A Martin Luther Christmas: Christmas and the World

In honor of the holiday season I am beginning a new series of posts which will be highlights of Martin Luther’s Christmas sermons. Being both a fan of Christmas and of the great German Reformer I am excited about this series and hope it will be of benefit to us all. Here is the first post.

Christmas Reminds Us Not To Love This World:

The glory of the gospel comes in a humble manner. “Behold how very ordinary and common things are to us that transpire on earth, and yet how high they are  regarded in heaven.” Examples: Marry is a lowly girl of unimportance, Jesus is born in a stable, the Angels announce his birth to poor, uneducated, and lowly shepherds.

Luther’s thoughts: “We see, it is the purpose of the divine Word, to teach us to know God and his work, and to see that this life is nothing. For as he does not live according to this life and does not have possessions nor temporal honor and power, he does not regard these and says nothing concerning them, but teaches only the contrary. He works in opposition to these temporal things, looks with favor upon that form which the world turns, teaches that from which it flees and takes up that which it discards. And although we are not willing to tolerate such acts of God and do not want to receive blessing, honor and life in this way, yet it must remain so. God does not change his purpose, nor does he teach or act differently than he purposed. We must adapt ourselves to him, he will not adapt himself to us. Moreover, he who will not regard his word, nor the manner in which he works to bring comfort to men, has assuredly no good evidence of being saved. In what more lovely manner could he have shown his grace to the humble and despised of earth, than through this birth in poverty, over which the angels rejoice, and make it known to no one but to the poor shepherds?”