The Festival of the Nativity of Our Lord
25 December, Anno Domini 2016
St. John 1:1-14
Pr. Kurt Ulmer
In the Name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” I pray that these words would fill your hearts with unspeakable joy and peace every time you hear them. The God of heaven and earth, the God against whom we have rebelled would not stay away, would not be a do-nothing father who let His own children languish even in the mess that they created for themselves. Instead, He doubled down. He planted Himself right in the midst of our darkness and death. Of course, God had always been among men, right from the beginning. But pillars of fire and smoke weren’t enough. They weren’t close enough, not close enough to make atonement for us. For that, the eternal Word of God would need to wrap Himself in our flesh and in that flesh then take all of our sin into that flesh. And of course that is precisely what He did. The Word became flesh. In Him the fullness of the deity dwelt bodily and in Him the fullness of your humanity was received into the life of God.
But a very strange thing happened. When the Creator came to His creation, his own children, those who had been made in His own image, didn’t know him. I have often imagined the sorrow of those who serve in the military or those who have to travel for long periods of time and miss the birth or early months of their children, who then come back and receive the welcome of a complete stranger. Their own child has no idea who they are or why they are being asked to hug them. How unbearably sad that must be. To be unknown and rejected by your own children.
Ever since the fall, man has not recognized his heavenly Father or received Him. Adam and Eve tried to hide, hoping that God would just go away. When God spoke, His first children no longer recognized the voice of their Father. They no longer knew His love and mercy. He was a tyrant and judge. They were afraid. And rather than running to the forgiving arms of their Father they ran away, further into sin and darkness. Nothing has changed. We create other gods, other fathers who we think we want to take care of us, fathers made in our own broken, selfish image. Or maybe we reject the idea of a father altogether. We try to make our own way and be our own source of protection and comfort.
By all rights, the Father should have walked away in disgust. We had rejected Him. We had chosen instead the lord of death. But our Father wasn’t deterred. Even upon hearing the pathetic excuses and deflections of His children, some of which were meant to shift the blame to even to Him, God turned to us His father’s heart. He didn’t choose the easy part and prepared to do what must be done to save us, though we would fight Him tooth and nail and thorn and scourge. His children ran away and He followed – down into the manger and all the way into the jaws of death where we were hopelessly stuck. Our Father gave His very dearest treasure, His Son, so that He might dwell among us and redeem us, not as fire or smoke or lightning or a building of stone but as a man of flesh and blood, as one of us.
But we would not receive Him. We didn’t want a God who saves us because that implies that we need saving. It would imply that we are sinners, that we are wicked, that we couldn’t save ourselves. We didn’t want a God who gives life because that would mean that all this pleasure and self-gratification and greed and self-righteousness WASN’T life. And so we rejected Him. We refused His voice – His calls to repentance and His promises of forgiveness and life. But He wouldn’t be stopped. He wouldn’t be denied our salvation. And so He allowed us to abuse and reject Him, to spit on Him, to blaspheme Him, and kill Him. That is why He took on flesh, our flesh – so that He might die in your flesh for your sins, so that He might smash the gates of death in your flesh and set you free, so that He could ascend triumphantly with your flesh to the right hand of God your Father Almighty, so that He might dwell with your flesh still among us in the Holy Sacrament of His Body and Blood.
Sinners still, as always, reject Him. Giving free reign to our will we despise Him. We turn against Him and refuse His Word, ironically, the very Word which saves us. We continue to rebel against Him by giving ourselves over the will of the flesh and its works – idolatry, covetousness, jealousy, pride, anger, gossip, and other such things as these. And to precisely such poor, miserable sinners as us the Lord comes and dwells among us to save us. Certainly not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.
And you, dear baptized child of God, born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but by the will of God Himself, indeed, born of water and the word, the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, you are heirs of God’s kingdom. Your brother in the flesh, Jesus, the incarnate Logos of God has bestowed upon you all the blessings of God’s kingdom. It is yours by faith now, even as you, by grace, have received Christ in faith, and one day you will enjoy it in all its fullness by sight. But, take heart, because your Lord and Savior still comes to dwell among us. His voice is still heard as His Church continues to faithfully proclaim His Word. His Flesh is true food and His Blood is true drink, given and shed for you, to deliver to you all the promises of God which were fulfilled and are fulfilled in Jesus, the Word who became flesh and dwells among us.
Glory to God in the highest and peace to you with whom God dwells.
In the Name of +Jesus.