To Christmas, one of the big ideas and big themes of
Christmas is the incarnation. And I wonder what is your
explanation of incarnation Incarnate in flesh?
So if you had to explain it to your neighbor who came over
because they saw your Christmas card or Christmas decorations
and said what is incarnation? Why is that a big deal at
Christmas? How would you answer that?
This was one of the big questions that all of the
apostles were trying to figure out as well.
How do we answer to our neighbors that we believe that
Jesus is God making creation his home, That we believe that Jesus
is God in the flesh? How do we explain this?
Not only how do we explain this to Jews, but also how do we
explain it to the Greek speaking world and their philosophical
setting that they were in there in the 1st century.
They were trying to figure it out.
And we're going to read John's introduction to trying to
explain who is Jesus. How is Jesus making God's home
in the world? And so this is from John chapter
1 beginning in verse 5. You can follow along as I read,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was with God in the
beginning. Through Him all things were
made. Without Him nothing was made
that has been made. In Him was life, and that life
was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that
through Him all might believe He Himself was not the light.
He came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the
world. He was in the world, and though
the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive
Him. He came to that which was his
own, but his own did not receive him.
Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His
name, He gave the right to become children of God, children
born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's
will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made
His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the
glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full
of grace and truth. John testified concerning Him.
He cried out saying this is the one I spoke about when I said he
who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me out
of his fullness. We have all received grace in
place of grace already given, for the Law was given through
Moses. Grace and truth come through
Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but
the one and only Son who is Himself God and is in closest
relationship with the Father, has made Him known.
Let's read this verse together. The Word became flesh and made
His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the
glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full
of grace and truth. John, this is one of the
disciples of Jesus who joined Jesus as a very young man but is
now riding a little bit older, is trying to help the Greek
speaking world understand who Jesus is.
So he uses a phrase called the Word to gather up all of their
ideas of this what this thing that exists, that actually is
the prime mover of all things. And he says this word, this
Logos, has actually become flesh and made his dwelling among us.
I hope you have this verse memorized by the time we're done
today. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full
of grace and truth. Now John sets the story of Jesus
in the great narrative of humanity and Israel.
When John begins by saying in the beginning was the word he's
calling up for the Jewish speaking world.
The first book in the Bible which begins in the beginning,
God created. And so he's wanting us to make a
connection to say this is the story of humanity, but it's also
the story of Israel because he reminds us of Moses and he
reminds us that God had called out a people.
So when we think of this verse of how God is set, or these
verses how John has set Jesus into this pattern, we need to
see creation and we need to see exile.
We need to see these themes of creation and relationship which
we find in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
But we also need to see exile and return, which is the story
of Exodus. It wasn't necessarily that the
people of Israel had been exiled into Egypt.
They had just travelled there to get help, but they had been
exiled out of the Garden. All humanity had been exiled out
of the Garden and the closeness of their relationship with God.
And So what would be their return?
The story of Exodus. The Exodus from Egypt is the
story of God coming and delivering the people of Israel
from Egypt, bringing them into closest relationship with Him.
And He was forming a people with whom he would dwell.
And so he came down after they built a tent of meeting, and
there this great pillar of fire by night, a pillar of cloud by
day, would indicate that God was present and dwelling with His
people. He was tabernacling with them,
hanging out in the tent. And so John wants both Jew and
Gentile to understand that Jesus is retelling or fulfilling the
story of creation in our relationships and the exile and
the return, the return into deepest relationship with him.
But they missed him, didn't they?
They couldn't find him. It was almost like a Where is
Waldo moment. Do you know that story, those
sets of books where you look at the picture and you try to find
where is Waldo in his red and white in this very intricate
picture? Here's a picture by Philip
Brouhelder. Brouhelder, I believe, is the
name. And this picture was unseen for
400 years. It's called the Census of
Bethlehem. Can you find Jesus in the
picture? Where is Jesus in the picture?
It's just people going about their business, aren't they?
Where is Jesus in the picture? Has anybody found him yet?
Well, maybe let's look a little closer and ask ourselves, where
is Mary? Oh, there's Mary.
You see, Jesus has come in the flesh.
He's come in the womb of Mary. And there's Mary on a donkey.
You have to look close, don't you, to find her there.
But he's painted just a normal scene of what was his experience
of winter, and he just put Mary right there in the middle of it.
And Jesus is cloaked in the womb of Mary at this moment, but he
shall be born. And when Jesus is born, it
brings us into this startling confession of John, the
startling testimony of John to say the Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us. Can you say it inside to
yourself? The Word became flesh and made
his dwelling among us. Can you find any flesh?
Yeah, this is it. Sark, the body.
I, I had the experience yesterday of banging my hand and
I've had to put a Band-Aid on so you all wouldn't be grossed out
by the, the big spot here on my, my hand where I banged it.
And I was like, yes, I've got flesh and flesh is vulnerable.
This is the reality of God coming in Flesh is that God
comes to us vulnerable. This is why the incarnation
matters, is that it tells us and reveals something about God and
his willingness to engage in relationship.
God shall be vulnerable with us, and so he comes in flesh.
What is more vulnerable than a baby?
We've got a couple of them here today.
They're growing, right? But they are not independent
creatures. They are dependent creatures.
They are very vulnerable. Jesus was vulnerable at his
birth. Jesus was vulnerable at his
death. Jesus was vulnerable in the
whole movement of his life as he made his dwelling among us.
And people are fierce. People are tough.
In fact, when confronted with something that would reveal our
shame, most of us armor up. As Brené Brown says, we put on
the armor so that we will not be vulnerable.
We hide, we cover up, we get tough.
But Jesus did not armor up in his whole life.
He became flesh and he made his dwelling as if he was tinting
among humanity. The second thing that we we
really begin to see is that God himself.
Well, let's see there's let's see what's next.
I don't want to miss the story. Do you know this is Mary Clark?
She doesn't look like Mary Clark here in this picture, she is
known as Sister Antonia Brenner, not Mary Clark.
But Once Upon a time, she was Mary Clark, living in Hollywood,
married with children, trying to live her best life in Hollywood,
and it all fell apart. At some point she was invited to
begin to spend time with prisoners, and she would travel
and go to the prisons. Then she felt a sense of
invitation from God to dedicate her life to God.
And so she became Antonia Brenner.
Her ministry was growing so much that she went to La Mesa in
Tijuana, the prison there, a prison for men.
And she asked the warden, I believe God is calling me to
dedicate my life to the men in this prison and serving them.
So you know what they did? They cleared out a prison cell
and it became hers, and she moved into the prison
vulnerable, she says. Anytime I was away, I wondered
if they had medicine and how their families were doing.
You know, when I returned to the prison to live, I felt as if I
had come home vulnerable. Jesus came and felt at home
among the prisoners. Oh, in fact, people got really
angry when Jesus suggested that they were prisoners, that they
were enslaved to sin and said, oh, I'm not a slave.
And he says, indeed, you are. You are a slave to sin.
You are a slave to the one who's captured you in darkness.
And Jesus came to be at home. And his people somehow also find
that in the incarnation of Jesus there is an Incarnate way of
living as a follower of Jesus. And so some of us, I think all
of us, are called to be at home among some people who are caught
in darkness. The Word became flesh and made
His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the
glory of the one and only Son. When we think about the glory of
Jesus, this again is a reach all the way back in the Old
Testament to convey this idea of the glory of God, where Moses
had asked God, let me see your glory, let me see you.
And God said to him, no, I, I can't do that for you, but I
will hide you here in the cleft of the rock, and I will pass by
and you will see me going. It's like he got to see the
glory going past him, got to see God's back.
But John confesses something different.
He says we saw his glory, the glory of the one and only Son.
And basically he's saying Jesus has made God visible.
And so Jesus in the incarnation is God's visibility before us,
not just his vulnerability, but his visibility where he is
revealed and lifted up so that when we see Jesus, we see him
just days before Jesus died, In fact, the day before, one of his
disciples said, oh, Jesus, we don't know where you're going.
Just show us the Father and that will be enough for us.
And Jesus says, oh, Philip, do you not by now know me?
Do you not by now know who I am? Jesus was fully aware that he
was God in flesh. Sometimes I think we we might
have this image that somehow Jesus was just the glory of
Jesus was just somehow under the surface.
That if you scratch Jesus, the glory would break out.
That if Jesus had banged his hand, that somehow the glory
would go piercing out of there like a light in a broken jar.
In fact, it is true that the wounds of Jesus do show his
glory. For when the Scripture speaks of
Jesus on the cross in his vulnerability, it says that the
visibility of God is great. It says this was his
glorification on the cross. And so we're pressed here to
think theologically about Jesus and that the mutual indwelling
of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, that God was always
present there in the flesh of Jesus.
You might feel a little strange explaining this to your
neighbor, but declare it and let them decide for themselves if
they will enter into the mystery of the incarnation.
Last night I was gathered with my neighbors for our regular
sing along as we sing Christmas carols and there were about 30
of us in this little corner of a house with a piano which I was
playing and just praying God help me through this.
And we were singing the songs of the Revelation of Jesus next to
Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and
Jingle Bells. But we were singing the songs of
God made visible. We have seen His glory, the
glory of the one and only Son. Can you bump me forward here?
When we speak of Jesus, then in his vulnerability, His
visibility, we also have to consider His vitality, that the
vitality of God is this. He comes from the Father, full
of grace and truth. This is His posture towards us,
coming from the Father. Do you know sometimes a
messenger overdoes the intent of the one who sent them?
Maybe you've had this moment your your parents sends you.
Hey, go get your brother and bring him to the dining room
table. It's time to eat.
And so as a kid, you're sent. Go get your brother.
And you're thinking how how can I get my brother to listen to
me? You know, it's mom has sent him.
So I come and I say mom is really mad at you.
You better come. Were you full of grace and truth
at that moment? No, at that moment you were full
of yourself trying to control. But here's what John says about
Jesus in his coming to us is that Jesus comes to us from the
Father full of grace and truth, full of grace, offering us so
much that we never deserved, so much that we were never entitled
to, so much that he's embracing us with the love of God.
And he's never leaving far behind the truth.
The truth is always present with Him in His grace.
This is so important for us that didn't we consider the vitality
of how Jesus arrives in his vulnerability.
He didn't armor up as He arrives in His visibility.
It was clear to others who came to know him and recognize Him,
to all who received him His power to transform their lives,
that Jesus was not trying to form a transactional
relationship. Do this so God will give you
something. He was creating a
transformational relationship so that they entered into a new way
of life and that life would be in them, transformed their
identity, transformed their very way of life, full of grace and
truth. You sang it this morning.
Many people have prayed for their children to get to know
God. It is our tradition and
understanding that we are not born a Christian.
We might be born into a Christian family, a family of
that has Christians in it, but we ourselves are not born a
Christian. We might be born in a country
that has many people who follow Jesus, but we would not say in
our tradition that you are born a Christian by virtue of being
in that family or of being in that country.
Instead, you must be born a Christian by the very will and
power of God that you have received that grace and truth.
But back to parents who pray. There was a mother named Monica
and she prayed for her son there in North Africa.
She prayed for her son for years that he would get to know Jesus.
And when he got to know Jesus, he became a superstar in the art
world where people were drawing pictures of him for hundreds of
years. This is the one you might know
as Augustine. There is Saint Augustine, but he
had years of his life where he did not follow Jesus.
He rejected Jesus, but his mother prayed for him.
Monica prayed and prayed and prayed.
She wept for him and she was never defeated.
One of Augustine's memories was of his mother pleading with a
Bishop to pray for her son that he might come to know the truth
of his errors. And here is what the Bishop said
to her. It cannot be that the sun of
such tears should perish. He gave hope to her.
Augustine, in his confessions says that he was trying
everything to meet the desires of his own flesh.
He tried everything until one day he heard a voice saying,
when he had come to the end of himself, take and read, take and
read. And so he opened the scripture
that he had before him. I think it was the way a lot of
you do your devotions. You just pop it open and you
hope something's there and you throw a finger down.
And he threw a finger down and he looked in the text and it
said this. Let us behave decently as in the
daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual
immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not
think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
And that was the verse of his turning, of receiving Jesus as
the incarnation of God, as the Savior of his soul, the one who
would be the homemaker for his life.
And so there's four symbols. There's a lot of symbols in this
icon, this picture here of Augustine.
I just want to point them out to you real quick.
The first symbol that's there is the heart.
Do you see the heart in his hand?
The heart in his hand represents the desires that Augustine had
let rule his life, the desires of his passions, of his
intellect. And it sort of represents this
famous quote of Augustine. You have made us for yourself, O
Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find our
rest in You. Our hearts are restless until
they find their rest and You. So there's the heart.
The other symbol that's there is the arrow.
Can you see the arrow? Sometimes they're there might
not be in this picture. Sometimes the heart is drawn of
Augustine with an arrow in the heart.
Sometimes 2 arrows. And these are the arrows of
God's charity, the power of the Spirit and the power of the word
of grace and truth to Pierce his heart.
Like the the crowd that listened to Peter preach and said, oh,
our hearts are cut. The Spirit has convicted our
hearts with this truth of who Jesus is.
The third symbol is the flames. Do you see the flames coming
from the heart? The flaming heart indicates the
burning passionate love for God that consumed Augustine.
He could have sang that song Ring of Fire.
I fell into a Ring of Fire with Johnny Cash.
But instead, the Ring of Fire he had in mind was that he fell
into the love of God and it inflamed his heart that had been
hard towards God with a great love and passion for God.
And then finally, the open book, the Bible, the open book was the
reminder of that little voice he's heard, like a child's voice
that said take and read, take up and read.
And then he began to feed his life on the Word of God.
Augustine is called one of the four doctors of the Latin
Church, that he and Ambrose and Jerome and Gregory the Great
were the four doctors of the Latin Church.
And he's called the doctor of grace.
Not Doctor Who, but the doctor of grace whose grace of Jesus,
who had now filled his heart and life.
Do you see it's not enough that God came and made his home in
Bethlehem or in Galilee or in Tyre and Sidon, which I always
wonder why did Jesus go to the beach?
Did he like to go to the beach and sunny places for holidays
and then make his home in Nazareth and make his home in
Egypt and make his home? And yet he says of his life.
I foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but I have no
home or place to lay my head down.
Why? Because Jesus was holding out to
make his home in US humanity as the pinnacle of creation.
He so desired to make his home in US.
And so Christmas is God working, making his home in creation.
Christmas is God making his home in creation.
And the last time I checked, you are part of creation.
Touch yourself. Just remind yourself, I am part
of creation. I am part of the creation in
which God is seeking to dwell. Receiving Him begins with a yes.
It might continue as we talked about last week, with
repentance. It might continue with great
mystery through the troubles of your life as we heard with Job.
But here's the reality that can come about is that you do not
live your life alone, but you live your life with a great
homemaker making his dwelling in your life and in time he makes
all things beautiful. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, we come and we set our lives here before Jesus
the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, who came in
vulnerability, who came making God visible, and who came in the
great vitality of grace and truth.
And we say thank you as we come to his supper, to his table.
We recall his body broken, His blood poured out.
A great sign again of your vulnerable vulnerability,
visibility and vitality. That's your blood and transform
a life that your death on a cross was not purposeless or
meaningless, but it had great purpose and great meaning.
And so as we come, we say thank you, Lord Jesus, for your
incarnation. Let's stand together.