The Third Christmas Story

 

A Sermon preached on Christmas I 28 December at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7, John 1:1-18

Today we got to hear the third Christmas story. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we read Luke’s version, that’s the one with angels and shepherds and the birth in a stable in Bethlehem. Then there is Matthew’s version that begins (Matthew 2:1) with the words “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea” and introduces the wise men and their three gifts, although in nativity plays or our creche scene here we tend to merge these two stories into one. But this morning we heard the words of the prologue to John’s Gospel (1:1): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What, that’s a Christmas story? Well, yes, it is. It too is about the incarnation, about how God becomes human, even if we don’t hear about the baby: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son” (1:14)

I know it does sound a lot more abstract than the other stories. One thing we are seeing here is the early church interacting with and integrating existing philosophical concepts, just as they were integrating new believers who had not grown up in the Jewish tradition. The Word, in Greek Logos, stood for the idea of a divine reason embedded in the universe, ordering it and giving it form and meaning. John combines this with the Jewish concept of Wisdom as an active, divine agent of creation, which later Jewish thought would identify with an embodiment of the Torah, the Law (the first 5 books of the Bible). But for John, this pre-existent divine Word and agent of creation, “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being,” (1:3) is a person, Jesus Christ the Word made flesh, the personified source of life and light – illumination - of humankind. And one point John is making, is that the birth of Jesus is indeed a new beginning, but not the very beginning and that Jesus – as the Word – was there at both.

It’s really not as abstract as it sounds. At the core of the prologue is the same story that we hear in all Gospels and in the Epistles, and that we believe is consistent with the First Testament: God so loved the world and so loves the world and all of creation that he sent his only Son that we might live.

We sometimes use the term “People of the Book” as a common denominator for Judaism, Islam and Christianity. For all three religions a book, or a collection of books, is it the heart of our faith. Clearly, we and our Jewish siblings share a lot of books in what we call the Old Testament, and they refer to as the Tanakh (from the abbreviation for Torah, Prophets and Writings). And while the Quran is a book in its own right, it nevertheless contains many stories and characters, such as many of the prophets, and especially Jesus and Mary, from our scriptures.

But I’m always a little wary of the term. Christians do not worship a book; the book is not divine. We worship the Word. And yes, that word is described in the pages of the Bible, but by no means restricted to it. The Word became flesh and lived among us. As the living word, Jesus shared our lives, died for us, rose again for us, and is today still our constant companion. Jesus shows us who God is. Jesus makes God known to the world. God and Jesus’ life and mission are described and interpreted in the Bible but not limited by it.

Anglicanism, beginning with the Elizabethan Theologian Richard Hooker, developed what is called the "three-legged stool" as a metaphor for three interconnected sources of Christian authority: Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. We interpret the Bible with the help of the Church's historical teachings and teachers (Tradition) and our human intellect (Reason). This not only enables us to live out Christianity today, but also to adapt and change as the world and circumstances change (though if we are really honest some of the things we changed – like no longer restricting the priesthood to men, or expanding the doctrine of marriage, were never explicit in the Bible in the first place, but were based on the societal customs of a particular time). Our Methodist friends even add a fourth source of authority – experience – to make up the so-called Wesleyan Quadrilateral. John Wesley, Methodism’s founder, was assured of both justification - being right with God - and sanctification – our transformation -  because he had experienced them in his own life. "What the scriptures promise, I enjoy," he once wrote in a letter.[1]

With Rose’s baptism today, as with every baptism, we celebrate another great beginning. Now, I’m not going to claim that Rose was pre-existent, though we believe that what God said to the prophet Jeremiah (1:5) „Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” applies both to her and us all. Nor were all things created through her, though again, as a being made in God’s image, she certainly has a role in caring for that creation and in the course of her life she will create many things.

Her new beginning is shared with all faithful Christians; it is the beginning of a new life in Christ. Where the prologue, and her story, and all of our stories as Christians converge is that she is now being called to be a “witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through her.” And while according to the prologue John the Baptist “was not the light, but he came to testify to the light” who is Christ, I believe that Rose and all of us can and should be a light to the world, reflecting the divine light of Christ, shining it into dark corners to expose and transform injustice, bringing hope to take away the darkness of so many people’s lives, all simply by showing them “the true light, which enlightens everyone,” the one that came into the world 2025 Christmases ago. Amen.

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[1] Letter to Dr. Conyers Middleton, 4 January 1749, Works, X, 79

The world changed

 

A Sermon preached on Christmas Eve 24 December at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Isaiah 9:2-7, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-14

There’s been a bit of a debate again recently in Germany about banning private fireworks on New Year’s Eve. As a dog owner, I have some sympathy! On this holy night however, 2025 years ago (+/- a couple of years) there was no need for artificial fireworks to light up the heavens! As we just heard, the glory of the Lord shone around them, and the shepherds were terrified, and that was even before a multitude of the heavenly host appeared, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!" (Luke 2:14)

Why the celestial fuss, why was this so important? I have seen this event called the story that divided history in two, and that is of course also reflected in the way we number our years: BC/Before Christ (or more recently BCE/Before Common Era) and AD/Anno Domini (or CE/Common Era), but always before and after the supposed date of the birth of Jesus acting as the fulcrum of time. To quote the Church of England evangelist J. John: “In that Bethlehem stable, eternity stepped into time, majesty into a manger and divinity into humanity. The Creator became part of his creation. The Infinite became an infant. The Almighty became approachable. The Word became flesh and moved into our neighbourhood.” That is a massive claim, and it is what makes Christianity “special” or different.

Of course, even in the Old Testament, the Scriptures we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters, God is not just some distant and disinterested being. In the Garden of Eden, God walks with Adam and Eve. God repeatedly speaks with and even appears to Abraham, most famously as three visitors in Genesis 18: An image that the 15th century Russian painter Andrei Rublev used for his icon of the Trinity. Again, and again God talks to priests and prophets and through them to God’s people. God was physically present with the Israelites in the desert as a pillar of cloud and flame, and God was supposed to reside in the Holy of Holies, in the Temple.

But the God of the Old Testament was still very much Other. Even those like Moses, who God was in close relationship with, did not dare to look at God directly: “At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.” (Exodus 3:6)  And when one man touched the Ark of the Covenant by mistake (2 Samuel 6:7), he was struck down and died.

So, it’s no surprise that people were afraid to come too near, and that all sorts of rules were written to restrict access to the place God was supposed to be especially present. God was also often given very human characteristics or attributes: anger, pride, even a desire for revenge. And despite this very real fear – or perhaps because of it? - God’s message just did not get through. Humankind continued its path of disobedience and destruction and did not fulfil its calling to act as beings made in God’s image. But then how could we, if we did not know the God in whose image we were made! And so, rather than send another messenger, God became the messenger and somewhat ironically; to make God known and to correct the far too human image of God, God becomes human to show us who God is.

This is of course the message of the prologue to John’s Gospel: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us. … No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (John 1:14, 18) or of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (2:6-7) “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” There is nothing more human, nothing more approachable, nothing more lovable than a baby (except perhaps early in the morning when they keep us awake). And yet at the same time this is no ordinary baby, as the prophet Isaiah foretells: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  (Isaiah 9:6)

In his life and teaching, in his death and resurrection Jesus showed us God: A God who loves unconditionally, a God who heals, a God who reconciles, a God who knows no boundaries, a God who sacrifices godself. And Jesus’ message, as the Word of God, was and is: Become like this. As C.S. Lewis said – in somewhat gendered language, ‘The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.’ (Mere Christianity) He became one of us so that we could become one with him and become more like him. Jesus came to show us how to be truly human and how to fulfil our calling as beings made in God’s image: Acting as stewards of God’s creations, sharing in God’s care for all of creation, including our fellow human beings.

That message was rejected then by those who love power and wealth and self; it wasn’t long before Jesus and his parents were fleeing for their lives and that message eventually led to his death on the cross in a vain attempt to stifle and silence it. And that message is still controversial to those who love power and wealth and self, and who therefore try and ignore or distort it! So where is the peace on earth and goodwill toward people that the angels declared? It sometimes seems to be moving even further away. But the world really changed on that holy night; God came down and has never left us. We were changed on that holy night and whenever and wherever we follow Jesus’ example and act as the human beings God always intended us to be, the real world, the changed world, God’s world and glory shines through and if we listen carefully, we will hear a multitude of the heavenly host saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace and goodwill!" .

Amen.