The power of the Christmas story can be seen in what it drives us to do, where it drives us to go, who it drives us to become.

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The Inbreaking GOD and the hope of the world
Christmas Day |  John 1:1-14

 

For the light is not alone, the light is not a solitary creation. Share on X

Lutherans and Anglicans

There’s a funny video being shared by Lutheran Satire called “Martin Luther Yells About Inferior Anglican Christmas Hymns”. In it, two Anglicans (you can pick them out because they have English accents, are drawn in the 19th Century pencil style, and are in a perpetual doffing of their caps) are looking to Martin Luther to help write a good Christmas hymn:

R: Say Dr. Luther, seeing as it’s Christmas time once again…

the one says

L: And furthermore seeing as you are widely considered to be one of the great hymnists in history…

R: Perhaps we could persuade you to work with us on a yuletide song of praise whereupon we would combine the strongest strengths of your German Lutheran style of composition with the best and brightest bits of our legendary Anglican method.

to which Luther responds

Luther: You’re saying you want to write a Christmas hymn together?

L: Indeed!

The trio attempt to write a hymn, but can’t really get very far, as the two Anglicans are obsessed with the pastoral details of the scene: the animals in the stable, the cold winter wind, snow on the ground. Luther, on the other hand, is focused on the incarnation, the theology, the event itself and what it means. He becomes increasingly frustrated by their preference for the scene dressings to provide a sense of calm, joy, and gravity: a feeling. Luther wants to get to heart of the matter!

It is quite funny for church nerds like us: the kind of people who come to worship on Christmas Day.

The Heart of the Matter

This time of year especially, as I prepare to preach about the Incarnation, I feel more and more like the Martin Luther character in the video: the one who is not only obsessed with the heart of the matter, but worries about all the pastoral things we’ve come to expect in our preaching in general, but especially at this time of year.

That the birth story itself does the work for us of revealing the inbreaking power of GOD in the birth of Jesus. That we can have Linus recite Luke 2 from memory on the Charlie Brown special or we can put a nativity scene on our lawn and it all by itself can tell the whole Christmas story, it all by itself can transform a person’s life.

As we gather on Christmas Eve, surrounded by candlelight, singing “Joy to the World” and hearing again the story of Jesus’s birth, we are brought again to feel the warmth, the joy, the power of Christmas.

My message this year was that it is more powerful than we know, more important than we realize, more significant and personal than we tell one another, for in the Incarnation, GOD has sent the very light, the radiance, the brilliance into the world, born of the darkest places, born for all of us to see and know and follow. That we can share in that brilliance, bearing that light to the world.

The power of the Christmas story can be seen in what it drives us to do, where it drives us to go, who it drives us to become.

So much like what we hear in this gospel we call John, this powerful reflection on the very nature of Christ, of GOD’s inbreaking into the world in Jesus, of our call to walk and learn and be with him in our lives, our work, our giving to one another.

And we get this same sense in the passage’s description of John: John the Baptizer, the one who prepares the way for the inbreaking, incarnate GOD, but perhaps also John, the author / evangelist, proclaiming the coming of Jesus:

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

For the light is not alone, the light is not a solitary creation. The light doesn’t come to us alone or only in our solitude. The light is a beacon, a call, visible, powerful, to be seen over rivers and lakes and even mountains and oceans; a call to come to safe harbor and see what great things GOD is doing in the world.

Like a star, guiding, revealing, a true north, skyward, even to the heavens.

The Inbreaking

This version of Jesus’s beginning is certainly more theological, less pastoral. The caricature of Luther in the video would certainly like it. It gets to the meat of the Incarnation. But I think it brings us to the very same place, if we are willing to allow our hearts to be moved. If we are willing to do what Mary does in Luke and cherish this in our hearts.

For we get a vision of a Jesus who is with GOD in the beginning and with the people in the physical, lived experience of our world. We get a Jesus who has always been and Jesus who was specifically here with us. And we get an introduction to a Jesus who will continue to call and be and share with us as we receive him. As we keep receiving him.

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 the opening of the book, before we receive Jesus in the flesh. It is the intro, which tells us the scope of what we will find in the ensuing pages.

So what does Jesus do first? Come into the world, being with us, the evangelist begins with a meeting. Jesus goes to John to be baptized. And John recognizes who he is.

Jesus calls disciples. Then attends a wedding: with a first miracle.

This is the GOD come in. Not only a baby. And not a domesticated deity of personal privilege. A disruptive, interruptive force of GOD breaking into our world, our understanding of the world, disrupting our lives, our selfishness, our own way, to reveal GOD. To reveal the scope of GOD’s hope for us. To reveal the truth.

That the world doesn’t have to be dark. It doesn’t have to be broken, skewed, off. For here is GOD’s trust and faith in us, in creation. The power, incarnate, breaking through, revealing GOD to us and us to GOD.