St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – First Sunday after Christmas - Dec. 27, ’09
“Love! Love! Great Lengths!”
Text: Luke 2:18-20
Interesting it is, the way the word “long” can be used. Let me give you a couple of quick examples.
First, there are “long shots”. “Long shots” are what a basketball player shouldn’t take on a basketball court if it’s near the end of a close, close basket-ball game. Then again “long shot” is also an expression we use for any venture with only a slight chance of success, but offering great rewards if successful. Nebraska was a “long shot” to beat Texas for the Big 12 football championship, but they came up 1 second, 1 point short.
Or in the Gospel of Luke in the NT, there’s the example of some in Jesus’ own family, including Mary, his mother, & Jesus younger brothers, who thought Jesus was a long shot to be the Messiah of Israel, a long-shot to lead a revolt and throw off the yoke of Roman taxation & oppression. Yet in the end, just when everyone thought Jesus’ and His Kingdom were thoroughly lost, shot down by his enemies, no time left on the clock, no more life, Jesus died and rose victorious over sin & death, Son of God, Son of Man.
A second way the word long is used is when you want to hear the long and short of something meaning “the whole story in a few words; the gist of a story or the point of it, the bottom line.”
Some folks will tell you the long & short of Nebraska’s agonizing loss to Texas was not lack of effort or lack of defense, but lack of offense.
Or, again turning to the Bible, people will ask what’s the long and short of what’s in the Bible? Can you give it to me in a nutshell, in a few words. Martin Luther once said, “From cradle to cross to crown of glory. The Gospel of Jesus Christ in a nutshell is John 3:16.” That’s the long and short of what makes the Bible a most unique book, not just that it’s a holy word, an inspired word, but that in a word, the heart & center of the Bible is Jesus Christ.
Now, a third way we use the word long is when there’s the long, long way someone will go to get something done. This is long when long means “going to great lengths, giving it all you got and then some, doing whatever is necessary without any qualms or hesitation whatsoever.”
Hundreds & hundreds of years of prophets of God promising & people of God waiting - leading up to the appearance of John the Baptist in the wilderness; the long, long journey of the holy, heavenly Son of God who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, it’s all one long story, going all the way back to Adam and Eve, a story that shows us and the whole world what great lengths, what great lengths, God goes in order to be God with us, God among us, and God for us.
Let us rejoice and be glad in this. Let us rejoice and be glad because with each passing Christmas I think we all grow a little more weary & more alarmed with what a great testing; what a great undoing of values & family & marriage & peace & stability we see our culture, our society going through -- which is evident in more & more divisive-ness, more polarization, more bitterness, more extremism, more individualism, more distance being put between people & races & nations & God and man than ever before.
In politics, in business, in sports, in war, even in the name of religion, there are “extremists” on both sides of most issues & de-bates. There are political “extremes”, financial “extremes”, “health care” extremes, military extremes to which the powers that be will go to get their way or to accomplish their goals.
Such is the world we live in that most of the time when we hear of extremists or extremism, anything that has to do with extremism is often seen as a negative thing, like waving a red flag, or desecrating an American flag, or disgruntled neighbors annoyed with each other blowing snow on each other’s freshly-shoveled drive ways, or suicide bombers blowing up crowded markets & government offices in far away villages & cities. Extremism, going to great lengths to make a point, or make a mess, or carry a gun, or make sure others sit up and take notice has gotten to be an alarming thing these days.
The one place you don’t expect to hear about or don’t want to hear about extremists or extremism is church. And that’s perfectly understandable. The opposite of extreme is moderate, medium, limited, calm, quiet, steady, ordinary, subdued, which to most of us sounds accept-able, comfortable; sounds like where most of us on any given day are at. Not given to extremes; not pushing others around, not stepping on others, not shouting at others, not picking on others or offending others, and not getting even with others.
How good it is when we try to be good, try to be honest, be reasonable, be charitable, love our neighbors as ourselves without going over-board, without being mediocre, without being judgmental.
Still, truth of the matter is, try as we will, none of us are anywhere close to being as good or as loving or as forgiving as we were created and redeemed to be. We sin daily. We miss the mark of perfection not by a point or two or a second or two, but we miss the mark of perfect love, perfect faith & hope, by miles & miles & years & years of accumulated sins in thought, word and deed.
Given how deep in debt we are to God for sins known & unknown we commit constantly, we don’t need a Savior who is a long-shot to save us; we need a Savior, born a perfect human being, born just as human as we are, born to be a sure-shot, a sure-fire Savior, who in His lowliness, in His humility, is 100% committed, is perfect as perfect can be, is born to die, to lay down His life for us, to be the perfect sacrifice for us.
The “long and short of it” is what the angel said it to those poor shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”
We know what happened next! When those shepherds went and saw this great thing that had happened, which the Lord had made known to them . . when they had seen it for themselves, they made known the things that had been told them concerning this child.
As for the sureness of it all; the mystery of it all, the long and short of it, Luke tells us, Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
One more time, in a world of long shots, in a world of long, cold wintry nights, in a world that’s long on sin & death, and short on love & salvation, here’s the heart of the good news of Christmas & Christ’s coming into the world.
What great lengths God goes to when our salvation is at stake. What a personal, powerful demonstration of extreme love, divine love, love, passionate love. One might even call it ‘reckless love’, that God would go to such great lengths as to “do whatever is necessary, have no qualms at all or any hesitation whatsoever” to come all the way down to our level unworthy, undeserving, and unresponsive as we are.
Only a limitless God could love in such a limitless way. Only a limitless God is willing to be 100% responsive to our needs, is willing to wade into the struggles of our human lives, dares to stand beside us, dares to be here for us.
If you want a one-sentence definition of the meaning of Christmas that’s not a long-shot, not a long doctrinal, theologically deep and heavy statement of biblical truth, here it is . . from cradle to cross to crown, in Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, God’s true love is found.
Be prepared, every Sunday of every New Year to hear the long and short of the Good News of Jesus Christ – that God is going to get back what belongs to God and God will stoop to almost any level, go to great, great lengths to get it. Amen. Praise be to God. Amen
