Psalmody: Isaiah 9:6a; Psalm 98:1a;98:3b-4a, 2;89:11, 14a;98:3b
Lection: Isaiah 52:6-10;Hebrews 1:1-12;St. John 1:1–14
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the beginning…of December, we entered the season of Advent, looking forward to the coming of Christ in the manger, in the Holy Supper, and in the clouds on the Last Day. We withheld the Gloria in Excelsis from our liturgy to further prepare our minds and hearts for the Christmas joy of singing it once again; Glory be to God on high! The multitude of the heavenly host of angels burst forth at the birth announcement to the shepherds, at the good news that born that day in the City of David was a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord. They couldn’t contain themselves for Christ the Lord, Christ their Lord, Christ our Lord, was taking His first breaths of the air created through Him in the beginning. “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Thus, our anticipation has built for weeks, only to be raised once again in song as we sang again this morning, “Glory be to God on High”, and though the earthly voices among us are few, considering the countless number of saints in the entirety of God’s Holy Church, the heavenly host with us here this morning certainly raise their voices to God in tandem, just as they do in every song of praise and prayer that we lift up in the Divine Service. We are not singing alone of this great news that the Savior has come, not redeeming us by merely coming in the flesh, but that His incarnation and virgin birth is the first step of showing the Father’s grace and love for us by fulfilling His promise to save us from our sin by sending forth the eternal Son.
This is why we genuflect in the Nicene Creed at the words “…and was made man”. We, like sheep, have gone astray, and like the days of summer to fall left to themselves, we only grow darker. But, alleleluia, the people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. If the Word of God had not come in the flesh and shone into the dark hollows of our hearts, then we in the flesh would still remain in our sin and in the eternal consequences of it. But God did not allow that to happen to those He created; to those He loves; to those He creates anew by His will. God loves in this way because He is Love Himself. We know love because we know God. The truth that the eternal God was made man is no small matter. Our limited human understanding can only reflect upon what is written, marvel at it, ponder it, and contemplate it to a certain extent, yet God has seen it fit, He has seen it important, He has seen it necessary that we hear this truth, understand it, take it to heart, believe and rejoice that the second Person of the blessed Holy Trinity became man.
This wonderful news the Apostle John wrote down in extraordinary fashion in inspired words proclaiming the Light of salvation, full of grace and truth, shining into the dark world. Though profound that it reveals and proclaims the hidden truths of God, the glorious story is that the Babe in Bethlehem had all appearance of mere man, of mere infant mild, yet was fully God thus veiled. By this inspired word, the Holy Spirit through St. John has given us something simple to pass down for generations and generations. Yes, St. John does provide divinely challenging teachings to understand, but considering that in a relatively short book he has revealed what we need to know about God, all-the-while showing us, from the beginning, that it’s not only him saying these things, the Almighty has given us words by which now sing we, now rejoice on this Holy Christmas morn.
The apostle points us back to the beginning of the Scriptures by opening his account with the words, “In the beginning…”, causing us to remember how Moses began his writing, “In the beginning.” By echoing the great Red Sea prophet, John is saying that the good news he has to tell is about the same Ancient of Days spoken of and worshipped in the Old Testament. It takes us back to the beginning of everything that everybody has ever known about the history of the world, of the cosmos, of all creation. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said (There’s that blessed Word by Whom and through Whom all things were made)…Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” In the beginning, God created, and in the beginning was the Word. The Christmas Gospel proclaims the bright message of all things being created by God speaking, or rather literally, by the Word of God. We need not spend hours sitting in a rock garden in silence contemplating what or how the Father worked creation by speaking and that His Word is the Son of God Himself. We’re being taken back to the simplicity of the truth that the Word Who was with the Father in the beginning is the one Person of the blessed Holy Trinity Who stepped down from eternity, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He, this dear little Child laid in a manger in swaddling cloths, is indeed the same One Who was there in the beginning of all created things. Even while upon Mary’s lap content was He Who keeps the earth and sky and sea. Oh, what humbling and glorious news for us this Christmas Day!
Without that Babe in the manger being God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, there is no salvation. No part of fallen creation can redeem itself from sin. No part of fallen creation can rescue you out of the curse, out of unending suffering, out of eternal death. If the Eternal Word was not made man, then we gather this morning without a hope. But, beloved in this incarnate, eternal Lord, we have Hope, because He Who was there in the beginning, He Who was before our beginning, co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He by Whom all things were made has come to us; He in Whom there was no beginning nor will there be an end; He Who was, Who is, and Who is to come is that very same Almighty God Who created heaven and earth, then humbled Himself in the time of need and became a man for you. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us so that He may take up the penalty of our sin by avoiding not the path from the cradle the cross; from the manger to the altar; from the tomb to the great cloud of the Last Day. In the flesh, Jesus was laid in the manger so that in the flesh He would be hung on the tree to become your Tree of Life, forgiving you all your sins. He, the Christ Child, we celebrate. He, the Word made flesh we laud and glorify. He, the Savior of the World we worship today and receive with joy and thanksgiving, praising Him for coming for us, for this was God’s will in the beginning. Glory be to God on high!
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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