Christmas Day Sermon

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Newborn King +

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and [God was the Word.] John would have us return to Genesis 1 as he begins his Gospel, because if you want to understand Jesus, if you want to understand this Babe lying in the manager, if you want to understand this Man who preaches and heals and performs signs, if you want to understand the Cross and what it means, you have to understand the beginning. We, like any good pious Christian who would have heard John preach, know how Genesis starts. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Yes, God creates, and then He takes His creation and He speaks, and in His speaking He creates order. Light is separated from darkness, earth from the wider realms of space, land from sea, the sea creatures brought forth from the waters, the land producing plants and animals – and all by God speaking, all by the Word of God going forth as the Spirit moves through it all.

    And John knows that it is hard enough to wrap our minds around the idea of “God” - and John knows that it is even harder and more mysterious to wrap your mind around the fact that God is One and Three at the same time – when the Gospel of John is written the term “Trinity” that is our namesake here hadn't even been coined yet. But if you are going to understand who Jesus is and what He is doing, you have to understand something. So, remember the beginning? Remember that Word that created – well, that Word is God and God is that Word – there a mysterious unity and distinction – but the Word is with God and God also is the Word. He was in the beginning with God. And God and the Word and the Word and God (and the Spirit too, but that's another conversation) have always been together, since the beginning, since before anything existed, before anything was created.

    And this Word is vital – All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Creation happens this way. God creates via the Word. It is the Word who takes creation and imposes order, reason, logic, clarity on it. And this stands out more if you under that the word for Word here in Greek is “Logos” - from which we get “logic” or “-ology” as in the “study of something” - or “logo” as in the sign that lets you know what something is. The Word, the Logos creates creation in an orderly fashion – Thy Strong Word did cleave the darkness, at Thy speaking it was done. Everything that is made, everything that is good, every sense of order and stability in the entire cosmos comes about by the Word working.

    In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the pinnacle of creation, the pinnacle of all that the Word had spoken and ordered into being was man. Why? Because life, real life, living life – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. That life was in the Word, and the Spirit was sent, proceeded from the Word, and then you have man – made in the image, the likeness of God. You have order put forth and woman brought about – both male and female in the image and likeness of God – the Glory of God was shown to all creation in the life that was Adam and Eve – who would care for all that the Word had created, who would themselves participate in creation with the two becoming one flesh and then new life, new people, in the image and likeness of God coming forth. This was the working of the Word – and it was good, very good. And the Word who was with God and God who was the Word would come and walk amongst His creation and talk to His Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.
That was the point. The point of all creation, the goal, the reason was so that God Himself would make man and be able to give man blessing upon blessing and chat with man, be with man. That is what the Word did, that was what all of that Creative Speaking of the Word was driving at – Immanuel. God with us.

    Yet we know how the story goes. One day – we don't know when, instead of listening to the Word of God, instead of delighting in His Order and how He had created, Adam and Eve listened to Satan, and sin and darkness and death came crashing in. Man started making divisions that the Word hadn't made, and all that order that God had spoken began to fall apart. Terror where there had been nothing to be terrified of. Shame where there had been nothing to be ashamed of. A giant pall cast over creation. And the Word walks in the garden and calls out, “Adam, where are you?” And the conversation that follows is utterly sad – like speaking to small children trying to pretend that they hadn't broken the cookie jar. This is Adam – the LORD God had brought all the animals to Adam and Adam had named them, organized them – of course he had because He was made in the image and likeness of the Word, the Logos, the ordering-speaking reality of God. And now, Adam is reduced to a blame casting blithering idiot. That's the fall, that's the wreck and ruin. That's the darkness of that day. But it was not complete darkness. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And there was the promise, the promise that the Word would not abandon His creation now corrupted, not abandon Adam and Eve, not leave mankind to drift. No, there would be a day where one of this woman's offspring would be God Himself, the Word made Flesh, and He would come and fix things. He'd defeat and crush Satan and remake and restore His creation, His Adam, His Eve.

    Years passed. Countless lives and histories unfolded. But through all of them sin and death ran. The genealogies ended with, “and he died.” And wickedness spread and grew worse. Even a flood doesn't fix it. Even confusing the language doesn't fix it – it only limits the wickedness we can get up to – like a parent sending kids to different rooms so they don't get into more trouble together. And God would come and He would be with people – He would visit His friend Abraham – but it wasn't like it was in the beginning. He couldn't be with people fully – sinful man couldn't bear it. Abraham couldn't, Moses couldn't, Elijah couldn't. Isaiah the prophet saw Him in a vision and was sure he was a dead man - Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts! Do not worry, Isaiah, the LORD will cover you, and through you He would proclaim His coming. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. There would come a day when the LORD would come, when we would have Immanuel, God with us, but God with us in a way that we could stand, that we could endure. The Word would become one of us so as to be able to be with us.

    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Of course John did... Jesus was John's friend. They ate together, they laughed and joked together – half the time I think John writes his Gospel because he just wanted to tell fun stories of his time with his friend Jesus – the camaraderie and joshing that goes on amongst Jesus and the disciples in John is fantastic. And real. And beautiful, because it is God with man, God with His creation. But the Word didn't come just to have some friends for a short time – no, John sees His Glory – and whenever John speaks of Glory in His Gospel it drives to the Cross. Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” And again, Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of the this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to Myself.” This is Christ's Glory – that He goes to the Cross to redeem, to rescue, to fix, to restore His people. To rescue you. It is finished, hear Him cry.

    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God does not abandon you on account of your sin. Instead, He becomes man and suffers and dies and rises to rescue and restore and forgive and redeem you. Because He had created the whole universe just to give it to you, and to be with you, and to delight in it with you. And man, doesn't sin just tarnish and twist and tear apart everything. That's what Jesus came to fix, to undo. That's what this celebration today is all about. Jesus, the Word made Flesh, to redeem you. Oh, my friends, we know what is coming, but we really have no idea – we can't comprehend what the resurrection, what the new heavens will be like – but Jesus came, and He will come again to ensure that you will, that you will know and talk and eat and dwell with the Lord for all eternity. On account of this, a hearty and merry Christmas to you all. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Newborn King +