Sermon: Christmas Day, John 1:1-14, December 25, 2022

Sermon: Christmas Day, John 1:1-14, December 25, 2022

Faith Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

You’ve just heard the Gospel writer John’s version of the Christmas story, a rendering

remarkably different from the stories in both Matthew and Luke’s Gospels, both of

which call forth in us images of our nativity scenes of Mary and Joseph and the baby

lying in the manger surrounded by shepherds and animals and the Magi.

John’s version of the story, in contrast, is a complete philosophical and theological

abstraction in comparison with Matthew and Luke. John doesn’t say a word about

Joseph, Mary or the baby Jesus. No. John’s story is conceptual, focusing on abstract

concepts like Word and life and light and grace and truth. But the Christmassy feature

of the story from John is that the Word of God, which was and is God, was made

flesh, became incarnate in Jesus Christ, an indirect reference to the babe lying in the

manger who was born of the virgin Mary.

So today, let’s attempt to blend the images of the biblical Christmas stories – the

manger and the holy family, the shepherds, the wise men, and animals – with the

philosophical and theological wisdom of John.

Here’s the thing: the baby in the manger contains all the beautiful concepts that John

talks about. Of course, all babies are full of wonder and mystery and possibility. Every

baby contains the potentiality of the whole trajectory of their life. I certainly

remember marveling at the wonder of my new born son, imagining what he might

grow up to become. So much of his potentiality was already present in undeveloped

form when he was but a few days old. You parents and grandparents and aunts and

uncles no doubt have also shared in the wonderment of the mysteries of newborn

children.

But the baby Jesus was all of that human potential and more because of his divinity.

When considering John’s message in concert with the birth stories in Matthew and

Luke, the baby Jesus was the very Word of God. The baby Jesus was with God at the

beginning of creation and had a hand in all things coming into being. The baby Jesus

was life and the light of all people which darkness cannot overcome. The baby Jesus

would grow to give power to those who believe to become children of God. The baby

Jesus was full of God’s glory and full of grace and truth, as of a father’s only son. In

short, when we see the story from John alongside the stories in Matthew and Luke,

the baby Jesus was and is God full stop.

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God the Father via the power of the Holy Spirit planted this seed of himself in the

womb of the virgin Mary to become incarnate, to be born as the Word made flesh in

and for the world to bring to all of creation the fullness of God’s self. Wow. That’s

the wonder and mystery of this day, the meaning of the babe in the manger. These are

the things that Mary pondered in her heart. And we do, too. Thanks be to God.

Moreover, in the baby Jesus, God speaks to us by his Son, who is this child, God’s

appointed heir of all things, through whom God also created the worlds, according to

the author of the letter to the Hebrews. The baby Jesus is the reflection of God’s

glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being who would make purification for sins

and then would be seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, superior to angels

– again drawing from today’s second reading in Hebrews. (cf. Hebrews 1:2-4) All of

this, too, is quite awesome indeed. All these blessings are present in the baby Jesus.

In short, in the baby Jesus is all that Christ would become in his ministry of teaching

and healing, culminating in the wonder and mystery of his death and resurrection.

Everything is there in unconditionally potential form awaiting growing to full flower

and then bearing fruit in the harvest of Christ’s death and resurrection for the sake

and salvation of the world.

Or as one of the stanzas of the beloved Christmas Carol, “What Child is This” puts it:

“Nails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you; hail, hail,

the Word made flesh, the babe, the Son of Mary.” (ELW 296)

Alas, some don’t recognize in the baby Jesus, or in the adult Jesus for that matter, all

the divinity and blessing contained therein – that’s the weight of the law, the rule of

sin and unbelief about which the Gospel writer John also speaks: “The light was in

the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know

him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” (John

1:10-11)

But the gift of Jesus, and all of that divinity which was en-fleshed in him, makes

possible our belief – and this is the good news. As John writes: “But to all who

received him, and believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

(John 1:12)

Fast forward now to these remaining days of 2022. Let’s translate the wisdom of John

in connection with the other birth stories to our own times and our own Christian

practices to see how the things of God are still made flesh, and are incarnate in our

lives.

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Take our Baptism into Christ, for example. Baptism contains the same fullness of

divine reality as did the baby Jesus, and God still plants the seed of faith in us through

water and the word that in our sacramental water birth we might come to believe and

to see the fullness of God even in a baby lying in an animal’s feeding trough.

The Eucharist, the Holy Communion, also contains all the realities that were present

in the baby Jesus. In a simple piece of bread and a hint of a taste of wine is everything

that Christ is, everything that God is in the same manner as the Word made flesh in

the baby in the manger. In, with, and under the earthly, fleshy gifts of bread and wine

is life and light and grace and truth, the word that was with God, the word that is

God.

Likewise, consider the word of scripture. Those grace-filled biblical words which leap

off the page in meaningful ways to us in the power of the Spirit also contain the

fullness of God’s presence and power. Tiny little words like a tiny baby full of so

much sacred potential and so much divine potency.

And what is birthed through our share in these means of grace, again, is our faith, our

belief, about which John writes, that which imparts to us everything that Christ was

and is and ever shall be, ever more and ever more.

Thus, we break forth in songs of praise as in today’s reading from Isaiah as we “shout

together for joy, amidst the ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted the chosen

people, and has redeemed Jerusalem. The holy arm of the Lord is bared before the

eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our

God.” (Isaiah 52:9-10) For our God reigns. (cf. Isaiah 52:7b)

This is the good news that we are called to share with those who have not yet come to

believe. And we share that news in word and loving deed.

And this good news all started in the baby Jesus, the word made flesh containing the

fullness of God and God’s gifts to all people, all nations, and all of creation.

Thanks be to God. Merry Christmas once again. Amen.