Christmas Day Sermon

 

Christmas Day, 2024 – Exodus and John 1

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our New Born King +

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Indeed, in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, He did so through that Word. It was the Word that declared, “Let there be light” and there was light. And it was the Word that spoke and separated the light from the dark, the evening from the day. It was the Word that brought forth all of creation. And in the beginning, not only was the Word with God, but the Word would come to be with His Creation. The Word would come and walk in the garden in the cool of the day to be with His Adam, with His Eve. The Word was Life, the Life and the Light of men.

Then, one day, the fateful day, the Word of God came to be with His Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, but He found not day, but darkness. The Fall had come, darkness forgot its place and spilled out in that garden, death creeping in, the Serpent sneering. Yet, The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome It. Satan, the old evil foe, sought in rage and jealousy to undo the Word's creation, to jumble into chaos all that the Word had separated, to pull assunder all that the Word had brought together. And the Word of God stepped into that Garden and called out to Adam, but Adam hid like a stranger, like he didn't know Him. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. Because of Sin, Adam hid from the Word.

So, how to fix this? How to make it so that the Word would be safely with His people, how to rescue them from darkness and death? How to be Emmanuel - God with Us – once again? Sinful man couldn't bear His presence. Death was already racking ruin upon His creation. The garden would not hold until sin was dealt with. So the Word declared that He would deal with Satan, that the Serpent's head would be crushed at the cost of the Word's own bruised heel.

Adam and Eve left the garden, and sin and darkness grew. Children wandered. Wickedness increased. The Word was by in large ignored. A flood cleansed creation, but it was not enough. Even then sinful man used speech to plot only wickedness against God, and so the Word confused their speech. Still wickedness grew. How, how to be God with man again? The Word came to Abraham, called Him friend – in you Abraham and in your Seed, Me Myself, will all the world be blessed. And Abraham believed the Lord – and the Lord would visit His friend Abraham, but it was only sporadically, only occasionally. And He would come to Jacob, but again, only on occasion, because Jacob could not bear it. And then there would be the time in Egypt, and His people would be surrounded by foreign idols, and the Word would be all but forgotten until the Word came to Moses, and then the Exodus. How, how to be God with us again?

The children of Israel passed through the Red Sea to Sinai, and there the Word spoke with Moses, gave Him a plan. In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected.... Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Here, in this place, in this tent, in this tabernacle, the Word would be with His people. He would lead them, and they would follow. Wherever they went, He would be with them. But still the problem of sin remained. He would be among them, in their midst, but they couldn't really come and be with the Word. Only the priests at certain times, only Moses, only with sacrifice and fear. And eventually the tabernacle becomes the Temple, right there in Jerusalem, for in the fullness of time that is where the Word would come, where His heel would be bruised. And generations passed, and the Word is routinely ignored, forgotten, His temple profaned.

Until Christmas. Then, then dear friends, the mystery of the ages. Then – The Word became flesh and dwelt – tented, tabernacled – among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word would be with His people by becoming one of the people, by becoming Man Himself. No more would He dwell simply in a tent, in a building, behind a thick curtain separated from all but the high priest – No, the Word became flesh, was made man, for us and for our salvation, so that we would be able to see His glory, my own eyes and not another, my heart faints within me. This is the mystery, the wonder of the Incarnation – that God Himself would become man – that the way He would get around the separation that sin caused was by His coming to us as One of us. That He Himself would be the true tabernacle, the true temple. The better tabernacle, the better temple. And to be with us, to remove the stain of sin and the pall of death, He would do what only He could, what He had promised He would long ago. The true temple would be torn down on the Cross as the serpent sank his fangs into His heels, Satan's nails into His wrists, the Devil's spear into His side. But with His death, the Life of men would crush the serpent, would soak up and expend the wrath of God that our sin deserved, that He would make atonement so that forgiven and declared righteous on account of Christ we all would be able to stand again in the presence of God, and so we shall for all eternity.

We don't understand, my friends, how good we have it in these days of the New Testament. We don't understand the wonder of these last days in the fullness of time. We know how the mystery of the ages plays out. We participate in the mystery – the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us – indeed, He comes to us today, He dwells with us and we are forgiven and given life and salvation- even here, even now, even in this world still wracked by sin and darkness and death – no, the Light shines in the darkness, and He comes and He shines upon you this day. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You are united to Christ in the mystery of Holy Baptism, and His life is your life. You received Him at the font as you were born again not by your will but born again by God, claimed by Him as own in His name.

And the Word gathers us together in His Name, in the Triune Name. And being brought together, the Word comes to you today in His Scriptures, in His preaching that you hear. And the highest mystery, the Word joins together His Body and Blood along with bread and wine so that He may join Himself to you for the forgiveness of your sins, for the strengthening of both your faith and your love, for you to have life and salvation. All this, so astonishing that even the angels broke forth in songs of surprise and praise at His birth. All this beyond what the prophets and patriarchs had beheld. And all for you, every time the Word calls you to this His house – and not only one house, one tabernacle, one temple in Jerusalem, but no, in countless hundreds of thousands of them – wherever two or three are gathered in His Name, and lo He is with you always even unto the end of the age, for He is Emmanuel, God with us.

And then the even fuller mystery to come, when He comes again and we see Him face to face, when all the saints of all times and of all places are gathered together around the throne, not only with lifted up hearts (we lift them up unto the Lord) but with resurrected bodies, flesh and blood, like our brother Jesus - Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see him as He is. The gifts, the wonders from that first Christmas continue to come, to be unwrapped and revealed. The feasts continue now, the celebrations ring out now, but shall even more so. Therefore, a hearty merry Christmas to you all, even until we reach the eternal Christmas without out end. Come quickly, Lord Jesus – In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Newborn King!