What does God want?

A Sermon preached on Christmas Day, December 25, at St. Augustine’s Wiesbaden

Isaiah 9: 2 – 7, Titus: 2: 11 – 14, Luke 2: 1 – 20

What does God want for Christmas? An omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being can ask for anything and everything. But it seems that most of all God wants things for us. Let’s look at today’s readings, they should give us a clue.

According to Isaiah, God is going to give a son who will be named “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” He will establish a kingdom of peace “and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.” (9:6-7) So God wants peace on earth, justice and righteousness, fair and equitable treatment for all and, as we know from other passages, particular care for those who are in need: the widow, orphan, and stranger; the unemployed, the single parent, the aged, the lonely, the homeless, the refugee. This is a consistent message throughout Scripture and so there can be no doubt that God wants this for and from us.

The Gospel passage is also about what God wants for us. According to Luke, the message of the angel of the Lord was “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (2:11) God is sending a Savior, a word we hear a lot in our Christmas carols. God is sending someone who will act for God: The Messiah or anointed one. God is sending someone with authority: The Lord. God is sending someone who can rescue us and who can liberate us, a Savior. This is what God also wants: that all people be saved. (1 Tim. 2:4)

But what does it mean to be saved, what do I have to be saved or liberated from? Paul’s letter to Titus helps answer those questions.

“The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” That grace, or gift, of God is Jesus. But Paul goes on to say that God’s grace is also “training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.” (2:11-12) So salvation is not just something that happens to us, but something we have to be trained, educated, and formed for. We need to be trained so, as we promise at Baptism, we can turn away from the things that are bad of us, both as individuals and as a society, and turn to the things that are good for us.

To renounce impiety or godlessness, is to renounce or reject the illusion of independence and self-reliance: that I can do things on my own, without help from others and from God. To renounce worldly passions does not mean not being allowed to have fun anymore. I’m not advocating some Puritan agenda, especially not right before we all go home to our Christmas dinners and present giving. But we are called to recognize and then renounce the excesses of “worldly passions,” those sins we call pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth: they too separate us from others and from God.

Instead we turn to the one who has been sent to save us, “in the present age living lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.” Now that sounds like self-reliance again. If we can control ourselves, why do we need our God and Savior, Jesus Christ? For one thing, in his sacrifice and self-giving he is our example and our “wonderful counsellor.” He shows us what control we need to exercise, and he demonstrates what upright and godly living looks like. And yet even then, as Paul goes on to write, it is Jesus who acts, completing that training and purifying us, making us into “a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.” (2:14) And those good deeds are all the other things God wants: peace on earth, justice and righteousness, fair and equitable treatment for all with a particular focus on those who are in need: the widow, orphan, and stranger; the poor and unemployed, the single parent, the aged, the lonely, the homeless, and the refugee.

What does God want for Christmas? I believe God wants something for Godself too. If I had written this sermon a few weeks ago, I might have included the carol ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti in this morning’s service music. The last verse suggests that she too had considered the question, ‘What does God want at Christmas?’

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a wise man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him – give my heart.

That is what God really wants, us. God wants to be in relationship with us, God wants our love as a response to God’s unconditional love, because it is also what we need. God’s love is what saves us, and God’s love, in the manger, is what we celebrate today.

Amen.