Podcast Powered By Podbean
Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 98
Hebrews 1:1-4
John 1:1-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
I was up early this morning, before the sun rose. Of course that’s pretty easy to do on the fourth day of winter. Seeing the sun rise through the clouds reminds me of something special about the light, the light overcomes the dark.
This morning, the first light of sun begin to make its way across the horizon, sending off an ember like glow rather than streaking rays of brilliance. Soon though, more and more light began to cut through the clouds announcing the coming of the sun like the herald angels singing. Yes, dank dreary days like today can mute the power of the sun to the point that the street lights come on, but the sun will not be blocked forever. On that day, when the sun rises, the golden orb ascends the plain to announce the new day with resounding power and light.
Ultimately the light penetrates even the densest clouds. Our sun is 93 million miles away from us, and its heat and light announce new life on earth every day.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”[1]
When John writes “In the beginning” his words take us back to the first word of scripture. John’s words take us back to before the beginning, before any of what we know and imagine was begun. He writes of a time when all there was of our world was yet to be spoken. He writes of a time when the heavenly host is all there was. He writes of a time before this creation when the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit existed three-in-one. He writes of a time before the God’s own self, the Blessed Trinity created the likes of us.
Today John writes of that beginning all over again. John reminds us Jesus was with God in the beginning. And as God and with God all things were made through him. Nothing that was or ever has been made was made without him.
In him is the life and that life was then and is now the light of men. Truly, his life is not just the light of men but of all creation. On this Christmas Day, we testify.
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion
“Your God reigns!”
We hear the Good News all creation longs to hear, longs to believe. The Good News that Christ is born is the Good News. The prophet Isaiah tells us those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation who say “Your God reigns!” upon the mountains have beautiful feet.
To have beautiful feet. Beautiful feet aren’t necessarily pretty feet. It isn’t a salon pedicure that makes feet beautiful; it is the word the feet carry. When sharing the word of God Incarnate on this Christmas Day, testifying as a witness to the birth of the Lord in the flesh, this is the source of beautiful feet. The beauty of our feet isn’t in their being, it’s in their bearing.
As we heard in our reading from Hebrews, God has spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed. God has chosen to come among us and walk as we walk, hope as we hope, and pray as we pray. The joy of this message makes our feet beautiful. Fully human and fully divine, Jesus came as a babe, swaddled by his mother and laid in an animal’s feed trough.
He comes with human feet and it is the holy message of the life carried by these feet Isaiah first prophesied. By our feet we continue to testify too, this is the source of beauty, grace, and peace of our feet. How beautiful are the feet that of those who bring the Good News of Christ the Savior.
Isaiah then tells us that the Lord has laid bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Yet John tells us that the world did not recognize him. The world sees but does not recognize the light, even as it breaks through the horizons of life on this earth to shine. The light overcomes the darkness, but the darkness doesn’t even recognize that it has been overcome.
John testifies the Good News wasn’t obvious when this gospel was written. John’s gospel tells us that though the world came into being through Jesus, the world did not recognize him. He came to his own people, and his own people did not accept him. Those who saw the Christ, the Messiah did not know who he was.
When looking over this sermon, I don’t think I have done anything special. I haven’t given you a detailed parsing of the language, neither Hebrew, nor Greek, nor English. I haven’t blessed you with quotes from historians or theologians either. There is one reason for this; I don’t think it’s necessary. The grace and peace of these words carry a weight that if I tried to add “insight” would come up and rap me in the jaw.
Instead, this is all I want to share with you on this Christmas morning: Today Christ the Savior is born! The Good News of our salvation is that God came as the weakest of all, a babe born to a maiden; it is not just this humble beginning but from this humble beginning that all creation is made and all creation is redeemed. This is what we believe. This is the greatest gift we can share with one another and with the world. The world may not recognize it, but that does not make the Truth less true. Today we celebrate the birth of our savior.
My father was a photographer, and when I was growing up he had a dark room set up in a downstairs room. This room was between the laundry room, the garage, and the family room. It was a busy area. So whenever he needed to use his developing equipment, he was justifiably paranoid that someone would come downstairs and flip the wrong light switch, ruining his work. He would also have towels under the doors so that the light would not pour into the room from under the doors. It would not take much light to ruin a hard day’s work.
That is where I first learned the lesson that light penetrates the darkness. Even just a little from under the bottom of a door is enough to lighten a room.
John writes that Jesus is the true light, the light which enlightens everyone. And with John we testify that the light has come into the world. The light became flesh. And we testify today is the day of our fair savior’s birth.
We are to lift up, to exalt the one who is the Word and the light, the true light which enlightens us, the one who came and comes into the world. It is when we spread the good news through acts of kindness, and grace, and peace that we shine the light of God. A light that we cannot create, a light which is reflected by us.
In Miracles, C. S. Lewis has this to say about light: “We believe that the sun is in the sky at midday in summer not because we can clearly see the sun (in fact, we cannot) but because we can see everything else.”[2] We believe that the Christ is the true light, very light of very light, very God of very God,[3] and because of this light, we can see the world that he created. And when we reflect this light, it is not we who become visible, it is our Lord. Through peace, and good news, and salvation we are able to see Christ in the world. It is our duty to reflect this light so that our Lord may be seen in all that we are and all that we do.
No comments:
Post a Comment