Sermon - Christmas Day "it's the thought that counts"

Sermon – Christmas Day
John 1:1-14
December 25, 2011
“it’s the thought that counts”

Merry Christmas! I’m sure you probably opened some Christmas gifts this morning already, or maybe you are waiting? What was the most memorable gift you ever received? (that could be good or bad)

Now maybe the most memorable gift you ever received didn’t come in a bow… maybe it was a memory, a conversation, a visit from a loved one you had waited a long time to see. Certainly the families of the troops coming home from Iraq right now are getting the best Christmas present they could ever ask for.

One way to think about Christmas is that it is God’s gift to the world in Jesus Christ.
Now we’re used to hearing the Christmas story from Luke’s gospel as we did last night. This morning we hear the Christmas story from the gospel of John. Now hold on, this is the Christmas story? Where are the angels and shepherds, Mary and Joseph and the manger?

While John’s gospel does not give all the details of Jesus’ birth, it does capture the meaning of Christmas.
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In Genesis 1, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…and then God spoke the World into being. The Word.
As it says in today’s reading from Hebrews: “1Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets,2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.”
In the beginning of creation, Jesus was with God.

John’s Gospel goes on to say: “14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”
So Christmas is the time when we celebrate the very light of God (God said, let there be light) this light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall not overcome it. We celebrate the very Word of God, (that spoke the world into being) God’s very essence, in Jesus, is becoming flesh and blood, human. That in the face of the babe born in a manger we can see the glory of God.
“and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.”

In theological terms this is the “Incarnation”: literally to become flesh. The incarnation is the doctrine at the heart of Christmas. And rather than having you endure a three hour lecture on Christmas day about the doctrine of the incarnation, I will do you the service of summarizing it:
This babe in the manger is the divine becoming flesh. This was what the angels were proclaiming. They hymn, Angels we have heard on high: “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity; Pleased as man with man to dwell; Jesus, our Emmanuel”

What is key about the incarnation is what it tells us about God. What does the gift tell us about the giver? So much does God love humanity, that God’s Word, God’s essence, God’s son, would come to be born among us. And he would sleep in a manger, and grow up, a toddler, then a teenager, to an adult. He would do what humans do: eat, drink, sleep, bath, sweat, laugh, cry, etc.

Think about it…what does it mean to you that the divine became flesh?
That God is not far away, removed, disinterested in humanity.
But God comes and dwells among us. God is here.
In the midst of whatever we’re going through. Grief, pain, addiction, sickness. God comes right in the midst of it.
God knows what it’s like to live as a human.
As Gail O'Day says: "to become flesh is to know joy, pain, suffering, and loss. It is to love, to grieve, and someday to die."

The Word became flesh and lived among us. The word lived is literally to make one’s home, to dwell, tabernacle, or tent…or as the Message translation puts it: “to move into the neighborhood.” Why? Because God wants to live with us, so that we would know God, and to know God’s love.

Christ is God’s gift for the world, for all of us. Gifts send a message: the message the gift sends is not just what is written on the wrapping.
Don’t they say: “it’s the thought that counts” (even that ugly sweater)
But the message is: See how much I think of you; how much I love you; how much you mean to me!
This is what is happening in the incarnation, the birth of Jesus in a manger…
God sending a message of love. See? This is how much I love you. Now do you understand now? Do you get the message?

This is how deep and wide God’s love is for; this is how far God would go to show God’s love for us; is to give God’s only son for all of us, so that we would not die, but live; and so that we would not live in darkness, but have light.

This is the best gift we could ever have, and we praise God for the gift of Jesus this day. Amen.