DEC 25, 2011  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

John 1:1-14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 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.

Thus far the text.

You know dear friends, when John tells the story of Christmas in His Gospel, he starts the story with God far away. That’s what makes the opening verses of his Gospel sound so strange to us, and why it’s far easier to preach a sermon on the story of Christmas from Luke. Christmas is about the Baby born in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. John starts out with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

So after the pageantry and hubbub of angels and shepherds on Christmas Eve we start out Christmas Day with the "egghead"-sounding truth that Jesus is the Word. Furthermore, Jesus is God because the Word is God. All of that’s a mystery beyond your solving, but it’s also true and good: God creates by means of His Word. In the beginning, He said "Let there be light," and there was light. John adds in this Christmas Gospel that as God was creating by His Word, all things were made through Jesus, the Word, who is also God. Apart from Him, nothing was made that is made. This is all very true and this is all very good.

It is also all very far away.

God also uses His Word to tell people about Himself, about your sin and mine, and His will for all of us. As the Word, Jesus tells you who God is, as well as about your sin and His will for all of you. But by itself, all of that is far away. Imagine you’ve fallen down a deep well, with no hope of getting out on your own; and imagine that someone stands at the top of the well and shouts down, "I know you’re there. I am doing well up here. If you were up here, you’d be doing fine, too." All of that is true and good. But none it helps you because it’s far away. Words can travel a long distance, say, down a well. But the fact that you hear words doesn’t mean a rescuer is near at hand.

Jesus isn’t just the Word. The Gospel lesson also calls Him the Light—the true Light, which enlightens everyone. Light is a good thing: being alone is only made worse by being alone in the dark. Light enlightens, exposes danger, gives sight and warmth and comfort. But light travels, too: the light that shines on you can be far away. Imagine you’re back down that well again, and the one at the top shines a powerful flashlight down so that you can see your surroundings and see where you need to be. It’s nice to be enlightened, but the source of the light is still far away. To see light far away doesn’t mean you’re safe.

It’s not just that words and light can be far away, but also that they’re pretty abstract. You can’t tie a bunch of words around you or climb up a ladder of light to safety.

Thirdly the Gospel states that life is in Jesus: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." If you want to be alive, Jesus is the One to give you life. But so far in the Gospel of John, He’s far away.

That is what a lot of religion does, it leaves God far away, where He’s up there with life you’re down here in need; where He sends down words and light to tell you what to do and to show you the way up to Him. After that, it’s up to you to get busy getting closer to God. The variations start from there: you get closer to God by doing good things, or by meditating until you’ve lifted yourself up to Him or brought Him down into your consciousness or your heart. Or perhaps you get closer to God by growing in knowledge—you think your way up to God.

John had this in mind when he wrote this Gospel by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He was writing at a time when the young Church was under attack by a false religion called Gnosticism. The Gnostics taught that God was very holy, very pure—and very far away.

They taught that you had a chance of escaping this world and getting way up to God as long as you had enough of their secret knowledge. They also taught that, because God was so very holy and pure, there was no way that God would ever stoop to step foot in the muck and mud of this sinful world.

If you think about it, you might find yourself thinking along these lines more than you realize. You might well find yourself thinking that you’ve got to pull yourself out of the muck and the mud, that you’ve got to get up to God who seems so distant, along with His life and His light. Beaten down, you might consider God to be unreachable, untouchable... so, so far away.

But the miracle of Christmas that we celebrate here is that God didn’t stay far away. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Jesus Christ, the Word and the Light, became flesh. He came near. That Baby in the manger—that newborn Baby is the Son of God, begotten by the Father from eternity. Mary put a diaper on her creator. That Infant, who had yet to discover that he had fingers, was already preserving the world.

The Son of God became man. He descended into this world with all of its mud and its muck. And behold His humble entrance! He was not born to royalty, but to young Mary from stinky little old Nazareth; not born in a palace, but a stable. His first visitors were not rulers and dignitaries who had come to pay their respects, but a bunch of scruffy shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks—the ones who got stuck with the night shift, no less.

That is how His life as man began, and it would not get to be any more glamorous. He was not going to schedule a ten-city tour, hit the hot spots and return to heaven during a prime time special. He didn’t come to generate buzz and collect some well-deserved worship, or to show you what it’s like to really live. He didn’t even come to give mankind the what-for, to tell them what they ought to be doing instead of the sins they keep miring in. And that means that He did not come here to tell people how to make their way up to God. No, Jesus came down into the world for something completely different, and the Gospel lesson tells you what.

He came to bring you grace upon grace.

Not just grace... No, but "grace upon grace"—more than you would ever need. When Isaiah prophesied of the coming of Jesus in Isaiah 40, he declared: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins" (Isaiah 40:1-2). Double for all her sins: not double the judgment, but double the grace! In His incarnation, the Lord came to comfort—to comfort by pardoning iniquity and forgiving sins.

And what did He do in the flesh so that He might give you grace upon grace? You know: He didn’t stay a baby. He grew up and went to the cross. That One who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger for you would be wrapped in a burial shroud and laid in a tomb for you. Because He’s fully man, He came to die in man’s place for sin. Because He’s fully God, He died for the sins of all.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The enormity of this miracle is so great that I think that you can easily dismiss it because you do not realize the treasure that the Lord gives. God does not stay far away. He made Himself known. He made Himself known not by a glorious apparition or a thundering voice from the sky, but by becoming flesh. He became man to save man! He was sinless and did not have to die, but His flesh was fragile all the same. He needed to be nursed and carried as an infant. He needed to be clothed against cold. He would grow hungry, tired, sad. And, astonishingly, He willingly had a pull-able beard, a scourge-able back, nail-able hands and feet, and a pierce-able side.

In other words, He didn’t just become man. He became the least of all. God become man to be condemned for man’s sin…by God.

Then He did what man couldn’t do: He rose again from the dead. Why? To do what you can’t do: raise you from the dead. You can’t get up to God, so God came down to you so that He can raise you up to Him. That’s the miracle of Christmas.

Here is a blessing not be taken lightly: if you want to know God, look at Jesus. The Gospel lesson declares, "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known." Our epistle adds this: "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the Word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3) Jesus is the Son of God: and while He is a distinct person from God the Father, both Father and Son are one true God. You do not have to wonder about the Father’s disposition toward you: you look to the Son, and you know all that God the Father reveals to you about Himself. There’s no possibility that the Father hates you and the Son loves you, or vice versa: the Son makes the Father known to you.

This is huge for salvation. Salvation it is not the impossible task of you getting to a faraway God. God comes to you to save you in Christ. In fact, the Word made flesh still dwells among us, for Christ is as near as His Word and His Sacraments. Furthermore, because He has become flesh, you can be sure He does not regard you to be as foreign a being as you might view our lovely cutworm infestation.

No, the writer to the Hebrews declares, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). And then it adds, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). Not just grace—but grace upon grace.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God did not stay far away, nor does He now. May this miracle undergird your Christmas celebrations, as well as your meditations. You’re not left at the bottom of the well, with only distant words and light and a far-off God. Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us to draw you to Him.

To speak His Word to you. To give you His light. To raise you up to everlasting life. He is God-in-the-flesh and "God with us;" and because He is, you can be certain that Christ is Risen.

A blessed Merry Christmas to all of you!