This is a season that is so rich for singing that new songs are being written for it all the time. I would imagine the songwriters of these new songs are hoping their song will be the one that will become so dear to the public that eventually it becomes one of those songs that "just isn't Christmas without it."

But what about Christmas songs that are clearly associated with the season, but were not intended to be? Maybe when I say, "clearly associated with the season," I should make it a little clearer, I'm talking about Christmas hymns in the Church. Some hymns are automatically associated with Christmas, but not all of them were written for Christmas.

Our hymn, Savior of the Nations Come was not intended to be a Christmas hymn. It wasn't for Christmas, because Christmas was hardly even a celebration. The author, Ambrose, was a bishop in Milan, Italy. The year is about 360 A.D. Christianity was now a legal religion, so the persecution of Christians had already ended. That had happened around 325 A.D. about 300 years after the New-Testament church had started. Ambrose was born around the time Christianity became legal, but while he was growing up, the church was also growing up and trying out what it was like to no longer be outlawed.

No longer being an outlawed religion, still did not make life a bed of roses for the Christian Church. A heresy called Arianism constantly challenged the teaching of the apostles, who had now been dead for about 200 years. Arius was a guy who denied Jesus was God. He claimed there was nothing divine about Jesus. Therefore, while the Church taught and confessed that the consecrated bread and wine was the body and blood of Christ, Arianism would deny it claiming that His body could not do this because there was nothing unique about His body; it was nothing more than a symbolic meal.

Just as the Church nowadays struggles with the impulse to compromise clear teachings of the Bible for the sake of appealing to more people, the Christian Church in those days was struggling with the whole idea of who Jesus was. Ambrose was in the thick of it. He had some very powerful enemies. The emperor's wife was Arian, and one day she sent soldiers to arrest Ambrose. To support the people during this ongoing conflict and particularly during this siege from the emperor's widow, they sang hymns and prayed. One of his students who would later become a bishop in North Africa, and very heavily influenced Martin Luther would later write, "Then it was first instituted that hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the people should faint through the fatigue of sorrow, and from that day to this the custom has been retained;"

He wrote hymns to support the people but also to teach and affirm what the Christian Church taught about who Jesus was. This hymn was one of them. It was not written for Christmas but to counter the false teaching that denied Jesus was God and that claimed His flesh had no divine attributes. Arius had also written hymns which were used to teach and expand his heresy.

And so this hymn countered these false ones. Sort of like a duel. You've seen those challenges where one person has to have a come back better than the other one, maybe it's a joke off, or a dance off, or whatever, this hymn wasn't for Christmas, it was a sing off, a sing-off between two prominent pastors. And it is an excellent hymn.

I had selected the wrong reading for this originally, choosing the account where Matthew tells us about Jesus' birth. But no, we have to first encounter the conception--the time when Mary was told by the angel Gabriel that she, a young woman who had never been with a man in a sexual way, was going to have a baby. Not just any baby, the Savior of all the Nations.

As Ambrose wrote this, Christianity was spreading all over the world. The Jewish/ Gentile conflict had been resolved, and now Christianity was going out to all the nations, all those Gentiles. He is the Savior from sin for all those who cry out for God's mercy. Not just the Jews, not just the people of the Middle East, but going deep into Africa, spreading upward into Europe, and heading east into India. Many populations in so many different countries had once known of the Messiah, but their ancestors had sold it out for what seemed more natural for them. Now the people were hearing of the Divine judgment, and more importantly, the rescue the Divine had arranged, that began with the birth of this child in Israel.

You and I, of course, are part of those nations. It may be just a little less than 1700 years after this song was written, or a little less than 2000 years after the Savior of the Nations had come, but we recognize He's not just for the nations. He's for us. Heaven and earth may marvel at how or even why God would do this. But we join them in their marveling. Not just how, but more importantly--why?

Oh yes, we can say because He loves us, and that can come off our lips very easily, but what does that mean? How could He love us? What are we to Him?

We are constant disappointments to Him, when we betray Him and act like we don't care what He thinks. We hear of His great love and then act like it's not real. And I think we do that because we don't really think it is. Do we think about what He has done, when He did choose such a birth? He has stooped so low, so low, by simply becoming human, the thought of us doing it from our level would never even cross our minds. Yet, He has already done it. But again, we wouldn't even think of it for someone who meant a lot to us. For someone who means the world to us, we still wouldn't do it. Oh, we might say to our loved one, "I would do anything for you," but we would draw the line at a certain point.

If we had to become a cockroach to help our loved one, would we do it? The thought disgusts us. It is absolutely revolting! But think what it would be like for God to become one of us! Compared to the holiness of God, to live like one of us, to be tormented by the selfishness of people around Him, assaulted by our disgusting behaviors, being a cockroach, would probably actually be a step up. Yet, He has done it. No wonder, the hymn says, "Marvel now, O heaven and earth that the Lord chose such a birth."

But I'm not done. Let's say we are willing to be a cockroach. Let's say for the sake of someone we loved; for someone who we knew loved us, we would do it. I don't think we are being realistic about it if we say we would, but let's say we would. Would we do it for someone who hated us and made no bones about telling us? Would we become a cockroach to help a person who hurt us all the time, and didn't care how we felt, who would mock us for doing what we saw needed to be done? By nature, we hate God. We are His enemy. We don't care what He thinks as long as it doesn't affect us. And yet, He still became a human being for our sake, so He could die, and set us free from our doom. Is it any wonder, Heaven and earth would marvel for choosing such a birth?

On top of the fact that God did this, which with only a few minutes reflection, should make us marvel like Heaven and earth, His birth was one to cause us to marvel. Every other child has a human father and a human mother. I can think of only two others who did not have a father and a mother, the father and mother of all--Adam and Eve. Every other child has one of each. Even with advanced reproductive technologies, it still takes a father and a mother.

Not for Jesus. "Not by human flesh and blood, by the Spirit of our God was the Word of God made flesh." "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most High will overshadow you." This is what the angel tells the Virgin, Mary. The Lord is with you. The Lord is with Mary. He has taken up residence in her womb.

Isn't this a wonder? The Creator of the heavens and the earth, the very heavens and earth that marvel at His birth, has now humbled Himself to become the resident of a human womb.

"The Lord is with you." This isn't just a blessing. It is stating a reality. Human speak statements. God speaks realities. When He speaks it is. When He said let there be light, the light could not resist if it had wanted. When He said let the waters above be separated from the waters below, the waters had no choice. The firmament was formed. When the Lord said let the earth bring forth living creatures, the earth had to yield up its dust so they could be created. And when the Holy Spirit speaking through the word of Gabriel says, "The Lord is with you," it is truly so.

When I say, "The Lord be with you," or when I speak the invocation, the Lord is truly with you. He is with you to bless you. He is here in His grace, and you can be sure of it. Just as God had come to our earth as a human being, He comes down to bless us. And so, at any other time, if an angel were to have said to Mary or if anyone else have said to Mary, "The Lord is with you," He would truly be with her. But this is different. The Lord is with her in the flesh. He is now in her womb. The Word by a Word is conceived and could now be seen by ultrasound in Mary's womb. Mary's womb has become the Tabernacle and the Temple, where the presence of God is to be found.

"Not by flesh and blood, by the Spirit of our God was the Word of God made flesh--woman's offspring, pure and fresh."

Next week, it's not just the conception, but as the hymn goes on, we will be looking at His birth. And because this is not just a Christmas hymn, it will go on to speak of is purpose for becoming a human being, His work as the Savior of the Nations.

AMEN