There are two stories of Christmas. We usually blend them into one chronological account, but they are very distinct. One appears in the Gospel of Matthew, 1:18-25, 2:1-23, and the other in Luke 2: 6-20.

Matthew tells the story from Joseph’s point of view. The angel appears to him, telling him not to fear to take Mary as his wife, even though she is expecting a Child. He names the child. The wise men appear, and then Joseph is warned to flee to Egypt, and told to return when Herod died.

Luke is Mary’s story - in fact, she alone could have recounted these things to Luke. The story of Zacharias and Elisabeth; Mary’s visit to Elisabeth; the birth of John; the angel appearing to Mary, the birth of Jesus, and the tale of the shepherds all speak of Mary’s part in this event.

There are remarkably consistent differences in the accounts. In the Matthew story the angel always appears in a dream, and he gives commands. “Do not be afraid to take to yourself Mary your wife.” “Call His name Jesus.” “Do not return to Herod” was the command to the wise men. “Arise, take the young child and Mary his mother, and flee into Egypt.” “Return, for they are dead who sought the young Child’s life.” Specific commands, which Joseph and the wise men obeyed.

In the Luke story the angel is actually seen, and carries on conversations with both Zacharias and Mary. An angel choir appears to the shepherds. What is surprising is that no actual commands are given. Zacharias is told that his prayer will be answered, and he will have a son. Mary is told she will be with child of the Holy Spirit, and she willingly accepts it. The shepherds are told the tidings of great joy, but it is they who say, one to another, “Let us now go, even to Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”

Another amazing difference is the presence of Herod and his people in Matthew. He is shown in his wickedness and deceit, pretending to wish to worship Jesus while plotting to kill Him. He uses his counselors, none of whom are interested in the actual birth of the Christ, though they now know that a star has heralded His birth. Then there is the terrible story of Herod’s murder of the little ones around Bethlehem.

None of this appears in Luke. There is just a glancing reference: “There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea......” What a different tone, therefore, appears in Luke. It is one of peace and rejoicing, of wonder and gratitude, spoken from the heart by Zacharias, by Mary, and by Simeon. By contrast, Matthew tells of Joseph’s sadness and thought of putting Mary away privately, of Herod’s treachery and the sin of infanticide. And Matthew tells also how futile were Herod’s efforts, for the angel of the Lord provided that Joseph brought the infant Lord safely out of his reach.

So what are these two stories telling us about our lives, here, today? They speak of how the Lord is born in our minds and hearts. Let us leave Zacharias and Elisabeth and John out of this sermon. John represents repentance, and his birth precedes the birth of Jesus. But after we have repented of our sins, then the Lord Himself comes to be born in us. That birth is the implanting within us of charity - the ability to love others unselfishly. It is this birth which makes us into angels, which puts the stamp of eternal love in our hearts, which causes us to be “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

When charity begins to become felt in us we respond in two distinct ways. Matthew tells how our understanding reacts to His coming. Luke speaks of how His birth receives a response in the new will which the Lord is creating in us.

Joseph seems to represent the good of truth. He was a carpenter, working with tools of iron on wood to shape it, and his very act pictures the efforts of the human understanding, taking the truths of revelation and working to apply them to a life of goodness.

Joseph at first feared that Mary had been unfaithful to him, and that the child was conceived of a man. When we have done the deeds of repentance, and the Lord begins to create this wonderful, heavenly love inside of us, we too will doubt. How can I, a person who has been selfish up to date, how can I feel these tender, loving thoughts towards others? How can I be moved to do kind deeds with no thought of reward? I must be deceiving myself. This is just human-born selfishness under another guise.

But an angel of the Lord told Joseph that this birth was unique in all of history. The angel represents an insight from within, the presence of the Lord within the truths that we have learned, which gives us assurance that indeed unselfish love can be ours. The Word has promised that it will be so. Don’t doubt it. You can be a truly loving, unselfish, caring person. And when you feel this love inside of you, call it by its proper name. Call it “Jesus,” which means, “Jehovah is the Savior.” Realize that this is salvation come into your heart.

Joseph obeyed the angel. We need to believe that charity can be ours, and unite ourselves to the innocent love for the truth (which is what Mary represents).

Then, when this beautiful charity blossoms in our hearts, new truths come to herald that birth. The wise men had studied the Word, knew that a star would appear when the Christ was born, and took a long journey to find Him. The truths they represent, learned because we are moved to study and reflect on His Word, are the ones that tell us how to live the life of love. They are conscious truths, and they spur us to action.

The wise men gave three gifts to Jesus, and for two thousand years they were the last people on earth to know why these gifts, and no others, were suitable. For there are only three things we can give to the Lord, only three things we can withhold. Myrrh represents obedience; frankincense, love to others; and gold, love to the Lord Himself. We can withhold these from the Lord and He cannot make us give them to Him. When moved by charity, we plan to offer Him the only gifts which we can possibly give - the offerings of a grateful heart to obey, to love His children, and to love Him.

But the Matthew story contains Herod also. Within each of us there is a powerful love of self, and all sorts of false and horrible thoughts are tied to it. Through this love the hells seek to kill our unselfish instincts. They use deceit, they even use the truths of the Word (as Herod did when seeking to know where Christ should be born). For much of our lives we have given a fairly free rein to our selfish impulses. They don’t relinquish their kingship over us without a struggle. The story of Herod speaks of the plots of the hells to destroy our love for others, and of how the Lord protects us. When we obey the commands of His Word our love grows, quietly and secretly, in a safe place where Herod cannot find it.

So we come to the gospel of Luke. Why is Herod not mentioned there? It is in the Lord’s amazing mercy that there are times when selfishness seems to be a distant memory. We know it’s there - “In the days of Herod the King,” Luke says. We know that battles lie ahead, but there are moments when we see the joy of life, and these feelings give us an inner reason to fight for heaven. When you first fall in love, you feel only unselfish love for that person. At times you read the Word, and feel in its pages the certainty of the Lord’s love, and its promise of a heaven, a life of charity, just for you!

Selfishness seems far off. You know it will come back, but right now you know that there is a life beyond selfishness. There truly is a greater love that leaves self behind, and at times, at oh-so-precious times, you are allowed to feel it. The Lord touches our hearts, and the best image of that is Christmas night in the stable in Bethlehem.

In our peaceful states there is Mary, the innocent affection for truth. We often call it idealism. It is a deep-seated conviction about the highest ideals in life. We see deeply into the Word, see the values it teaches, we want a value system that will last for all time. We want the Lord to be our God, the God of our hearts and minds. In our innocent times we just don’t question these things, we long for them. Mary, betrothed, and longing for marriage, represents this innocent love, longing to experience the full heavenly marriage of good and truth, to make ideals work.

Mary went to Bethlehem, for that little town represents new truth, the truth of the internal sense of the Word. To go from Galilee to Bethlehem is to go upward, into the deeper regions of our minds, and experience that love which is the birth of the Lord in us. It is to feel, in the living waters of the Word, that we do love others, and this love is “God with us.”

Yet the inn at Bethlehem had no room for the infant Jesus. Many spiritual truths in our minds have languished, and lost their meaning. Other needs have crowded them out, even falsified them. There are many places in our minds where we know the truth, but that knowledge is full of earthly concerns which take the joy, the wonder out of it.

In His mercy the Lord prepares other places in our minds. The spiritual manger stands for lower truths, simple ideals long held precious. For example, you have truths in your minds about how to care for infants and how to teach little children about the Word and how to care for the needs of the elderly or those who are hurting. You understand these truths. A manger, where horses feed, represents such an understanding.

And you have simple, innocent ideas in your minds also which are, as it were, wrapped around charity. These truths tell you that certain things hurt others, that certain things, said with gentleness, touch their hearts. These truths tell you when to deal gently with others, and when to be firm but loving at the same time. They are simple ideas from the Word, first truths, which keep charity warm in your heart. “....and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger.”

How beautiful is the story of the shepherds. They too represent interior truths, long held, which through the night of our selfish lives have kept us turning towards good values. They kept watch over our spiritual flock, our valuable feelings, even though we have often been selfish and uncaring. These values are called forth, and respond with joy when love is born in our hearts.

The story of Luke is one of a free response to the Lord and His creation of heaven in our minds. It is full of joy. Zacharias prophesied, with a heart full of gratitude. Mary’s soul magnified the Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior. Simeon gave thanks because he had seen the Lord’s salvation, prepared for all people. The shepherds returned, praising God for all that they had seen.

When you feel heartfelt gratitude in your lives because of a special love the Lord has granted you, - why then, stop, stand still, lift up your heart and rejoice in that moment. And know this: that if you persist in following Him, that special love will become your heaven. It will be a love born of no human father. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you, and that holy love growing in you is indeed born of God.

Two stories of Christmas. Both so beautiful. The Lord gave each to us that we may see with our understandings, and feel in our hearts the wonder of this holy birth. They are secret stories, scarce felt because of the noisy pressures of worldly life, but revealed in all their wonder for the New Church. The spiritual Joseph and wise men are conscious, understood truths which are obeyed, and bring deep joy to the human mind. The spiritual Mary and Bethlehem and the manger and the swaddling cloths and the shepherds represent affections for deep ideals, and for practical ideas. These find inner happiness and peace when He comes to us.

For the greatest event in human history was the birth on earth of God Himself. And the greatest event in anyone’s life is when there is born to you the love from God that will never die. This is truly the spirit of Christmas.

(Referenties: Apocalypse Explained 706; Matthew 2)

288. Verse 9. And when the animals gave glory and honor and thanksgiving, signifies Divine truth and Divine good and glorification. This is evident from the signification of "glory and honor," as being, in reference to the Lord, Divine truth and Divine good; "glory" being Divine truth, and "honor" Divine good (of which presently); and from the signification of "thanksgiving," as being glorification. Let it first be told what is here meant by glorification. Glorification, when it is from the Lord, is a perpetual influx with angels and men of Divine good with Divine truth; and glorification of the Lord among angels and men is reception and acknowledgment in heart that all good and all truth are from the Lord, and thence all intelligence, wisdom, and blessedness; this in the spiritual sense is what "giving thanks" signifies. Moreover, all glorification of the Lord by the angels of heaven and by the men of the church is not from themselves, but flows in from the Lord. Glorification that is from men and not from the Lord is not from the heart, but only from the activity of the memory, and thus from the mouth; and what goes forth from the memory and the mouth only, and not through them from the heart, is not heard in heaven, thus is not received by the Lord, but goes out into the world like any other sonorous words. This glorification is not an acknowledgment in heart that all good and all truth are from the Lord. It is said an acknowledgment in heart, which means from the life of the love; for "heart," in the Word, signifies love, and love is a life according to the Lord's precepts; when man is in this life, then there is glorification of the Lord, which is acknowledgment from the heart that all good and truth is from the Lord. This is meant by "being glorified," in John:

If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and that ye be My disciples (John 15:7-8).

[2] "The four animals," which were cherubim, "gave glory and honor and thanksgiving," because Divine truth and Divine good and glorification, which are signified by glory, honor, and thanksgiving, proceed and flow in from the Lord; for these cherubim signify the Lord in respect to providence and guard (See above, n. 277); and they were "in the midst of the throne, and around the throne" (as is manifest from verse 6), and the Lord was "upon the throne" (verse 2); from which it is clear that these things were from the Lord; but reception and acknowledgment in heart are meant by the words of the verse following, where it is said, that when these things had been heard, "the four and twenty elders fell down before Him that sitteth on the throne, and worshipped Him that liveth unto ages of ages, and cast their crowns before the throne."

[3] In the Word, "glory and honor" is a frequent expression, and "glory" everywhere signifies truth, and "honor" good. The two are mentioned together because in the particulars of the Word there is a heavenly marriage, which is the conjunction of truth and good. There is this marriage in the particulars of the Word, because the Divine that proceeds from the Lord is Divine truth united to Divine good; and because these together make heaven and also make the church, therefore this marriage is in the particulars of the Word; so also in the particulars of the Word is the Divine from the Lord, and the Lord Himself; this is why the Word is most holy. (That there is such a marriage in the particulars of the Word, see above, n. 238; and Arcana Coelestia, n. 2516, Arcana Coelestia 2712, 2712, 3004, 3005, 3009, 4138, 5138, 5194, 5502, 6343, 7022, 7945, 8339, 9263, 9314)

[4] That "glory" signifies Divine truth from the Lord, see above (n. 33); that "honor" signifies Divine good follows from what has been said concerning the heavenly marriage in the particulars of the Word; as can also be seen from the following passages. In David:

Jehovah made the heavens; glory and honor are before Him; strength and splendor are in His sanctuary (Psalms 96:5-6).

By "the heavens" the Divine that proceeds from the Lord is meant, since the heavens are from His Divine; and as the Divine that proceeds and makes the heavens is Divine truth and Divine good, it is said, "glory and honor are before Him;" "sanctuary" means the church; Divine good and Divine truth therein are meant by "strength and splendor." (That the Divine of the Lord makes the heavens, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 7-12; and that the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is Divine truth and Divine good, n. 7, 13, 133, 137, 139-140.)

[5] In the same:

O Jehovah God, Thou art very great; Thou hast put on glory and honor (Psalms 104:1).

"To put on glory and honor" signifies, in reference to Jehovah, His girding Himself with Divine truth and Divine good, for these proceed from Him, and thus gird Him, and make the heavens; therefore in the Word they are called "His vesture" and "His covering" (See above, n. 65, 271).

[6] In the same:

The works of Jehovah are great. Glory and honor are His work (Psalms 111:2-3

"The works of Jehovah" mean all things that proceed from Him and are done by Him; and as these are referable to Divine truth and Divine good, it is said, "His work is glory and honor."

[7] In the same:

Generation to generation shall praise Thy works, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. Upon the honor of the magnificence of Thy glory and the words of Thy wonders will I meditate. And I will make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glory of the honor of His kingdom (Psalms 145:4-5, 12).

"The honor of the magnificence of glory" means Divine good united to Divine truth; and "the glory of the honor" means Divine truth united to Divine good. This is so said because the unition is reciprocal; for Divine good proceeds from the Lord united to Divine truth; but by the angels in heaven and by the men of the church Divine truth is received and is united to Divine good; it is therefore said, "the glory of the honor of His kingdom," for "His kingdom" means heaven and the church.

[8] In the same:

Glory and honor wilt thou lay upon Him; for thou settest Him blessings forever (Psalms 21:5, 6).

These things were said of the Lord, and "glory and honor upon Him" means all Divine truth and Divine good.

[9] In the same:

Gird Thy sword upon the thigh, O mighty One in Thy glory and honor. And in Thy honor mount, ride upon the word of truth (Psalms 45:3, 4).

This also is said of the Lord; "to gird the sword upon the thigh" signifies Divine truth combating from Divine good (that this is signified by "sword upon the thigh," see Arcana Coelestia 10488); and because the Lord from Divine truth subjugated the hells, and brought the heavens into order, He is said to be "mighty in glory and honor," and also "in honor mount and ride upon the word of truth;" this signifies to act from Divine good through Divine truth.

[10] In the same:

Thou hast made Him to be a little less than the angels, but thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor (Psalms 8:5). This also is said of the Lord; His state of humiliation is described by "thou hast made Him to be a little less than the angels," and His state of glorification by "thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor." "Glorifying" means uniting the Divine Itself to His Human, and also making His Human Divine.

[11] In Isaiah:

Rejoice, ye wilderness and dry place, and let the plain of the desert exult and blossom as the rose, in blossoming let it blossom and exalt; the glory of Lebanon has been given to it, the honor of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Jehovah, and the honor of our God (Isaiah 35:1, 2).

This treats of the enlightenment of the Gentiles; that ignorance of truth and good is signified by "the wilderness and the dry place;" their joy in consequence of instruction in truths and enlightenment is signified by "rejoicing, exulting, and blossoming;" "the glory of Lebanon given to them" signifies Divine truth; and "the honor of Carmel and Sharon" signifies Divine good which they receive; this is why it is also said "they shall see the glory of Jehovah, and the honor of our God."

[12] In Revelation:

The nations that have been saved shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor to it. And the glory and honor of the nations shall be brought into it (Revelation 21:24, 26).

This is said of the New Jerusalem, by which a new church in the heavens and on earth is signified; "nations" there signify all who are in good; and the "kings of the earth" all who are in truths from good; it is said of both that "they shall bring their glory and honor into it," which means worship from the good of love to the Lord and from the truths of faith which are from the good of charity towards the neighbor.