Merry Christmas! Today is the 5th Day of Christmas, and I hope your true love gave you five gold rings this morning. It is still Christmas. Christmas is twelve glorious days that began on December 25 and will end on January 5th. On January 6 we will celebrate The Feast of the Epiphany, and then move forward. This is a time to celebrate. It is a time to feast, and I encourage you to do that during these days. Celebrate and feast as much as you are able. Be like Jesus, who liked to party a lot. We know this because the biggest criticism of Jesus was that he partied too much. The celebration of Christmas was once banned in England when the Puritans took over in the 17th century. Don’t be a Puritan. You’re an Anglican. Celebrate! Keep partying every day, but here’s the thing: in all of your celebrations, make sure you don’t lose sight of the thing you are celebrating.
The thing that we are celebrating is the birth of Jesus, the birth of Christ. This past week on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we heard Luke tell us the story of how all that took place. It took place during the time of Quirinius, there was a census, the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, no room at the inn so they went to the stable with the animals, Jesus was born, wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in the manger, which was a trough from which the animals ate, the angels came to the shepherds in the field and sang our “Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to the people on earth”, the angels told the shepherds all that had taken place, one of them said “let us go see this thing that has taken place”, they go to Bethlehem, they meet Jesus and Mary and Joseph, they tell them all the wonderful things the angels had said and done, and Mary treasured them in her heart. It is a beautiful story.
Today we get John’s take on the nativity, which is not quite the same beautiful story. Instead, John gives us a poem, and this poem is not about the details of how this all took place. John is focused on the meaning behind it, why it all matters. John uses a poetic introduction to his Gospel that talks about the Incarnation, the Word Incarnate, and the Word is God. Literally, the Greek says that God pitched a tent among humanity to live here with us, to be one of us. The all powerful God gave up all the privileges of that power to take on the limitations of humanity. The limitations and also the joys, remember Jesus partied too much, and also all the sufferings, even to death on the cross. This is what Christmas is all about: the Incarnation, God coming to live a human life.
Why? Why did God do this? John has two main answers that he often comes back to throughout the Gospels and the Epistles. The first reason is light. God wanted to shine a light in the midst of the darkness that we experience. And there is a lot of darkness in this world from the global level down to the personal level, and everything in between. God wanted to make sure that in the midst of all this darkness there would be a light. Perhaps the light can shine the path for you, perhaps the light will bring you hope. What does John say about the light? He says that the darkness will not and cannot overcome it. Whether you are facing darkness right now or will be facing it in the future, and it is inevitable that we all will, remember that light. Remember the light of Christ is more powerful than whatever darkness it is that you face. God is shining a light, and that is what the Incarnation is about for John. That is what he says in the Gospel reading: 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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light.” Remember that light in all things.
That is the first theme for John. The second theme is love. “Of the Father’s love begotten”, as we will sing a bit later. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so all that trust in Him will have eternal life.” It is all about love, even unto the cross. What does Jesus say the night before he died? John tells us: there is no greater love than this than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. The Crucifixion is all about love, the Incarnation is all about love, and it is the foundation of everything in between, as well. What did Jesus teach? Love the Lord your God with all you heart and mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the laws and the prophets. He taught about love, he acted in love with all kinds of folks, many of whom did not want to party with him. Jesus loved every time he healed somebody. It is all about love, in Jesus’s words and in his deeds. It all begins with the Incarnation. Love is what came down at Christmas, as we will sing in a hymn a little bit later, because God is love, as John goes on to say in the First Epistle of John. God is love, so if he is going to be Incarnate, it will be the Incarnation of love in this world.
So, my friends, celebrate, feast, party. But in the midst of all of it, do not forget about the Incarnation. Do not forget about this light and this love that God is offering you in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of that light and that love in this world.
AMEN.
