The sermon for the Nativity of Our Lord – Christmas Day, 2020
Pastor J. Philipp Augustine
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
The opening verses of the Gospel of John are among the greatest and most elegant verses of the Bible—or of any literature for that matter. In wonderful rhetoric, the evangelist brings heavenly truth and majesty into human words.
In John’s Gospel, the story of Jesus does not begin with the story of Mary, of Joseph, of shepherds, and of Magi. It begins before the creation of the world and in the eternity before time was created.
John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1–3). This is a “great and mighty wonder”—the Creator, the Word of God, now joins Himself to His broken and hurting creation in order to redeem us all.
This was the promise of God from the beginning. From the day in which human sin broke the perfection of Eden, one golden thread is woven by God through the lives of patriarchs and prophets and kings, through a humble man named Jesse and the tree that would sprout through his son David.
Though change is a fact of history and our everyday lives, God’s eternal promises do not change; nor are they forgotten. And this day, this blessed, holy Christmas Day, we see the descendant of Jesse, the Virgin Mary, bringing into the world a baby who will change the universe.
The prophets of God had foretold Christmas (c.f. Isaiah 52). Yet those who read the prophets still did not understand the fulfillment of the prophetic word. John tells us, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him” (John 1:10–11).
God has not chosen visibly great and mighty people and things to work His great and mighty deeds. He has chosen that which is humble and hidden to human eyes.
And so it was that His fulfillment of all things came through a lowly, peasant girl giving birth in a stable. Here was the Babe, hidden in the tree of Jesse, who had now come forth as the fruit of that same tree.
So it was at Bethlehem two thousand years ago, and so it is today. Humanity lives in a world that seems to be defined not by life, but by death. The sanctity of life is denied; that a baby really isn’t a baby until it’s born; that the elderly and handicapped should have the option to end their suffering on their terms.
Nation rises against nation as humanity finds new and more effective ways to wage deadly war against one another – not only with guns and tanks but now with technology.
Closer to home, we drive past a cemetery and, unless we choose to fool ourselves, know that the day will come when our own earthly bodies will be placed in a grave.
Death is a darkness that floods all of human history and, unless we are alive at the second coming of the King of kings and Lord of lords, it will define our own personal history as well.
It’s into that grim reality of death that the words of John ring out with a hope and certainty that defies the power of death itself. This Word of God who created all things also changes all things! “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4–5).
Yes, it is a dark world in many ways. Yes, all of us have sinned and all of us thus deserve not only earthly death but eternal death. And yet, the Creator so loves us that He has taken the darkness and destroyed it with His own light. And where His light is, life—not death—reigns.
The Old Testament records God’s promises throughout human history, promises that are more sure and certain than anything our eyes might conceive or our minds imagine.
The world, the devil, and our own flesh would have us look inward for an answer to the darkness that surrounds us and fills us. Yet all we find there is more darkness and hopelessness.
We need God’s own light to break into our darkness and change night to eternal day. And in Jesus, the light of the world, God has given us that blessed light! For “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
No human eye could perceive it that night. All that could be seen was a child. Yet this child would forever destroy the darkness. His light was to be the light of the world.
Every force of Satan would seek to put that light out. Herod would attempt to destroy Him by killing every male infant. Scribes and Pharisees would seek to silence Him as He spoke words of life. Failing to silence Him, they would seek to kill Him. Some thirty-three years after the first Christmas, the Babe of Bethlehem would be nailed to a cross.
But this is what He had come to do. The Christmas story is about a baby who had been born to die—yet not just to die but to be placed in the utter darkness of a tomb and on Easter morning to burst forth from the tomb. When the child of Mary rose from the grave, the light that began at Bethlehem shone so brightly that Easter morn that no one can put it out.
That light still shines in the darkness, a light that neither the world nor Satan can ever put out. It shines as the Babe of Bethlehem fills our lives with Himself. It shines with a brilliance perceived only by eyes of faith that gaze upon the baptismal font and the altar. It shines on you this Christmas Day – and tomorrow – and into the eternity He has prepared for you! Amen.
The service of the Word and prayer for the Third Sunday in Advent (December 13, 2020). It’s all downhill to Christmas now that we are on the last half of Advent. The pink candle is lit to remind us of the joy of Jesus and to rejoice that He has come to bind up the brokenhearted and set the captives free (Isaiah 61:1). Sin thrives in darkness, so the light of God’s mercy in Christ shines to show us they way out of darkness to true, lasting joy that is beyond an emotion or state of mind. True joy is found in Jesus and the gifts He gives because of the cross and empty tomb. ‘Tis the season to REJOICE!