How is your to do list looking? Have you got everything done? Has the Christmas newsletter been written? Are all the cards sent? Is the tree up and trimmed? Have you bought the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and sprouts? Is all the wrapping done? Does everyone know where they are on which days and at which times? Are the carrots ready for the reindeer? Is a mince pie set aside for Father Christmas?

Have you managed to fit everything in? I like Christmas, I like seeing the children’s faces as they open their presents, the excitement as they wake up - so long as it’s not too early. I love all the food, and even that slightly too full feeling after the obligatory seconds of Christmas pudding. But there is a lot to fit in before we get to the enjoyment isn’t there?

Do you ever find yourself asking why all the fuss? Why the elbowing your way round town to buy all those essentials, why the worry about whether the turkey went in on time? Why every year do we put ourselves through it?

The answer was there is our reading, and it is simply this Christmas is all about GREAT NEWS and great news should be celebrated.

V1-7 outlines for us the events which are the root of Christmas, and they are actually quite ordinary. The Emperor Augustus has ordered that a census be taken so millions across the Roman Empire have to go to their home towns to register, millions of people have to go home for the first Christmas. Then it’s as if the director pans down from his wide angle lens and the broad sweep of history with its million trudging to register, down to just two figures; Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem, the town of David to register. Telling us of their living arrangements in a borrowed stable because there was no guest room available, and there Mary gives birth to her first child. But the question is why the focus on this couple? No doubt there were other babies born across the Roman Empire during the census, so why the fuss about this one? Why two thousand years later are we still celebrating this birth?

If verses 1-7 give us the bare facts v8-20 give us an explanation of these events and their significance and it isn’t just any explanation, its God’s explanation. Because that is one of God’s characteristics he acts and he explains. As we ask why all the fuss? Why focus on this birth? We find the answer in the words spoken by the angels (10-12).

1. He is a Saviour for all people.
How good are you at keeping your promises? I guess most of us try pretty hard, especially when it comes to our families to do what we say we will do. Yet some of us will still find ourselves this New Year making another resolution to keep our promises; maybe to our children, or our partners, or our parents.

God never needs to resolve to keep his promises; he is a promise keeping God. That is what Christmas is all about; God keeping his promises. Promises that stretch back through the Old Testament over thousands of years and that are all fulfilled in this birth in a stable. Promises that he would be born in Bethlehem, promises that he would be a descendant of David, and promises that he would be a Saviour, and how do the angels announce his coming? "a Saviour has been born to you" Christmas is about God keeping his promises in the coming of Jesus. Who comes to reveal God to man, to make known where we stand before God and to make it right, come to be a Saviour.

But maybe you are saying that’s nice but I don’t need saving? Jesus is all well and good and I believe he lived but I don’t need saving. Have you seen Superman Returns? The idea behind the story is that Superman has been gone for 5 years but is now back. He arrives back, however, to find that his greatest champion Lois Lane has written an award winning article entitled ‘Why the world doesn’t need superman.’ Part of the film explores that question does the world need saving, does it need a saviour. At one point Superman takes Lois into the silent sky and asks her what she can hear, she says nothing. His reply is that he hears everything; she may say the world doesn’t need a saviour but he hears the cries of those wanting to be saved.

Actually we are no different. We know that something is not right with the world, you listen to the headlines and it’s obvious that something is wrong. Events in Ipswich have left a town in fear, there is young Billie Jo Jenkins family searching for justice for a murdered 13 year old, there are the continuing atrocities in Darfur, the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. The world as its meant to be? I don't think so.

Some time ago the Daily Telegraph held an essay competition and the question was this ‘What is wrong with the world’. They had loads of entries with all kinds of theories, but the winner was this: "Dear sir I am."

Why do you and I need saving? Because we reject God and want to determine right and wrong for ourselves, and that actually means I determine right and wrong as best suits me. And because God is a God of justice he is going to deal with our rebellion, that selfishness that rejects him. We may not realise we need a saviour and yet God sends Jesus to save us that’s what all the fuss is about. He sends Jesus to give us a glimpse of the world we all want - where compassion and love rule, where death, disease and disaster are conquered and where our relationship with God is repaired.

2. He is a king for all people
That is what the word "Christ" means, it means 'messiah' or God’s anointed one. This cry of the angels is Great News God’s king has come. When an emperor had a son heralds were sent through the empire proclaiming a saviour and king had been born. Here is God heralding the arrival of his son, his King come to rule in his place, to act and speak his words.

Do you notice that the angels as they herald this great news put the two titles together? Jesus is God’s promises fulfilled, he is God’s saviour come to save us, but he has also come to be King, to rule. And throughout Luke we get glimpses of what God’s kingdom is like. As the sick are healed, as the possessed are set free, as Jesus shows love to the outcast and rejected, as he teaches about how to live lives marked by compassion, as he raises others from the dead and then dies himself in our place before rising again. This King gives us glimpses of what it is like to be in his kingdom, to confess our need of him as saviour and to live with him as our king.

Why all the fuss about Christmas? Because God keeps his promises to save and shows us life as it should be Because God in his great love for us sends Jesus to give us a glimpse of the world we all want - where compassion and love rule, where death, disease and disaster are conquered and where our shattered relationship with God is repaired.

That is good news and it makes Christmas worth all the fuss.

Christianity & Culture