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Nativity of the Lord – Proper II
Christmas Day 2025
Preacher: Ron Vonk
Isaiah 62:6-12
Psalm 97
Titus 3:4-7
Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20
Many of us have favorite Christmas memories. One of my favorite Christmas memories is the Christmas dinners my youngest son and his family had at their home during the years my parents were still alive. My parents gave each of the families at the dinner a gift of one loaf of raisin bread, a box of Pot of Gold chocolates and a tin of Danish butter cookies. The gift never varied. Even the brands of raisin bread, chocolates and butter cookies were exactly the same each year. It was my parent’s way to let each of us know that we were all loved.
Favorite memories are often not repeatable memories. That is maybe what makes them favorite memories.
In my case, my father died in 2016 and my mother in 2018. We still have Christmas dinners at my youngest son’s house but Ina and I are now the old folks who bring somewhat identical gifts each year but in our case we buy gifts for our grandchildren. In our case we give books to each of our grandchildren. We hope in this way to let our sons and their families know that they too are all loved. Hopefully someday these Christmas dinners will be part of our children’s and grandchildren’s favorite memories.
Israel’s favorite memories went back to the time of David, their greatest king, the king responsible for the establishment of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city. We cannot overstate how vital both King David and the city of Jerusalem are to Israel’s memories. God promised David that David’s dynasty would be established forever. And God promised Israel that Jerusalem and the temple in Jerusalem would be central to their God given permanent home.
So the context for both Isaiah 62 and our gospel reading for this morning should be a shock to us. In Isaiah 62 watchmen are posted on Jerusalem’s walls. But the walls lie in ruins. The walls were destroyed by foreign armies. And the watchmen, people who normally quietly watch for approaching enemies, are told NOT to be silent. All day and all night they are to call out to God. These watchmen are to give God no rest until God establishes Jerusalem. They are to give God no rest until the whole earth praises God for the city of Jerusalem. These are strange requests when you consider that Jerusalem’s walls lie in ruins.
The context for Luke chapter 2 is no less hopeless. This time the walls of Jerusalem are again intact. But another King, not King David, is firmly in charge. This King, Caesar Augustus, needs his subjects to register for a new system of taxation. Two of Caesar’s subjects, Joseph and Mary, who are ironically descendants of King David, travel to the registration office in their hometown, far from their present home in Nazareth, to register for the new tax. Mary is dangerously close to the time for her to give birth to her first child.
And the heroes of our gospel story are some low income, not to be trusted shepherds, people who work around the clock to protect their bosses’ sheep; shepherds who sometimes need to steal in order to feed their own families; shepherds who live by the slogan, “God helps those who help themselves.” Memories of God’s promises to either King David or God’s promises about Jerusalem have definitely faded.
How does the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament and the writer Luke in the New Testament deal with people’s faded memories? How do they go about re-creating these memories for God’s people? How do they help to make these faded memories into favorite memories? I would like us to watch Isaiah and Luke again create favorite memories, favorite memories for Israel in the Old Testament and favorite memories for the church in our gospel reading.
In Isaiah, turning faded memories into favorite memories begins with the watchmen or sentinels on the city’s walls. The sentinels are called to unusual prayer. It is unstoppable prayer – all day and all night prayer. It is vocal not silent prayer. It is disciplined prayer – the sentinels give God no rest. And finally it is prayer turned toward God, prayer in which they remind God about God’s promise to establish Jerusalem as a place of renown throughout the earth.
It is important for us to notice how specific the sentinels get when it comes to God’s promises. The sentinels remind God of God’s promises to a very specific group of people; ancient farmers.
And the promises involve a very specific memory about farming. In the ancient world farmers did NOT fare well when invaders attacked cities like Jerusalem. Farms were located outside of city walls. Loss of crops to foreign invaders was a common experience.
Listen to what the sentinels remind God about his promises to these ancient farmers. God has sworn to use God’s own personal power (his right hand and mighty arm) to not again give the farmers’ grain as food for their enemies. God has promised that enemies will not drink the wine produced from vineyard owners’ grapes. Farmers will eat their own grain and praise God for God’s provision. Those who gather grapes will drink the wine in God’s holy courts. The promises to King David and the promises about the City of Jerusalem again become favorite memories as the sentinels remind God about God’s commitments to farmers.
Our reading from Isaiah finishes with a summons for these ancient farmers and with a summons to all people to join together for a march into Jerusalem. The invitations are issued. Go through! Go through the gates! The roads have been cleared of stones. The highway is built up. The flag has been raised high above the city. People are joining together to hear God’s proclamation.
Listen to what the prophet Isaiah proclaims: “Look, your saviour comes, his reward is with him and his recompense before him.”
The prophet calls attention to the one whose reward is with him. Some kind of salvation is on its way.
The final verse in Isaiah tells us what these “saved” people will look like. The onlookers who watch these people arrive in Jerusalem describe these saved people for us: These people are called Holy people – their dominant characteristic is one of holiness. They act in the way God expects them to act. The city of Jerusalem is described as a City not forsaken – a thriving city. God has redeemed these people. They are under God’s care. In fact, God sought them out to gather them into His thriving city.
Then another 700 years go by. Memories of God’s rich promises spoken about by the prophet Isaiah have again faded. A king in the order of King David is not on his throne. Instead, Caesar Augustus is on his throne. Two of Caesar’s subjects, Joseph and his very pregnant wife Mary find themselves in a barn behind a lodging house in Bethlehem. Mary’s baby is delivered in that barn.
Then in our reading from Luke, we meet shepherds keeping watch over their flock of sheep. Again, we seem to be in farm country, this time far from impressive cities like Jerusalem. This time we do not hear the voice of a prophet like Isaiah. At first we also do not hear the voices of Joseph or Mary or even the voices of the shepherds. Instead, we hear the voice of a stranger (a stranger Luke calls an angel), a stranger who says to the understandably terrified shepherds:
“Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Right away we imagine what the shepherds are thinking. We already have a Saviour! Caesar is our Saviour! Saviours make life hard for their subjects. Our Saviour Caesar has forced his subjects to register for his newest taxes. Saviours are not normally good news for people like us.
But the stranger does not allow the shepherds any time to respond. He simply goes on to tell the shepherds where they will find the baby.
And at this point we remember the words of Isaiah. The stranger’s words to the shepherds remind us of the words we heard from Isaiah. We are reminded of God’s promises to David. God’s promises about Jerusalem, the City of David. And again some kind of salvation is on its way. And God is again involved.
Then, to confirm our suspicion about God’s involvement, the writer Luke reports a multitude of the heavenly host (like an army of singers praising God) praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” and then just like those sentinels on the broken down walls of Jerusalem 700 years earlier, we are again reminded about the possibility of peace in what again appears to us to Not be such a peaceful world.
At this point, for the very first time in our readings from either Isaiah or Luke, we hear some identifiable human voices speak. We hear the voices of the shepherds. We hear the shepherds say to one another: “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”
The shepherds take action. They find Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in his manger.
Then the shepherds begin to do what the sentinels did on the ancient broken down walls of Jerusalem 700 years earlier. The shepherds talk and talk and talk. The shepherds make known what had been told to them about the baby. Their words are unstoppable – words of witness about what they had heard and words of praise and glory to God.
The prophet Isaiah and the writer Luke present cherished memories for their listeners. Citizens of Jerusalem heard God’s great promises to David and God’s great promises about their city. Citizens of Jerusalem heard sentinels on the broken down city walls reminding God about His promise to make Jerusalem a place of renown. Ancient farmers heard that their grain would no longer be food for their enemies.
The writer Luke reminds his church about shepherds who first learned about the special child born in Bethlehem – a Saviour, who is Messiah, the Lord, God come to rescue His people. And at the end of our gospel reading we are told something about Mary, the young Jewish peasant girl who finds herself in a very uncomfortable situation, giving birth to her baby in a barn, a barn filled with animals, yes, but a barn also for a short time filled with shepherds who tell an unbelievable story about her child who is good news of great joy for all people. Mary treasured the shepherds’ words and ponders them in her heart for the rest of her life. The visit from the shepherds was one of Mary’s favorite memories.
All of us have favorite memories whether they be memories like mine of a favorite Christmas dinner, favorite memories of farmers who remember years of abundant harvests, or memories of beautiful cities now harmed by war or other disasters.
This morning I have now shared favorite memories of ancient Israel and favorite memories of the early church. My prayer is that the word from Isaiah and the words shared by Luke also become part of our individual and collective memories. We allow these memories to become our own memories by reading these memories. We hear them spoken about and preached about in our churches. Like the sentinels in Isaiah we remind God and God’s people about God’s great promises. Like the shepherds we tell others about this child born in Bethlehem and we join the shepherds in glorifying and praising God.
May this Christmas be a time of new cherished memories with your friends and families. May this Christmas also be the beginning of renewed memories as we ponder the stories of Jesus and the stories of the ongoing forward movement of God’s plan for a thriving world, a plan for a world filled with people who praise God for their blessings and people who work to bless the other people in their lives. Amen.
