Whenever Christmas pageants are talked about in a certain little town in the Midwest, someone is sure to mention the name of Wallace Purling. Wally's performance in the Nativity play one year has almost become legend. But the old timers who were in the audience that night never tire of recalling the story. Wally was nine that year and in grade two, even though he should have been in grade four. Most people knew he had a little difficulty keeping up. He was big and clumsy, slow in movement and mind. Still, Wally was pretty well liked by the other children in his class, all of whom were smaller than he, even though the boys would get irritated when uncoordinated Wally asked to play ball with them. Usually they would find a way to keep him out of the game, but he would hang around anyway hoping for a chance. He was always a helpful boy, and the natural protector of the younger kids on the playground.

Wally fancied the idea of being a shepherd in the Christmas pageant, but Miss Lumbard, the director, assigned him to a more important role, the Innkeeper. She figured his size would make the refusing of lodging to Joseph more forceful. On Christmas Eve, a large crowd gathered for the Christmas extravaganza of staffs, crèches, beards, crowns, halos, and a whole stageful of squeaky voices. No one on the stage or off was more caught up in the magic of the night than Wallace Purling. He stood in the wings and watched the performance with such fascination that now and then Miss Lumbard had to make sure that he didn't wander on to stage before his cue.

Then the time came when Joseph appeared, tenderly guiding Mary to the door of the inn. Joseph knocked on the wooden door set into the painted backdrop. Wally the Innkeeper was there, waiting. "What do you want?" Wally said, swinging the door open. "We seek lodging." "Seek it elsewhere." Wally looked straight ahead but spoke boisterously. "The inn is filled." "Sir, we have asked everywhere in vain. We have traveled far and are very weary." "There is no room in this inn for you." Wally looked properly stern. "Please, good innkeeper, this is my wife, Mary. She is heavy with child and needs a place to rest. Surely you must have some small corner for her. She is so tired."

Now, for the first time, the Innkeeper relaxed his stiff stance and looked down at Mary. With that, there was a long pause, long enough to make the audience a bit tense with embarrassment. "No! Begone!" the prompter whispered from the wings. "No!" Wally repeated automatically. "Begone!" Joseph sadly placed his arm around Mary, and Mary laid her head upon his shoulder, and the two of them started to move away. The Innkeeper did not return inside his inn, however. Wally stood there in the doorway, watching the forlorn couple. His mouth was open, his brow creased with concern, his eyes filling unmistakably with tears. "Don't go, Joseph!" Wally called out. "Bring Mary back!" And Wallace Purling's face grew into a bright smile. "You can have my room!" Some people in town thought that the pageant had been ruined. Yet there were others - many others - who considered it the most Christmas of all Christmas pageants they had ever seen. What do you think?

What is Christmas about? We have been asking you now for a month what it is about Christmas you looking forward to. Well, it's here! All the preparations are done and the celebration begins! Gifts are opened, company comes, phone calls are made, carols are sung, church services are underway, and Christmas is now visiting us in all the fanfare we desire to attach to it! It truly is a Main Event in our lives! And we should attach as much fanfare as possible, celebrating with all that we have! The gift of Jesus overshadows anything else in our lives! Especially when we know more than just the beginning of this Baby's life…when we know the whole story - the very plan of God for our salvation!

Does this Main Event make headlines in our news today? Let's go back to the year 1809. The international scene was tumultuous. Napoleon was sweeping through Austria; blood was flowing freely. Nobody cared about babies. But the world was overlooking some terribly significant births. William Gladstone was born that year. He was destined to become one of England's finest statesmen. That same year, Alfred Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and his wife. The child would one day greatly affect the literary world in a marked manner. Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nor far away, in Boston, Edgar Allen Poe began his eventful but tragic life. And that same year produced the cries of a newborn infant in a rugged log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. The baby's name? Abraham Lincoln. If there had been news broadcasts at that time, I'm sure the headlines would have been: "The Destiny of the World is Being Shaped on an Austrian Battlefield Today." But history was actually being shaped in the cradles of England and America. Similarly, everyone probably thought taxation was the big news when Jesus was born. But a young Jewish woman cradled the biggest news of all: The Birth of the Savior!

Our Bible verse gives us the headline: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." Here is the real Main Event! On a starlit night in the little town of Bethlehem, the grace of God entered this world in human form! The almighty Son of God took on our human flesh and entered life as a baby, spending his first night on earth in a cattle shed sleeping on straw. In that baby, in God's Son, the incarnate Word of God, we receive grace, we receive God's amazing and undeserved love for us. Even though we have failed, even though we have sinned, even though every moment of our lives has been a rebellion against God, He sent his Son to this earth to bring salvation to all people. He sent the Baby Jesus here to make up for all our mistakes and smooth things over between us and God. That is grace! This gift cost God the Father his own Son. It cost Jesus a life of sacrifice, service, and a cruel death. But it cost you and me nothing. Nothing at all. That is grace!

What does grace mean for you and me? What does this Main Event -Jesus' birth - mean in our lives? It means that for the times you lost your patience and temper with your family this Christmas, you have been forgiven. It means for the times you have been selfish and uncaring, you have been forgiven. It means that for the failed opportunities to be a good parent or to be a good child, you have been forgiven. It means that for the way you have been carried away by the fleeting, material things in the world instead of honoring God first, you have been forgiven.

Grace doesn't just give us relief and make us feel good. It changes our lives! It becomes our teacher! "It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." Grace saves all of us. Grace teaches us to say no to godlessness and yes to godliness. Grace provides us redemption through the blood of Christ. Grace adopts us as children of God through faith in Christ so that we may eagerly serve our Savior. What a precious gift, God's grace in Jesus Christ, who was delivered to us in a manger! Do you see what grace does for us? It makes us want to be good! It makes us want to be like Jesus to thank Him for coming here! It makes us want to be like little Wallace Purling, who showed what the true meaning of Christmas is, by caring unconditionally for others! Wally did demonstrate the kind of love that grace is all about - a love that puts God and people before programs and things. A love that says "thank you" to God for his grace at Christmas!

That grace also leads us to look forward to the Main Event. Are you looking forward to the Main Event this Christmas? What Main Event is that? The coming of Jesus! The Main Event is here! Is there any STUFF cluttering up your celebration of Christ's coming? The Main Event is here! Are you looking forward to this event as much as you are looking forward to your FAMILY this Christmas? The Main Event is here! God's gift of salvation comes wrapped up in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Have you received that gift and let it bless your lives? Are you looking forward to that as much as to your PRESENTS? The Main Event is here! A Wonder of wonders, a Baby born of a virgin, God in the flesh! Have you taken time to wonder about the greatness of God's love in Christ! Have you looked forward to the WONDER?

Well, as our text points out, this grace also teaches us to "…wait for the blessed hope - the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." Just because Christmas is here now doesn't mean you no longer have anything to look forward to! Because Jesus came the first time as a baby in the manger to make us his own children, we now also look forward to the next Main Event! You can look forward to when Jesus comes again! He is coming to take you to be with Him forever! You will never be alone, and that is something to look forward to!

In 1994, two missionaries were invited to go to Russia and teach at a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program lived at that orphanage. As Christmas drew near that year, it was time for the orphans to hear, for the first time, the real story of Christmas. The missionary couple told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. About how they found no room at the inn and went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger. Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edge of their stools, trying to grasp every word.

After telling them the story, they gave the children 3 pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small yellow napkin to tear into pieces of "straw" for the manger. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown, were used for the baby's blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt the missionaries had brought from home. The orphans became busy assembling their little mangers while the missionaries walked among them. All went well until a missionary got to the table where little Misha sat - he looked to be about 6 years old, and had finished his project. As the teacher looked at the little boy's manger, she was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger! Quickly, she called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at his completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related it very accurately until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then Misha started to ad-lib…

He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?" And Jesus told me, "If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him - for always."

As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that ran down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulder shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon or abuse him, someone who would stay with him - FOR ALWAYS.

It's not what you have in your life that counts, it's who you have! Christmas means that you have Jesus - for always! Tonight, in a quiet corner of your heart, are you saying to the Christ Child, "Welcome to our world - to my world"? Do you want this to be your Main Event? Welcoming Jesus into your world goes far beyond tinsel, gifts, decorated trees and a ham dinner. When Jesus' grace comes into your life, it changes everything! It changes what needs changing! It assures you that you are his child - for always! Don't just celebrate the Main Event tonight! Let it be a life-changing experience for you this Christmas and every Christmas! Amen.

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