Christmas Day – Historic Lectionary – John 1:1-18 – December 25, 2018
In the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
When the people of Israel rushed out of Egypt, passed through the Red Sea and came to Mount Sinai,
the Lord gave them a most precious gift.
He gave them His Name, and most precious and glorious of all, He made a place for His Name,
He commanded the construction of the Tabernacle, the place of His glory,
the home and the dwelling place of God with His people.
For it is by His Name that His people are made exactly that, His people.
It is by His Name that they know Him, that they come to Him,
that He is brought to them, not in wrath or in terror, but in grace and in mercy.
We probably know the other thing that was given on Mount Sinai,
For there to Moses was given the Law.
But make no mistake, the Law is not opposed to God’s Name,
it’s not some punishment that comes alongside a blessing. The Law and the Lord’s Name go together.
For by His Name, His people call upon Him, and by His Law, they would know His heart,
they would see His perfection and His beauty, even in the midst of their sin and rebellion.
And even more than that, is that from the Law, from what God commands, comes forth the Tabernacle.
There is no dwelling place for God’s Name without the Law given by God through Moses.
The grace of Sinai is the name of the Lord, it is the revelation of who God is and what He is,
dwelling for His people at the tabernacle of the Lord.
The gift and grace is that God takes His place in creation and remains there.
Before the Exodus, and before Sinai, the Lord’s Name and presence was not so fixed in the lives of His people.
They had no mountain to come before Him, they had no lasting altar to offer prayer.
He was present to be sure, He was constantly working for them, blessing Abraham and his descendants,
but the people of Israel had no place where they were commanded and promised to seek the Lord and to find Him.
God met Abraham under a tree, He wrestled with Jacob, He came to Joseph in dreams,
but He did not remain forever in these things.
He spoke no Word to His people that they should keep going to that tree,
or to that rock or to that vision and find Him.
His promise to His people was true, but it did not yet have a home.
The tabernacle is a mind-blowing moment for Israel.
And if it is not so for us, then perhaps we should look around, wake up
and call out this present darkness for what it is.
We live in a world that hates Christmas.
We even live among Christians who hate Christmas.
For the true hatred of Christmas is not found in generic shopping store greetings, or politically correct nativity sets,
The true hatred of Christmas is hating precisely that the Lord, in Christ, is found for us in a box.
That He has a place, flesh and blood, that He has come to be found somewhere, and somewhere specific for us.
That is what the world hates. That is what men who love darkness love to deny.
There is in fact, a part of us that does not want to join the angelic choirs in their joyful song,
there is a part of us that resents and hates the proclamation that God is found in the flesh,
that Christ has come down, that salvation and peace is to be found not in the unsearchable heavens,
but in time, in place, on the earth.
Yes, there is part of us that is not only surprised by Christmas, but offended by it.
We would rather God remain outside of the box.
We would rather that God remain unknowable, unsearchable, without form, and without flesh and blood.
We would rather remain in the darkness, for at least there, we can search for God and his mercy on our own terms.
At least in the darkness we can find our own peace, comfort and joy.
At least here in the unknown, we can rest in the peace that God doesn’t really care about our sin.
We can find a God who is spiritual, but not religious, which is to say, that we can find a God who is silent,
who makes no threats, who has no Law, who issues no commands.
We can take comfort in the idea that love is whatever we wish to make of it.
But this is darkness. This is death. This is life outside of Christ, which is to say, it is no life at all.
Thanks be to God, the Lord has come into such darkness.
That is the reason for the season, it is our sin, and rebellion and hateful hearts, it is our offense taken at Christmas and our constant desire to find anything but Christ.
That is the reason for the season.
And the Lord is the answer to it.
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace, a gift in place of a gift.
Greater than the Tabernacle has been born.
The Name of the Lord has flesh and blood.
God is placed into a box.
He is no longer hidden in whispers, but present in the clear and death-defying Word made flesh.
We have received grace upon grace, a gift in place of a gift.
The dwelling place of God through His Name and in His Tabernacle by the Law
was a true and real gift given to Israel. It was Christmas morning after the Exodus.
It was the place of their peace and rest, for it was where God dwelt for them.
He could be found, He could be known.
But it was not yet full.
God became man. He took up our flesh. He joined the fullness of God with the weakness of us.
He brought us into Himself, so that our dwelling place would not be just as Israelites standing outside the Tabernacle, but as children brought into the body. As sinners made saints in the full communion with heaven itself.
He became flesh.
He entered our darkness.
He swallowed our rebellion. He filled up all things.
Our comfort this day is unending, it goes on and on.
For our Lord became flesh, not only that He would be made like us, but that He would be made as us.
“The Christian’s comfort [today] is not [just] that [Christ] was [made] man,
but that He ceased to be the man with whom God was well pleased
and was forced into the caricature of man produced by sin.” (Herman Bezzel)
“[In the Word becoming flesh, so] Christ became Peter the denier, Paul the persecutor and assaulter, David the adulterer, the thief on the cross so that Christ became in his person the highest, the greatest, and the only sinner.”
(Martin Luther)
The Lord is placed into a box for you.
He shows and preaches to you where He may be found.
You don’t have to wonder, you don’t have to guess.
He is present in His body, in this living active Word, in this Holy Font, at this the manger of His Holy Supper.
Do not think that salvation is to be found up above.
In Christ, God has come to find you down here.
In Christ, the hidden will of the infinite God has been raised up on a cross,
revealing the mind of the Father and his mercy for you.
In Christ, the promise of salvation is found secure, complete, finished, and fulfilled.
In Christ, and in mercy, God has been put into a box for you, so that he might also be given to you now.
Here he comes, not in the unknown, not in the darkness, not in the hidden will of God, but in the public, real, tangible promise of His name, his life, his death, his resurrection, washed over you in Holy Baptism.
Bound to you in his Holy Supper.
And made alive in you through His Holy Word.
As tangible as is the body and blood that he has come to be joined with, so also is your redemption.
And in Him, so you would know also where your sins remain. They too were placed in a box long ago.
You don’t have to wonder, you don’t have to guess.
The Lord became chief of sinners, to deliver the worlds sin into the grave and down into hell.
They are gone. They are no more. Even if the memories of them still float in your heads,
and the guilt still claws at your heart, behold the Lord has placed your death into a box.
Be at peace. Your sins are not yours, but His, and He refuses to hand them back.
Here, peace, comfort and joy is found not as an idea, not a mere feeling, not a passing a season, but rather, peace, comfort and joy is found with flesh and blood. It is knowable, tangible and given here for you.
For Peace is found with a body, in a savior dying on a cross, God who is love, who gives himself up for you.
That you might be given all that he is.
Joy is found in a precise place, the Holy Supper of our Lord, where this joyful body and blood is given,
and where Christ himself takes your place, and trades you his perfect righteousness and joy for your sin,
your despair, and your failure.
Comfort is now found with a name. He is Emmanuel, God with us. And in the mercy of his incarnation,
He remains here forevermore, given to you, always comforting, always keeping.
Your Tabernacle is Jesus. He is the fullness of all things. He is greater than the Temple. He is your place,
He is your home, so come and rest in Him, not once, but always.
In the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.