Sermon - Christmas Day - John 1:1-14

 

On Christmas Eve, we have the Nativity account from Luke 2, with the shepherds, the angels, the swaddling clothes and the manger.  It’s the Christmas story you see on greeting cards, and in children’s Christmas pageants.  We can picture it, even picture being there, visiting the manger and worshipping the newborn Christ alongside those shepherds.

But on Christmas Day, we read a different Nativity account, one that is admittedly a little harder to picture and imagine.  We come to John chapter 1, and hear this Gospel’s very distinct version of just how it is that Christ came into our world.  It’s less about the story, or the characters, or the events of the birth of Christ.  It’s much more about the theology, the deep and sublime meaning of Christ and his appearance among us. 

And not that the beauty and sentiment of Christmas are bad or wrong, but let’s appreciate the opportunity to dig a bit deeper this morning and join St. John in pondering the mystery of the word that became flesh and dwelled among us.

In just these first few verses John makes grand and foundational assertions about our Lord Jesus. 

John begins “in the beginning”, that is, before time itself.  Echoing the first words of Genesis, John’s Gospel roots Jesus’ birth right there with the beginning of all things.  For he is the beginning of all things. 

He, the Word, was, already, in the beginning.  In other words, he is eternal.  That’s one of the attributes of God, that he always was, always is, and always will be.

This eternal Word was with God, and was God.  Here John indicates (in part) the peculiarity of the divine nature – that we have a God who is not one person, but three.  Three distinct persons but only one God, a great mystery we confess as the Trinity. 

Here John shows us, that this living Word who became flesh also had a hand in creation.  It’s not just the Father who creates, but the Son is the agent of creation – the Word through whom all things were made.  We confess this in the Nicene Creed.  By him all things were made.  He is the agent of creation.

And he is also the one who has life.  “In him was life”, John says.  All life comes through him.  And even as we celebrate his birth, this new life born among us, yet the divine irony is all life is born from him and we can only be reborn in him.

The life that is in him – John further tells us is the light of men.  The light, not “a” light.  The one source of all that is good.  The one, the only one, who can show the way to truth and life.

And like the other Gospels, we have here mention of John the Baptist, but only briefly.  John the Baptist came as a witness, pointing to the light.  He and so many others have pointed to Christ, prepared the way for Christ, proclaimed the good news of Christ. 

And yet for all of that, some would not receive him.  Even his own people, for the most part, rejected him.  Even the world that he created, for the most part, did not receive him.

He had some followers, of course, even crowds at times.  But all would forsake him when the going got tough.  Even his inner circle of 12 scattered at his arrest.  And his own people, the Jews, handed him over to the Romans, and he was not received as the Christ, the eternal and living word.  But was rejected, crucified, done away with. Only after he destroyed death and rose again did he establish his church, and send his apostles to proclaim the good news to all nations.  The light simply had to shine.  The life had to be for the world.

To those who simply believe in him, and on the power of his name, he gives power – to become children of God.  He came, first as a child to accomplish all this, to bring us back, to make us children of God. 

In him, we are born, not of the flesh.  Though he was born in the flesh for us.  In him, we are born, not of the will of man, for man’s will is corrupt and defies God anyway.  No, he was born of the will of God, and by the power of God’s Spirit.  This is why he was conceived and born of a virgin – to show that no man can take credit for bringing the Christ into this world.  Only the gracious act of God, the will of God, could do it.

But look at this!  The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.  What a profound truth this is! 

When it comes to us, words are fleeting and failing.  We search for the right words and often say the wrong ones.  We forget words, we mangle words, we sometimes are at a loss for words.  We say, “actions speak louder than words,” and often we believe that.

But here comes a different word.  A word unlike any of our words.  A living word.  An eternal word.  A word that was always with God, because he was and is God.  A word by which all things, even you, were created.

But that word doesn’t just exist somewhere, out there, in the abstract void of philosophical intangibility.  That word becomes flesh.  Body and blood.  It’s oh, so real.  That word has DNA.  That word has internal organs, and a face, and little fingers and toes.  The word has a heart that pumps and lungs that breathe.  The word became flesh.  A little baby born in Bethlehem.  As real as it gets.

And his salvation for us is just as real.  He became flesh and dwelled among us, to bring that salvation in person.

What a strange day we live in when so much of life has become virtual.  You don’t have to shop in a store anymore.  You don’t even always have to visit your doctor in person.  And some would say, just watch your church and worship online – well, it’s better than nothing, but it’s not the ideal.  I don’t know how beneficial all this virtual life is, but we can certainly see some of its drawbacks.  And maybe, eventually, it will help us to appreciate all the more what is truly real.

But know this, the eternal Word that was God and was with God became flesh, for you.  Not virtually.  Not notionally.  Not symbolically.  But really, truly, in the flesh.  Incarnationally.

And that same living word is among us today by his promise.  His body and blood are given to us to eat and drink.  Dwelling among us in the Sacrament of the Altar, just as real as ever.  Which means so is his forgiveness, his life, and his salvation.

In him is life, and that life is the light of men, and of you and me.  So come and worship Christ the newborn king, the crucified and risen and ascended king.  The one who came, who comes, and who will come again in glory, full of grace and truth.