The Season of Good Will

Reading

Luke 2: 1-19

Talk

We've heard again the story of the angel telling the shepherds about the birth of Christ, and then a whole host of angels appearing, praising God and announcing awesome news. We're probably more familiar with the older translation of what they said, which goes, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

The strange idea that has grown out of this text is that Christmas is the “Season of Good Will” as if this is the only time of year when we should be nice to each other! But actually, the angels were announcing something far more significant. To understand what they were saying, let's fill in a bit of background.

Human beings are designed to live in communion with God. But, almost from the start, we decided we would do things our way, independently of God. And, as a race, we still do that today. That results in two problems.

Firstly, we make a mess of the wonderful world that God put in our charge. You only have to watch the news to see how good we've become at making a mess, from the chaos last week at Gatwick airport to the horrors of the Syrian war.

Secondly, we set ourselves up as enemies of God, alienating ourselves from him, breaking away from the relationship he always intended us to have with him.

Try as we might, we can't sort out our own mess, and we can't, of ourselves, put an end to our conflict with God—we don't want to!

Fortunately for us, God loves people. The angels were really announcing that God's means of making peace for us has now come to earth, and the way is open for us to return to God, if we're willing to take it.

He sent Jesus to live among us as one of us. The first Christmas launched the mission to end our conflict with God and to bring in his kingdom, where our mess can be sorted out.

The Apostle Paul writes about God “[rescuing] us from the dominion of darkness and [bringing] us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Thirty-three years after that first Christmas, Jesus achieved for us what we can't do for ourselves. We see him riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of praise and honour, and, within a week, being crucified, paying the penalty of our sins for us, all as foretold in scripture.

God gave us Christmas knowing there would be Easter. He did it willingly because he loves us so much. As the Apostle John wrote in his gospel, “… God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

This is why, as Christians, we celebrate Christmas: the time when Jesus came to live among us, so that through his death and rising again our living can be transformed by his power.

God offers us life through Jesus, whatever our sin, however dark and deep our shame.

Since that first Christmas, God's season of goodwill is every day, all year round. His offer of peace is always open to anyone who will turn back from their own ways and become a follower of Jesus.

Each new disciple is a new member of God's kingdom, which has been growing for over 2000 years.

And it all began with the wonder of a baby in a manger.