Christmas 2023

You have heard the first eight lessons read – one remains: the wonderful passage from John’s gospel. We could go through the lessons. Sketching the whole story of Creation, Fall, and Redemption; but this morning I give only two brief thoughts.

 

One, Christmas and these readings upend the world’s obsession with power and wealth and tells us the story of God – the Ultimate Reality – is on the side of the powerless. An old carol says it:

All poor men and humble,/ All lame men who stumble,/ Come haste ye, nor feel ye afraid.

For Jesus our treasure,/ With love past all measure,/ In lowly poor manger was laid.

 

Though wise men who found him/ Laid rich gifts around him,/ Yet oxen they gave him their hay;

And Jesus in beauty/ Accepted their duty;/ Contented in manger he lay.

 

Then haste we to show him/ The praises we owe him;/ Our service he ne'er can despise:

Whose love still is able/ To show us that stable/ Where softly in manger he lies.

 

I heard last week that my old office mate from when I began teaching has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He is a man of deep wisdom and compassion who has helped so many in their times of darkness. This year, he is stumbling towards the manger, and there he finds God’s love and light.

 

Two, John 1 tells us of the Word made flesh. In Greek: the Logos – the principle of reality – became a human. In Chinese: the Dao – the way that undergirds the world – became a child, a baby boy. John tells us that in the Word, the Logos, the Dao made flesh, we see God’s glory revealed.

 

The early church father Athanasius said it this way: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” This idea of divination pushes the boundaries of my understanding. A startling statement! It makes it clear that God has destined us for a glory we cannot imagine, and that the birth of Jesus is the essential key to this indescribable process.

 

My father died five and a half years ago. The day before he died, my sister was reading to him from this passage in John 1. When she reached the words, “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us”, Dad exclaimed, “Isn’t that wonderful! Isn’t that amazing!” He was looking into eternity at something beyond our comprehension. The miracle of Christmas.