The Son of God Became a Man

Prayer

The Word Became Flesh

Throughout Advent we’ve been making our way through our sermon series, “Why Jesus Came,” looking at the theological doctrine of the Incarnation. That’s fancy language for one of the great miracles of all time - that God, the creator of the heavens and earth, the Lord of all, becoming a human being, fully human. He took on human flesh - that’s what incarnation means, in carne, in the flesh.

So, why did God do this? Why did God, the creator of all, become one of his own creatures? C.S. Lewis gives us a powerful response, The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.

Throughout Advent our focus has been on what we are becoming - sons and daughters of God. We looked at that in two ways - that we have a new identity, a family identity, rooted in relationship with God himself. But also in terms of what we called family resemblance - we become like God, like our father, like Jesus, his son. This is what Jesus enabled by becoming human.

But tonight, I just want to focus on the first part of Lewis’ claim - the Son of God became a man. The idea of the incarnation itself. To just marvel at the miracle, to share in the wonder of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, even the angels themselves at the birth of Jesus.

Now, I often reference movies in my messages from time to time, but I don’t usual look to a movie like Talladega Nights - but tonight I’m going to. Some of you already know what scene of the movie I’m going to talk about - the praying to baby Jesus.

Ricky Bobby, family patriarch, is leading his family and his best friend in grace before the family meal (a delicious mix of Domino’s pizza, KFC and Taco Bell - and lots of Mountain Dew). Now, the whole thing is a mockery of southern culture, where religion is more of a cultural thing than something taken seriously - the whole “beer on Friday night, church on Sunday”.

And that becomes very clear in Ricky Bobby’s prayer - he prays to baby Jesus, tiny infant Jesus, 8 lb, 6 oz newborn infant Jesus, who according to Ricky Bobby, wore a golden fleece diaper. And he does it because he like the Christmas baby Jesus best.

His wife points out the silliness of it all, telling him that it’s a bit odd putting prayer on a baby. But he holds firm, counting on baby Jesus power. And it is silly (that’s the whole joke) - who prays to a baby?!

Reminds me of a story Eugene Peterson tells of his time as a pastor, when, at a church meal gathering, one of his congregants asked him, “Pastor, how about a little prayer before we eat?” Now, Peterson went up front and offered a prayer (I’m pretty sure he did not pray to baby Jesus).

But the thought that struck Peterson in that moment, the thing he really wanted to do was to burst out in response, “there is no little prayer!” Peterson knew a lot about prayer, and he knew that there’s nothing small about prayer - when you pray, you are coming before the God of glory! The one enthroned above, Lord of all. And there is nothing little about that.

It’s this glory, glory of this God, that we get a glimpse of in this story, the Christmas story, the story of the birth of Jesus that reveals to us the marvel of the Incarnation.

The Glory of God Revealed, Luke 2:1-20...

The story of Jesus birth begins with Luke setting the historical context - and this is hugely important, because what it tells us is that this is not a “once upon a time in a land, far, far away story.” This is a story rooted in history, taking place at a particular time in history and at a particular place. Luke wants us to know - this really happened, here are the details.

Then we move to Joseph and Mary making their way down from their Nazareth, their hometown, to the southern part of Israel, to Bethlehem, the town of David. Which means that Bethlehem is where King David was born, and since Joseph is a descendant of David, he and Mary must travel there in order to be counted for the census decreed by Caesar Augustus.

David had a lot kids - and he had a lot of descendants - so Bethlehem is packed, and the only place that Joseph and Mary can find to stay is in a home, but the part of the home where the animals were kept. The stable. And it’s here that Jesus is born, and why he is wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger, an animal trough.

Meanwhile, that very night, on the outskirts of town of Bethlehem, a group of shepherds are out in the pasture fields tending their flocks. Now it’s helpful to know that being a shepherd was not a highly sought after profession, it didn’t rank high on social status ladder. So it’s curious that it’s this group that the biggest birth announcement in the history of the world is given, just this small group of random shepherds watching over a bunch of sheep.

But it does come to them, and it’s here that we get a glimpse of that glory, the glory of God, the glory that demands “no little prayers!” An angel appears, resplendent with the glory of the Lord. This glory shines all around the shepherds, they are enveloped in it.

And just as we saw with Zechariah and Mary herself, they are scared. In fact, Luke tells us that they were terrified. This is beyond their imagining. As usual, the angel seeks to comfort them, “do not be afraid.” And then the angel makes his incredible announcement, a message that’s not just for these shepherds, but for everyone. Good news of great joy for all the people.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. That’s the whole message - This very day, in that town right over there, a baby has been born. But this is no ordinary baby - he is the Messiah, the promised Savior, the Lord.

And this is how you’ll know what I’m saying is true - the baby will be wrapped in cloths, and the part that you would not expect - he will be lying in a manger.

And if that wasn’t enough having an angel make this announcement and God’s glory shining all around them- an angel host appears, as Luke describes it, a great company of the heavenly host. Now, here’s where all those wonderful songs we’ve been singing steer us wrong - this is not an angel choir singing praises.

This is an angel army - that’s what host refers to - and they are not singing, they are proclaiming. This is a display of God’s majestic glory and his divine power. God’s angel army proclaiming the glory of God, exulting in what is happening this very night, this God in the highest heaven, who brings peace, wholeness, to all those whom he blesses.

Easiest decision in the world for these shepherds to go to Bethlehem to see this baby. And here’s where the strangeness, the contrast really comes into play - in a story that is full of them.

On the one hand, divine glory as rarely seen on earth before, certainly never for the announcement of a birth. If you go through the entire Bible, you’ll see that angelic appearances are few and far between - they are rare occurences. And here we have an angel bringing the message from God, with God’s glory shining all around them. But then, on top of that, to have an entire angel army, filling the sky with their divine power, boldly declaring the greatness of God, praying that all glory would belong to him.

All that divine glory, to go from there, that scene, into the town of Bethlehem, into just a regular person’s home, to their stable area, the animal’s living space - to a young couple, two very plain Jews, cherishing their newborn baby, all wrapped up in swaddling clothes. If you were a neighbor who just happened to be stopping by, you wouldn’t think anything about it, other than it’s always a wonderful event when a baby is born. And that it’s too bad that it had to be under these conditions - far from home, in the stable.

Are you seeing the contrast? This is exactly the miracle of the Incarnation, the absolute wonder of it. On the one hand, we get a glimpse of God and his glory and power, revealed through the appearance of the angels. And on the other hand, we see the birth of a baby in circumstances that couples and their babies have had to endure throughout the centuries all over the world.

This is the Son of God, having emptied himself of divine glory and power, in order to become human, fully human, no different from you and I. As Joseph and Mary and Jesus would have made their way about in day to day life when they made it back to Nazareth, if you saw them, you would have thought nothing about it - just another Jewish family trying to make the best of life. Several weeks ago when I was thinking about this message, I was in Walmart, just looking around at people, just regular folks doing their shopping. If this miracle, the Incarnation had happened in our time, here in Hurricane, Jesus would have been walking around with his folks and there wouldn’t have been anything extraordinary about it - just another family.

And yet there was nothing ordinary about this child - God in human flesh!! I heard a story the other day about a new constellation of stars discovered recently in another part of the Milky Way galaxy, about 2500 light years away from us (give or take). Apparently these stars are arranged somewhat in the shape of a Christmas Tree, so that’s what they are being referenced as. The report mentioned that several of the stars are bigger than our sun.

To think about that for a moment, because our sun is a big ball of continual nuclear fusion, nuclear power constantly being generated by the fusing of atoms. It’s so much heat and energy that we experience just a fraction of it here on earth. And the God who spoke our sun into being, with all its heat and energy, and the even bigger stars in the Christmas Tree constellation, and all the other billions and billions of other stars throughout the universe, and their heart and energy - now has to be wrapped in swaddling clothes to keep warm.

This same God, who sent every star and planet and moon hurtling through the universe, moving in their orbits, the universe itself constantly expanding…now can not move himself. He doesn’t know how to walk - he will have to learn. In the meantime, he has to be held, carried.

The God who filled the earth with every good thing, who provided for every living creature the sustenance they need - those sheep in the field, the animals in the stable, all the great Christmas food we’re going to be eating - now can not feed himself. He has to rely on his mother.

The God who spoke all of existence into being, by his word spoke the heavens and earth into being…now can not speak a single word. He is a helpless, absolutely vulnerable newborn infant.

This is the great miracle. The astounding reality of the Incarnation, of the Son of God becoming a man. My hope tonight is that who this God is, this “baby Jesus” is - that you would have a little better understanding, that you would have a greater sense of awe and wonder at exactly what we’re celebrating tonight. The greatness of our God - that he did this, that he took on human flesh, humbled himself so greatly - all that divine power and glory emptied, becoming one of us - for us. For you and me. So that we could become sons and daughters of God, brought into the family. We could become like him.

Take a moment to pray - no “little prayer”

“Joy to the World!”