The Christ Candle - December 25, 2018 - Christmas Day - Text: Isaiah 1:18

18“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool (Isaiah 1:18).
 

Let the celebration begin, or if you are like most people the celebration actually began last night, so let the celebration continue and continue for twelve days, the full twelve days of Christmas.  And what an awesome celebration it is, celebrating the birth of our King, not any earthly royal king, but our heavenly King and our Savior, Messiah, Christ, Jesus. Today we light the last candle of the Advent Wreath, the center candle, the White Christ candle.
 

The Christ Candle is the center candle, the candle we have been waiting to light. The Christ candle is the white candle as in pure, holy and righteousness. Indeed, Jesus is the righteous, pure and holy son of God, indeed God Himself in human flesh and blood.
 

The Christ Candle is the last candle, the candle of fulfillment. God’s promise made some four to six thousand years earlier in the Garden of Eden was now coming to fruition. God’s promise to take care of Adam and Eve’s sin, and the sins of all mankind, of all ages, of all nationalities, indeed the sins of all people, of all places, of all times was now beginning to be fulfilled in this baby born in Bethlehem. And this child who would ultimately be seated on His throne in heaven. How can we not celebrate and celebrate with a great and grand celebration, even an eternal celebration.
 

All the candles on the Advent Wreath are lit, our waiting is over, it is finished and now it is time to celebrate. Yet, in about three months we will hear the voice of this newborn baby say, “It is finished!” Jesus birth, perfect life, taking our sins, suffering and death, for us, in our place as our substitute will have been completed. The church year cycle reminds us year in and year out, day in and day out of God’s great love for us. Each year we begin the year celebrating Jesus’ birth. And Jesus was born for a purpose, to live for us, to take our sins, and to die for us, in our place as our substitute, to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves.
 

Of course, we are living after these events have already taken place, so we know the rest of the story. Although we may celebrate this birth in the shadow of the cross, we do not celebrate in sadness, but because we know the rest of the story we do celebrate with great joy. We know that Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead, victorious over sin, death and the devil. We followed along as He showed Himself to be alive before He ascended back to the place from which He descended in order to pay the price for our sins, His life for our life. And now we know that He is watching over us, ruling over us, interceding for us.
 

And we await His return in glory. We are living in the last days of our time on this earth. Yes, God waited some four to six thousand years before fulfilling His first promise to send a Savior and Jesus has promised to come again to take us to heaven. So far He has only waited about two thousand years. Does the mean He will wait another two or four thousand years. We do not know. What we do know is that if He does not return during our life time, we will go to Him. We will pass on from this world and so the most important thing for each one of us while living in this world is to be ready for our meeting Jesus. Indeed, all of this world, all the ups and down, all the everything will be merely a blip on the screen, a snap of the fingers compared to our glory and life in eternity. So, why do we spend so much time and energy on the spats, fights and feuds of this world? Because that is how Satan distracts us from what is truly important, our faith in Jesus. And our celebration of our salvation.
 

Let the celebration begin. We have heard the history as reminded by the candles of the Advent Wreath. The base of the Advent Wreath is the green circle, reminding us that the foundation, the base of our world is our living, infinite God. In the beginning God. God created all things out of nothing. God is our living eternal God. God lives in the eternal present, all knowing, all powerful and everywhere present.
 

We were reminded of the promise God made in the Garden of Eden immediately after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree from which they were forbidden to eat. Their disobedience brought sin and death into the world and God promised to take care of their sin and separation from Him.
 

We were reminded that God’s promise was that in the city of David, in the royal city, in Bethlehem the one who would take care of our sins, would be born. This small insignificant town would be the birth place of our eternal king.
 

We were reminded of the lowly, humble servant shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. Indeed, as Jesus is our Good Shepherd who watches over us, guards and protects us, and as Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, how fitting that these shepherds were the first to hear the good news of the birth of our Savior and king.
 

We were reminded of all the work of the angels during that first part of Jesus’ life. They announced to Zechariah that his wife would give birth, in her old age, to the one who would come in the spirit of Elijah and prepare the way for the Savior. They announced to Mary that she would be the mother of God and to Joseph that he would be Jesus’ adoptive earthly father. They announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus. They protected the infant Christ child from the evil army of Satan. The protected Mary, Joseph and Jesus to and from Egypt.
 

And finally we are being reminded of the culmination and fulfillment of all these events in Jesus. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus. The New Testament points us to Jesus. Our calendar, B.C. and A.D. centers on Jesus. All history and all time point us to Jesus. How can we not celebrate Jesus!
 

Let the celebration begin and continue. We celebrate God’s promises fulfilled. We get it right when we point, not to ourselves, not to our own doings, not to our own obedience or good works, or anything, but when we point to Jesus and Jesus alone. When we rejoice in Jesus’ work in and through us.
 

When we point to ourselves, when we look inside ourselves all we see is our sins and it is because of our sins that these events had to take place, that Jesus had to be born. But because of God’s great love for us, He sent His One and Only Son to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. And that is what Jesus did. So, we celebrate, we rejoice because our sins have been paid for, we have forgiveness and with forgiveness we have life and salvation.
 

We celebrate because our redemption procured. We have been reconciled. Our negative balance has been paid and balanced by Jesus paying the bill, giving His life for ours.
 

We celebrate because we have forgiveness of sins and we know that with forgiveness is life and salvation. By faith in Jesus, His white robes of righteousness have been placed on us so that when God looks at us He sees us as being perfect and holy which is what He demands of us. The white center Christ candle reminds us of God’s great love for us.
 

We celebrate. We rejoice and sing. What else can we do? How can we not celebrate? God gives and we are given to. God gives us life at conception; new life, faith, even eternal life through the waters of Holy Baptism; forgiveness of sins through confession and absolution; forgiveness and strengthening of faith through His body and blood in His Holy Supper. God gives and gives and gives and we are given to and we rejoice and give thanks and praise.
 

Today we celebrate God’s fulfillment of all His promises. We celebrate what a great God we have, what a loving, gift giving God we have. We celebrate, we rejoice and sing and we say, to God be the glory, forever and ever, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.