Merry Christmas! Tonight’s Christmas Eve sermon focuses on the message of good news of great joy for all the people which the angels gave to the shepherds.
But what if you don’t feel great joy this Christmas? What if not everything feels merry and bright for you right now? Perhaps you are exactly who this news is for.
Tonight’s Scripture reading is Luke 2:1-20.
Here’s the video livestream of the service from Living Hope and the sermon podcast audio:
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Two days ago, on Monday morning, I came into my office and read a lovely little daily Advent devotional email, which began with this sentence: “Whatever you’ve done for this holiday, consider it enough…you’ve done what you were able to do…show yourself grace and wisdom and say, ‘It is enough.’” (From Loyola Press’ Gifts of Advent email devotion for Monday, December 22, 2025, quoting Simple Advent: Simple Celebrations by Vinita Hampton Wright)
Siblings in Christ, this nice, well-intentioned devotion was not true. I had not yet done nearly enough by Monday to be ready for Christmas. For example: Writing this sermon.
But, I appreciate the author’s intention. There is a lot of pressure around Christmas.
I don’t just mean for the pastor or church musicians or for Tom / Joe to change the slides at exactly the right time; I mean we put a lot of weight on having the perfect Christmas, creating those memories to treasure.
My kids are now both old enough to remember what we’ve done at previous Christmases, and they expect the same things to happen again. I’ve learned this year it’s surprisingly easy to accidentally start a sacred family Christmas tradition.
If you go shopping, or watch Christmas movies, you’ll hear how this is the “Hap-happiest time of the year.” And the implication is that if you’re not feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, if you don’t find yourself sitting together drinking hot cocoa with all your family around the fireplace, you’re doing something wrong.
Never mind that our house doesn’t have a fireplace, and I’m the only one in my family who even likes hot cocoa.
In the last few years, I’ve noticed more articles, memes, even songs pushing back against this idea that Christmas has to be this amazing time of comfort and joy, pushing back against the demand for holiday spirit.
That pushback has resonated with me a little more this year. I’m not exactly sure why, but it might be because Christin and I each have a grandmother on hospice care right now.
I’m always aware there are people for whom this is the first holiday without a loved one. There are newly empty seats at the table. I heard a song last week by Tasha Layton talking about how “everybody’s saying ‘Merry Christmas.’ Everybody’s smiling, singing happy songs. But this December your world is unravelling and you don’t feel like singing alone.” Maybe that’s true for you tonight.
And for some of us, maybe you’re not grieving, maybe right now is part of your best Christmas ever. Maybe this Christmas is the good old days you’ll look back on years from now. Embrace it!
But either way, I don’t think it’s helpful or realistic to just stand here and tell you to cheer up and be merry. I’m not going to tell you Christmas makes everything better, or demand like Clark Griswold that “nobody walk out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas…and we’re going to have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny Kaye.”
Christmas Vacation is as close to a traditional Christmas movie as we have in our house, but the whole point is that things don’t always go according to plan, that Christmas doesn’t live up to our expectations.
So no pressure if not everything feels merry and bright right now, if you’re not overcome with awe and wonder by some people lighting some candles and singing a song.
But at the same time, it’s worth remembering why jolly hope and love and peace and all that are connected to Christmas.
It’s not only because of nostalgic memories of family gatherings at crowded tables. I have some of those Norman Rockwell memories growing up Christmas at my grandparents’ sitting around the fireplace opening presents. (Their house actually had a fireplace.) I’m grateful for those memories, I know not everyone has them and it’s ok if you don’t.
The wonder, the joy of Christmas are not about memories, but about a promise. Not about the style of our celebration or even about whether or not we’re home for the holidays. None of that is the point.
The point is what the angel announced to the shepherds. A child has been born, who is the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord. God has come to us.
God has chosen to enter into our world, not because it’s so warm and peaceful and happy and joyful, but precisely because it is broken. Because not all is right with the world.
Tradition and nostalgia and not disappointing in-laws by skipping Christmas church all aside, we are here tonight to celebrate a promise, a hope born in Bethlehem. God has come to redeem the world.
Christmas is the beginning of the story, the first act of the glorious drama of God’s kingdom coming, the dawn breaking. In God’s kingdom there is no more crying or weeping, no more pain or suffering, there is only peace and justice and love.
Glad tidings! God is bringing that kingdom to earth.
It might sound sappy, it might sound hopelessly simplistic, but Christmas is good news. Jesus’ birth brings comfort and joy. Our eternal hope is found in this child. My prayer is for you to know that hope, the promise found in Jesus, for you to know this baby is born because of God’s love for you.
Of course, you have a choice in how you respond to this story. I’ve been thinking this year about the shepherds in the story, these third-shift workers out in the fields. They weren’t expecting something dramatic to happen. They weren’t looking for the world to change.
They were just going about their business, keeping watch over their flock by night, when the angels showed up to dramatically tell them what’s happening in town.
I’ve been struck by a line I read in a newspaper editorial suggesting, “Maybe some of the shepherds saw the angelic choirs and just went back to sleep.”
We assume this moment was so awe-inspiring that they couldn’t help running off to Bethlehem to find the child and worship, but what if they didn’t all go? There are good reasons to doubt. Maybe tonight this story doesn’t move you to joyful praise.
Perhaps you feel like you’ve outgrown this story, lost your sense of Christmas wonder. Perhaps this idea of God born as a baby feels like wish fulfillment. Maybe you’re tired of the commercialization, the commodification of holiday cheer. Perhaps you’re overwhelmed with everything going on in the world right now, worrying about family or neighbors, unsure what 2026 will bring.
But there’s a reason we’re still telling this story 2,000 years later. There’s a reason we claim this story as good news, as a source of comfort and joy.
For family members in hospice, for the crash from the post-Christmas sugar high when vacation’s over, there is peace and hope in this story. Wonder might fade, but the promise is still there.
If you’re feeling pressured today, or even a bit cynical, like a shepherd who doesn’t want to run off to the stable, like the angels’ claim is too good to be true, you are exactly who this news is for.
Whether or not you choose to embrace the wonder, whether or not you feel Christmasy tonight, the good news is still true: This baby is born for you.
We celebrate, for God has come to be with us. May we join the shepherds in their worship. Amen
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