In
the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Merry Christmas! Christmastide is
the celebration of the Incarnation. The day when we remember and celebrate that
God, who created all that is, who is the source of all that is, was born of a
woman on earth. Our reading from John is the definitive Biblical passage that
addresses this concept. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God and the Word was God.” Its beautiful poetic stanzas inspire a sense of awe
and majesty. But this first chapter of John is also one of the densest in the
Bible. What does it mean that the Word became flesh? What does it mean that the
Word is God?
I’d like to focus though on one
particular verse- “and the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have
seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
This is a powerful statement. This whole first chapter is a sort of prologue to
the gospel according to John. So within this passage, we catch glimpses of what
the rest of the gospel is about. I think
this particular verse really captures what it is that John is writing about. So
let’s unpack it.
First, the Word became flesh. The
Word is a powerful concept. Our concept of the Word sets us apart from some
other faiths. In Islam, Muslims believe that the Qur’an is literally the spoken
words of God. But for us as Christians, the Word isn’t anything that is written
down; it isn’t a book. The Word of God instead is a person, Jesus. This Word,
who was in the beginning and is interwoven with God, became flesh. That’s quite
the claim- the eternal took a temporal form, the unlimited became a limited
being, the Creator became one of the created. It’s a very intimate claim.
Next, we read that this Word became
flesh and dwelt among us. Dwelt isn’t a terrible translation, but it doesn’t
capture the fullest sense of the word. The word for “dwelt” here actually means
“to pitch a tent.” A more accurate translation would be that the Word became
flesh and pitched a tent among us. I hope you can see the nuanced difference
between the two. Think back to the Hebrew scriptures, to the books of Exodus
and Leviticus. You’ll remember that the tabernacle of God was kept in a tent.
The symbol of God’s presence was kept in a tent, and again, we see the
Incarnate God pitching a tent.
I don’t know if you all have done
much camping, but growing up as a boy, my dad, brother and I would go camping
several times a year. What I remember about tents is that they’re flexible
housing. You can easily transport them; you can put them up quickly and take
them down just as fast. They provide some basic shelter, but they still get hot
and cold easily.
God didn’t come here and build a
castle or establish a permanent residence. Instead, God came to camp with us,
to get dirty with us, to start something. The thing that Jesus talked about
more than anything else in the gospels was the Kingdom of God. This was the
primary purpose of the Incarnation. Setting up a base-camp of sorts is what we
see the Incarnate God focusing on.
John says that the Word made flesh
is full of truth. The Incarnation is the doctrine, the event that sets up apart
as Christians. No other world religion makes a claim such as this, that God
took on human form and lived and died as one of us. A few faiths out there have
a god visiting the world, but they remain god, they don’t become enfleshed. In
Christianity, we though claim that God, the God who created and gave life to
all of Creation, the God who redeems and sustains us, the King of Heaven,
became a human.
And because Jesus was both really God and
really human, we see the glory, grace, and truth of God in the Incarnate Word.
Jesus, not the Bible, is the full disclosure of God to us. As we all know,
words on a page can be interpreted and misinterpreted. In the Bible, much gets
lost in translation. But in the person of Jesus, we can say something about God
that is real. We can say without doubt that God loves humanity, that God longs
for peace and justice, that God is merciful, and challenging to the status quo.
We can say this because we saw these things in Jesus of Nazareth, the Word made
flesh. What makes us as Christians different from a deist or agnostic who
believes in a God, but don’t actually know anything about God, is the
Incarnation. Because Jesus came and took on flesh, we can say something
substantive about who God is because we have known God in Jesus.
And finally, I’d like to consider the fact
that the Word came to us. As the well-known Christmas hymn proclaims – “Joy to
the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King.” That word “receive”
is crucial. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but there are actually two Christmases
that exist in our world. There is the religious Christmas that focuses on Jesus
and what he stood for. And then there is the secular Christmas, which is about
giving gifts and is fueled by companies trying to finish the year with strong
sales. Now sometimes secular Christmas ties in well with the themes of
religious Christmas. But there is a heresy in secular Christmas, and that is
that Christmas is a season of giving. To be clear, Christmas is not a season of
giving.
That’s because Christmas is a season of
receiving. And when we confuse the two, we end up celebrating and proclaiming
the wrong message. Christmas isn’t about giving gifts, or even giving to those
in need. No, Christmas is about receiving God into our world. Christmas is
about receiving Jesus into our hearts. It has nothing with our ability to buy
gifts, but rather how we make space in our calendars, in our budgets, and in
our lives for Jesus to pitch a tent and dwell within us. And if we can do that;
if Jesus dwells in our hearts, then of course, through the Spirit we will be
empowered and driven to give to others. But it is important to remember that our
receiving Jesus is what enables us to give. It’s not the other way around, if
we give in order that we might receive, well, then we’ve just turned God into
the elf on the shelf. The Incarnation reminds and teaches us that Christmas is,
first and foremost, a season about receiving. So I invite you to ponder this
week how you can more fully receive Jesus into your life.
And so you might wonder, why should you
care about any of this? Sure, it’s nice that God affirmed humanity by taking on
our flesh. It’s great that God set up a camp here to do business. Glory, grace,
and truth are nice. Receiving before giving, okay, that makes some sense. But
really, at the end of the day, what’s the impact of Christmas? Why does it
really matter that God became incarnate? How does this change my daily life, you
might ask?
To that I would say- the fact that we
have received God as God came to set up a tent makes all the difference. That
is why the Church is so important; it is a place for tentmakers to come
together. The tent is a command central of sorts of the Kingdom of God. In the
Incarnation, Jesus taught us to pray that God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is
in heaven. And Jesus showed us how to do this- by practicing love, justice, and
mercy.
This Christmastide, we celebrate
that God came and started something. Jesus taught us that the Kingdom of God is
among us and showed us how to live in it. We now know that life isn’t just what
happens to us over the course of 80 or so years. Life is living in God’s
Kingdom; life is being a citizen of God’s Kingdom, and that’s a game changer.
Life isn’t just the daily grind. Life in God’s Kingdom is an opportunity for
grace, an opportunity to love, and opportunity to truly do something that
matters.
So we celebrate the tent going up.
We give thanks that we have received God into our world, establishing the
Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. This Christmas, may we live in the glory,
grace, and truth of Emmanuel- God with us. Amen.
