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In biblical times, when a king was crowned in Israel, two acts took place. First, the king was crowned in the temple and presented with something that was called the "testimony" (2 Kings 11:12; 2 Chronicles 23:11). The testimony was probably some sort of document embodying the basic terms of the Lord's covenant with the house of David. As such, it was the legitimization of the king's rule by God. Second, the king was then led to his palace, he ascended his throne, and the beginning of his rule was proclaimed. At this point, messengers were dispatched throughout the land with the joyous cry, "So and so has become king" (cf. 2 Samuel 15:10; 2 Kings 9:13).

The coronation of a king was an occasion for great rejoicing among the people, because it meant that God had begun a new course with his people that might result in blessings poured out upon the populace. For example, when Solomon was crowned king over Israel, 1 Kings 1:40 tells us that "all the people went up after him, playing on pipes, and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise." The hope of the people was that the new king would be a righteous king who would make the people righteous in God's sight and thus secure his favor toward them.

It is this custom that forms the background of Second Isaiah's hymn of joy in our text. The messengers have been sent out to announce the beginning of the reign of a new king over Israel. Israel languishes in Babylonian exile, but there is good news and hope for the future. Thus, "how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet" of those messengers. But the message that they bring to the despondent exiles is not that a new human king has ascended the throne. Rather, the messengers' joyful good news is that "your God reigns." God is their king. God reigns over all. God's is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

Here for the first time we have a picture of an evangel, of a bearer of good news, that is, of the bearer of the gospel, which means good news. And the good news that the evangels proclaim is that God is king.

Such too is the message of this Christmas day -- that the Son of God has been born and that he is not only the King of the Jews, as even later on Pontius Pilate must confess (cf. John 19:21-22), but that he is also our King and King of the universe, who reigns over all. Christ the Messiah, Jesus Christ the anointed Son of God, is in charge. He rules over our lives and world.

I wonder if we grasp that. On the face of it, it seems like a dozen other influences rule over us and determine our lives these days: all of those schedules with their tyrannical deadlines that we feel ourselves obligated to meet; the demands of home and family, of job and calling that always hang over us; perhaps even the stereotypes of race or sex or economic status that others impose upon us. Or we might even say that in our society, the so-called experts run our lives. The nutrition experts tell us what to eat, so we won't develop cancer. The psychology experts tell us how to raise our children, or how to avoid stress and burnout. The fashion experts dictate what we wear, the sex experts invade our bedroom lives, and from every television screen our thought is guided and influenced. In the face of all of that can we truly say that our God reigns in his Son Jesus Christ?

But he does, you see. Whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we see the evidences of his rule or not, God is at work in your life and mine, holding them in his loving hand. Every moment he watches over us, and accompanies our steps, and sees our future. And he plans that future, working, prodding, guiding, weeping and judging and forgiving, all in order that we may have life and have it more abundantly.

I remember so vividly the day the young woman sat in my office, tears of hurt and disappointment coursing down her cheeks. The man she had thought she was going to marry had turned his back on her and left. I think we all have some kind of devastating moments like that, do we not, when a love fails us, or a job offer falls through, or a plan for the future that we so cherished goes awry? And in those moments, our scripture tells us, we are nevertheless being guided. God has a planned future for us. God rules our life.

We know that because Jesus Christ has been born. If ever a life seemed to end in shattered dreams and futility, it was his -- his mission of love and healing and teaching come to naught but the thirst and pain and blood of a cross; denied by his inner circle, deserted by those he had called his friends. But God ruled his life; God was in charge. And so Golgotha gave way to Easter morn and that which had seemed futility turned into God's resurrection victory for us all. A cross which had been a symbol of death became God's way to life eternal.

I wonder if we can remember that when the futility and suffering and daily disappointments of life walk in our front door and sit down in our living rooms. Can we remember that God in Christ rules our lives and has a future for us all? Can we recall it when we worry about our children, and can we trust that God nevertheless watches over them every moment and guides and plans their destinies? Will we think of it when we cannot sleep at night, and remember that God never slumbers nor sleeps? Can we trust in the good sovereignty of God when pain seems to rule, or when we weep beside a fresh-dug grave? And yes, can we even believe it is so if this Christmastime is not filled with joy for some of us? God is in charge. God rules your life and mine.

Indeed, I wonder if we can remember that good news when we watch the tortured progress of nations. Few decades have seen the upheavals in international affairs that we have witnessed in the last few years, and all of it leaves us wondering just what is going to happen next. But who among those Israelite exiles in Babylonia would have thought that the Babyonian Empire would fall to Persia, and that Cyrus, king of Persia, would allow them to return to their homeland? God rules the life of nations, Second Isaiah proclaimed, and the captive Jews found themselves redeemed from exile, as you and I have been redeemed, delivered from the bondage of sin and the finality of the grave.

Is that not proof of it, dear friends? That God is in charge of our world and lives? He redeemed us from sin and death, and he will redeem our world. And so we too can hear the good news of this day, the gospel of everlasting joy. There is born in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord -- Christ, the Messiah, the king, the Word of God made flesh. And all the earth can break forth into singing and declare, "Our God reigns!"