December 25, 2009 Sermon
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December 25, 2009
Christmas Day -
Year C
John 1:1-14 Hebrews
1:1-12
Gary Sanford San Angelo
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14
The Rev. Dr. Frank Hegedus of "The Episcopal Church in Almaden" in San Jose, California asks a very interesting question. One that Medieval scholars pondered long and hard. He asks:
"Say there had been no fall from grace in the Garden, and humankind had never sinned. In that case, would God have become man? Would God have become part of our human race? And would we today be celebrating Christ’s birth?"
Dr. Hedgdus continues:
"Many answered with an emphatic no, citing the clear witness of scripture and the creeds. Christ came to bring salvation to humankind, they maintained. He lived among us and taught us, and his death on the cross became the means of our redemption. That was the reason he came to earth--to save sinners. In their view, if we had not sinned, there would have been no need for redemption or salvation and so no need for the Incarnation--no need for Christmas. Humankind would have remained at peace in the Garden--in a state of bliss as some writers might call it--and the person of Jesus Christ would simply not have been. And we would never have been the wiser."
"Other scholars," he says, "were deeply troubled by this train of thought, which appeared to make the Incarnation contingent--that is, dependant--upon evil itself and the sinfulness of humankind. Yet how could that be? After all, in Christ, God and creation had come together as one, and God was united with humankind forever. God's love for us, these scholars argued, was so deep and profound that the world itself would be unthinkable--un-creatable, to coin a word--without the Incarnate Christ at its center. Christ, the God-Man, was no afterthought to sin, and Jesus Christ was far more than just a cosmic Mr. Fix-It. No, they concluded, God would have become human no matter what."
This, of course, is a purely rhetorical question. We know that mankind did sin and fall from God's grace. We know that Christ was sent for the redemption of that sin. And we know that Christ appeared to us in human form. But both thoughts may be valid. While Christ certainly came to save sinners, as Christians today, we understand that humankind did not have to sin in order to experience God's love.
The Gospel of John, in its prologue, gives us reassurance in God's creative love: His desire to be with us, to nurture us and to show us this astounding grace.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God," John tells us.
The "Word" that John speaks of is the force of all life. It is the way in which God makes things happen. It is God's involvement in the world and ultimately in all things human. This force, the "Word", is none other than Christ our Lord born in Bethlehem so many centuries ago.
"All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being."
Simply put, God was not satisfied with being distant and aloof from what He had created. When Christ was born "the Word became flesh and lived among us". And that is what Christmas is all about. It is the coming of Christ in the form of a man named Jesus--Emmanuel--God among us. In fact it is about the birth of the world itself.
While all of this may seem a little theological and possibly abstract, the birth of the Christ-child certainly was not. It was a very real thing and as any parent can tell you a child is a very real thing. In the Christ-child, as in any child, we see the vulnerability and resilience of human nature. In this child we see the helplessness and dependability experienced by all children. Yet we will also witness the strength and courage that is to become our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ is the Word and with His birth everything we know and everything we cannot know come into being. This is God among us. Not because of the evilness of sin, but because of love. Love for that which He has created.
This small child, born this day, has become the Word proclaimed in our Gospel message for all time and throughout the world. In Him we are more than just redeemed from sin. In Him we are given light, and hope, and love,
"What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
Because of Christ the world has its being. In Him the world continues to be made new every single day.
A very Merry and Blessed Christmas to all of you.
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Revised: 01/03/10