Exodus 40:17-21, 34-38/Titus 3:4-7/St John 1:1-14
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
By now you may be wondering why you got up early this morning, braved the cold, and ventured back to church, when you were just here last night. You might be feeling a bit short changed. For all that effort and the postponement of presents, you were probably hoping for the Linus van Pelt Christmas reading, that traditional narrative for children’s Christmas pageants, complete with gruff shepherds and ruff-hewn stable, a glowing Mary and beleaguered Joseph, lowing animals, and, of course, the gently swaddled Baby in a hay-stuffed manger.
Sorry to disappoint. That is the reading for Christmas Midnight - a service we ought to consider adding next year.
Christmas is the only day of the Church Year that has three assigned readings for three separate Divine Services: Christmas Midnight, Christmas Dawn, and Christmas Day. Midnight and Dawn belong to St Luke. Midnight Mass is the service of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” and “Silent Night.” Christmas Day is the service of “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Joy to the World.” It belongs to St John.
And his Christmas story begins, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It begins there, but that’s not where it starts. You won’t understand Christmas is you don’t get the tabernacle. The first reading from Exodus was not at all incongruous with the Mystery we celebrate today. It was the very unfolding of its deepest meaning.
For long ago God chose to live among His people in mercy and in love. He dwelt with them in a tent to led them to life and salvation. He was physically among them for their redemption and peace. For the cavod YHWH, the glory of the Lord, filled the tabernacle. In this way He brought His people into communion with Himself; He gave them a share in His divine life.
Now that sounds an awful lot like the words of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Lk 1:30-31, 34-35).
In other words, when the fullness of time came, God pitched His tent in an extraordinary way among men. The tent this last and final time was not made of animal skin, but taken from the very human nature of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She became, in a sense, a tabernacle, for in her womb she bore the living Ark, the cavod YHWH wrapped up in human flesh. As it is written, In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Col 2:9). The Word became flesh.
Christmas is not the feast of a Child born long ago and far away. Christmas is the Feast of the God who loved us so much as to take our human nature upon Himself so that He might in our human nature impart to us Himself and this share in His unending life! In his sermon for Christmas Day, 1534, Dr Luther said:
Once upon a time the devil attended Divine Service in a church where it was customary in the Creed to say: Et homo factus est, that is, “And was made Man.” While they were confessing this, the people just remained standing and did not kneel or bow down. The devil was so incensed that he punched his fist into one man’s jaw and said, “You boorish clod, aren’t you ashamed to just stand there like a post and refuse to kneel for joy? If God had become OUR brother, as He became YOUR brother, our joy would be so great that we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves!”
Father Martin opined that he wasn’t sure if this was a true story or not. (I’ll let you decide.) Either way it is a perfect illustration of the amazement and joy that is Christmas. God became Man so that He might make men His again! Christmas is all about YOU.
I’ll bet you never thought you’d hear that, so I’ll repeat it: Christmas is all about you. The Son of God did not take up flesh for His own sake. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity did not become a Man to please Himself, to more fully experience His creation. His Incarnation and birth were not a “boys’ night out.” Christ became Man for you. He took up the frailty of your flesh in order to redeem you from sin and death.
St John’s Christmas words, And the Word became flesh, mean that the Son of God assumed a sinful human existence. For everything Scripture had to say about the flesh up to this point was negative. You heard it throughout Advent: All flesh is grass, and all its beauty like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass (Is 40). St Paul preaches against this in all his epistles: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (Rm 7); and the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God (Rm 8:7); again, those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rm 8:8). And elsewhere, the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit (Gal 5:7); now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, jealousy, rivalries, envy, drunkenness Gal 5:19).
To John’s hearers to hear for the first time, the Word became flesh, must have been jarring. But with these words God is violently bringing together again heaven and earth. The two had become separated in the Fall on account of sin. Sin cut apart the proper union of heaven and earth like a knife splintering a concave oyster into two halves. It was not meant to be this way. God made man to dwell with Him in communion.
Thus in the Word becoming flesh He joins together in Himself that which was improperly separated. He puts enmity between Satan and humanity. In the flesh He chases down death, like a mighty Hunter going after a wild boar. He hunts it down to the very depths of hell. And it is the piercing lance of His Cross that strikes the animal dead.
And this is all for you! His Christmas is for you! He came in our flesh, this little One, in order to drive the death away from your flesh, to give it a share in His own immortality,cleansing it of sin, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on you richly. For it is in Holy Baptism that you were begotten from God, born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born from above from God the Father Himself. You dwell in Him!
And here He sets before His tabernacle. For as He came in the flesh for you, and never relinquishes that flesh, He is now and forever the GodMan, He comes again in His Body and Blood for you. This is the Feast of the Christ-Mass, His Eucharist, His Supper. And it is not for Him, but for you. Here He not only dwells among you, but puts Himself with in you. The paten and cup His manger, you His tabernacle. By these you have communion with God. Here He is for the forgiveness of your sins. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. And that’s always worth getting out of bed for!
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
By now you may be wondering why you got up early this morning, braved the cold, and ventured back to church, when you were just here last night. You might be feeling a bit short changed. For all that effort and the postponement of presents, you were probably hoping for the Linus van Pelt Christmas reading, that traditional narrative for children’s Christmas pageants, complete with gruff shepherds and ruff-hewn stable, a glowing Mary and beleaguered Joseph, lowing animals, and, of course, the gently swaddled Baby in a hay-stuffed manger.
Sorry to disappoint. That is the reading for Christmas Midnight - a service we ought to consider adding next year.
Christmas is the only day of the Church Year that has three assigned readings for three separate Divine Services: Christmas Midnight, Christmas Dawn, and Christmas Day. Midnight and Dawn belong to St Luke. Midnight Mass is the service of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” and “Silent Night.” Christmas Day is the service of “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Joy to the World.” It belongs to St John.
And his Christmas story begins, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It begins there, but that’s not where it starts. You won’t understand Christmas is you don’t get the tabernacle. The first reading from Exodus was not at all incongruous with the Mystery we celebrate today. It was the very unfolding of its deepest meaning.
For long ago God chose to live among His people in mercy and in love. He dwelt with them in a tent to led them to life and salvation. He was physically among them for their redemption and peace. For the cavod YHWH, the glory of the Lord, filled the tabernacle. In this way He brought His people into communion with Himself; He gave them a share in His divine life.
Now that sounds an awful lot like the words of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Lk 1:30-31, 34-35).
In other words, when the fullness of time came, God pitched His tent in an extraordinary way among men. The tent this last and final time was not made of animal skin, but taken from the very human nature of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She became, in a sense, a tabernacle, for in her womb she bore the living Ark, the cavod YHWH wrapped up in human flesh. As it is written, In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Col 2:9). The Word became flesh.
Christmas is not the feast of a Child born long ago and far away. Christmas is the Feast of the God who loved us so much as to take our human nature upon Himself so that He might in our human nature impart to us Himself and this share in His unending life! In his sermon for Christmas Day, 1534, Dr Luther said:
Once upon a time the devil attended Divine Service in a church where it was customary in the Creed to say: Et homo factus est, that is, “And was made Man.” While they were confessing this, the people just remained standing and did not kneel or bow down. The devil was so incensed that he punched his fist into one man’s jaw and said, “You boorish clod, aren’t you ashamed to just stand there like a post and refuse to kneel for joy? If God had become OUR brother, as He became YOUR brother, our joy would be so great that we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves!”
Father Martin opined that he wasn’t sure if this was a true story or not. (I’ll let you decide.) Either way it is a perfect illustration of the amazement and joy that is Christmas. God became Man so that He might make men His again! Christmas is all about YOU.
I’ll bet you never thought you’d hear that, so I’ll repeat it: Christmas is all about you. The Son of God did not take up flesh for His own sake. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity did not become a Man to please Himself, to more fully experience His creation. His Incarnation and birth were not a “boys’ night out.” Christ became Man for you. He took up the frailty of your flesh in order to redeem you from sin and death.
St John’s Christmas words, And the Word became flesh, mean that the Son of God assumed a sinful human existence. For everything Scripture had to say about the flesh up to this point was negative. You heard it throughout Advent: All flesh is grass, and all its beauty like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass (Is 40). St Paul preaches against this in all his epistles: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (Rm 7); and the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God (Rm 8:7); again, those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rm 8:8). And elsewhere, the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit (Gal 5:7); now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, jealousy, rivalries, envy, drunkenness Gal 5:19).
To John’s hearers to hear for the first time, the Word became flesh, must have been jarring. But with these words God is violently bringing together again heaven and earth. The two had become separated in the Fall on account of sin. Sin cut apart the proper union of heaven and earth like a knife splintering a concave oyster into two halves. It was not meant to be this way. God made man to dwell with Him in communion.
Thus in the Word becoming flesh He joins together in Himself that which was improperly separated. He puts enmity between Satan and humanity. In the flesh He chases down death, like a mighty Hunter going after a wild boar. He hunts it down to the very depths of hell. And it is the piercing lance of His Cross that strikes the animal dead.
And this is all for you! His Christmas is for you! He came in our flesh, this little One, in order to drive the death away from your flesh, to give it a share in His own immortality,cleansing it of sin, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on you richly. For it is in Holy Baptism that you were begotten from God, born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born from above from God the Father Himself. You dwell in Him!
And here He sets before His tabernacle. For as He came in the flesh for you, and never relinquishes that flesh, He is now and forever the GodMan, He comes again in His Body and Blood for you. This is the Feast of the Christ-Mass, His Eucharist, His Supper. And it is not for Him, but for you. Here He not only dwells among you, but puts Himself with in you. The paten and cup His manger, you His tabernacle. By these you have communion with God. Here He is for the forgiveness of your sins. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. And that’s always worth getting out of bed for!
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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