"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." -- From the Song of Mary

"The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." -- Luke 2:20

"When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins with a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes an escape. Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him.

"In the same way the human being struggles with his environment and with the hooks that catch him. Sometimes he masters his difficulties; sometimes they are too much for him. His struggles are all that the world sees and it naturally misunderstands them. It is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one." -- Karl Menninger

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         The message of Christmas is that God sent to earth a Savior, Jesus, who is Christ the Lord. This is the gift of God. In his wisdom he gave to us a Savior. The problem is that in our day, there are many who are trying to return the gift, to exchange a Savior for something else, perhaps a teacher. Saviors are embarrassing to us, offensive. Spiritual teachers seem to fit us better.

         The recent edition of U.S. News and World Report has on its cover the statement "The Real Jesus." And then it goes on to say that new research shows that Jesus was more of a teacher than a savior. It turns out that the new research has to do with alternative Gospels that were written hundreds of years after the ones we have, Gospels that have been carefully studied for a long time now. I am not sure what is new in this research. I suppose what is new is the decision on the part of some that we don't really need a Savior, but a spiritual teacher would be OK.

         But God sent a Savior, because he knew all about the human problem of getting hooked, the problem of sin. He knew how getting hooked by sin causes people to struggle in life, and in the struggle to die. He knew how even the wise teachers have a difficult time understanding the struggle. The unhooked have a habit of misunderstanding the hooked. And of course the image breaks down at some point, because it turns out that we are all hooked. We all struggle. We all need a savior.

         You could talk about it in a different way, this problem of sin we all seem to have. There is a story about a young man who gets a job one summer selling books door to door. The books he is selling are about successful farming techniques. So he goes out into the country and goes farm to farm to sell these books. But the first farm he comes to, the farmer says "no thanks." This puzzles the young salesman. "Why wouldn't you want to learn how to be a better farmer than you now are?" To which the farmer replied, "I already know how to be a better farmer than I am."

That is another way of describing the hook. It is not lack of intelligence or lack of education that gets us hooked. We already know how to be better people than we are. Our deepest need is not for a teacher. Our need is for a Savior.

         I gained a new insight into the Christmas story from a commentary by Joel Green. I like to learn something new about it each year. He said that the temple in Jerusalem had been regarded for many years as the place of meeting between the heavenly and the earthly, between the divine and the human. Examples of this would be the vision of God that Isaiah had in the temple. Or when the boy Samuel was in the temple and heard the voice of God calling to him. The temple is where you meet God, where God talks to you, where angels appear if they are gong to appear, where the glory of God will be found.

         But on this night the glory of God is not found in the temple, it is found on a farm, out where the sheep are. That is where the angels talk to the shepherds. These angels say to the shepherds, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord." And so the shepherds go to Bethlehem, not to Jerusalem. And they find the baby in a manger, not in the temple. This baby is the Savior, the gift of God. He is Emmanuel, "God with us."

         That is a new setting for God to meet with people; on a hillside, in a stable. Everything is not going to happen in the temple. Everything is not going to go by the book, by the approved ritual, in front of the proper people. If the angels meet with the shepherds on the hillside, and the Savior is found in a manger; then you might find God at work almost anywhere. You might say God is on the loose. He might appear on Golgotha, or the road to Damascus. He might interrupt your life, or most anyone's life, nearly anywhere. Because the gift of a Savior is for all people, everywhere.

         That is the message of Christmas. We do not have to go on a pilgrimage to a holy place. We do not have to find God in a spiritual place where the stars line up just right. But in the ordinary places of your life, in the stables of our lives, God meets us with a gift. God comes to our world with his love. God is present in Jesus Christ to save us. He understands the struggle of your life. He sees the cause that others do not understand. He knows what you need. The gift is a Savior. The Savior sets you free.

         Won't you receive the gift of God tonight? Won't you join the shepherds in glorifying and praising God?

         Amen.