Christmas Day (December 25, 2021)

Merry Christmas! For many people, Christianity is a nice story, a helpful set of morals ensconced in a fantastical religion. If that’s all it is, we don’t really need it. In fact, religious trends show that most people feel they don’t as they’re leaving the Church and/or embracing what’s known as Moral Therapeutic Deism, a term coined by sociologist Christian Smith. The tenants of MTD are as follows:

God exists who created the world and watches over human life on earth.

God wants people to be good, nice, and fair.

The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.

God isn’t particularly involved in one’s life except when we need him to resolve a problem.

Good people go to heaven when they die.

This view has become increasingly common among American teenagers but they learned their parents and teachers.

But this story is not the Christian story which revolves not around a self-centered definition of happiness and a stand-offish God. The story of Christianity is a God who became like us in order to become close to us.

The author of Hebrews opens his deep and mysterious epistle by explaining that, in past generations, God spoke to humans through the prophets. But now, in these the last days, He speaks by His Son.

As modern Christians, we have it somewhat easy when it comes to understanding the relationship between the Father and the Son because we have the Creeds. There are, of course, still heretics, but most of us who identify as Christians, can agree with the great Nicene Creed on this topic.

The Christians who lived before the Creeds were codified didn’t have it so easy. There was a range of how people were trying to answer this question of how the Father and the Son are related. Arians, for example, believed that Christ was created by God so he was really important but not God himself. (Fun bonus story: Arius, the heretic for whom this false teaching is named, was notoriously slapped at the Church Council which would condemn him by none other than St. Nicholas, from whom we get the character Santa Claus). So on the one hand, you have Arianism which denied the divinity of Christ but on the other, you had heresies like Docetism which essentially affirmed Christ as divine in some way but also argued that his human body wasn’t real; it only appeared to be so. It was these various heresies which catalyzed what we now consider to be “orthodox” theology to establish the Creeds. But those Creeds didn’t exist when the writers of Scripture were writing.

Because there was no Creed at the time, the author of Hebrews explains the relationship between Father and Son. First, we see that the Son was the agent of Creation. We also see that he is the “heir of all things.” The author of Revelation summarizes this idea by stating that he is the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and end of all things are in him. He has to be God, then, because nothing can be greater than God. If the Son is the beginning and the end, he must also be a part of the Godhead because if the Son had a beginning or an end, he would cease to be our ultimate. Therefore, he was the only one who could make the purification for our sins. In Hebrews, Christ is both the Priest (one who performs the offering) and the victim (the thing being offered). This work means, contrary to the early heretics, that Christ is not an angel or great spiritual being. Not only is he great than the angels but they actually worship him, something that only makes sense if He is God, because only God is worthy of worship.

The Gospel Lesson gives us more information about the Incarnation. It begins with the Word of God who is present with God in the beginning. Even more than that, John tells us the Word is God. As mysterious and heady as the Trinity is, we know that it is through this Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, that the world is created. Everything that is finds its source in the Word. Because he is the Creator, all life exists him. As St. Paul says, “in him, we live and move and have our being.” That life is a light (which makes sense because without light, life would be intelligible to the point of being impossible). No matter when man does, however hostile we may be, the light continues to shine as long as we exist because being itself testifies to our Creator.

The Evangelist then mentions a figure we have seen much of lately: John the Baptizer. John was sent by God, not to be the light itself, but to point to the light. Like we heard last Sunday, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” John’s preparation was necessary because the true light was coming into the world he had made. But even with John’s preparation, the great and sad irony was that the world id not know its own creator. Exhibit A is God’s chosen people, Israel. They should have known him because they had the Scriptures. But, as John shows later, they reject him. By becoming human, however, he gave all who receive and believe him power to become children of God. Being a child of God isn’t based on biology, it’s not based on will. It’s based on the action of God in Baptism where we are born “of water and the Spirit.” So the Apostle concludes, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father." The Apostle saw the reality because he was present. He actually walked and talked with Jesus. If it was the Apostle John who wrote the Gospel, then he would have been charged with Jesus on the cross to take care of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But there’s a sense in which this verse is true of all of us. We all participate in seeing the Word made flesh by our participation in Scripture and the Eucharist, where catch a glimpse of that glory by which we become illumined and Transfigured.

I have been struck this year by how many choose to celebrate this day. Maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy (a very distinct possibility) but for many, it becomes purely about presents, or family, or experiences. These are all good things, certainly. But they are secondary to the true purpose of Christmas. The Church is very intentional about setting aside these 12 days to reflect the Word made flesh. The Church has long held to the adage: “That which has not been assumed cannot be saved." Our sin left us in darkness, far from God. The only solution was for God to step into time and space and become like us so he could die for us as our substitute and for our benefit. So as we leave today, having been nourished by hearing His Word and by receiving his Body and Blood, enjoy time with friends and family and gifts and everything else this day brings. But above all, cogitate and savor this reality: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. For truly “we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father."

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.