Reason for Season

There was once a woman who hated Christmas. Many years earlier she’d fallen out with her daughter who had left slamming the door behind her and saying she wanted nothing more to do with her mother. The woman hadn’t seen or heard from her daughter since that day. Every Christmas the woman nursed a secret hope that this would be the year her daughter would come home. But she never did.

Then came the moment when the woman decided to stop waiting and take things into her own hands. It wasn’t hard in this age of the internet to track her daughter down. She lived in Chicago where she was a lecturer. She made up her mind to go to Chicago for Christmas, to find her daughter, and to offer the olive branch.

It wasn’t easy. She didn’t have much money and she was scared of flying, but such was her resolution to see her daughter again she knew that she’d just have to get over it.

She’d thought that getting the money and making the flight would be the hard part, but in actual fact that was the easy part. The difficult thing was getting up the courage to knock on her daughter’s front door. What if her daughter slammed the door in her face? What if this whole thing had been a waste of time and effort? She must have walked backwards and forwards in front of that house a dozen times, before she finally got up the nerve to ring the doorbell.

Now this story has two possible endings. First, it has the Christmassy “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “Miracle on 34th Street” ending. With that ending the daughter takes the mother in her arms, swings her round, calls for the children and her husband, and tears start streaming down her face as she says, “My mother’s here for Christmas” as mysteriously the strains of “Auld Lang Syne” begin in the back ground. After years of separation they are finally reconciled. That’s the first possible ending.

But of course there is another possible ending. The second is the “life is not a fairy tale” type of ending. In this ending the daughter slams the door in her mother’s face, leaving her alone and friendless in a strange city on Christmas Eve, unsure of what to do or where to go. Now after time, energy, money, and resolve she remains estranged from her daughter.

While we all have a preference to how this story ends, both are possible and both are played out around the world most every day.

The Christmas story is like this too. By this I don’t mean the nativity story, the virgin mother, the angels and shepherds, there isn’t much similarity there but the other story, the story behind the nativity. It’s the Christmas story which John tells us in his gospel. We may not think of John 1 when thinking about the Christmas story, but it tells us about when God took on human flesh and became a man – which is the Christmas story. Here’s how John tells the story.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)

The Word became flesh, that is God the became human. It is crucial that we grasp this. It’s like the beginning of Charles Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” when we’re told that Marley was dead. The story won’t make sense if you don’t understand that Scrooge’s partner Marley is dead. Similarly, the Christmas story doesn’t make sense if we don’t understand that it’s about God, the creator of the universe, coming to earth and taking on human flesh. The baby Jesus is God in human form. Or as John put it, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God became a person.

But why? Why would God do that? The answer is the same answer that drove the woman to Chicago to look for her daughter. God wanted to be reconciled with the people he had made. We sing about it the Christmas carol “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing:”

Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.

That’s what Christmas is all about. There had been an estrangement, a falling out, a break down in communication. Like the daughter in the story, human beings had turned their back on God, ignored his advice, and gone their own sweet way. That’s the reason why it was necessary for God to become man.

Perhaps God waited for people to come to their senses, thinking if he gave them the Ten Commandments and the law maybe then they would return to him. Perhaps if he send prophets to speak his word to them they would see the error of their ways. But they didn’t return to him.

God knew from the moment the estrangement happened what would be necessary to effect a reconciliation and sent the law and prophets to prepare the people for what would happen.

He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. (1 Peter 1:20)

And what happened was that God went looking for his lost people. He marched right into their world and said "Here I am. Do you want to make up? Come on then follow me." He said it to every-one, people who thought they were religious and good, people who knew that they were sinners.

And St John tells us that people either recognised him or they didn’t. Some of the religious people didn’t recognise him wanted nothing to do with him. He says “He came to what was his own and his own people didn’t accept him.”

But other people did receive him, and they got the Happy Ending. They get to be Children of God. For John continues “To all who receive him who believe in his name he gave power to become children of God. They are reconciled they become part of God’s family.

This Christmas we face an identical choice, for Jesus reaches out to us, as he did then. There is a wonderful image in the Book of Revelation, of Jesus standing at the door and knocking. It’s the image that Holman Hunt based his painting the light of the world. That’s the choice we face do we answer the door, or keep it shut.

That first Christmas God made the journey from the divine to the human, from eternity into time, from being all powerful to being a tiny vulnerable infant. And he did it because he wanted a reconciliation; a reconciliation with you and with me and with all people. Some recognised him and received him, some didn’t. Which ending will you choose to this story?

But this morning I want us to consider the theological implications. So turn with me to the first chapter of the gospel of John. As we go through this series I want us to look at how we respond to Christmas. How do we respond to the historical events? And how do we respond to the theology?

We may not think of John 1 when thinking about the Christmas story, but it tells us about Jesus becoming flesh and living among us – which is the Christmas story.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)

So what is the theology of Christmas? Why did God leave his heavenly home, take on flesh, and humbly live among the people he created? Lets read verse 14 again. Listen for three words: word, flesh, and dwelt. In these three words we find the theology of Christmas.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

First, the Word reveals.

What does it reveal? – clearest revelation of who we are – until word spoken we can make assumptions but don’t really know

Ro 1:20 (NIV) & Ps 19:1-2 (NIV) – creation itself proclaims there is a God – things can be known about God but w/o the Word you don’t really know God completely

Ie – used to jog/walk the roads – different time people stopped to ask if I needed a ride – probably saw my shape assumed - all cleared up when I said: just getting some exercise

I walked into VA ER to see patient, had to wait – do you need to be checked in: must looked sick – spoke no just need Rm#

You don’t really know person til they speak – God Spoke

Jesus is the Word – You can’t know God except through Jesus – He is Ultimate Revelation of God – Word (Gk logos) - from which we get our word logic – Jesus is our compelling truth

Jn 1:18 (NLT) – No one had really seen or known God (Moses saw the back of Him) – Jesus makes Him Known

Christmas is Jesus comes to show us God – Word Reveals

Flesh Shows Vulnerability

Christmas highlights that Christianity is the only religion in the world that proclaims the God became human – vulnerable

Illus – Quotes N.T. Wright & Augustine

Jesus took on flesh so that we could come to God – He took on flesh w/ the specific intention of being vulnerable, touchable, and specifically killable – so we could know God

Heb 2:17,18 (NIV) – think about it – God came, He became vulnerable, HE came knowing He would die for you & me - & in so doing He knows Us – feels our pain, hurts, struggles

Christmas Proclaims God knows what it is like: hunger, pain, homelessness, rejection, injustice – experienced it all

You can go to Jesus – R U facing ridicule, he did – struggles, He did – death, He did – feel God isn’t listening, He did too

Christmas proclaims God knows and He is here for you, You can trust Him – we can go to Him w/ anything

Dwelt Proclaims Relationship

This is probably one of my favorite thoughts – Dwelt in GK is word for tabernacle – Jesus Tabernacled among us & now we see His Glory – He is drawing parallel to Holy of Holies

Instead of His Glory being among us behind a Curtain – Jesus came so we can experience God’s glory face to face – even more so we could become the tabernacle

2 Cor 6:16 (MSG) - Jesus has Tabernacled w/ us – this is us experiencing the glory of God not from afar but personally, intimately, continuously – this is ungraspable rel w/in reach

Jesus tabernacled – the place of sac so people could be near God – He came to become sac so we could live w/ God

Christmas proclaims that God’s Glory became and a Baby – which means God’s glory is accessible to us all

Conclusion:

Think about the ramifications of Christmas – God revealed Himself, became a vulnerable man who would ultimately die, so that we could tabernacle w/ Him – What will I do w/ Jesus?

Christmas is not about the living God coming to tell us everything's all right. John's gospel isn't about Jesus speaking the truth and everyone saying: "Of course! Why didn't we realize it before?" It is about God shining his clear, bright torch into the darkness of our world, our lives, our hearts, our imaginations—and the darkness not comprehending it. It's about God, God as a little child, speaking words of truth, and nobody knowing what he's talking about.

N. T. Wright, "What Is This Word?" ChristianityToday.com (12-21-06)

God became a man for this purpose: since you, a human being, could not reach God, but you can reach other humans, you might now reach God through a man. And so the man Christ Jesus became the mediator of God and human beings.

God became a man so that following a man—something you are able to do—you might reach God, which was formerly impossible to you.