Sermon for Christmas Day
Hebrews 1:1-12 + John 1:1-14
Dear Christian friends: You know what Christmas is about, or else you wouldn’t be here this morning. Christmas is not really about family, although it’s a great blessing to spend it with family, when and if you can. Christmas is not about decorations or traditions or food, although those things are nice, like icing on the cake or the cookies. Christmas is not about presents or gifts, except to the extent that giving and receiving gifts allows us to show one another just a tiny bit of the love that the Father has shown to us, because, of course, Christmas is about the Father’s greatest gift of love, which the Apostle John carefully unwraps for us, more and more, every year in the Gospel. Once again this year, we gather together around the Christmas tree in God’s house, to let the Holy Spirit hand out the Father’s greatest gift to you and for you, the gift of His eternal Son, born in human flesh.
The angels revealed much about the Father’s gift on the night of His birth: He is a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. John reveals even more. He is “the Word,” made flesh. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. God had so much to reveal to mankind about Himself. The creation itself reveals a plenty. But still not the most important things, like, who God is, what He demands, what He promises, and on what basis. The Old Testament prophets revealed much of that as God’s Spirit inspired them to write down in words the truth of God. But there is just no substitute for direct communication, for meeting someone in person. And yet, after the fall into sin, direct communication with God as He exists in His majesty was simply not possible for sinful human beings; a terrible rift had been opened between the holy God and sinful man. So, God designed, in eternity, a way to speak to us directly, to show us His heart, what He is like, what He commands, and what He gives. God the Father gave His only-begotten Son, begotten of the Father before all worlds—to share our humanity, to be born into our world. So badly God wanted to teach us about Himself that He joined Himself forever to our race. So badly God wanted to redeem sinners and to make them His children that He gave His Son to become our Brother, our sacrifice, the innocent for the guilty. That is the Word of God.
That Word of God, as St. John describes, was the very One, the very Word whom the Father used to create all things. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. When the Father said in the beginning, “Let there be light,” it was the Word of God, who later became flesh, who brought the light into existence, and everything else that the Father spoke. The Baby lying in the manger was not so helpless, nor was the Man who would one day hang on the cross. He was the Maker of the manger and of the cross, the Maker of His mother Mary, the Maker of the humble circumstances of His birth, even the Maker of His own human flesh. Even as He lay sleeping in Mary’s lap, the Word-made-flesh was upholding all things by the word of His power.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. As Jesus would later say, I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. And how do we sinners, destined for death, have that life? The Life had to take on human flesh, so that the Life could die a human death. But when the Life took up His life again, He became the source of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe in Him as the Life-giver.
And how do we believe in Him who is the Life and the Light of men? That we cannot do on our own, by our own power, by our own reason or strength. As John wrote, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. We’re all born in that darkness. We’re all born spiritually blind, unable to see the Light of Christ, unable to comprehend His light, unable to receive Him. If we are to believe in Him, He has to work faith in us.
How does He do that? You know. He does that through preaching. Faith comes by hearing, by preaching. When the Word of Christ is preached, when the Gospel of the Word-made-flesh is proclaimed, there is Jesus enlightening blind eyes by His Holy Spirit.
The apostle talks about that. He mentions the very first preacher sent from God to point to the Light: John the Baptist. There was power in John’s testimony, power to enlighten blind eyes, to turn sinners to repentance and faith, power “that all through him might believe.” That was always God’s intent, that all men might hear the Word and believe in the Word.
The true Light which gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
Not all men did believe through John’s preaching. The world didn’t know the Father’s greatest gift. It didn’t recognize the Father’s greatest gift. It didn’t want the Father’s greatest gift. Why? Because it appeared too small, too weak, too humble.
To some, the humility of Jesus was offensive. From His lowly birth in Bethlehem to the suffering He endured on the cross, it all seemed like foolishness to most people—it wasn’t the gift they expected from God, not the gift they wanted, not the glorious kind of salvation they were seeking.
And yet, to others, the humility of the One born of Mary, the humble way in which He led His whole life, from His lowly birth to His humble suffering and dying on the cross, and the humble means by which He works faith—the Gospel, Baptism, Holy Communion—makes Him accessible to lowly people, like you and me. It shows God’s love for everyone. It allows the worst sinner and the lowliest man or woman or child to see that God came for him, too, that God suffered for him, too, that God is eager for him, too, to repent and believe in Christ Jesus, to receive the Father’s greatest gift.
Now most people still didn’t receive Him when He dwelt among men, and most people still don’t receive Him as He dwells among us in Word and Sacrament. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This is what Christmas is all about. This is why you’re here this morning. Because, not by your bloodline, not by your own will, not by the will of your earthly father, but by God’s grace, working through Word and Sacrament, you have been reborn as children of God. You have been brought to see the Light of Christ, to trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins. You know that Jesus is real, that His birth of the virgin Mary was real, that His divinity is real, and that He is really present here and now, to give Himself to you in this Word that you’re hearing, to give His own body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word no longer dwells among us in the same way that He did during His 33 years on earth, nor do we behold His glory in quite the same way. But His grace and His truth remain unchanged. The fact of His birth, the fact of His life, the fact of His death and resurrection can never be erased. And if you are willing to receive Him where He still offers Himself, in Word and Sacrament, then the Father’s greatest gift of love is poured out into your lap, and God is still with you and God is still for you. Let us rejoice in our Father’s gift, and give Him thanks with our lips, with our lives, and with our love—for Him, and for one another. Amen.
