"In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David."

"You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

 

            Hope comes in three sizes: short-term, long-term and eternal. You can tell I have been Christmas shopping. The good news is that when I left the mall last week I said, "Farewell, mall, see you in six months or so."

            Short-term hope is when we look forward to an event that is coming soon. We are preparing for it. We hope for a nice Christmas. So in the Psalms and prophecies we have been reading, we have picked up the short-term hope of Israel: "Lord, please do something about our enemies."

            Long-term hope is something we long for perhaps all our days, or at least for years. A young person hopes to have a good life and defines that in terms of values and what is truly important. So we read last week of Mary and her hope for the Kingdom of God to come so that the hungry would be fed and the humble lifted up.

            Eternal hope is salvation, eternal life, the forgiveness of sin. It is what we look forward to even beyond our own death. What we see today is that true hope requires love. Without love, hope can become self-serving or consumer-focused. It becomes more a matter of wishes and desires. But when love is present in our hope, then hope is transformed into our faith in God's future.

            I remember a day some years ago. I was on my way to a burial service. The memorial service had been a week or so earlier for some reason. The day was cold and dark, with a pelting rain and wind. I had waited until the last minute, just because the weather was so unpleasant. Then, as I approached the gravesite, I saw the widow of the deceased man, and she was alone, standing by the grave in the rain, cold and forlorn. And I felt deeply sorry, that she seemed to be a person alone and without hope. I read the words of life eternal, and prayed for God's peace. But I knew that the only thing that would be able to bring her to hope would be to experience love, the love of God.

            I think that perhaps God sees us that way. The human condition is so difficult, and we come to places where we feel alone, and lost, trapped in sin, cold, and feeling without hope. God acts with love, sending his only son into our world and into our lives that we might have hope, that we might be saved.

            So Luke tells the story of Christ's birth. The angel Gabriel speaks to Mary in Nazareth and tells her that she will give birth to a son, who will be great, the Son of the Most High and the Son of David. He will be both King and also Lord, both human and divine.

            There is in this announcement a long-term hope. Mary's son will be like David, and the people have been waiting for a king like David for many years.

            There is also in this announcement an eternal hope. Jesus is the Son of God. In the Gospel of John we read that "the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." The hope that Jesus brings to the world is that of salvation. Jesus is the Savior. The angels say to the shepherds, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord."

            John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

            The hope we have in Christ is that of salvation, of eternal life. And that hope comes from the love of God for the people of the world.

            How is it, then, that the birth of Jesus expresses the love of God?

            We go back to the picture of the widow in the cemetery. When people look at their circumstances, when they really look deeply at their lives, recognizing their sin, they do not see hope. But it is the love of God that moves us to hope. The love of God was in the mind of God from the creation. The love of God takes time, and it is a matter of timing – Christ came in the fullness of time.             The love of God comes to us as a gift, it is grace and not of our making or earning. The love of God truly touches us, it is not an abstract idea, it is a real person. Love is born into this world in Jesus. The love of God understands us, for Jesus was tempted just as we are, yet without sinning. The love of God shares our grief, for surely he carries our sorrows. The love of God lays down his life for us. The love of God is victorious. He is risen.      

            In the Gospel of Luke we see that the story of Jesus' birth is regal. His birth is announced by angels, and proclaimed in the language of kingship:

"The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

            But when we read the whole Gospel, we discover that Jesus does not in fact live like a king, with wealth and honor and privilege. He does not rule over people or sit on a throne or reside in a palace or command and army. In some ways he does not seem like a king at all.

            Yet we also discover that Jesus does what ordinary kings cannot do. Jesus forgives people their sins. He heals people, gives sight to the blind and makes the lame walk. Jesus shows people the Father, teaches them how to pray, tells them about God's kingdom. Jesus gives his life as a ransom for many, and is victorious over sin, death and the devil. All of this comes from the love of God for the world. God loves the world, and God gave his son. He is the king, the Messiah, and yet not like other kings.

            So why is King David so important in the telling of the story?

            When we take the time to read the story of David in the Old Testament, as the men's Bible study recently did, we discover that he is not as impressive or holy or righteous as we would like him to be. There is his sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and the cover-up murder of her husband Uriah; but there is also a pattern of David neglecting his family, of acting out of fear, and of avoiding problems. He is to be sure a great warrior, and he built the nation and protected the people. He acted justly and honestly and had a heart for God. But you do not find the Messiah in David's human character. Neither do you find in the line of David, his descendents, the moral character and spiritual strength of the Messiah. It is the Lord's love and faithfulness that carries the promises of God through the years, not human achievement.

            But the hope for a Messiah like David is always for one who is greater.

We hope for a Messiah who is closer to God than David was, one who through prayer and doing God's will stayed always close to the father, in love.

We hope for a Messiah who is able also to live closer to people, in holiness and truth, both in times of conflict and in times of blessing and healing.

            We hope for a Messiah who is without sin, and yet loves sinners and is their friend.

            We hope for a Messiah who has a deeper love for people and is able to save.

            If our hope is simply for another David, then we will be disappointed, for David falls short. He may be a warrior who can defeat our enemies. He most likely would overlook our sin and ignore our failures.

            To such a king I would give only partial commitment. I might be tempted to live a double life, acting one way on Sunday and another way on Saturday. I might be tempted with such a king to serve with a kind of half heartedness.

            So, why is David so important? I think it is because in his heart he clearly points to a king that is greater. His story leads us to a greater hope.

            If our hope is greater, if it is in Jesus the king, then we are called to open our hearts to all that he is, and to allow him to do all he is able to do for us.

            If our hope is in Jesus, then we will allow him to heal us, we will confess, "Yes, I need to be healed, for there is something broken in me."

            If our hope is in Jesus, then we will ask him to forgive our sin.

            If our hope is in Jesus, we will allow him to fully save us and we will walk away from temptation to the enslaving sins.

            We will ask Jesus to renew our thinking.

            We will ask him to use us fully in his service.

            Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Let us wholly lean on Jesus' name. He is the Messiah, the King, the Son of God, and our Savior.

            Amen.