The Nativity of Our Lord: December 25, 2005.

Isaiah 52:7-10

Psalm 98

Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)

John 1:1-14

First Reading

Perhaps we could term the theme that suggests itself in this morning's texts "Salvation in plain sight"--the proclamation that God has come down to us in human form that we all might "taste and see" that God is so very good to us. One of the great blessings of Christmas, and at least one of the reasons why Christmas Eve services are always packed, is that at Christmas time we are privileged to receive God's revelation "in plain sight." So many other times of the year, God comes to us in mystery, working in ways we cannot understand, working through pain and disappointments we wish to avoid; thus many times it is hard for us to "see" God at work in our lives. But at Christmas, with the beautiful image of Emmanuel, the Word made flesh, so vividly before us, we cannot fail to appreciate and rejoice in God's great love for us, love that took on our humanity to free humanity from sin and death. At Christmas time, the whole world is reminded that God is at work for good in the world, that God has not turned God's back on creation, that miracles do still happen. This is a message that we sorely need to hear.

The Isaiah passage proclaims the joy of a people delivered, a people who have seen exile, a people who have seen the destruction of Jerusalem and their forced diaspora. Where earlier in Isaiah the prophet spoke of judgment and exile, now God has words of comfort, rescue, and restoration. As Christians, we too hear with joy God's message of the Lord's salvation. Walter Brueggemann, in his excellent two-volume commentary on Isaiah, describes the similarity between how Israel has experienced God's deliverance in their own history as God's chosen people and how Christians have understood God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ. Brueggemann writes,

That claim [that is shared by both Jews and Christians] is that both
Jews and Christians have seen in their own history, in quite particular
ways, the capacity and willingness of this God to do something new
through suffering. This claim, verified for Jews in the restoration of
Zion and for Christians in the life of Jesus, is a deeply inscrutable
claim that speaks powerfully against common worldly insistencies that
suffering is a dead end with no future and that there is no newness,
only endless derivations. Newness through suffering is the gospel that
attests to the power of God at work through human weakness to bring to
fruition God's intention for the world. (Brueggemann, Isaiah 40-66
[Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998], 144; emphases added)

The reading from Hebrews also emphasizes this connection between the two traditions, linking the words God spoke to God's people through the prophets "long ago" and the words God speaks to us "in these last days" in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself is God-made-flesh, "the exact imprint of God's very being," and therefore Jesus himself is the embodiment of God's promised deliverance. Jesus does not just speak the word of God; Jesus himself is the Word of God, as testified by John, and therefore he personifies the continuation and further unfolding of God's cosmic plan of salvation for the world in his very flesh. How beautiful indeed are the feet of the one who announces the coming of the Lord into creation!

Pastoral Reflection

Today will be an interesting Sunday. Most of your parishioners will have been in church last night for Christmas Eve services, perhaps even to a late evening candlelight service, so there is a chance that your pews might be a bit emptier than normal today--which is ironic, of course! I think the challenge of today's sermon is to move beyond the manger, beyond the shepherds, into an appreciation of the abiding presence of Christ that fills our lives not only today but the other 364 days of the year as well.

With that in mind, there is one theme in particular in the reading from John that I'd like to lift up, and that is God's ever-present nearness to us. One of the most beautiful revelations about God in this text is that while God could have chosen to remain distant from us, God did not. Instead, in Christ, God has drawn near to us and now resides closer to us than we are to ourselves, with us at all times and in all places. God could have chosen to love us from afar, but God did not. In Christ, God chose to love us not as a benevolent ruler loves her subjects from the safety of her castle but rather as a parent loves her beloved sons and daughters. God could have chosen to let us fend for ourselves on this earth, wandering around lost in the darkness, but God did not. In Christ, God chose to walk right next to us, holding our hand and lighting our way, keeping us safe and warm from right close by. It is really quite amazing, and quite miraculous, to have a God who loves us and cares for us like that. In Christ, God comes to us not just in Word and Spirit but in flesh and blood, becoming one of us to save us. KJL