Lessons & Carols, 2024

Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz taught us that there’s no place like home.

Perry Como taught us that there’s no place like home for the holidays.

Bing Crosby promised that he would be home for Christmas.

How about you? 

Will you be home for Christmas?

The first time that I was not home for Christmas was when I was on vicarage in western Iowa.  A few years later I was in Australia for Christmas.  Other than those two years, I’ve always been home for Christmas, in some sense of the word.

There’s something special about celebrating Christmas at home, with your family, reliving the same traditions year after year.

Will you be home for Christmas?

Will you be celebrating Christmas surrounded by your family, Christmas tree covered with special ornaments, table overflowing with all your holiday favorites, sitting around in pajamas opening stacks of brightly decorated presents?

Or will you be away from home, celebrating Christmas in a strange, new place?

Will there be people missing from your Christmas celebration?  Are there any traditions that you’re missing out on this year?

The reason why we have a Christmas is because the Lord wants to bring you home, to your true home.

Once upon a time, home was paradise, Eden, that perfect garden made for Adam and Eve.  No sickness, suffering, or pain of any kind.  No arguing, no fighting, no problems at all, not even death, because there was no sin.  There was only light and beauty and life, because God was there, walking and talking with the people He had made.

That is your true home, more so than any house on the planet.

But Adam and Eve had to leave that home once they had fallen into sin.  They were evicted from paradise and left to roam where sins and sorrows grow, where thorns infest the ground, because the curse of sin is found.

But the Lord made a promise that one day He would bring His people home.  He would send a Savior who would crush the serpent’s head, a Savior who would be the substitute and die for the sins of His people, a Savior who would be born as a child, and yet still be the Mighty God, a Savior who would spring from the stump of Jesse and bring the peace of paradise back with His kingdom.

To bring us back home, Jesus had to leave his home.  Jesus left the glory and bliss of heaven to come to this dark and dying world.  When Jesus came, He was not received or welcomed by His own people, His own family.  Even there in Bethlehem, there was not room for Him, and so He was placed in a manger.

Jesus spent over thirty years as a guest and stranger in this world.  He had to flee and live as a refugee in Egypt. 

Even when Mary and Joseph brought Him back to Nazareth, He really belonged in His Father’s house, the temple in Jerusalem. 

When He began His ministry, Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

In the end, the nails and spear pierced Him through, and the babe of Bethlehem was swaddled in a shroud and laid in the manger of the tomb.

In life no house, no home

My Lord on earth might have;

In death no friendly tomb

But what a stranger gave.

What may I say?

Heav’n was His home

But mine the tomb

Wherein He lay.

The rest in the tomb was brief, and on the third day, Jesus began His journey home, ascending to the Father 40 days later.

And yet, He has not left this world completely. He is still present here with His word and sacrament.

Which brings us to tonight.

No matter where you plan to spend Christmas this year, no matter how near or far from home you find yourself, you are home in this place.

You are with your family, your brothers and sisters in Christ.  And you are here with Jesus Christ, and with all the saints who have gone before us.

And you are hear to receive the good news once more that Jesus has come to bring you through all the suffering and sorrow that sin has brought into this world, all the loneliness and isolation and alienation it has caused, and to bring you back home to paradise once more.

Lord Jesus Christ, You deigned to dwell

Among us here on earth

As God with us, Emmanuel,

To bring this holy birth.

Though rich, You willingly became

One with our poverty,

That we might share Your wealth and name

For all eternity.