"The Enfleshment of God" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Thursday December 25 – Christmas Day
Scripture Reading:  John 1:1-14


I have a great Venn Diagram in my office about the biblical Christmas Story; or I should probably say, the biblical Christmas Stories, because they don’t always line up.  So, as you probably know, Venn Diagrams are overlapping circles that show where the things you are talking about overlap, and where they are different.

When you look at the Christmas Stories in the bible, there are two main ones – one according to Matthew, and the other according to Luke.  (The Gospel of Mark begins with Jesus as a fully grown adult.)  And the Venn Diagram that I’m talking about has three overlapping circles – one for Matthew, one for Luke, and one for the standard church nativity play.  In the centre part of the diagram – ie things that are found in Matthew, Luke, and the standard nativity play – you find mention of Bethlehem, you find Jesus’s birth, you find angels.  In Matthew and the standard nativity play, but not in Luke, you have the magi.  In Luke and the standard nativity play, but not in Matthew, you have shepherds, a census, and a journey to Bethlehem.  Unique to Luke is the story of the angel appearing to Mary, and the story of Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist.  Unique to Matthew is Joseph’s dream and the flight to Egypt.  And unique to the standard nativity play, but not found in any of the gospels are donkeys and an innkeeper!

You get the idea – since a picture is worth a thousand words, when I share this sermon online, I’ll be sure to include the Venn Diagram with it!

But alongside this fairly standard Venn Diagram, off to the side is a fourth circle that doesn’t overlap with either Mathew, Luke, or the standard nativity play.  This circle is titled “The Gospel of John” and the centre of the circle reads “complex stuff about the word and light and things.”

The reading from the Gospel of John that we heard this morning is John’s version of the nativity story.  There are no shepherds, no magi, no angels, not even a mention of Bethlehem.  But it is the Gospel of John that gives us the heart of the Christmas Story:  God’s Word became flesh, and dwelled among us.

The implications of this are profound.  God – the same God who spoke creation in to being; the same God who has the power to flood the earth, but who placed a rainbow in the sky to promise never again; the same God who led the Ancient Israelites for 40 years in the desert, making manna to fall from the sky and water to flow from a rock – this God chooses to empty themselves of all of this power and become human flesh and blood.

This isn’t the same as the stories of God who walked with Adam and Eve in the garden; this isn’t the same as the stories of God who spoke to Moses out of a burning bush – in all of these other stories, God remains God, wholly other and not human.  But with Christmas, God is still God but God is fully human too.  It’s almost as if an artist has painted a picture, and then somehow manages to crawl inside and become part of the picture.

Like I said, the implications are profound.  If everything that God touches becomes holy, becomes sanctified, then our humanity – our human flesh and blood have been made holy; our human experiences have been made holy.  God became human, and our humanity will, forevermore, be united with God.  Because of the birth of Jesus, and by the actions of the Holy Spirit, God is drawing us into the divine dance.  We are no longer separate from God, but God is with us, Emmanual, and we are the literal body of Christ.

And for me, this is why Christmas and the incarnation, the enfleshment of God, is at the heart of my faith.  I was in conversation online a couple of weeks ago with some colleagues, who were pondering why Christianity, as a whole, tends to focus on the Good Friday / Easter story rather than the Christmas story.  Why is the cross the central symbol of our faith, rather than the manger?

I think that it is because incarnation is inherently messy and earthy and vulnerable.  The church is more comfortable with the blood of violence than with the blood and amniotic fluid of birth.  The church would rather have “immortal, invisible, God only wise” instead of a helpless baby whom the king tries to kill.  A God who turns the tables on death itself is easier to accept than a God who is born to suffer just as all humans suffer.

And yet.  And yet none of the rest of the story makes any sense at all without the incarnation.  Because of Christmas, because God’s Word became flesh and dwelled among us, as one of us, every human experience, from joy to sorrow, from hope to despair, from love to abandonment, every human experience has come into contact with God and has become holy.  No matter what we experience in life, we can know that God is with us because God has been here before.  And we can delight in our own flesh and blood too, for our flesh is the same flesh that God became.

And to me, this is Christmas.  Christmas is more than a sweet baby cuddled by loving parents.  Christmas is more than beloved songs and beloved movies.  Christmas is more than spending time with the people we love.  To me, Christmas is about God shattering the ordinary, mundane existence, and becoming part of the thing that they have created.  The world has been transformed because of Christmas – the transformation hasn’t been completed yet, but the transformation has begun.

And so yes, the Christmas Story in the gospel of John is, quote, “complex stuff about the word and light and things,” but this is what gives meaning to the other stories about shepherds and magi and angels and a manger.  God is with us, and the light of God shines in the darkness of this world, and the darkness can never overcome the light.

Thanks be to God, and merry Christmas to all!