Christmas midnight sermon

It was awkward. It was embarrassing. He was in a quandary

His bride-to-be was expecting. She was supposed to be a virgin. He was still a virgin. But there was a baby on the way.

He didn’t want to make a fuss but there was only one way out of this scandalous turn of events. He would have to break off the engagement. He would do it privately. He wouldn’t make a song and dance about it. But it was the only reasonable solution, with his bride-to-be carrying another man’s child.

Then he had a dream. And in that dream an angel appeared to him. The messenger from God said: “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived. ²¹ She will have a son, and you will name him Jesus—because he will save his people from their sins.”

His beautiful and beloved girlfriend had done nothing wrong. She hadn’t broke faith with Joseph at all. She was still a virgin.

The child she was carrying was a miracle baby, conceived by the Holy Spirit of God.

The baby’s names would reveal his true identity. He was Jesus – which means he will save his people from their sins. He was Immanuel – which means he is God with us.

The child growing in Mary’s womb was God’s Son who had come to save us from our sins.

It was a lot to take in in one go. But Joseph believed the angel’s message and so Matthew tells us: So when Joseph woke up, he married Mary, as the angel of the Lord had told him to. ²⁵ But he had no sexual relations with her before she gave birth to her son. And Joseph named him Jesus

Earlier this week we had the end of term Christmas service for the children of St James’s School here in church. We watched a video of children from New Zealand acting out their own Nativity play and telling the Christmas story in their own words.

One of the children said this about Jesus: ‘He had two daddies.’ ‘He had two daddies – Joseph and God.’

They got it in a nutshell. That was the secret about the special baby that was born in Bethlehem. He had two daddies – Joseph and God.

Or to put it another way: he was a real live human being, born as a baby, born of a woman, just like every one of us. But he was also God. Truly human, and truly divine.

In one sense he was like everyone else – made of flesh and blood. In another sense he was unlike anyone who has ever lived – this was the Word made Flesh, this was God in human form, this baby was God with us.

Earlier in the year when there was that terrible terrorist incident at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, people from all over the world sent messages of love and condolence. Twitter and Facebook were alive with messages of support. But our Queen, the head of our nation, did something more. She came in person. A few days after the event, she arrived unannounced at the children’s hospital in Manchester to visit the children and their parents.

She showed she cared by coming in person.

That’s what our creator God did on the first Christmas day. He didn’t just send a message or even a messenger. He came in person, born as a baby, to live among us, and ultimately to give his life for us on the cross. 

John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, got it just right when he said: “Let us praise the Lord, the God of Israel! He has come to the help of his people and has set them free. He has provided for us a mighty Saviour,

And then he went on to say:
Our God is merciful and tender. He will cause the bright dawn of salvation to rise on us and to shine from heaven on all those who live in the dark shadow of death, to guide our steps into the path of peace.

Thank God that he has come to us in the form of the baby, with two daddies, who was destined to be our saviour and save us from our sins.