Christmas Day
December 25th, 2005
Text: John 1:14, I John 4:2, 3
In many and various ways God spoke to His people of old by the prophets, but now in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son. Dear Hearers of the Word made Flesh.
God is not at a distance. God is not somehow trapped in the supernatural so that He isn’t involved with the physical stuff of your daily life. God is not unaware of what it is like for us sinners to carry around this dying flesh. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.
What more can God do or say to show His love for us than this? THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. What other action could we recommend that would bring God closer to us than this: THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.
Christmas! The Nativity of our Lord! It is so simple and yet so astounding. It is so mysterious and so marvelous and like it or not, so messy. It is the heart of all that we believe and yet, humanly speaking, it is unbelievable. God with man is dwelling. God and man in one person has come to teach and feed His creatures. The eternal Word who at creation spoke and it came to be, was conceived by His own word in the womb of a virgin. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her. In David’s town a Son was born – the Savior of the world. Tiny, infant helplessness hides the Holy Lord of heavenly armies. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.
This is the core of God’s self-revelation. It is also the core of our true self-understanding. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. In so doing Jesus accomplished the miracle of the ages. In so doing, He also made an eternal claim on our bodies. Since God the Son now dwells in a human body, we cannot be truly spiritual and at the same time deny the importance of our bodily actions.
That gets to the heart of our sin which is to deny God’s claim on our bodies. A spiritualized Jesus is one thing, a Jesus whom we can keep at a distance away from the mess of our daily lives. A flesh and blood Jesus with skin and hair and sweat is quite another. That’s why it is crucial to remember that Christmas is not only a marvelous mystery, it is also a messy mystery. The manger in Bethlehem points to the messiness. Stables were not pleasant, hygienic places. The swaddling clothes point to that messiness. They weren’t colorful fashion pieces from Land’s End but simply the diapers of that day.
THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. The true humanity of Christ is so crucial that Scripture states that it is the spirit of the antichrist that denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (I John 4:2, 3). Anti in Greek means “In place of” or “instead of”. ANTICHRIST therefore first of all means someone who tries to take Christ’s place.
Someone like me! Someone like you! For we can get comfortable with a Christ who is way up in the air somewhere at a distance; someone to play games with in our minds. But we don’t easily abide a Christ who is so close as to know and care about every action of our body. We’d like to run our messy bodies in our own little ways as if we could take Christ’s place. Here, in the flesh, where my body is concerned, I’d like to handle things my own way, thank you.
For instance people say, “I’m only human. Getting smashed now and again isn’t so bad as long as I don’t drink and drive.” And Jesus says, “Be filled with the Spirit”. Or, people say, “I’m in a really serious relationship with my soul mate. Why shouldn’t we share our bodies and express this really spiritual thing that’s happening between us.” And Christ says, “Got a marriage license?” For God’s gift of marriage is always more than Caesar says it is but never less than Caesar says it is. With our flesh and blood bodies God says we are to keep the one flesh relationship of the marriage bed pure. Or somebody’s just sick in their soul over all the people whose lives have been torn apart by hurricanes or the unborn babies whose lives are ended in the womb or the homeless and the hungry. And Christ says, “Your prayers yes” but “Where’s your checkbook?” “How can the love of Christ dwell in you if you ignore those in need?” And many of you know with me what its like to have such a deep spiritual devotional life that in fact for days we are tempted not to take the eyes and mouths of our body and use them to read God’s Word for a few minutes and voice prayers for the needs of the Church and the world. And Christ says, “only one thing is needful”, “continue in My Word” and “pray and intercede for everyone”.
You see, when I handle things my way it never works! Who do I think I am? I may say I’m fine, but whatever delusions I’ve got on the inside, my body fleshes them out on the outside. And what a mess I make of it. When I look at the hard evidence in light of God’s holy will my life is an unmitigated mess. Look at what my mouth has actually said and what it didn’t say. Look at what the grey matter of my mind thinks and doesn’t think. Look at what my eyes have actually been content with and what they have actually coveted. Look at where my feet have gone and where they haven’t gone. Look at those I have hurt and those I have failed to help. I’m constantly tempted to make an idol of my body or the body of someone else. My attempts to be the ANTICHRIST, “the instead of Christ” are predictably pathetic. Look at the mess that I’m trying to run.
But to each of us in the middle of our messes God says “Merry Christmas”. It is that very mess that God got into when THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. He came to be Lord of the mess, Savior of the mess. There is no other Name under heaven by which we must be saved and He is involved with it all. From outside of space and time, THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US!
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…All things were made through him and without him was not any thing made that was made. That includes our bodies. In Him there is no separation between supernatural and natural, between spiritual and physical, between heaven and earth. You can’t keep His love for you at a distance in some kind of spiritual never-never land!
He made us and He sees us body and soul. He made us and He sees us trying to take His place in our lives, to do that antichrist number. He sees the whole mess of it. That’s why He came. He came to take our place who keep trying to take His place. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US to take our place with mouth and eyes and hands and feet. He came in the flesh right smack into the hard external evidence of what’s really going on in our souls. He took it all on Himself. He came in the flesh to bear what’s going on in our bodies, the whole ugly mess. The little baby in the manger had a body for one reason. That in His body He might bear the sins of our bodies on the tree of the cross. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Merry Christmas! Rightly understood, Christmas is so mysterious and so marvelous but also so very, very messy. His mouth got slapped for what comes out of ours. Whatever’s filled our eyes, His eyes were filled with tears and blood – for us. His back got ripped open with a whip for the burdens we refuse to bear. His hands got driven through with spikes for what my hands have done and didn’t do. His feet were pierced for where your feet have gone and haven’t gone. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.
The baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes gave way to the man Jesus stripped of all clothes and then wrapped in grave clothes with the mess of spices and a dead body. The baby Jesus laid in a manger gave way to the man Jesus whose body was laid in a garden tomb. And when He stepped out of the tomb on Easter morning He stepped out bodily. He rose physical with hands and feet and eyes and hair, just like He was born with – just like you and I were born with. “Touch me and see” He said. “A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39)
THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US to rescue us body and soul. He can’t be kept in faith at some spiritualized, sanitized distance. He has come to run our whole lives with His love. He’s not ashamed to come where the rubber meets the road. He baptizes precious human skin and hair to bring us with Him bodily into a new creation. He puts into our mouths and stomachs bread and wine which is the very body and the very blood which was nestled in the manger and lifted up on the cross. The eternal word is still flesh and blood. He comes into our mess again this morning to clean it up and to prepare for us at eternal place without mess. He loves us with an undeserved love that is mysterious and marvelous and messy.
The mysterious and marvelous parts are forever, but not the messy part. He is the firstfruits of those who are raised. You will follow after Him soul and body. Too messy you say! Not for His precious blood to cleanse. Not for His love to claim! When death comes, the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; (I Cor. 15:42-44).
Dear Christians, THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US …FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH. THE WORD MADE FLESH STILL DWELLS AMONG US TO GIVE US HIS GRACE AND TRUTH. He is Lord of the mess until the mess is no more. Merry Christmas - in the Name of Jesus; AMEN.
Text: John 1:14, I John 4:2, 3
In many and various ways God spoke to His people of old by the prophets, but now in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son. Dear Hearers of the Word made Flesh.
God is not at a distance. God is not somehow trapped in the supernatural so that He isn’t involved with the physical stuff of your daily life. God is not unaware of what it is like for us sinners to carry around this dying flesh. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.
What more can God do or say to show His love for us than this? THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. What other action could we recommend that would bring God closer to us than this: THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.
Christmas! The Nativity of our Lord! It is so simple and yet so astounding. It is so mysterious and so marvelous and like it or not, so messy. It is the heart of all that we believe and yet, humanly speaking, it is unbelievable. God with man is dwelling. God and man in one person has come to teach and feed His creatures. The eternal Word who at creation spoke and it came to be, was conceived by His own word in the womb of a virgin. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her. In David’s town a Son was born – the Savior of the world. Tiny, infant helplessness hides the Holy Lord of heavenly armies. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.
This is the core of God’s self-revelation. It is also the core of our true self-understanding. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. In so doing Jesus accomplished the miracle of the ages. In so doing, He also made an eternal claim on our bodies. Since God the Son now dwells in a human body, we cannot be truly spiritual and at the same time deny the importance of our bodily actions.
That gets to the heart of our sin which is to deny God’s claim on our bodies. A spiritualized Jesus is one thing, a Jesus whom we can keep at a distance away from the mess of our daily lives. A flesh and blood Jesus with skin and hair and sweat is quite another. That’s why it is crucial to remember that Christmas is not only a marvelous mystery, it is also a messy mystery. The manger in Bethlehem points to the messiness. Stables were not pleasant, hygienic places. The swaddling clothes point to that messiness. They weren’t colorful fashion pieces from Land’s End but simply the diapers of that day.
THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. The true humanity of Christ is so crucial that Scripture states that it is the spirit of the antichrist that denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (I John 4:2, 3). Anti in Greek means “In place of” or “instead of”. ANTICHRIST therefore first of all means someone who tries to take Christ’s place.
Someone like me! Someone like you! For we can get comfortable with a Christ who is way up in the air somewhere at a distance; someone to play games with in our minds. But we don’t easily abide a Christ who is so close as to know and care about every action of our body. We’d like to run our messy bodies in our own little ways as if we could take Christ’s place. Here, in the flesh, where my body is concerned, I’d like to handle things my own way, thank you.
For instance people say, “I’m only human. Getting smashed now and again isn’t so bad as long as I don’t drink and drive.” And Jesus says, “Be filled with the Spirit”. Or, people say, “I’m in a really serious relationship with my soul mate. Why shouldn’t we share our bodies and express this really spiritual thing that’s happening between us.” And Christ says, “Got a marriage license?” For God’s gift of marriage is always more than Caesar says it is but never less than Caesar says it is. With our flesh and blood bodies God says we are to keep the one flesh relationship of the marriage bed pure. Or somebody’s just sick in their soul over all the people whose lives have been torn apart by hurricanes or the unborn babies whose lives are ended in the womb or the homeless and the hungry. And Christ says, “Your prayers yes” but “Where’s your checkbook?” “How can the love of Christ dwell in you if you ignore those in need?” And many of you know with me what its like to have such a deep spiritual devotional life that in fact for days we are tempted not to take the eyes and mouths of our body and use them to read God’s Word for a few minutes and voice prayers for the needs of the Church and the world. And Christ says, “only one thing is needful”, “continue in My Word” and “pray and intercede for everyone”.
You see, when I handle things my way it never works! Who do I think I am? I may say I’m fine, but whatever delusions I’ve got on the inside, my body fleshes them out on the outside. And what a mess I make of it. When I look at the hard evidence in light of God’s holy will my life is an unmitigated mess. Look at what my mouth has actually said and what it didn’t say. Look at what the grey matter of my mind thinks and doesn’t think. Look at what my eyes have actually been content with and what they have actually coveted. Look at where my feet have gone and where they haven’t gone. Look at those I have hurt and those I have failed to help. I’m constantly tempted to make an idol of my body or the body of someone else. My attempts to be the ANTICHRIST, “the instead of Christ” are predictably pathetic. Look at the mess that I’m trying to run.
But to each of us in the middle of our messes God says “Merry Christmas”. It is that very mess that God got into when THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. He came to be Lord of the mess, Savior of the mess. There is no other Name under heaven by which we must be saved and He is involved with it all. From outside of space and time, THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US!
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…All things were made through him and without him was not any thing made that was made. That includes our bodies. In Him there is no separation between supernatural and natural, between spiritual and physical, between heaven and earth. You can’t keep His love for you at a distance in some kind of spiritual never-never land!
He made us and He sees us body and soul. He made us and He sees us trying to take His place in our lives, to do that antichrist number. He sees the whole mess of it. That’s why He came. He came to take our place who keep trying to take His place. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US to take our place with mouth and eyes and hands and feet. He came in the flesh right smack into the hard external evidence of what’s really going on in our souls. He took it all on Himself. He came in the flesh to bear what’s going on in our bodies, the whole ugly mess. The little baby in the manger had a body for one reason. That in His body He might bear the sins of our bodies on the tree of the cross. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Merry Christmas! Rightly understood, Christmas is so mysterious and so marvelous but also so very, very messy. His mouth got slapped for what comes out of ours. Whatever’s filled our eyes, His eyes were filled with tears and blood – for us. His back got ripped open with a whip for the burdens we refuse to bear. His hands got driven through with spikes for what my hands have done and didn’t do. His feet were pierced for where your feet have gone and haven’t gone. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.
The baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes gave way to the man Jesus stripped of all clothes and then wrapped in grave clothes with the mess of spices and a dead body. The baby Jesus laid in a manger gave way to the man Jesus whose body was laid in a garden tomb. And when He stepped out of the tomb on Easter morning He stepped out bodily. He rose physical with hands and feet and eyes and hair, just like He was born with – just like you and I were born with. “Touch me and see” He said. “A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39)
THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US to rescue us body and soul. He can’t be kept in faith at some spiritualized, sanitized distance. He has come to run our whole lives with His love. He’s not ashamed to come where the rubber meets the road. He baptizes precious human skin and hair to bring us with Him bodily into a new creation. He puts into our mouths and stomachs bread and wine which is the very body and the very blood which was nestled in the manger and lifted up on the cross. The eternal word is still flesh and blood. He comes into our mess again this morning to clean it up and to prepare for us at eternal place without mess. He loves us with an undeserved love that is mysterious and marvelous and messy.
The mysterious and marvelous parts are forever, but not the messy part. He is the firstfruits of those who are raised. You will follow after Him soul and body. Too messy you say! Not for His precious blood to cleanse. Not for His love to claim! When death comes, the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; (I Cor. 15:42-44).
Dear Christians, THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US …FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH. THE WORD MADE FLESH STILL DWELLS AMONG US TO GIVE US HIS GRACE AND TRUTH. He is Lord of the mess until the mess is no more. Merry Christmas - in the Name of Jesus; AMEN.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
12/29/2005
