Sermon for Christmas Eve 2025: Judged by Love

Christmas Eve 2025: Judged by Love

Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14

Throughout the Season of Advent, we have heard messages

about the Second Coming of Christ, the Final Judgement.

We heard the message in our prayers:

“In the last day, Christ shall come again in his glorious majesty to

judge both the living and the dead.”

And:

“Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach

repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace

to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet

with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.”

We heard it in the Gospel of Mattew: (24:36-44)

On the Day of Judgement, “two will be in the field; one will be

taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal

together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake

therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

These are the prayers and images which have brought us to this

evening’s Feast. What do judgement and fear have to do with

Christmas? Everything. As we have awaited the Lord’s first

Advent, we are reminded to prepare for his second.

The Second Advent of Christ is not a threat. It is a promise of

hope. Christ will come again and all time and space will reach its

fulfillment.

Given this promise, it is important to ask what we mean by

judgement. In our cultural context, we tend to revere inclusion

above all other values. We live by dictates such as “don’t be

judgmental.”

Yet, one cannot live in the world without being judgmental. We

must discern between sound and specious; healthy and harmful.

In the New Testament Greek, the word often used for “judgement”

means to separate or to distinguish. It can apply either to a

positive verdict or a negative one. The concept of judgement is

neutral.

Divine Judgement is not limited to our concepts of what might be

insensitive or prejudicial. Divine Judgement is never based in

shame or blame. God discerns with pure wisdom and infinite

mercy.

Therefore, neither do we fear God in the common sense of that

word. Instead, we stand in awe of Divine Wisdom and Mercy

which we cannot, yet, fully understand.

A dread of God’s judgement dissipates when we remember that

we have already been judged by the first Advent of Christ. God

has already come among us as one of us. The Prince of Peace

has appeared joining heaven and earth. His kingdom has come

and it is forever becoming.

The angels have already appeared and told us the sign of his

coming: a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

This is how God’s judgement has come to us. We are judged by

an infant child with pure innocence. How is to be judged by an

infant or toddler? How do they receive our presence? How is it to

be judged by innocent curiosity?

Further, we are judged by God who chose to live and die as one

of us. God chose to understand us with great intimacy.

God’s judgement is already revealing in our lives that which can

stand the light of day.

To be ready for this judgement we follow Paul’s advice to Titus,

now that the Lord has appeared it is incumbent on us to live lives

that are self-controlled, upright, and godly; lives which are zealous

for good deeds.

We work out our salvation with awe and humility. This is what

leads us to focus more on the healing of our own shortcomings

than on those of others. If you are like me, you do not want to be

judged in the way you judge others.

Throughout Advent, we prayed to God in the Eucharistic Prayer

that when Jesus comes “again in power and great triumph to

judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold

his appearing.”