Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:1)

During the reign of Augustus Caesar, the Hebrew people were in a high degree of expectation for a Messiah as they had been for the last thousand years. Strangely, this expectation was so rooted in the Jewish mind that it rubbed off on the entire world. Times had become so degenerate that the entire Roman Empire looked to the coming of a Saviour who would rescue that era from its depravity. The Wise Men were Gentiles, also seeking that Saviour; but the Jews were looking for a certain person to be born among them whom God would use to deliver Israel from bondage to pagan Rome. The Messiah, it was thought would be like Moses almost fifteen hundred years before...when God redeemed Israel from pharaoh. In the Old Testament, this Saviour is called Messiah: in the New Testament, He is Christ. Both signify one who is anointed.

Jewish History tells us every Israelite woman cherished in her heart the hope that she might become the mother of the Messiah. According to prophecy, he would be the first-born son, a perfect physical specimen without blemish, and he would subdue all nations. This old tradition lived in the hearts of each young woman of Israel who longed that their own first-born son might be the God-promised liberator who would ransom Israel. But, there were other traditions involving the Messiah. The Hebrew prophets testified that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, He would be born of a virgin, He would be the suffering servant who would take upon Himself the sins of the world...bringing peace to human hearts.

The Prophet Malachi, inspired by the Holy Spirit, foretold that Elijah, who had been assumed into heaven, never tasting death, would return to announce the coming of the Messiah. Even today among Orthodox Jews at the season of the Passover, when the family sits down to eat Seder, the ceremonial family Passover, Jews leave a chair and place setting near the door...to welcome Elijah should he return as herald of the Messiah. Throughout Jewish history, the expectation of the return of Elijah is to be found in rabbinical commentary as the first sign of the Messiah.

Moses had said that in years to come there would arise a prophet like himself. So, when the angel came to Mary and said, "Thou art highly favored... blessed art thou among women," Mary might have been aware that she was to be the chosen instrument of God's grace among women. St. Luke gives a vivid first-person testimony, "And when she saw the angel she was greatly troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this might be." And the angel said unto her, "Fear not Mary; for thou hast found favor with God." The promise to David that his house was to rule forever was now to be brought to fulfillment beginning with the faith and obedience on one young woman. Mary was a direct descendent of David; and the announcement of the angel aroused a grave question in Mary's mind, and she asked, "How shall this be seeing I know not a man?" The angel replied, "With God all things are possible." This is a profound statement which every Christian must ponder in the heart. The truth is that either we accept this statement or we don't. There is no alternative. The Creeds say it is a must. We do not have a choice in the matter...if we did...then there would be no Christians, just a do-it-yourself religion, devoid of grace. Christians are ruled by the belief that with God all things are possible.

While reason has a proper place in the Christian faith, Christianity is founded upon faith, which must precede reason.

Since we were not present to witness the Nativity, then all we can do is believe the words of the early Church Fathers who believed the Scriptural creed that "God is truth." Were these men of God such fabricators that they could perpetuate a fraud for two thousand years? Truly, the Scripture hangs on this faith, "With God all things are possible." The Bible as God's truth, bore witness that God had miraculously entered human history to save Israel innumerable times in ages past; and now in this age of Roman rule, He had come again to save His chosen people.

We, as Christians, find the real meaning in life through our belief, our trust, our faith that God's promises are true. He did promise that Christ would be born in Bethlehem of a virgin mother...that a brilliant light would guide the way to Him, that He would heal the lame, the halt, the deaf and the blind. That He would die on a Cross for the sins of man. We confess all this about Christ, and we witness that hundreds of other prophecies of the Bible are true because God said it was true in His written word...Holy Scripture.

It was absolutely necessary that the Messiah be born of a virgin because Jesus is a New Creation, as Adam was a new creation; born of the clay of the earth. Adam was formed from the earth and must return to the earth. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Christ, born of the Holy Spirit and an earthly mother, a union of the Spiritual and earthly, the carnal had a human body that must die, for as Adam, all men must die; but His spiritual body must rise to eternal life in the Spirit. Man is both carnal and spiritual so it was necessary that God come into the world to regenerate all men both in the life of the flesh and in the life of the Spirit. The world needed a new beginning. Christ, being born of the Spirit is Lord and Giver of Life, the New Adam, born of purity as God demands. Man is earthly and heavenly and both natures are fully present in Christ. "Righteousness and peace have kissed each other" writes David, the psalmist.

Man always needs to discover that there is a spiritual side of life that is eternal, rather than just a physical life that is subject to death and decay. If there is a part of us that will live forever, then death is not the end and there is eternal hope. We desperately need to know there is hope...if there is no hope, then life is not worth living. Jesus said, "If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things." -^ If men question the virgin birth, how can a person be expected to believe the spiritual side of human life?

Christ came asking men to accept the idea of the reality of another world outside the physical world in which we live. We live in a world we can see, but the message of Scripture is there is another world we can't see. Both worlds are real. Both worlds were made by God and are under His control, but the way things occur in one is different from the manner in which they happen in the other. In this world men dominate; in the other, God is King and He rules.

How do we know this heavenly world is there? Perhaps we know because it keeps intruding into our physical life. It is betrayed by a feeling of restlessness in our soul. We want something but don't know what it is. There is a yearning, a craving like hunger, but gorging ourselves will not satisfy the gnawing emptiness. St. Augustine wrote of God: "Our souls are restless until they find their rest in Thee." Strong drink will not numb the sensation nor quiet the jangled apprehensiveness that wears away at our vitality. Modern men call it stress; St. Paul calls it "beating the wind." Christians call the absence of stress in life...God's peace.

The Christ Child came this night two thousand years ago to let us in on the eternal secret: Despite all the challenges of life, in Christ there is hope. What must men do to receive this hope and be complete? Christ stands at the door and knocks. Scripture urges us to invite the Child to come in, and the Babe will share with us His plan of eternal salvation if we believe. If we have the belief of those shepherds watching over their sheep by night...we along with those shepherds may still hear the angelic hosts singing the words to the melody that echoes down the halls of eternity. .. lyrics of joy and gladness and peace that still the raging storm within tormented lives ...bringing not the cessation of the whine of missile fire, but the peace that passeth all understanding...God's peace...sung by a multitude of the heavenly chorus:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.