Christmas Sermon
Delivered at Trinity Lutheran Church(https://trinitymerrill.com/) in Merrill, Wisconsin on Christmas Eve, 2025, by Reverend Jon Chapa
Grace mercy and peace be yours this day from God our Father from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It is wonderful and good to have you all here today on Christmas Eve as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. It certainly is exciting to have you all here and it’s a joyful time. It’s a wonderful time to have you all here because it’s a joyful occasion and many of you have been experiencing that joy for the last month or maybe even two. Maybe tonight you’ve already had some Christmas cookies that have been made, and perhaps you’ve had too many with all of them that have been made, maybe even more than any one person was meant to eat in one day or one sitting. It’s just such a wonderful and joyful time to have all those wonderful treats and goodies and cookies at this time of year. Not only that, it’s joyful to be getting time off from work. It is good have a few days off to spend with family and to celebrate together. It’s joyful to have that time off from work. It’s joyful to be together with family. Maybe some of you have relatives coming from near and far who you haven’t seen for maybe a couple months or even maybe a whole year. It’s a joyful time to get together at Christmas. We’ve been hearing that and experiencing that joy in the music that we’ve been listening to for the past month as well. Maybe even two for some of you who are listening to Christmas music back in November. There are so many things that point us to joy at this time of year in fact as I was just a couple of weeks ago driving to church I was listening to one of those songs on the radio. I think it was Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin singing and it went along the lines of “we wish you the merriest, the merriest, the happiest, merriest, the happiest, the happiest, the merriest, the merriest…” and on and on it went. Truth be told, I don’t really know how many more were after that. If you do have a count, let me know because I was genuinely curious how many times they say that we should be merry and wish us the happiest and most joyful time this year.
Christmas is a time of joy and there is certainly news of joy in our text today. Now in our text, Isaiah wasn’t eating as many Christmas cookies as he could fit into his stomach or listening to all those Christmas songs by Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra but his message was one of Joy. Isaiah was giving them a message of joy and hope for the future. He said, “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwell in a land of deep darkness on them has light shone.” Isaiah continues, “(Lord) you have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy and they rejoiced before you as with joy at the harvest.” Isaiah was looking forward to a time of joy. A time when a king would come. As he is looking ahead to this time, he gives the reasons for this joy. If you look in your bulletins at the beginning of verse 4, the beginning of verse 5, and the beginning of verse 6, you have the word “for” written there. In these three verses, Isaiah gives us three reasons for which Israel was to rejoice at the coming of their king. Take a look at the first reason in verse 4:
Rejoice, “for the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder the rod of his oppressor you have broken as on the day of Midian.”
The first thing that Isaiah wants them to be joyful for is that the rod of the oppressor will be broken. To understand what he means there, I want to take you back to this past Sunday. In last Sunday’s sermon, we heard about how Ahaz put his faith in a “golden calf”. More specifically, he put his faith in the treaties with the nations to keep him safe. The reason he did this was because, at the time Isaiah was writing this, what they were experiencing was the threat of the nation of Assyria. They were knocking on their front door, and God’s people were expecting them to coming in and bring war with them. The threat of invasion was very real for them. It was not necessarily a joyful situation, but it was a time of worry and concern. In the midst of that worry and concern, Isaiah is pointing them forward to a time of joy, when the yoke of the burden of this invading nation, the power of the rod of their oppressor, would be broken. The power of this nation that threatened them would be destroyed. But that was not the only reason for joy. Isaiah continues:
Rejoice, “for every foot of the trampling warrior in battle and tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire”
It was a time of joy because not only will their power be broken but all the carnage, all the wreckage, all the collateral damage that they would bring would be done away with one day. He was looking forward to a time of joy when every picture of warfare, all the weapons that reminded them of all the destruction and violence, all the leveled cities and smoldering piles of buildings and homes would all be gone. All the wreckage would be no more. Not only was he looking forward to a time when the power of evil and all it’s accomplishments would be broken, he was looking forward to a time when another power, another ruler, would take his place on the throne.
Rejoice, Isaiah says, “for unto us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father Prince of peace”
Isaiah was looking forward to a time of great joy even in the midst of a time of worry and uncertainty because a new king was coming. A Wonderful Counselor, one being called Mighty God who would bring victory for his people, whose reign would be everlasting, and who would bring peace during his reign. That was the promise of Jesus, the promise of the birth of our Savior which we remember and we celebrate this night.
So, how do you hear that good news? For Isaiah’s news is good news for you too. But how do you hear it today? I think sometimes we hear it like Henry Longfellow heard it. Maybe a lot of you have heard of him, but for those of you who might not have, he was a poet who wrote many poems during the civil war. There was one poem in particular that he wrote on Christmas Day in 1863 called Christmas Bells and it went like this:
“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
their old familiar Carol’s play and
wild and sweet
the words repeat
of peace on earth goodwill to men
And thought of how as the day had come
the bell towers of all christendom
had rolled along
the unbroken song
of peace on earth will to men”
Henry Longfellow felt the joy of Christmas in hearing the songs on the bells of all the churches throughout his time. But when he wrote this, it was in the middle of the Civil War. As you continue reading this poem, if you haven’t read it before, he talks about the voices of anger that soon came when night turned to day and the fire of cannons that shook the foundations of homes and the earth beneath his feet. He gets to the point where he writes this in the second to last stanza:
“And in despair I bowed my head,
‘there is no peace on earth.’ I said
for hate is strong
and mocks the song
of peace on earth goodwill to men”
While this is a time of great joy, while we love gathering together with family and enjoying all these treats and goodies and the gifts that we receive and the time off that we have celebrating our Savior, yet sometimes, even in the midst of that joy, we still feel the wreckage of sin in our life. Maybe everything is even going right on Christmas Day. The drive was just fine, there was no blizzard, no ice on the roads, you got there perfectly, and everything was going great. And yet, the collateral damage caused by sin resurfaces in our life. Maybe the emotional wreckage of the loss of a loved one comes back during this time of year. Maybe you are estranged from a family member. Maybe you are trying to handle the wreckage of depression or loneliness. Maybe difficulties or struggles we had in years past, or whatever else it might be, and sometimes even in the midst of the joy that we celebrate on Christmas, and rightly so, the wreckage of sin and sins past sneaks in and tries to undermine that joy that we have. Maybe in our own despair we bow our own heads when we think about that sin that mocks the song of joy on Christmas, of peace on earth goodwill to men.
But that’s not where Longfellow finished his poem. There was one stanza left at the end. As he sat there in despair of all this wreckage of sin that he saw around him, he said this:
“Then peeled the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead nor doth he sleep
but wrong shall fail
the right prevail
with peace on earth goodwill to men”
The reason those words are so powerful is because of Christ’s birth at Christmas. Though in this time of joy we feel sometimes the wreckage of sin that seeps its way into our lives, yet we remember because of Christ’s birth, it brings about the beginning of the end of that wreckage of sin. The darkness and warfare of sin that we experience in our life, either today or from days past, is coming to an end. Because Christ our king came. In fact, he came born as a baby in a Manger. He fulfilled those things which Isaiah talked about. Christ broke the power of sin just as Isaiah prophesied that the yoke of burden would be broken. Christ came and by his life, his death, and his resurrection, he has broken the power of sin. That was the mission that this king was born and came to accomplish. Not only that, he is now risen and ascended and reigning on high as our Lord, our Wonderful Counselor, Our Mighty God ruling victoriously forever and ever bringing us peace with God. Not only that, Christ will fulfill our final reason for joy, that every boot and trampling of trampling warrior, every garment rolled in blood, everything of the wreckage of sin that we see and experience in our lives, that creeps its way into different moments, Christ promised to bring an end to it all when he comes again as king to reign forever. This all began the night he came down to earth, born as a humble baby in a manger. And it will be completed when he comes again.
So as we await that day, as we await that day when our king comes once and for all to remove all the wreckage of sin and to establish his reign of peace forever, we wait with joy. Joy knowing that sins power is broken. Joy in knowing that our Lord is reigning and is coming, knowing that he is the reason for our joy. So as you go about your Christmas, as you live in the joy of this time, as you continue to maybe wrestle with the reality of the wreckage of sin, may you remember this last stanza of Christmas Bells, but with a slight change.
“May the peels of joy ring loud and deep
that God is not dead nor doth he sleep
sins power will fail
God’s love prevail
with peace on earth goodwill to men”
Amen.
And now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus as we will wait for him for his coming as our king, Amen.