God chose that the Child would not be born to the mightiest of men who ruled an empire. Instead He chose an earthly father who ruled only the carpenter’s tools that fashioned the work of his hands It was not grand nobles and priests who would attend the Child’s birth, but rather simple herdsmen who witnessed the event. Perhaps most significantly the people, parents and witnesses alike, who participated in the drama of the first Christmas, were not representatives of empire, but they were of the people suffering under the yoke of an occupation directed from the seats of a far distant foreign capitol.

Through the centuries the message God sent by His giving of the quiet unassuming gift has been transmogrified into a celebration of excess; the simplest of presents endowed with trapping of golden papers and satin ribbands; the celebration of the quiet giving of a gift precious in its simplicity replaced by festival of greed and consumption. For weeks we have been bombarded with the commercial messages telling us to spend and buy drowning out the message of peace and goodwill.

It is difficult to think of peace and goodwill when our countrymen spend Christmas in an alien land, walking into danger with watchful eyes while knowing that this day will bring death or dismemberment to a comrade in arms. It is far easier to let the message God sent be submerged and visions of the angelic heralds be replaced by visions of sugarplums. It is far easier to blot out the reality of broken dreams and concentrate on the packages in their sumptuous wrappings ignoring that the contents are only plastic toys.

Think, my friends, this morning on that first gift and its message. And as the torn wrappings are swept away, remember that the gift was of Peace on Earth – Goodwill to Men.