Acts 10:34   Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.’

Like most Jews of his time, the Apostle Peter grew up not fully comprehending God’s take on favoritism. God revealed his plan of salvation to the Jews. He gave his word to the Jews. The Savior of the world was born a Jew. Certainly, it seemed, the Jews must enjoy most favored nation status with heaven. Then God sent Peter to the home of a believing Roman soldier named Cornelius

There are prominent Gentile believers in the Old Testament. Some of them are even included in Jesus’ family tree. The prophets predicted large numbers of non-Jews drawn by God to the Savior’s glory. Over and over the Lord told the Jews that there was nothing better about them. But he had to use some people or another to accomplish his purposes, and they were the ones he chose. Their qualifications, however, were exactly the same as everyone else: thoroughly corrupted sinners in desperate need of a Savior.

Do we get it? Martin Luther King Jr. is credited with being the first to make the observation, “…the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” That has changed little since he made this observation. Prejudiced ideas about race and nationality are not always to blame. Cultural preferences and personal comfort are often bigger factors in church choice than false ideas about the kind of people God wants for himself. But we need to police ourselves for racist prejudices.

Still, we are not immune to false ideas about the kinds of people God wants. God wants to save Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Independents equally as much as each other. None of them is easier or harder to save, despite what you might hear from certain partisans. All of them need Jesus. Medieval Catholicism made it seem as though God preferred single, celibate people to married people. Today the churches may have turned that around and give the opposite impression with all their talk of family this and family that. God favors neither and desires all, because he doesn’t play favorites. We are opposing his saving plans if we do.

This does not mean that God is a universalist. It does mean the qualifications are the same for everyone–sinners who need a Savior. God wants all to be saved. He calls all to the same salvation. But Peter says more than, “he accepts men from every nation.” He “accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” To fear God is not to be terrified of him. It is to recognize God’s greatness, his “bigness.” It is the respect that comes from recognizing that God is superior to everyone and everything in every way.

Such fear or respect is a natural and necessary feature of our faith. In his book Love Must Be Tough, James Dobson points out that respect is necessary for a successful married relationship. You won’t love someone, and you can’t trust someone, that you don’t respect. Ponder that for a few moments, and I’m sure that you’ll come to the same conclusion. This applies to our relationship with God as well. We won’t love or trust in him if we don’t respect him. It is interesting that Luther put these same three concepts together when he wrote his explanation of the first commandment: we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Though not exactly the same as each other, these three things go together. Where you find one, you will find the others, too.

So even though Peter does not use the word “faith” or “believe,” he is in complete agreement with the conclusion of John 3:16, “…whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” Instead of mentioning faith itself, Peter presents the first fruits of faith–the attitudes and actions that show a living faith is in place. Believers– the kind of people who fear the true God, who offered his one and only Son as the sacrifice for sins; the kind of people who do what is right by repenting of their sins, trusting Jesus for their forgiveness, and responding with a life of love–are the kind of people God has accepted. He plays no favorites. He seeks all and receives those who come to him in faith.

Mark 9:33-37 “When he was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.’ He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.'”

You may know the name Robert Fulghum from his popular book Everything You Ever Needed to Know You Learned In Kindergarten.  It is filled with simple yet wise instruction.  Remember to say please and thank you.  Pick up after yourself if you make a mess.  Wait your turn in line.  Take a nap when you are tired. We need the book because as adults we don’t always practice these principles every kindergartener knows.

Jesus knew children had something to teach his disciples.  The men who followed him wanted to be the most powerful next to Jesus. They thought he was going to establish Israel as a powerful nation that would rule the world.  If Jesus had come to be that kind of a king, each one felt, “I want in on some of the action.”  They didn’t understand what he had come to earth for.

We are not so different.  Christians today can lose sight of what is really important in the church.  We get into arguments about official church policy or how the business part of the church should run.  We become skilled at playing church politics.  Egos are injured and feelings are hurt over what color paint to use or what kind of cookies to serve. We want to get our way.

The Master Teacher had a masterful way to demonstrate real greatness. He had a child stand in the middle of them. Then he invited the little one to come to him and crawl up into his lap.  For the proud men standing in front of Jesus, this was impossible.  But they had in front of them a tender illustration of what true greatness in the Kingdom of God is.  Here was this child, bringing no achievements or merits of its own, simply nestled in the safety of its Savior’s arms. This was grace. There is nothing greater than to be the recipient of the loving gifts Jesus came to give. There is no promotion, no “up,” from forgiven, redeemed, deeply loved children of God.

Wouldn’t that be real greatness for us, too– not to have power or authority, but to have our Savior’s embrace?  Don’t overvalue power. Loving and serving the little children is worth far more. Being Jesus’ children is the greatest of all.

Matthew 2:1-2 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.’”

Almost every Christmas card with the manger scene on the front includes a particularly bright star hovering directly over the stable. Whether or not it was actually hovering over the stable that first Christmas night is more than this text says. We do know it appeared in the sky in such a way as to lead the Magi to Judea, and as far as the city of Jerusalem, in search of a new king.

Many people have tried to explain what this wonderful star was. Some suggest a comet. Others point to a conjunction of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. Still others have pointed to a super nova recorded by Chinese astronomers around 5 or 6 B.C. None of these naturalistic explanations seem to fit Matthew’s later description, in which the star leads the Magi from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, and then comes to a stop directly over the house in which Jesus’ family was living. For the moment it is best to set aside our cold, analytic investigation of the miracle. Let’s simply get lost in the wonder of what God was doing.

For that is what the star communicates to us today. As much as it served as a navigational tool to these men from the east, it preaches to us a sermon about the wonder of this child born in Bethlehem. I know of no other person in history whose birth was marked by such a unique, miraculous sign. It more than suggests; it screams that here we have no ordinary person. Here is someone whose greatness far excels that of any other human being. Here we find hints of his divinity. This child is so wonderful that there are things about him, and always will be, that surpass our ability to figure out. When we have given up trying to figure out everything about him, perhaps then we will be moved to bow down and worship him.

Doesn’t the presence of the Magi preach a similar message? Again, there is a sense of mystery that surrounds these visitors from the east. Who were they? Royal advisors and astronomers from Persia or Babylon? Members of the royal family of Yemen in Arabia, which is said to have practiced the Jewish faith at this time? And how did they know to look for a King of the Jews when this star appeared? Did they deduce this from Balaam’s prophecy about the star out of Jacob in Numbers 24? Had this been handed down to them from Daniel and the time of the Babylonian captivity? Did they receive some direct revelation from God? We have more questions than answers about the Magi and what prompted their visit.

But through these men, God helps us see that this is a child of wonder. No purely logical explanation accounts for this seemingly ordinary child’s ability to move non-Jews from far way to make a journey to come and find him, a journey which may have lasted years. Something wonderful about the child draws them.

That wonder, that miracle, repeats itself today. The gospel of God’s grace and forgiveness moves people around the globe to turn from the vices and the idols they so love to embrace this Jesus. His story, from manger to cross to empty tomb, keeps working the wonder of faith. While we have never seen the wonderful star or met the mysterious Magi, we do know the wonderful power of this child to draw hearts to himself.  By faith he has captured our own.

Philippians 1:21-23 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am going to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”

To die is gain. More and more people seem to agree with that statement. Terrorists routinely kill themselves along with their victims. Every few months some angry father or mother in a custody battle murders the children and then takes their own life. Death doesn’t seem to hold people in the fear it once did.

So long as they aren’t suffering intensely, life is going well, or there is the potential for it to get better, most people still prefer life. But for those coping with pain that can’t be relieved, or facing a future they fear, death seems to offer escape or relief.

A Christian has been given a unique take on life and death. Escape and relief are not what Paul means by “to die is gain.” Death doesn’t lead to nothing. It leads to something. It doesn’t just end something terrible. It begins something wonderful.

That may seem strange in light of the fact that God originally imposed death as part of the ultimate punishment for our sin. Its original purpose was not to give us something. It was to put us out of God’s presence forever.

Jesus changed all of that by dying instead of us. As our Savior, he was dying for us, in our place, when he gave up his life on the cross. His death served out the death penalty for our sins. It satisfied God’s justice and wiped our record completely clean–not only the felonies, but the misdemeanors and petty sins as well. As a result, God has nothing for which to be angry at us anymore, not even mildly irritated, and we have been reconciled.

Since death has been emptied of its original purpose, Jesus has invested it with a new one–it is the doorway to eternal life. His own resurrection from the dead assures us that death is not the end of life. It is the beginning of a new life. To die is gain. Death is not a bad choice when Jesus chooses it for me.

Author and motivational speaker Stephen Covey says that one of the secrets to success is to think “win-win.” It appears Paul thought of this long before. “To live is Christ, to die is gain.”

Joshua 1:9 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Like most little boys, I wanted to be more like my dad when I got big. That meant I wanted to be tall. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be skilled at making things and fixing things. Tall, strong, “handy”–those are all fine features, fine abilities and characteristics to have. But I don’t think that we would call them “virtues.” No one may be shooting for short, weak, and clumsy, but we don’t accuse people of indecency or godlessness if they turn out that way.

What about “brave”? What about “courage”? Does that make your list of virtues? If God commands it, can it be anything else? God’s words for Joshua as he entered the Promised Land were, “Be strong and courageous.” Was Joshua afraid? The Bible never says it in so many words, but three times in four verses the Lord gives this command. The third time he adds, “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged…” It seems something was going on inside the man.

Looking ahead, Joshua faced a mine field of big challenges and serious dangers. He was leading his nation into a foreign land as unwelcome guests. For the next 20 or 30 years he and his people were going to be at war. On Joshua’s side, the people lived in tents. They had limited weapons and military training. They were fewer in number. On the other side the people lived in walled cities and had regular armies. Joshua needed God’s encouragement for all the dangers and uncertainties that lay ahead of him.

We are standing at the border of a new year. What frightens you as you march forward? You don’t have to be a soldier anymore to be concerned about bombs and bullets. Terrorist attacks became so common this past year: Orlando, Dallas, Brussels, Nice, Berlin. Is it safe to go outside? Is it even safe to stay inside? “Be strong and courageous,” the Lord says. “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged…”

Our financial security seems so fragile at the year’s end. The stock market may be soaring, but other headlines portend possible problems ahead: “Higher Rents Push Up US Consumer Inflation,” “US Jobless Claims Rise to Six Month High,” “US Consumer Spending Slows in November on Weak Incomes.” Some predict 2017 will bring renewed prosperity. Others believe we are primed for an economic depression. Which will it be? “Be strong and courageous,” the Lord says. “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged…”

Why? “For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

You see, this “Be strong and courageous” issue is a moral issue and a faith issue, not just a psychological or emotional one. What are we saying about God and his promises when we trade “strong and courageous” for “weak and fearful”? Are we not, in effect, saying, “I don’t think you are really all that powerful. I don’t think you are really all that faithful about keeping your promises.”

Still God is here to bolster our strength and courage with his presence. At no time are we ever alone. Until I was three years old I dragged a little blanket with me wherever I went. One day I went to my parents and said, “Here, I’m big now. I don’t need this anymore.” Of course, the blanket never actually provided me any protections. It was just a comfortable feeling. You have more than an otherworldly security blanket or pacifier in God’s promise. Whether awake or asleep, healthy or sick, in danger or secure, we live every moment in the immediate presence of the Lord God who made our universe, gave us life, and is even now writing all the details of the story we are living. His presence provides more than a nice feeling of security. It is a real reason to be strong and courageous for whatever is waiting in the year ahead.

He is, after all, the Lord “your God.” Those are his words, not ours. He has promised himself to us in love and faithfulness. He is not going to rain his terrible judgements down on you like he did Israel’s enemies because he is the Lord your God. He gave up the life of his one and only Son to atone for the sins of the world. He has removed our every sin and cancelled all our debts to him. By giving us his word and revealing his love to you and me, he has called us to faith and adopted us as his own children. Now he is simply waiting for the day when he will bring each of his children home. “Be strong and courageous,” for the God who goes with you is on your side in every way.

John 1:14 “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Grace is a very special kind of love God has for us. It is not an “easy” love. Why wouldn’t I love my wife and my family? That is a relatively “easy” kind of love. They make my home a warm and pleasant place to live. They fill the house with laughter and comfort. Loving them is like riding a bicycle downhill. It happens all on its own. It would take effort to prevent it.

Why wouldn’t I love my car, that makes my life so easy, and gets me from point A to point B with almost no work at all? Why wouldn’t I love my house, which keeps me warm in the winter, and cool in the summer, and sheltered all year round? Why wouldn’t I love my clothes which can even create the illusion that I look better than I actually do?

But you know how quickly all of this can turn. Family members get under each other’s skin, and push each other’s buttons, and before you know it they are looking for ways to get out of the relationship. Our “stuff” wears out, and soon we are ready to junk it or trade it in for something newer and better. “Easy” love often doesn’t last very long.

Jesus loves the sinners, the people who have always brought him misery. “A friend of sinners,” they called him. He didn’t deny it. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He actually seeks them out, like the collector who is looking for some rare piece to purchase and to own.

He does more than desire them. He serves them. He saves them. It is his gift. It is why he became flesh and made his dwelling among us. He came to die for us. That was his mission, his purpose, his goal. It was not like it is with the soldiers, or the firefighters, who put themselves in danger to save others, and may even die in the process. Death is a hazard of their professions, but it isn’t their goal. Jesus loved us so much that he came with the intention to die in our place and free us from sins. That kind of love, the love that loves sinners, the love that dies to serve and save them, is the love we know as “grace.”

Jesus is full of that kind of grace. For him it’s not a passing fancy, and tomorrow he will come to his senses and realize that there is nothing it for him. He isn’t going to run out of patience pretty soon, and then look out for what he might do! Grace, this undeserved love, fills him. It is his standard operating procedure and always has been. It flows from his every word, his every action, in an unending supply. To know him is to know this love we know as “grace.”

In the Christmas gospel we get our first glimpse of this grace that will take him from lowly manger and smelly stable to a bloody cross and a borrowed grave. From here you can see his glory in the grace that will save your soul.

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

“You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” Jesus, however, did both. He chose to join the human race which already occupied this planet. He chose the very woman who would give him birth. It is a miracle that in Jesus, God became man. It is the glory of God that he did it in this humble way.

You and I would have started over, I believe. God made the first man out of the dust of the ground. There was plenty of dust left where that came from. Or he could have started by creating new and improved dust. At least then he wouldn’t have to be associated with the sketchy clan of ruffians and slackers who had made such a mess of earth’s neighborhood.

If he actually had to attach himself to this clan of humanity, and he did, at least we would have chosen a prominent family, one that could afford some of the things that make life a little easier and more pleasant. We would not have chosen a family that had managed to create its own riches to rags story, one that took itself from royalty to obscurity.

That’s not how we operate. We scratch to get ahead. We press for every advantage. Would you choose the broken down car when a better one was available for the same price? Would you pick the bruised and rotting fruits or vegetables at the grocery store? We look out for number one. We demand the best. Let’s be serious–like our first parents we aspire to be gods! And that is what got us into this mess of sin and unbelief and damnation in the first place.

Jesus got his flesh from the real human race. He adopted everything that goes along with being human. This time of year he caught colds, maybe even the flu. His nose ran, and his throat was so sore he could hardly swallow, and maybe a fever kept him home from synagogue school. Fatigue, pain, hunger, even death–he knew it all, with the single exception of sin.

The humility is easy to see–the stable, the manger, the humanity. But didn’t John write, “We have seen his glory…” Where do we see that?

Remember, Jesus’ story isn’t just the story of a poor boy who lived a special life. This is the Word made flesh, the eternal Son of God who existed before the world. This is the One and Only who came from the Father. This is your God who came to save you.

On this first page of John’s gospel, God lets us see what so many others can’t. There have always been two kinds of people. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, could meet Mary at the beginning of Mary’s pregnancy and know immediately that she was carrying her Lord and Savior. God revealed it to her, and by faith she received that revelation. The people of Bethlehem could meet Mary at the end of her pregnancy and sense no such thing about the baby she was carrying. The shepherds could look into the manger and recognize the baby as Christ, their Lord. Later the wise men visited the little boy and bowed down to worship their God. These all listened to what God had told them. King Herod saw in Jesus only a problem. You know the true identity of your infant God from his word. Most of our world stays home at Christmas not knowing, or not believing, in the One who makes the day special: God in the flesh, the One and Only who came from the Father, our Savior, Christ the Lord.

So this is the kind of God you have. He isn’t just the high and mighty King, untouchable and unapproachable in his glory. Because he loves you, he makes it possible for you to come close to him and talk to him as a friend. Because he loves you, he came close to you, and became one of you, clothed in human flesh and blood he would sacrifice for your sins. Still he lives among you in his word. Still he visits you in his supper with a promise of his grace. He makes his home with you, not as a visible resident of your city or neighborhood, but as the occupant of your very heart, the place he has made his temple by faith.

This is the kind of God I can trust. This is the kind of God I can love. This is the kind of God I can follow wherever he leads. And marveling at his humility on Christmas Day, understanding his identity revealed in his word, we can see his glory, too.

John 1:17 “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

I know a young man who would read our church’s devotional magazine, Meditations, and with each devotion he tried to find the “moral of the story,” the lesson meant to change your behavior. It was something of a revelation to him that sometimes when God speaks he isn’t trying to change your behavior. He just wants to tell you something about himself. John is telling us something similar about Jesus here. He came to give you more than rules.

Everyone knows the name of the most famous movie about Moses, the one starring Charlton Heston: The Ten Commandments. It’s no surprise, then, when John says the law was given through Moses. If you read the first five books of the Bible, the ones written by Moses, you find that there were more than ten commands God gave Moses. There were hundreds. They covered every facet of life. There were laws that governed what you ate, what kind of clothes you wore, how you worshiped, whom you married, how you conducted business, how you farmed, how you schooled your children, how you practiced hygiene, and even where and how you used the restroom. Hardly a moment went by in the lives of Old Testament believers when they weren’t consciously carrying out some rule, some command, some instruction Moses had given them.

The world didn’t need Jesus to come and bring more rules. It had more than it needed. Jesus actually rolled back many of the rules given by Moses by fulfilling them, which is why you don’t feel even a little guilty eating Christmas ham, or sitting in church on Sunday.

But didn’t Jesus give us new commandments about love, like “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself”? No that was Moses, too, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Jesus just brought this to people’s attention again. Didn’t Jesus give us something new when he taught us, “Love your enemies”? No, that’s also in Moses (Exodus 12:49), if you read the context of what he says about the commandments. Jesus just clarified things for a generation that had lost its way.

So why does John make a point of this? People have a tendency to think about religion, “Don’t bother me with theory and theology. Just get to the practical part. Tell me what I’m supposed to do.” But it so happens that the “theory and the theology” (which really involves no theory at all, but is all based on unchangeable facts God has revealed) is the main part. Without it, none of the practical stuff works. You can no more follow God’s rules and live a Christian life without understanding God and his love, than a doctor can perform surgery without studying anatomy, or prescribe medicines without knowing some chemistry, or a mechanic can fix your car without knowing how an internal combustion engine works, or your accountant can do your taxes without knowing a little something about math.

It’s not that Jesus is unconcerned about the rules, but he knows, better than we do, how miserably we fail to keep them. That is why he comes to give us something more than rules: “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Didn’t grace also exist before Jesus came? Didn’t the Lord describe himself this way to Moses: “The Lord, the Lord, the gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin”? Yes he did. But God never joined us in our world as a man before Jesus. God never fulfilled all the law’s demands as our substitute before Jesus. God never died in our place to pay for all our sins before Jesus. It wasn’t until Jesus came that we had the basis for our freedom from sin, and guilt, and fear, and legalism, and Satan, and death. These gifts, this grace and truth, came through Jesus Christ, and they are so much more than another set of rules.

Luke 1:28-29  “The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.”

God has given Mary an absolutely unique role among all the people who ever lived. Only one person could give birth to the Savior of the world and be his mother. This privilege is certainly a part of what the angel means when he says, “…you who are highly favored.”

But as far as God’s love and esteem for us are concerned, we have more in common with Mary than we have distinctions. “Highly favored” comes from the same Greek root which in other contexts gets translated “grace.” As with grace, there is implication here of something unmerited, undeserved, unearned. Mary was a sinner who did not deserve to have Jesus as her own son. God gave him to her as a gift. We are sinners who did not deserve to receive Jesus as our Savior. God gave him to us as a gift.

Have we lived with God’s high favor and grace for so long that we take it for granted, or worse yet, we begin to see it as an entitlement? Have we lost our sense of wonder at it because life under the grace of God is all we really remember? Maybe, like Mary, we don’t have a very interesting tale of darkness and sin to tell about in our past. We are not like David who was an adulterer and murder, or Paul who persecuted the church. We are kind of run-of-the-mill, boring sinners. We didn’t find Jesus after a life of violence, or crime, or drugs. Our teen rebellion was never much more than a bad attitude. We are guilty of irritating our spouses, not of cheating on them. We haven’t sold out our integrity in exchange for career success.

I have on my desk a book of prayers and devotions for pastors, and one of the prayers I return to from time to time asks God to trouble me. Lord, trouble me with the smallness of my work. Trouble me with my unholiness and my slowness to obey. Trouble me with the time I have wasted. Let me see my sin, even my boring, run-of-the-mill sin, for what it really is, not so that I will feel bad. Do it so that I can better appreciate the wonder of your grace and favor, that for me–even for me– you were willing to give up your only Son.