Who do I want to be in 2022?”
John1:1-14
It was the event that angels announced, shepherd’s heard, wise men sought, Herod feared, and the world did not even notice. It was the event Mary cradled, and Joseph admired. It was the event wrapped in cloths; it is the event we celebrate today, and that event is, God is here.
“God is here” is the message of Christmas. Jesus, God’s only Son has become human. He is God in a suit of flesh. He is the visible expression of the invisible God. At Christmas God is expressing Himself in a language that we can understand. We celebrate today that God is identifying with the frailties and tragedies of human race, that God’s relationship with humans gets closer and more personal. Christmas, as one of my pastors used to say, it’s the corner where God meets humans. What we are celebrating today is God announcing to the world, “I’m here!”
At Bethlehem, God became human. The omnipotent God, in one instant, made himself fragile. He who had been invisible, became visible. The immortal God became mortal. He who is larger than the universe became limited, and He who sustains the world and provides for everyone, chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl. And all this happened because God loves this world.
The apostle John used the word incarnation to describe the miracle we celebrate in Christmas. Theologians had written and will continue writing long books to explain the doctrine of God incarnating in Jesus of Nazareth, but John uses a simple expression, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Eugene Petersen in his version of the Bible called The Message, paraphrases John 1:14 like this, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” Therefore, today we can say with Eugene Peterson that what we celebrate today is that Jesus became flesh and blood, one of us and moved into the neighborhood, our neighborhood.
Trying to explain in a simple way what it means that God became one of us and moved into our neighborhood, I remember the story of Joseph Damien who was a nineteenth century missionary who worked with lepers on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. All the community grew to love him and respect the sacrificial life he lived out before them.
One morning before Damien was to lead the daily worship, the story says, he was pouring some hot water into a cup and by accident, the water fell on his bare foot. It took him a moment to realize that he hadn’t felt any sensation. He knew what that meant; he poured more hot water on the same spot, no feeling at all. Damien immediately knew what had happened. As he walked tearfully to deliver his sermon, no one at first noticed the difference in his opening line. He normally began every sermon with, “My fellow believers.” However, this morning he began with, “My fellow lepers.”
My sisters and brothers, after God was made flesh at Bethlehem, we are not just God’s creation anymore, because He became one of us, now we are His children, His family, he calls us brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11). In Jesus, God calls us my fellow brothers and my fellow sisters, my fellow humans. At Christmas the faraway God came near and revealed himself to us. What a way to show his love; what a way to show he cares for us.
I suspect that this Christmas we will all receive different gifts – some gift we probably do not need, others we could live without, however, there is one present we all are going to receive this Christmas, a present we cannot refuse because we cannot live without, the one present we need in our life is the one sent by God, Jesus Christ his son.
Jesus is the One who shows us God. He is the One who feels our hurt. He is the One who makes God touchable, approachable, and reachable to all of us. Let us open our heart to Jesus this Christmas. And remember, all these colors, all these lights, all this celebration are here to let us know that God has moved into our neighborhood.