Bloghardt's Reflector

So my old friend from college, who isn’t of the faith of Jesus, took issue with my tweet.  After some light discussion, just a few comments, she responded with a simple, “So as not to appear the doomed heathen...I rejoice in my Creator, who is eternal, has no birth and will have no death.”

Eternal.  No birth.  No death.  A Being of unapproachable light.  So holy, so utterly different that no one has ever seen Him and certainly not touched Him.  

That’s sounds like the God of the Old Testament, doesn’t it?  The God of the Hebrews, right?

Yet, a God who is eternal who has a birth and a death is the very God that we believe in.  For the eternal, heavenly, omniscient, omnipotent, almighty Word has come in the flesh and blood of the Man Jesus.

That’s the Christmas Gospel in all it’s profound simplicity.   Or as St. John puts it...

In the beginning was the Word.  The Word was with God.  God was the Word.  Through the Word - Jesus - all things were made.  Not a thing that exists came about apart from Him.  In that Word is life and that life is the Light of all men. 

That Light, the true Light of God, shines in the darkness of our world.  Shines in all the places we love to hide in and do the things we like to do with our flesh.  

And the darkness of our world has no room for this Light, this Word.  It’s not just no room in the inn on Christmas, it’s no room for Him in our world, our universe.  

We can’t comprehend Him.  We can’t explain Him.  H’es not what we expect.

But to save us, the Word - eternal, immortal, and heavenly, has become flesh and more gloriously pitched His tabernacle amongst us.  

Tabernacled is the word the Apostle John used.  Pitched His tent.  

Like in the Old Testament where God was with the children of Israel in the Tabernacle.  Where the tabernacle was, there God was with His people. 

God has tabernacled in the person of His Son.  Jesus is God in the Flesh.  Not the Father becoming flesh, not the Spirit becoming flesh.  But the Word - neither created, but begotten, fathered, from His Dad.  

He is the in-the-flesh Word.  Incarnate.  So, where He is, there is God for us.  God with us in a way that we could never come up with - so One of us that He could live the way we should live and take upon Himself God’s punishment for the darkness in our world.

It’s unbelievable and incomprehensible for our darkness.  The God that no one has seen and lived has been seen by the Apostles.  

“We saw Him,” says St. John.  “We heard Him.  We touched Him.  We beheld his glory.”

Here is the glory of God - not in unapproachable light, but in a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.  Or a man, beaten to the point of death, standing before His people to be rejected by them.

God so close to us that we could hear, see, and touch Him.  God who come unto His own and His own did not receive Him.  

“But, to us who have received,” writes the Apostle, “who believe on His Name, He gives the power to become the sons of God - children born not of blood, or the will of men, but of God.”

God is eternal.  He cannot be born. He doesn’t hurt.  He doesn’t die.  

But, when God becomes flesh in the person of the Word, you can say things about the eternal Word, you can do things to God, that you could never do before.

And we did - we in our darkness tried to overpower the Word, overcome it.  We rejected Him, beat on Him like He was a criminal, abused Him, mocked Him, stripped Him, dragged Him, made Him carry His own execution device, and then ....

We drove nails into the hands and feet of the eternal Word.  We hoisted Him above the earth and made jokes about Him as we did it.  

Then, with a loud voice, He cried out, “it is finished” and then the Word, who was from the beginning, who was with the Father from all eternity, who is without beginning or end, died.  

Yes, we believe in a God who was born and died - for us.

Jesus is the Word in the Flesh.  What is true of God is true of Him.  What is true of you, He has taken upon Himself and redeemed.

He was born as you are born to save you.  God lived His life as you live - only because He’s God, He lived it perfectly and counts that perfection as yours.  Then, God took upon your sins, your darkness, and your death on the Cross.  

God rose.  We’ll hear about that on Easter.  His resurrection is your resurrection is your resurrection - from your darkness, from your sins, and from your death.

Jesus truly is the resurrection and the Life - your resurrection and your life.

That’s the Good news of today - St. John’s Day.  We didn’t hear a word about the beloved Apostle in the sermon, did we?  He’d have it that way.  He’d rather point you to the One who loves Him and love you too.

Instead, all Jesus.  Jesus did tons of stuff, says the Apostle.  Books and books of stuff.  But, what John wrote was written so that you might believe that Jesus is the eternal Word, the Son of God, and by believing have life in His name.  

That Word has been made known to you today.  You’ve heard Him proclaimed in your ears and in just a bit, you’ll have God put His Body and Blood under the bread and wine on your lips. 

Who eats My flesh, says Jesus, and drinks My Blood, has life and I will raise Him up on the Last Day.  You will raise.  No doubt.  It’s as certain as the Word made flesh and the Word put into your mouth for the remission of all your sins.

You never know how much trouble a tweet will get you in trouble.  Or how much of an opportunity for a profound Christmas truth from unbeliever.

This is true!  We truly do believe in a God who is eternal - who was born like us, lived in our place, died for us, and rose again for us.  This is our Faith - our Christmas Faith.

Merry Christmas... And a blessed St. John Day to you all.  Thank God for John who points us to the God who was born, lived, and died for you.

We have beheld His glory, touched it seen, proclaimed it, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.