John 1:19-28; Philippians
4:4-7; Deuteronomy 18:15-19
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Well, we’re only seven days away from the Big Day.
Some of you have been planning and shopping and preparing for this since Black
Friday. Others of you began on December 26 last year! There’s so much to do:
Cards to send, gifts to purchase and wrap, parties to attend, feasts to
prepare, family to visit, lists to make, and more. And yet, too often you end
up disappointed. They weren’t as excited about your gift as you had imagined
they would be. They didn’t say thank you. They didn’t give you a gift in
return. The kids managed to make it for dinner, but that’s all, then they were
off to the in-laws, or to their own interests and pursuits. You got what you
wanted, but now it doesn’t seem as special – just another thing to take care
of, to store away, to realize you didn’t really need in the first place, to
wear out, to fall out of style, or to become outdated and obsolete. And, let’s
face it, for many Christmas is not a happy time. Many are lonely. Many are
poor. Many have strife and conflict in their families and the holiday season
only punctuates that fact. Many have lost loved ones this year and are
experiencing their first Christmas without them. For many, the pain of loss
robs the joy and peace and hope that Christmas promises to bring.
I don’t mean to be all somber and depressing at such a
joyous time. Nevertheless, you know that this is true. You feel it – if not
now, then later, when the wrapping paper is all over the floor, the kitchen and
the dining room are a shambles, the family and friends have gone home, and the
loneliness creeps back in (or rises up again, for it was there all along). We
are a lonely people. Even when surrounded by family and friends, by those we
love, by masses of strangers in the city, at work, and in the shopping malls,
even at church – we feel alone, cut off, isolated. We want, we lack, we crave,
we need. But, what? That’s the question we long for an answer to. The world and
our flesh will offer all sorts of answers, but none of them fulfill and
satisfy; none of them make us content. What is it that we hunger and thirst
for? What is it that we want and desire? There is One who knows, the One who made
us in His own image, the One who loves us even though we run from Him when He
calls and rebel against Him again and again. God knows what we want for and
what we need, and He is every ready to give you His Christmas presence.
Yes, that’s pres-ence,
not pres-ents. Your God’s gift to you
at Christmas is His presence. Your
God and LORD comes to you, to be with you, as your Father, as your Brother, as
your Bridegroom. He comes among you as one of you, taking up a flesh and blood
body like yours, feeling your want, suffering your loneliness and pain, dying
your death, and being raised to life again that you may have life in Him
eternal. He promises you that you are never alone, for He is with you always.
He comes to fill your every want and need with His presence so that you will
never hunger or thirst. He doesn’t promise you happiness, but He promises you contentment
and peace, which are far more satisfying and precious.
This is the meaning of the Incarnation, this is the
meaning of Christmas: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” In
the beginning, God dwelt with our First Parents in the garden. He walked with
them and talked with them as they were righteous and holy, bearing His image.
But, they sold out that personal relationship for a lie and selfish pursuits.
Sinful and unclean, no longer could they endure the holy and righteous presence
of God. However, God so loved them and the world that He had made that He
created new ways in which He could be present with His people. God spoke to
Abraham through His Holy Angel. God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai in a cloud
and fire. God filled the holy place of the tabernacle with His presence veiled
in a cloud, and He lead His people in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of
fire by night. God’s presence was with the Ark of the Covenant in the holy
place of the Tabernacle and Temple. Yet all of these ways in which God was
present among His people were but a foreshadowing of the presence He would
establish in His Son. “In many and various ways God spoke to His people of old
by the prophets, but now in these last days He has spoken to us by His son.”
“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” God became a man that
man might become God. In the Incarnation, God fulfilled all these
foreshadowings and types, and He went a step further – He eliminated the need
for intermediary means to be present among His people, for in Jesus Christ, God
dwelt among His people as one of them: God became man that man might be brought
into the full presence of God through baptism and communion in Jesus Christ.
“The LORD is my
Shepherd, I shall not want.” To not want is to lack no thing at all. This is an
unimaginable concept for us, for to be human after the Fall is to be wracked
with near continual want, desire, and longing. We hear this sentiment in our
popular music: Mick Jagger can’t get no satisfaction, Bruce Springsteen has a
hungry heart, and Bono still doesn’t know what he’s looking for. And, we feel
this want, desire, and longing no time more than at Christmas, which has become
all about fulfilling our selfish wants, desires, and longings with fleeting
material, worldly, and fleshly pleasures. But, these are like bandaids and junk
food, they only comfort for a short while and they only treat the symptom
without healing the disease. In the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, God began to
heal our disease of sin and guilt. He redeemed our flesh by taking it upon Himself.
In our flesh He fulfilled the Law’s demands in holiness and righteousness that
He might take upon Himself your sin sickness and guilt and die for your
transgressions that He might give you in exchange His life and Sonship with the
Father. But, that is not all. In the incarnation, life, death, resurrection,
and ascension of Jesus, God has reestablished His presence among us, a personal
and fleshly presence that cannot and will not be revoked for those who believe
on Him and bear His fruits in love. Jesus is not just God for us, but Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, as one of us, now and forever. As we sing in the beloved
Christmas hymn “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “Veiled in flesh the Godhead
see, hail the incarnate Deity! Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our
Immanuel!” This is God’s present to you at Christmas – His presence among you
as one of you, as your Father, your Brother, your Bridegroom, your Savior, and
your God. “Highest, most holy, Light of Light eternal, born of a virgin, a
mortal He comes; Son of the Father now in flesh appearing! O come, let us adore
Him – Christ the Lord!”
In the + Name
of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment