covets for another person's possessions, and he steals them. One nation covets another nation's possessions, and they go to war. Even the joys of this life are often accompanied by great pain. The joy of the birth of a child is terrifically painful for the mother, because of original sin. Sin, whether caused by Adam and Eve, or other humans, or we ourselves, brings misery, suffering, sadness, and eventually death into all our lives without exception.

However, God has never left his creation desolate and barren, as our sin deserves. Instead, the Father has created us and all that exists. He still sustains our bodies and souls, our reason and our minds, along with food and clothing, house and home (Small Catechism, 1st Article of the Creed). For that we thank Him. And even more importantly, he has not left us hopeless, only to muddle through this life alone in a sinful world. Rather, throughout the Old Testament the Lord promised to send a Savior, one who would ultimately deliver them from misery and captivity of their sin, one who would bind up their wounds and give them joy instead of sadness.

Isaiah speaks of this Savior when he writes these Words from the Lord, words which Jesus attributed to himself when he preached in Nazareth "Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor.

Because of all their struggles and dark days in Israel, oppressed by evil kings and Caesars, conquered and even exiled for years from their land, they were waiting with great anticipation for king, their Messiah who was to come. Let us sing one Advent song of joy that looks forward to the coming of this Son of David, this Emmanuel "God with us" into the world: Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel - verses 1, 5-6.

"Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight."  

We do have dark nights and shadows in this world.Our Lord is not oblivious to this. He knows that living in a sin-filled world does cause all manner of things to go wrong. He knows because He Himself also lived in this world and experienced the full impact of our sorrows and grief as our Savior. Isaiah (53) reminds us: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering… He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows… He was oppressed and afflicted". Ironically, the cross that Jesus took on for us was actually his joy: (Hebrews 12: 2) "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God". Did you catch that "who for the joy set before him endured the cross"? The cross and its pain and shame were a joy for Jesus because He loves us that much.

Because our Lord Jesus Christ has loved us that much that He joyfully took on our afflictions and suffering and sorrows, we can rejoice in our lives. For the believer, joy is not evaluated by shifting standards of what happens to us from day-to-day, of how entertained we are by the latest toys. Our joy is deeper, grounded in the Lord and his Words of Promise.

A TV show called "Early Edition" has this premise. The hero of that show receives the next day's newspaper each morning. He can then use that newspaper to discover some tragedy that is still to occur in the next 24 hours, then he works hard to prevent the tragedy. When my daughter and I were talking about it, she remarked "Oh isn't that cool. If that could really happen, then that person could have warned everybody of September 11th and prevented that whole thing." Wouldn't it be great if we had that kind of forewarning? Wouldn't life be happier and more joyful if tomorrow's newspaper could warn us of calamity today so we could avoid it?

We who are Christians actually live a life akin to that hero, except we don't get tomorrow's newspaper. What we have is God's Good Newspaper, God's Word. In it are the two most important headlines in the history of the World. The first headline is from 2000 years ago: God's Son, God Himself, comes to earth to die in our place and be our hero. The second headline is from the end of the world: God's Son, God Himself, returns to earth to take all his faithful to be with him in a new heaven and new earth. Because we know what that second headline is, we can live lives of joy and adoration for his first coming, anticipation of his Second Coming. Let us sing of our joy at his appearances in the words of hymn 41, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, vv 1-3.

Luke 2: 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

The joy that the shepherds felt on seeing their Savior on that first Christmas day was so great that they could not contain themselves. Like a child who gets a star on his paper, the shepherds went out and told everyone they met about the Child born of Mary. All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said.

Indeed we the church today are still in the business of spreading that same joy. Just like the shepherds who believed what they had heard and seen, we are to repeat the joy we have heard and seen in Jesus, and repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. Jesus' birth is not simply some sort of personal, internal event to help us feel a warm glow at Christmas time. Jesus' birth is an event that we, like the shepherds, have the great privilege to be able to tell others. We can spread his message so that others will repent and believe in him. I can guarantee you that nearly everyone you tell will be amazed. If they keep their hearts closed to God's word, they will be amazed that we are such "fools for Christ" (1 Corinthians 1: 18-31) that we would believe such a message from poor shepherds. But, if their hearts are opened by the Spirit to trust God's Holy Word, then they will be amazed that God would love them that much. They will then join us rejoicing in this wondrous message of Hope, Joy and Peace. Let us end this message with the hymn of joy (53) "Joy to the World – verses 2, 4."

Note: Sermons for Wednesdays December 5th and 19th were proclaimed by Rev. Marvin Barz of St. Paul's Lutheran Church. We do not have manuscripts for those sermons available for the Internet.