Glory be to God on high (December 25, 2009)
By Rev. Steve Bagnall

Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace, good will toward men! Aaaahhhhhhhhhh! It is SO good to get our Gloria in Excelsis back! It’s been gone for a month now, since we entered the Advent season. We were just beginning to accept its absence, and now it’s back! Every time we came to that word “omitted” in the bulletin there was a moment’s hesitation. It just didn’t feel right – something was wrong, something was out of place.

And if it feels good to us to have the Gloria back, just imagine how good it must have felt to the angels when they first sang it to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth. The angels had been waiting a lot longer than four weeks! Since the will of the good and faithful angels is always in agreement with the will of God, they must have delighted in Adam and Eve and the creation they cared for. Their joy was complete when God proclaimed all things to be very good.

So their pain must have been profound when man and woman sinned and God exiled them from the Garden. The angels were given the heart-wrenching duty of drawing swords against their beloved mankind, warning and preventing them from trying to re-enter the Paradise they had betrayed. Humanity’s Fall had made God’s angels the enemies of our forefathers. Like Adam and Eve, the angels knew God’s promise that He would come Himself and save mankind from their sins. But how? Where? And, of course, “How long?”

Now God didn’t abandon His dear human children. The angels were sent by their Master to protect His people countless times in the Old Testament period. God continued to use the angels as His messengers and His mighty army. But it wasn’t quite the same; the division still stood. The angels’ fellow creatures remained on the other side. Certainly some of the people clung to the promise, but it was a future hope. Their sacrifices didn’t deliver God’s grace directly. God was among them in the Tabernacle, and then in the Temple, but He was behind the curtain – apart, separate. It was so unlike the easy love and friendship of the Garden – it was so much less. When would the Son go to earth to accomplish His mission? When could the angels finally sing the good news?

And if the wait was long for the angels, just imagine the longing of the humans who endured the exile of their sin. Generations were born and died without the fulfillment of God’s promise to save them. The song of their hearts was O Come, O Come Emmanuel – “O God Who is among us in the temple, come and be with us in person, in flesh. Come Messiah. How long, O Lord? How long?” The people truly mourned in lonely exile here on earth.

Our few weeks without the Gloria in Excelsis give us a small taste of their wait. Perhaps we also get the tiniest of tastes as the world around us sings Christmas carols and bursts forth in the joy of their Christmas, which for most of them is nothing more than an empty and lying Winter Solstice. We can’t enter fully into that celebration, because we wait through Advent. Here we sing songs of repentance and we hear the message of John the Baptist – “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” In a way, in Advent we went into exile with the Church of the Old Testament, hearing God’s law and seeing our sin. We weren’t so much angry that Christmas wasn’t here yet as maybe a little sad, sad that our sin and disobedience still tries to push us away from God. And yet, even that little Advent exile wasn’t complete. We can only imagine the waiting of our Old Testament family, because we live in the era of “promise fulfilled.” In the midst of our little exile, Christ was with us in His Word and Sacraments to soothe our hearts and forgive our sins.

But still, something was missing. Jesus wasn’t even visible in two of our Advent Gospel readings. A few weeks without something can help us truly celebrate when that something finally arrives. And Jesus has arrived! On earth His arrival was quiet and unrecognized by most people, even as today most people are at home, foolishly believing that the true meaning of Christmas is family, or joy, or peace, or gifts and decorations.

In the heavens the reaction is more excited, because the angels realize the importance of this event. The wait is over, the promise is fulfilled. God is with Man and the barrier is being removed! The Word has finally become flesh and dwells with Mankind. The angels’ joy is released in their song, the song so filled with meaning and heavenly joy that God’s Church around the world sings it each week – Glory be to God on high!

Today you have chosen to celebrate with the angels. You have put aside for a time the worldly celebration, which does have its place, and you have come to be with the heavenly host, with the angels and archangels. This morning, and every Sunday, this holy house is made the stable of Bethlehem where Gods heavenly and earthly church are gathered to wonder at God’s goodness and mercy as we sing with one voice, “Glory be to God on high.

We are here in this stable house of Christ Jesus today because, like the shepherds, we have heard and joined the choir of angels. We have hastened to the place where heaven and earth come together, where the division is bridged. Here, on this altar, by the power of His almighty Word, Jesus takes up residence with us. His body and blood, born in the stable, crucified on the cross for our sins, raised from the tomb for our salvation, the body and blood of the eternal sacrifice of the Word made flesh is here in the manger of bread and the swaddling clothes of wine.

As the angels of old, so too am I delighted and privileged to bring you good tidings of great joy. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord. See Him wrapped in His Word and laid in the manger of bread and know that in Him you are forgiven all your sins.

And now, now all is right with the world. Amen.