The Feast of the Incarnation (Christmas Day) 2014

Rev. Carl M. Saxton, II 

John 1.1-18

This prologue to the Gospel of John is a Christmas story unlike the one we are familiar with.  In our experience the story of Christ’s birth is a story of the Holy Family’s search for safety and comfort.  We know the story of the angel announcing to Mary that she would conceive a child by “the Power of the Most High.”  We know the story of an angel coming to Joseph in a dream and assuring him that the child Mary carried was of God and that he, Joseph, had been entrusted to keep that child safe.  We’ve heard, all our lives, the story of Joseph and Mary returning to Joseph’s hometown in order to be counted for Roman tax purposes.  How the pregnant Mary and Christ’s foster father were forced to take shelter in a stable.  How the angels appeared to shepherds to announce the birth of the Savior, and the coming of the Three gentile Wise Me or Kings.  We know the story of Herod, who terrorized the mothers of Bethlehem in his bid to ensure his position of power and the Holy Family fleeing into Egypt to avoid Herod’s wrath.

Matthew and Luke tell us these details of the life and time surrounding the Holy Family at Christ’s birth.  They give us what we, as men and women, want to know about Jesus’ birth and early days.  Even now, two thousand years later, one of the first things we ask new people when we meet them is, ‘Where do you come from?  Where did you grow up?  Where’s your family from?’  It is a deep-rooted part of our nature that we need to know about origins - our’s and other people’s.  That’s the question Matthew and Luke were answering in their recounting of shepherds, angels, dreams, the stable, and the manger.

John is answering a completely different question.  For John, the real truth of Christ’s birth lie not in the earthly details of Joseph and Mary’s search for a place to sleep and eventual flight into Egypt...the real truth lies in the spiritual reality of who Christ is and where He came from.  John’s Christmas story highlights the heart of the Christmas story: the good news that God's amazing love for us is expressed in the birth of Mary's son. We have come to call this time of year Christmas (Christ’s Mass) but, even today the Church’s name for this most important feast is the Feast of the Incarnation.  It is the mystery of the Incarnation which John expressed in these words: 

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.

The Word became flesh. The Word, or in Greek the Λόγος (logos), was a term used in the ancient philosophies of Plato and the Stoics. John’s use of the term is probably more influenced by Jewish and Early Christian understandings.  The Jewish author Philo, who was probably a contemporary of John the Evangelist, used Λόγος to refer to the generative or creative force of God.  But the Fourth Gospel says that the Word lived in community with God, and at the same time was God. The Word was eternal, existing at the beginning of time. The Word was the very creative essence of God, through whom all things were made. The Word was the source of light--that is, of goodness and truth--and of life at every level. 

The Word became flesh; what an amazing thing!! If you really think about it...it’s impossible to wrap your mind around.  It’s that ‘not being able to understand the things of God’ that we call a divine mystery.  We call it the Incarnation, but Incarnation is really too limited a term to encapsulate such a mystery. Incarnation means "putting on a body." But, the Word became flesh means the Word took on our entire human nature. The Word became one of us; except for sin, totally human. In that child born in Bethlehem, nothing human was lacking. He had a body just like ours, He had a mind like ours. He had emotions like ours. At birth he was a real baby, totally dependent on his parents. He became a real child, who had to learn how to walk and talk and read and write. He went through puberty, just like we do, and turned from a boy into a man. He learned the trade of carpentry from Joseph and only honed his skills through hard work and practice. Jesus was completely one of us, a human being.

The Word became flesh. Both sides of this statement of one of the central mysteries of our faith are important, and we need to hold tightly to both of them. The Son of God became a human being and lived a human life among other humans. That's the first part of the Christmas story, the part that gets the attention at this time of year, and it’s really important. Sometimes, though, we try to separate God from the hustle and bustle of human life, as if God has nothing to do with the messiness of life as we know it. The Incarnation tells, shows us, proves to us that we can't do that, because God came into our world as one of us, and nothing earthly or human is beyond His experience.

There's also a second part to John’s Christmas story: we have seen God's glory. That's what John tells us. What does John mean by that? Is he talking about some special, unique part of Jesus' life and ministry? I don't think so. I think that the glory of God was revealed in Jesus’ life. His disciples, who knew him best, saw that he was full of grace and truth.

Jesus reflected and radiated the unconditional love of God. He loved the Pharisee and the tax-collector, the Jew and the Samaritan, the lovely and the unlovely, the sinner and the righteous. His love was never a reaction to the love of others; he reached out even to those who hated him. He displayed God's grace. He offered acceptance and salvation to Zaccheus, the outcast tax-collector. He challenged the rich young man to escape the slavery of riches. His lament over Jerusalem, when he cried

Jerusalem, Jerusalem!...How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  [Matthew 23.37-39]

was a plaintive expression of God's love and grace. Even his words to Judas at the moment when Judas betrayed him, ‘Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?’ expressed deep love and concern.

Jesus expressed the absolute faithfulness of God--and faithfulness is central to the Hebrew idea of truth. You could depend on Jesus. You could depend on Jesus to satisfy needs: to feed the hungry, heal the sick, bless the children, cast out demons, raise the dead, break the chains of sin. Jesus was utterly dependable: he reflected the righteousness, justice, wisdom, and truth of God the Father. When the disciples saw Jesus in action, they saw God with a human face.

So in this Christmas season we need to be open to the continued work of God in Jesus Christ. For the Christmas story does not end in Bethlehem. It goes on. It includes the death and resurrection of Jesus. It includes everything that made Jesus the one who would save people from their sins. It includes the fact that Jesus is still alive with God, that Jesus is still active, that Jesus is still reflecting the grace and truth of God to those who are willing to receive it.

We are here today because we believe that God is still working through Jesus Christ. Right? We're here because we believe that Jesus Christ can satisfy the needs in our lives and in our world. Even if you have doubts and questions about Jesus and about Christianity, being here today says that you haven't closed your mind to the possibility that God is still working through Jesus Christ.

God works through Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ works through us. That’s why we celebrate the Holy Eucharist. In the Eucharist Jesus comes to us, Jesus meets with us, Jesus feeds us with his grace. The Eucharist is an extension of the mystery of the Incarnation, of Christ’s coming to us in humble and earthly form. As we receive the consecrated bread and wine we confess that Jesus is alive, that he is still with us, that he makes it possible for us to live as he lived.  When we strive to live as Jesus lived, reflecting the unconditional love and the incredible faithfulness of God, then Christmas will truly continue here in our world and in our lives; and Emmanuel, God with us, becomes our everyday reality. ‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us’ - thanks be to God for the mystery of the Incarnation - the joining of humanity and the grace and truth of God.