St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Second Sunday after Christmas – January 3, 2010
“Incarnation: Better Than!”
Text: John 1:14
Better than! Better than! What’s better than what?
On this Second Sunday after Christmas, the 10th day of Christmas, this is the question I want to begin with: “What’s better than . . ?”
What’s better than being alone at Christmas? What’s better than being alone is being home for Christmas. What’s better that being alone is being with family -- sitting, laughing, sharing, smelling, tasting, eating; seeing the look of surprise and delight on smiling faces as gifts are handed out, opened, received with thanks-giving. We call it “the spirit of Christmas,” yet there’s not much about it that’s spiritual but a lot that’s human, physical, down-to-earth, warm, casual & unsophisticated. What’s better than being alone at Christmas is being in touch with family, being with someone.
When it comes to knowing and experiencing God, John 1:14 says this too; proclaims there is something better than. Better than knowing about God; better than being on a spiritual search for God, better than lots of words about God, even better than trying to be a better person or a more religious person who seeks to please God. What’s better is when the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
Old year, new year, when it comes to the ups & downs of life; when life is full of bumps in the road, when there is sickness, pain, loneliness, boredom, fear of failure, temptations too strong to resist, bitterness of heart; when life is hectic, heavy, hard, it’s not uncommon for people to think nothing could be better than having God almighty high up in heaven above to turn to for help. But guest what?
The almighty God who made heaven and earth; the almighty & merciful God who dwells higher than the highest mountains, when God looked down from on high to see how bad things get on this earth, how dark & lonely & fearful & troublesome things get, God decided that better than sending more prophets & prophetic messages, better it was for God Himself to come down and visit earth.
Like family coming home for Christmas, God came down to earth by way of a back door at Bethlehem. God became a baby. God became a human being. With a human heart & soul & mind & body God actually lived & walked & ate & slept on this earth in the person, in the flesh & blood of His only begotten Son born of Mary just as you and I were born of our mothers & live on this earth.
What’s better than God high up in the heavens? What’s better than God as the distant object of our most pious thoughts & prayers? What’s better then crying out to God, trying to connect with God? What’s better is God here in our midst, God on earth, God in man made manifest.
Martin Luther got it right! Rather than settle for a definition of Christianity as believing in God somewhere up there & us poor sinners down here trying to be good, trying hard to please God a just & holy God, Luther’s careful reading of Scripture led him to see that a true definition of Christianity begins with God contacting earth - God coming down to earth - God sending Jesus to earth!
Luther starts off his long Christmas hymn with 15 verses with the angel of the Lord saying to certain poor shepherds: “From heaven above to earth I come to bear good news to ev-‘ry home.” Luther got it right!
The Christ of God at our front door! The Christ of God at our table. God’s only begotten Son at home with us, coming in & going out with us. What could be better than that? Or to quote another verse 8 from Luther’s long Christmas hymn;
“Welcome to earth, O noble Guest,
Through whom this sinful world is blest!
You came to share my misery
That You might share Your joy with me.” (LSB,358,v.8)
This is the meaning of John 1:14 when it says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The implications of God in the flesh dwelling among us, are incredible, humbling, good news. That God comes to us; that the Incarnate Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, means an end to our feeble, often self-serving, self-fulfilling efforts to find God.
“If God is truly here for us, it is not because of our piety; it is not because of our spirituality; it is not because of our wise choices, or heroic efforts to be good or to get more religion.” God comes down; God is here because God is God. God isn’t some distant, abstract force or first principle or prime mover. God is not something, God is someone, personal, alive, present, gracious, close, caring.
Truth is, when we are confronted by this most holy, most perfect, most Incarnate God who chooses to dwell among us, this ever-coming, ever present Incarnate Word of God exposes us, exposes our false pride, exposes our arrogance, exposes up our helplessness, our waywardness, our weakness of faith.
Yet even as we stand exposed, at the same time God’s Incarnate Word comforts us & encourages us with good news that we are saved; we are rescued from sin & death, from darkness & evil, not by any religious awakening or spiritual high we have, not by any principles & practices we try follow, but we are saved, rescued, by a real, human, historical person. John 3:16 says God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. John 1:14 says even though we don’t always feel godly or act in a godly way, God comes to us. Luther went so far as to say God chooses to make his bed and sleep with us. So Luther writes in His long Christmas hymn
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,
A quiet chamber set apart
For you to dwell within my heart. (LSB, 358, v.13)
The parable is told about a man who moved into a cottage equipped with a stove and simple furnishings. As the sharp edge of winter cut across the landscape, the cottage grew cold as did it the man staying in it. The man went out back and pulled a few boards off the cottage to start a fire.
The fire was warm, but the cottage seemed as cold as before. More boards came off the cottage for a larger fire to warm the now even colder cottage, which in turn required an even larger fire, demanding more boards. In a few days the man cursed the weather, cursed the cottage, cursed the stove, and moved away.
The futility that man felt is the futility of those who try to live the Christian life seeking warmth, seeking God without Christ, without the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word that was in the beginning with God and is God is the Incarnate Word alive today. To all who face darkness, coldness, lonely-ness, emptiness, weakness, weariness, helplessness, Christianity is not something to do, but Christianity is the Word Incarnate here & now to love & hold on to who first loves and holds on to us.
God above who has a reputation for coming to meet His wayward & repentant sons & daughters comes down to us. In Word & Sacrament, God comes to warm our hearts, share His saving grace, shine His love into the darkest, loneliest, guiltiest places of our lives.
You want better than spiritual; you want better than good in God’s eyes, you want more than just religion, you want in on God’s glory & grace, you want godliness with contentment? “Here it is,” says John 1:14. This is good, this is godly, this is better than . .
“God is here! God is Incarnate in Christ. God’s goodness is not only something for which we hope – some disembodied ideal that exists in our minds. But just like being together with family for Christmas, God’s love for us is experienced in the touching, the seeing, the hearing & receiving & tasting of God’s good pleasure extended to us. Trust the Incarnate Word! Have some bread! Drink some wine. God is here, O so near.
This is our salvation and this we can say with Martin Luther . . .
Glory to God in highest heaven,
