The following sermon entitled Jesus was presented by Mr. Howe at the 11 o'clock service on Christmas Eve. All during Advent this year, we've been considering the characters in the Christmas drama. The various people who have a part to play in the story that finally comes to its culmination and in another sense to its real beginning on Christmas Day. At this point we've met almost all the members of the cast, and the star is about to make his appearance.

The stage is set. The audience is ready. The prophecies have been fulfilled.

The forerunner has arrived just a little bit before Jesus himself. And scripture says it's the fullness of time. It's a marvelous phrase.

It's the fullness of time. as if time itself had to be filled up before this great event could take place. That's true spiritually.

It's also true politically. I don't know if you ever stopped to think about the fact that this is the first time in human history when all the known world is ruled by a single government and speaks a single language. Just think of what that does in terms of making a worldwide community for a worldwide savior.

At this point in history, roads connect every corner of the Roman Empire. Some of them still in existence, still being used today. Incredible roads, transportation available that was never there before.

Soldiers are stationed in the remotest outposts, ready to impose the will of the emperor, should it ever be questioned. For the most part, it wasn't. They knew who was boss. His power was unparalleled in history up to that point.

The fullness of time. Think about it. What an ideal situation for the Son of God to come into with pomp and splendor, with the angelic host in the army of God, displace that foolish Augustus Caesar with his mad pretensions of divinity, occupy the seat of power in Rome, and affect God's rule throughout the whole earth.

But something's wrong. Some kind of a mistake. A sheep cave.

in Bethlehem. A manger, it says here. No crib for his bed.

There's some terrible mistake going on. This is ludicrous when you stop to think about it. The children of servants are treated better than this.

You're telling me that the king of kings, the incarnate son of the ruler of the universe, the one who holds the stars in the palm of his hand, very God of very God, is born in a stable. he's got no doctors no nurses he's got no hospital he's got no midwives no attendants no anesthetic for his mother he's got no heat no light no hot water no room in the inn of course there was room in the inn there was all the room in the inn only nobody was willing to give it up Martin Luther said don't let me hear any of you saying Oh, if only I'd have been there. I'd have given up my room for the baby.

I'd have helped him. He says, you know who he turned out to be. If you really want to serve him, then do it for your neighbor who is Christ in your midst.

Jesus Christ could have visited us with all the might and power and pomp and circumstance and splendor and glory of his Father. He could have imposed his will upon us and in an instant made the world right. No more crime, no more war, no more graft, no more corruption, no more sin, no more inequity.

He could have done that. The only problem is no more people. Because when you impose right on people so that they have no alternative, right ceases to mean anything.

If you have to do the right thing and you have no choice in the matter, what does it mean that you did right? You may be a perfect robot, an automaton, a marionette, but you're no longer a human being. And God didn't want a perfectly oiled machine.

He wanted people whose choices mean something. People who make real decisions with real consequences. And so I want to suggest to you that the real wonder of the Christmas story is that God gave himself to the world rather than imposed himself on it.

Make no mistake about it. If this is less than God, who arrived in that sheep cave, who lies there as a helpless little infant in a borrowed donkey bin, if this is less than God, then this is not a pretty story. This is a ludicrous, cruel, ugly, blasphemous joke.

but if it is God then it's a God who utterly surprises us because we thought we wanted him to be God and he comes as a little baby doesn't impose himself on anybody because the wonder of Christmas is that he wanted to make a present of himself. And you see, this present, like any present, needs not only to be offered, but it needs to be accepted. It needs to be received.

And that's a free choice that we make in response to him. Let me put it to you this way. If I were in a position, which I assure you I'm not, to offer you a million dollars tonight, that wouldn't be yours until you accepted it from me.

Some years ago, this is a true story, some years ago, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune got interested in the fact that there was money lying around in unclaimed bank accounts all over the country. And as a matter of fact, he discovered that at least at that particular point in time, the total of all those bank accounts was more than the national debt. Just lying there earning interest, nobody claiming it.

And so he did some investigative research and ended up running a story on this. And they listed the names of local people in the Chicago area who had money unclaimed in bank accounts. And one fellow was reading the paper and he recognized the name of his friend.

And he said, look at this. You've apparently got a tremendous bank account. You just have to go down to the bank and claim it.

the friend in question was a pauper on Chicago's skid row. He said, I'm not going down to the bank. I've stood in too many lines for too many handouts and have been made a fool of too many times.

This is just one more gimmick. It's not me. Thank you very much.

His friend called up the reporter. He said, can you tell me anything more about it? He began to accumulate some evidence, some facts on the story, and he became more and more convinced that, yes, as a matter of fact, that was his friend.

he tried to convince him and the man wouldn't be convinced so he had the reporter call him the reporter tried to convince him couldn't convince him called the city desk manager he couldn't convince him called the editor of the Tribune he couldn't convince him and they finally took it to Mayor Daley he could convince him Mayor Daley sent a limousine down to Skid Row picked up the guy and took him to the bank in question and sure enough with very little checking they proved that it was indeed that man and he was a millionaire five times over. Do you get the point? Yet another friend of his had named him in the will and the money had accumulated for over 20 years and he was a millionaire five times over living like a pauper.

A stumble bomb on Skid Row. It was his, but it wasn't his until he went down and accepted it and it became his. I wonder how he felt about the friend who was so persistent in persuading him there's an inheritance and your name is on it.

You ought to feel exactly that way me, because I'm here to tell you there is a Christmas inheritance and your name is on it. But you've got to accept it. You've got to receive it, or it's not yours.

God made a present of himself. He came into this world not in irresistible splendor, but in unbelievable humility. and you have to look very closely to see who he is.

It looks just like an ordinary baby. Look a little bit more closely, friends. Look at what that baby grew up to say, to do, to be.

If you come to the conclusion that this is, in fact, who he claims to be, God in our midst, then understand the invitation that he gives to you. Receive me, he says, and in the bargain, your sins are forgiven life eternal you become a member of the family of God it's the greatest Christmas present the world has ever known the son of God became a man so that men might become the sons of God will you receive the present will you accept him will you know him as your savior as your lord and as your elder brother. Let's bow our heads.

Father, your word says to us that as many as received this Jesus Christ, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God. we come here tonight to celebrate to celebrate the unbelievable gift of yourself and we would receive that gift we would be born into your family we would come to know you more and more fully and we would say thank you for so loving us in his name Amen