The story is told about a small girl who in the stillness of the dark night called out in an emotional voice to the bedroom across the hallway, "Daddy, I'm scared!" The groggy father responded with, "Don't be afraid, Daddy's right across the hall." After a brief pause, the little voice called out again, "I'm still scared." The father, being a man of faith, quickly responded with this assurance, "You don't need to be afraid. God is with you. God loves you." This time the pause was longer, but eventually the little girl's voice carried across the hallway. "I don't care about God, Daddy. I want someone with skin on."

In an elementary way, isn't that what the Christmas story is all about? After thousands of years of being unsuccessful in being able to convince people that God really loved them, that God was with them in the darkness of sin, our Creator realized that the best way to demonstrate divine love for us was to send "someone with skin on." (1) In this way, God is with us, for we see and meet and experience God in Christ Jesus, God with skin on.

In the birth account from Matthew, Matthew is letting the reader know that at a particular time, in a particular place, in a particular way, in the life of a particular person, God intervened in history in order to accomplish the salvation of humanity, that God put on skin or flesh to become like us so that we could experience salvation and grace. Many citizens in this modern world have doubts about how God came to the world in the form of Jesus or even doubts about whether God has come at all in human form. I would advise us to be patient with such persons, because after all, even Joseph, the husband of Mary, had doubts about what God was doing through Mary his wife. If the earthly father of Jesus had his doubts, then modern doubters are in good company. We must allow God to work through unbelievers like the angel of old, so that they too, like Joseph, may come to be confirmed in the belief that God has come through the person Jesus to bring salvation into the world.

And that's what our proclamation needs to be: to share with others the story of God's gracious love that came into this world and our human existence in a unique way through Jesus to do what we could not do ourselves: to be saved. What Matthew wants us to realize and to accept is that this saving work in Jesus is divine intervention. This divine intervention has brought God among us in a very special way, through the one named Emmanuel, God with us.

I am sure that many of us have heard the old story of the birds on Christmas eve. It seems that there was a man who couldn't understand the mystery and wonder of God come among us in Christ Jesus, and so he just couldn't believe in Christ Jesus. To his modern and logical way of thinking, it just didn't make any sense. So on Christmas eve, as his wife and children prepared to go to church, he firmly and graciously refused to go with them and settled down in an easy chair by the warm fireplace to enjoy the peace and solitude. About the time his family left for church, it began to snow, and within minutes the snow began to increase in intensity as the wind began to blow and howl. The temperature began to drop quickly, and as he felt the chill, he put another log on the fire.

Suddenly he heard a noise at the window. Checking he found nothing. No sooner had he turned his back, than he heard another thud at the window. But when he turned to look, he once again saw nothing. He stood there staring out into the windy, cold storm, when all of a sudden, a small bird flew into the window. That's when he saw a flock of birds sitting in the tree near the house. He watched as another bird flew into the window, and then he realized that these birds must be cold and upon seeing the light and perhaps the warmth of the fire were trying to get in. They couldn't see the barrier of the window.

He began to have pity on the cold birds who were hurting themselves as they flew at the window. If only there were some way to help them. Then he thought of the small barn behind the house that they used for storage. It wasn't heated, but it would protect them from the wind and give them some warmth. He put on his coat and boots, went out the barn, opened the doors, and turned on the lights. But the birds didn't notice this new light. So he went to the tree and tried to shoo them towards the light of the barn. But no matter what he did to get their attention, they just didn't pay any attention to him and kept flying into the window. Frustrated, he didn't know what to do to help these poor shivering birds who might die from the cold. "If only I could be a bird," he thought, "perhaps I could lead them to the barn and safety."

It was then that he heard the church bells ring to announce that it was midnight and the birth of the Christ child. Suddenly he understood what Christmas was all about and who Jesus was and why he came, and he sank to his knees in the snow. God had become one of us to lead us toward the light and the warmth of divine love so that we might be saved from the dark cold of the world. God had intervened in a special way to bring salvation into the world wrapped in the skin of one we would recognize.

God had been with us, and God is still with us. But along with this divine intervention, Matthew wants us to know that Emmanuel, "God with us," is not some new innovation. God has always been with humanity and creation in spite of the fact that human beings have usually been rebellious or at the very least apathetic. All throughout scripture, writers and speakers reminded the people of God how God was with them and at work in their lives and in the life of the world. Repeatedly, God made promises of love and grace that would be fulfilled.

Finally, those promises were fulfilled. Matthew affirms that Jesus is the fulfillment of those centuries of promises. That's why the first 17 verses of Matthew recount Jesus' genealogy: to show that the hand of God had been involved in Israel's history and purpose, that God had been involved in the life and meaning of Israel, that the promises made in the past through these illustrious ancestors have now been fulfilled in Jesus the Christ.

And it is through this Jesus that God chooses to save humanity and the world. The world around us doesn't understand this, or if it does, chooses to reject our claim. God is in Christ, and it is only through Christ Jesus that anyone can be saved by God. If there are some here who do not believe or have not accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, you need to know that this is basic to our faith and our preaching. Salvation only comes through the Jesus who came to us as a baby that first Christmas eve, grew to be God's faithful servant, and died on a cross for our redemption and was resurrected into new life. There is no other way to experience the fullness of God's eternal grace except through Jesus the Christ.

Oh, I know the world around us has always tried to sell us a bill of goods, that Jesus wasn't real, that God's salvation wrapped in human form is a myth, that God has other ways to receive us into divine arms, that all religions not only offer but deliver the same hope. So what's the difference and why do I need to consider the gospel message?

One of the places that I enjoy going to is bookstores. I've never met a bookstore that I didn't like; I always leave with several books p. 4 - whether I need them or not. One of the sections in each bookstore that I always check out is the new age section. It's name continues to change, from occult to new age to speculative to metaphysical to whatever. I check it out because that's where a lot of people go to get their religious resources and it helps me as a religious leader to know what resources people are using for their faith. So let me put my evaluation of these books in simple language: it's all garbage that is written to make somebody rich, but too many people in this world treat this garbage as gospel fact. I've stood there and watched numbers of people seriously consider their claims and recommend them to their friends as life changing resources.

I pray that the people who attend church this morning are not misled by these outrageous and fraudulent claims. There is only one way to salvation, and all of the New Testament writers affirm that way: the way of Jesus, of God who was wrapped in skin so that God might be with us.

My friends, God is with us. And once again God calls us to receive divine love and grace into our lives. It begins with a baby born into a harsh world and it ends with a man crucified for our sins. The man that baby became died so that you and I might have life and life eternal. Consider once again this gift of God come to us so long ago, Jesus the Christ, who calls you now to accept and to live God's love and grace. Will you accept his invitation? Will you let God live with you?

(1) William Bausch, A World of Stories for Preachers and Teachers, (Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1998), p. 301.