Where is God?
Commentary
There was a delightful article from the Associated Press some time ago that claimed God had been found! Where? In Sumter County, Florida. A promotional campaign from a publishing house sent a large envelope to a church in Bushnell, Florida, which was addressed to "God." The message: "God" is a finalist for the $11 million top prize.
"God, we've been searching for you," the letter said.
The pastor of the church said that it confirmed what he had believed all along -- that God really did live there. He and the church even considered entering God in the contest!
One might well look at all the readings today with that question in mind: "Where is God?" The answer is given in the Christmas message -- God is with us in Jesus of Nazareth. If we would seek God, know God, we can find God in Jesus. Indeed, the Good News is that God came looking for and finding us in Jesus.
Isaiah 52:7-10
There has been in our community for some time an eyesore of a house. Most everyone has complained about it. The elderly woman who had lived there is now in an adult care facility. The house looked as if it might fall down any moment. But how surprised we all have been the last couple of months. Someone bought the old place (a foolish waste of money we all thought). We assumed he would tear it down and start over. But he didn't and it's remarkable what he has done to that old place. It looks almost new on the outside and inside (he gave me a tour). What I thought was ready for the scrap heap, he saw as something with great potential, with inherent beauty. By living and working there for months, the new owner has transformed that old place. We would never have thought it possible.
So it seemed to many of the people in Babylonian exile. Their country, their sacred city, and God's temple lay in ruins. Nothing could be done with it or about it. There was no hope. But not so, says the prophet starting in Isaiah 40. He comes proclaiming a message of comfort and hope. What seemed like a ruined trash heap would come alive once again through the coming of a Master Builder -- God. In these verses the prophet sees this one returning and making the "ruins sing."
Recall that in Ezekiel we are given a vision of how God's presence left the temple. God's house, because it had become so soiled by the sin and unfaithfulness of the people, was no longer fit for God's holy presence. God's departure left it open to the plunder of enemies (see Isaiah 52:1). This was God's judgment on the people. Everything was left desolated. The sacred items in the temple, along with many of the people, were taken into exile.
But in these verses and in much of Second Isaiah, there is the reversal of all of this. Here God is seen leading the people back from exile, the people themselves carrying the items that had been taken so that they might be placed in a restored temple and used once again in the worship of God. This is really a hymn or song in praise of God's return and consequently the restoration of the "holy city." It would be holy once again for as long it had become unholy.
In a poetic vision, the prophet sees and hears the words of the lookouts who stand atop mountains to give warning or bring good news, especially if there was a battle. Imagine persons in a city waiting anxiously for news from the battlefield. Here the prophet speaks of how wondrous and beautiful are the feet (perhaps the sound of the footfalls) running breathlessly back to Jerusalem to announce, "The Lord is coming! Peace and salvation have at long last returned to us." The image is very much of someone who bursts into your house or runs down the streets of the city, like the old town criers, shouting, "Good news! Good news!"
The "sentinels" may be a reference to the lookouts in the city itself. They would be the first to see the messengers bringing the news. They would hear it and repeat it themselves. This is a poetic way of saying how this great good news would spread quickly among all the people.
In many ways the image of the Exodus runs throughout here. This was a new Exodus. The people had been in bondage but now, as way back then, they had been set free and brought back again to their homeland.
Just as all nations had witnessed their shame in the destruction that had come upon them, now, says the prophet, these same nations will witness the return. Now all creation will witness these new and wondrous acts of God (see v. 10).
But the key in all of this is the presence once again of the living God with them. God was coming to deliver and restore them. Most importantly, to live among them and within them.
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)
These verses set forth the theme of this whole letter: the superiority of Christ. It's true that in the past God chose many different ways to be revealed, even through human beings like the prophets. But now God has chosen a way far superior to all of those -- God has come in his own son. The Son is Jesus, the fullest revelation of God that we have been given. In flesh and blood now we see and we hear God and what he desires for us and from us. Indeed, all else in the past needs now to be measured by and through this new revelation.
Why is this new revelation so far above all others?
First, Jesus is, as stated above, God's Son. Who better to reveal God and God's will than a child who has lived in the constant presence of the Parent?
Second, Jesus is a far superior revelation of God, because he is now, as Son, "heir of all things." All the physical and spiritual blessings of God are his inheritance and, by implication, also passed down to those who follow him, who are gathered into his family.
Third, Christ is the one from before time through whom God created all things (this seems to be a reference to the teaching that we see in John 1:1ff of how Jesus is the Word or agent God used to create the world [see also Colossians 1:16]).
Fourth, Christ is the reflection of God's own glory, which calls to mind Moses coming down from the mountain having been transformed by his communion with God.
Fifth, but Christ is more than this -- he is the express image of God. The idea behind this is the impression that a seal leaves in wax. It leaves its exact likeness there. So, in Christ, we see the image of God, what God is like. Christ is God's self-portrait.
Sixth, Christ's word sustains all things. Just as he was the Word that created all things, he is also that power that holds everything together, that supports and sustains the universe (see Colossians 1:17 where Paul says much the same thing).
Seventh, referring to the priestly work of Christ to which the writer will return in some detail, the writer simply says here that Jesus is the one who has "purged our sins."
Eighth, if this is not enough, the writer then reminds the readers just where Christ sits now -- after his ascension -- at the right hand of God. Christ is Priest and King. As such he deserves the highest honor, praise, and devotion.
Verses 4-12 compare Christ and the angels, showing Christ to be far superior to them. Angels were seen as messengers from God. It may be that some of the readers of this letter had begun to think that Jesus was just another such being -- an angel, a messenger no different than any other. But the writer says otherwise. He has high regard for angels but says that Christ is far above them. There did seem to be a movement among some early Christians to worship angels (see Colossians 2:8, 18). But the writer here plainly says that no angel was ever called "God's own son" and so no angel deserves the honor and position rightly afforded to Christ. In other words, Christ is unique and incomparable to other messengers and even revelations.
John 1:1-14
Just as Isaiah 52 is a hymn, the first 18 verses of John (often called "The Prologue") also sound very hymn-like in their praise of the coming of Christ into the world and all that it means for the world. Verse after verse adds to the celebration and joy of his origin, the gifts of life, and grace given through him. The crescendo comes in verse 14 as this wondrous Word of God becomes flesh. There are even a few verses about the role John the Baptist played in all of this. One can almost hear these verses put to music and sung by choirs and soloists. Such passages have surely inspired some beautiful Christmas music.
Verses 1-5. You would think that the writer might begin to tell the life of Jesus with his birth, as Matthew and Luke do. Not this writer. He goes way beyond that to the beginning of all things and even before it. It is as if the writer looked to his own Jewish-Christian heritage and even that of the Greek world around him for a word, a concept to try to get across to the people of his time just who Jesus truly was. He found that image or metaphor in the Greek concept of "logos," translated here as "Word." "Logos" was a term familiar to Jews and Greeks of the day, even being used in other religions. But John Christianizes it. "Logos" for many was the divine power and/or reason that created and held everything in place, that kept the world from falling into chaos. It was also that wisdom or knowledge given to human beings so that they might know right from wrong and see that there is a divine reason and power behind all things.
The Gospel writer is simply telling them, "What you call 'Logos,' is, in fact, the divine Word of God that God used as the agent of all creation (to create all things) and to hold all things in place." John no doubt is thinking about the Genesis account of creation in which God speaks and whatever God says is done. That Word of God was with God before time began, was the instrument of creation, and was, in fact, the expression of God's own self. Very soon the writer makes the astounding claim that the Logos, the Word had taken on flesh and dwelled among us!
Though some might protest, what the Gospel writer does is what I recently heard a youth minister do at a summer camp. Struggling to talk about God in a language they understood, he settled on the concept of "The Force" from the Star Wars movies. Through careful contrasts, he was able to show how God was like and unlike that concept.
Behind all of this is the concept of power -- the power to create light and life. For people of the time, a word was seen as being much more powerful than we understand it today. A common saying of our time is, "Talk is cheap." But words carried great power for the Jews. A general gives a command and it is carried out. It has power. If human words carry power, how much more so is this true for the Word of God. For the Gospel writer, Jesus is the very Word of God, the power, the expression of God's will and God's own self. That power gives light and life, eternal life.
Verses 6-9. A portion of these verses we also studied for Advent 3. Suffice it to say here that right at the beginning, the writer points out that John the Baptist was not the light, was not the Word. John's role was to bear witness to the light. To draw upon the lookout image from Isaiah 52 for today, John was the herald who came shouting, "God is coming!" or "The Messiah is coming!"
Verses 10-13. Before he even talks about how the Word became flesh, the writer deals with the fact that many did not really hear (accept) the Word they heard. Many rejected it. But others did hear. That power worked in them, changing them into the children of God.
Verse 14. This has to be one of the most studied and meaningful verses in the whole Bible. In it we find the concept of the "Incarnation," that is, this Word of God becoming a human being in Jesus of Nazareth. It is another way of trying to say what the epistle lesson was saying, that is, Jesus is the imprint, the impression, the visible image of the invisible God. The name "Immanuel" given to Jesus expresses this well: "God with us."
Application
And it came to pass that there were two brothers 8 and 10 years old, who were exceedingly mischievous. Whatever went wrong in the neighborhood, it turned out they had a hand in it. Their parents were at their wits' end trying to control them.
Hearing about a priest nearby who worked with delinquent boys, the mother decided to ask the priest to talk to them. She went to the priest and made her request. He agreed, but said he wanted to see the younger boy first. So the mother sent him to the priest.
The priest wanted the boy to realize that God was everywhere and could see everything he did. He pointed his forefinger at the boy and asked, "Where is God?"
The boy said nothing.
Again, louder, the priest pointed at the boy and asked, "Where is God?"
Again the boy said nothing.
A third time, in a louder, firmer voice, the priest leaned far across the desk and put his forefinger almost to the boy's nose, and asked, "Where is God?"
The boy panicked and ran all the way home. Finding his older brother, he dragged him upstairs to their room, where they usually plotted their mischief. He said, "We are in BIG trouble this time."
The older boy asked, "What do you mean, BIG trouble?"
His brother replied, "God is missing and they think WE did it!"
It seemed to the people Isaiah addressed that God was missing. Indeed, God had left them. But in the reading for today, they received the wondrous news that God was not lost, missing, or distant. God was coming to them, to dwell among them again.
All this Advent, that has been the message: God is coming. Now, today, we greet each other with the wondrous Good News that that day has come -- God is here! God is with us.
For so long and in so many ways God sought to come to us. But now God has not sent a letter, not sent a prophet; God sent a Son, the only beloved Son (Epistle reading).
In the Son, God personally came to be with us, as one of us, in flesh and blood, so that we might know God's love, forgiveness, light, grace, and a life that never ends (Gospel reading).
We no longer have to wonder where God is, what God is like. We have in Jesus God with us. For Christians Jesus is the fullest revelation of God. If we wish to know God, we look at Jesus. If we wish to hear the voice of God, we listen to his teachings. If we wish to be close to God, we ask him to usher us into God's presence. What we discover in Jesus is that God never was lost or missing. We were. In Jesus God finds us.
An Alternative Application
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12). Two brothers quarreled. They part company for a long time. Then it occurs to one of them that this situation is just not right. He writes a letter to his brother suggesting that they make peace. He receives no reply. "Come now," he thinks, "I must try again." So he writes another letter and sends it Federal Express. "Let us make peace and get along once more," he writes. But still no reply. But he does not give up. He sends a singing telegram that shares his heartfelt desire to live as a family once again. But even this gets no response. So then the man decides one bitterly cold winter's night to brave the howling wind and deep snow to journey to his brother's house. He arrives panting, snow covering him, petrified with cold. He repeats by word of mouth face-to-face his invitation. And now it begins to dawn on his brother that he has before him a real human being, frozen, drenched with snow, and panting for air. Now his heart melts, and he takes the invitation seriously. Now he says, "Yes."
The brother reaching out is God. God has written to us many letters, sent many messengers, even prophets, tried many times to reach out to us, and we have not answered. Finally, in the Christ Child, God's own child, God has personally come to us to make things right again. Will we now say, "Yes"?
First Lesson Focus
Isaiah 52:7-10
Our text for this joyous Christmas Day is taken from the prophecies of Second Isaiah that were proclaimed to the Israelite exiles in Babylonia sometime between 550 and 538 B.C. As you know, most of the Israelites in Judah and Jerusalem were carried into exile by the Babylonians in three deportations, in 597, 587, and 582 B.C. They were finally released from their captivity by Cyrus of Persia, who defeated the Babylonian Empire, and who in 538 B.C. issued a decree allowing the Israelites to return to their homeland in Palestine. In the prophecies of Second Isaiah, that release and return are foreseen, but they have not yet taken place.
In this text from Isaiah 52, we are confronted for the first time in the biblical history with the figure of an evangelist. Now that is a term that has taken on rather poor connotations in our time, hasn't it? When we hear the word "evangelist," we think of preachers in tent meetings, imploring sinners to be saved. Or we think of TV evangelists, some of whom have been shown to be rather shady characters, but some, of course, who have very large television audiences.
From the word "evangelist," we get the noun "evangelicals," and that can have all sorts of meanings for us. It can signify the fundamentalists who insist that we believe their particular doctrines about the Bible and the cross and religious conversion if we want to be called truly Christian. But the term "evangelicals" also can simply be applied to that large group of church members who consider themselves to be rather conservative in their theological views. Or it can be applied to those who call themselves evangelicals because they teach and preach from the Bible. There are a lot of different meanings swirling around the terms "evangelist" and "evangelicals" in our society, and we probably would be a lot better off if we returned to the original meaning of the terms.
In the Bible and in our text for the morning, the "evangelist" is one who is the bearer of good news. In this sense, the writers of our four Gospels are sometimes called evangelists. But clearly in our stated text, the evangelist is one who is taking "good tidings" to Zion. He is bearing a "gospel" to the city of Jerusalem, because that is what "gospel" means, isn't it? "Gospel" is good news, and the evangelist is the one who delivers it.
Earlier in Second Isaiah's prophecies, Zion herself was called the "herald of good tidings" (Isaiah 40:9), but here in our text the good tidings are being delivered to Zion (so too in Isaiah 41:27; 61:1). And the feet of the messenger who bears that good news are called "beautiful." Now why?
When he proclaims this oracle, Second Isaiah draws on a very old custom in biblical Israel. When a new king was crowned in Israel, two acts took place. First, the king was crowned in the temple and presented with something called the "testimonies" (2 Kings 11:12; 2 Chronicles 23:11). These testimonies were probably some sort of document embodying the basic terms of the Lord's covenant with the house of David. As such, they served as the Lord's legitimization of the king's rule. Second, the newly crowned king was then led to his palace, he ascended the throne, and the beginning of his reign was announced, whereupon messengers were dispatched throughout the land with the joyous message, "So-and-so has become king!" Usually this was an occasion for great rejoicing among the people, because it meant that a new era had been introduced.
So in our text, the evangelist is that one whose feet are called beautiful, because he has been sent out, running across the hills and valleys, to proclaim the beginning of a new kingly reign. But this particular bearer of good tidings announces no ordinary reign. His message to Jerusalem is, "Your God reigns!" God is king. God is upon the throne of his people. God rules!
As our text continues, therefore, the watchmen on Jerusalem's ruined walls are portrayed sighting God's return to his people. They see him coming in the far distance, growing ever larger, marching on that highway prepared for him by the heavenly hosts (Isaiah 40:3-5), to take up his throne and residence once again in the midst of his people. He is redeeming his people from their exile, "buying them back" out of their captivity, which is what redemption means. God's strong and holy arm, the symbol throughout the Bible of his power, has defeated the empire of Babylonia and used the great ruler of Persia to free his people. And now he is returning with his covenant people to the holy city of Jerusalem (40:10-11). The result, therefore, is great rejoicing, even by the stones and ruins of Zion (cf. Luke 19:40).
We are told in Luke's Christmas story that the angels who appeared to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night also were evangelists, announcing good news of a great joy intended for all people (Luke 2:10). And the content of those glad tidings is not much different than what was first announced by Second Isaiah's messenger. "Your God reigns." What was it that the angels said? "... for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). The Lord, the Lord of all has been born. Jesus Christ rules. Your God reigns.
I wonder if we can take those glad tidings once again into our hearts on this Christmas day and find in them our reason for rejoicing. Jesus Christ rules. Can you remember that when the world seems to go awry and everything seems just a little out of joint? Can you hold it fast when you are in pain or are suffering some mental or physical disability? When you have a loss of some kind -- of job or security, of a relationship or loved one, of a promise for the future that was not fulfilled -- will you remember that Jesus Christ is in charge and that he is working out his good purpose for you? In trust, will you affirm with the Apostle Paul that in Christ's love and power, you can be content, in whatever situation you are? Can we say it with Paul? "I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:12-13). Because Jesus Christ who works in you by his Spirit does rule, dear Christian friends. Despite all appearances to the contrary, despite all the slings and arrows of this sin-saturated world, Jesus Christ is in charge of your life and mine, as he is in charge of all. And he is steadily at work to bring in his good kingdom on earth, even as it is in heaven. So there are good tidings at this Christmastime, aren't there? The good news of the Gospel rings out clear. Your God reigns through his Son Jesus Christ. Break forth together into singing!
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 98
Like Psalm 96 (see Christmas Eve), Psalm 98 is a psalm proclaiming the glory of Israel's God. Verses 7 and 8 speak of the whole orchestra of nature chiming in to praise God, including "the world and those who live in it."
Perhaps it is not too much of a stretch from there to talk about the birth of Christ in a stable for animals as an indication of his Lordship over them as well. Actually, during Advent last year, a young man in my congregation asked me, "Do dogs go to heaven?"
We who have been around animals readily understand how attached we can become to them, and in the case of a faithful pet, we'd like to believe that there is some kind of happy afterlife for them. But since they are not reasoning creatures, and, as far as we know, can't make the kinds of decisions about right or wrong that humans can, we may conclude that, while for us, there is a world to come, there is not one for animals.
Nonetheless, it seems that Christmas and animals go together. On the secular side, we've got Dasher and Dancer and the rest of the reindeer cohorts. But even the more serious side of Christmas has some critters. "Silent Night," for example, never would have been written, we're told, had not mice eaten the bellows of a church organ, forcing the composition of a simple carol that could be accompanied by guitar. But most of all, we've got Jesus born in a stable -- presumably in the presence of animals -- so we can assume that all of that means something.
Certainly it can be a reminder that all life is interconnected. We get jolted by that sometimes when we change the balance of nature by eliminating all the natural predators in an area. Pretty soon, we find ourselves overrun by rabbits or other creatures that are normally part of the food chain for other animals.
But in other ways, animals are part of the richness of our lives. Several years ago, I took a church youth group to a nursing home at Christmas time. But that year, in addition to singing Christmas carols and passing out little remembrances, we had the kids bring their pets along. We had a dog, a couple of cats, and even a mouse. As we went from room to room, the residents wanted to pet and hold the animals. Even some of the people who were unable to talk and seemed deep in senility responded to the animals.
Maybe the animals that first Christmas were there to remind us that God's love doesn't come only in big dramatic gestures like unique stars in the sky. Maybe sometimes God's love comes through the faithful companionship of God's other creatures. There are many people whose lives would be sadder and darker without a pet for companionship, or whose lives would be less open without an animal to care for.
Animals also challenge us to be better than we are. How much we all would improve if we lived as the kind of people our dogs seem to think we are!
That the seas should roar, the floods clap their hands, and the hills sing is poetic imagery to be sure, but the words remind us that the whole world has a stake in the redemption of creation.
"God, we've been searching for you," the letter said.
The pastor of the church said that it confirmed what he had believed all along -- that God really did live there. He and the church even considered entering God in the contest!
One might well look at all the readings today with that question in mind: "Where is God?" The answer is given in the Christmas message -- God is with us in Jesus of Nazareth. If we would seek God, know God, we can find God in Jesus. Indeed, the Good News is that God came looking for and finding us in Jesus.
Isaiah 52:7-10
There has been in our community for some time an eyesore of a house. Most everyone has complained about it. The elderly woman who had lived there is now in an adult care facility. The house looked as if it might fall down any moment. But how surprised we all have been the last couple of months. Someone bought the old place (a foolish waste of money we all thought). We assumed he would tear it down and start over. But he didn't and it's remarkable what he has done to that old place. It looks almost new on the outside and inside (he gave me a tour). What I thought was ready for the scrap heap, he saw as something with great potential, with inherent beauty. By living and working there for months, the new owner has transformed that old place. We would never have thought it possible.
So it seemed to many of the people in Babylonian exile. Their country, their sacred city, and God's temple lay in ruins. Nothing could be done with it or about it. There was no hope. But not so, says the prophet starting in Isaiah 40. He comes proclaiming a message of comfort and hope. What seemed like a ruined trash heap would come alive once again through the coming of a Master Builder -- God. In these verses the prophet sees this one returning and making the "ruins sing."
Recall that in Ezekiel we are given a vision of how God's presence left the temple. God's house, because it had become so soiled by the sin and unfaithfulness of the people, was no longer fit for God's holy presence. God's departure left it open to the plunder of enemies (see Isaiah 52:1). This was God's judgment on the people. Everything was left desolated. The sacred items in the temple, along with many of the people, were taken into exile.
But in these verses and in much of Second Isaiah, there is the reversal of all of this. Here God is seen leading the people back from exile, the people themselves carrying the items that had been taken so that they might be placed in a restored temple and used once again in the worship of God. This is really a hymn or song in praise of God's return and consequently the restoration of the "holy city." It would be holy once again for as long it had become unholy.
In a poetic vision, the prophet sees and hears the words of the lookouts who stand atop mountains to give warning or bring good news, especially if there was a battle. Imagine persons in a city waiting anxiously for news from the battlefield. Here the prophet speaks of how wondrous and beautiful are the feet (perhaps the sound of the footfalls) running breathlessly back to Jerusalem to announce, "The Lord is coming! Peace and salvation have at long last returned to us." The image is very much of someone who bursts into your house or runs down the streets of the city, like the old town criers, shouting, "Good news! Good news!"
The "sentinels" may be a reference to the lookouts in the city itself. They would be the first to see the messengers bringing the news. They would hear it and repeat it themselves. This is a poetic way of saying how this great good news would spread quickly among all the people.
In many ways the image of the Exodus runs throughout here. This was a new Exodus. The people had been in bondage but now, as way back then, they had been set free and brought back again to their homeland.
Just as all nations had witnessed their shame in the destruction that had come upon them, now, says the prophet, these same nations will witness the return. Now all creation will witness these new and wondrous acts of God (see v. 10).
But the key in all of this is the presence once again of the living God with them. God was coming to deliver and restore them. Most importantly, to live among them and within them.
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)
These verses set forth the theme of this whole letter: the superiority of Christ. It's true that in the past God chose many different ways to be revealed, even through human beings like the prophets. But now God has chosen a way far superior to all of those -- God has come in his own son. The Son is Jesus, the fullest revelation of God that we have been given. In flesh and blood now we see and we hear God and what he desires for us and from us. Indeed, all else in the past needs now to be measured by and through this new revelation.
Why is this new revelation so far above all others?
First, Jesus is, as stated above, God's Son. Who better to reveal God and God's will than a child who has lived in the constant presence of the Parent?
Second, Jesus is a far superior revelation of God, because he is now, as Son, "heir of all things." All the physical and spiritual blessings of God are his inheritance and, by implication, also passed down to those who follow him, who are gathered into his family.
Third, Christ is the one from before time through whom God created all things (this seems to be a reference to the teaching that we see in John 1:1ff of how Jesus is the Word or agent God used to create the world [see also Colossians 1:16]).
Fourth, Christ is the reflection of God's own glory, which calls to mind Moses coming down from the mountain having been transformed by his communion with God.
Fifth, but Christ is more than this -- he is the express image of God. The idea behind this is the impression that a seal leaves in wax. It leaves its exact likeness there. So, in Christ, we see the image of God, what God is like. Christ is God's self-portrait.
Sixth, Christ's word sustains all things. Just as he was the Word that created all things, he is also that power that holds everything together, that supports and sustains the universe (see Colossians 1:17 where Paul says much the same thing).
Seventh, referring to the priestly work of Christ to which the writer will return in some detail, the writer simply says here that Jesus is the one who has "purged our sins."
Eighth, if this is not enough, the writer then reminds the readers just where Christ sits now -- after his ascension -- at the right hand of God. Christ is Priest and King. As such he deserves the highest honor, praise, and devotion.
Verses 4-12 compare Christ and the angels, showing Christ to be far superior to them. Angels were seen as messengers from God. It may be that some of the readers of this letter had begun to think that Jesus was just another such being -- an angel, a messenger no different than any other. But the writer says otherwise. He has high regard for angels but says that Christ is far above them. There did seem to be a movement among some early Christians to worship angels (see Colossians 2:8, 18). But the writer here plainly says that no angel was ever called "God's own son" and so no angel deserves the honor and position rightly afforded to Christ. In other words, Christ is unique and incomparable to other messengers and even revelations.
John 1:1-14
Just as Isaiah 52 is a hymn, the first 18 verses of John (often called "The Prologue") also sound very hymn-like in their praise of the coming of Christ into the world and all that it means for the world. Verse after verse adds to the celebration and joy of his origin, the gifts of life, and grace given through him. The crescendo comes in verse 14 as this wondrous Word of God becomes flesh. There are even a few verses about the role John the Baptist played in all of this. One can almost hear these verses put to music and sung by choirs and soloists. Such passages have surely inspired some beautiful Christmas music.
Verses 1-5. You would think that the writer might begin to tell the life of Jesus with his birth, as Matthew and Luke do. Not this writer. He goes way beyond that to the beginning of all things and even before it. It is as if the writer looked to his own Jewish-Christian heritage and even that of the Greek world around him for a word, a concept to try to get across to the people of his time just who Jesus truly was. He found that image or metaphor in the Greek concept of "logos," translated here as "Word." "Logos" was a term familiar to Jews and Greeks of the day, even being used in other religions. But John Christianizes it. "Logos" for many was the divine power and/or reason that created and held everything in place, that kept the world from falling into chaos. It was also that wisdom or knowledge given to human beings so that they might know right from wrong and see that there is a divine reason and power behind all things.
The Gospel writer is simply telling them, "What you call 'Logos,' is, in fact, the divine Word of God that God used as the agent of all creation (to create all things) and to hold all things in place." John no doubt is thinking about the Genesis account of creation in which God speaks and whatever God says is done. That Word of God was with God before time began, was the instrument of creation, and was, in fact, the expression of God's own self. Very soon the writer makes the astounding claim that the Logos, the Word had taken on flesh and dwelled among us!
Though some might protest, what the Gospel writer does is what I recently heard a youth minister do at a summer camp. Struggling to talk about God in a language they understood, he settled on the concept of "The Force" from the Star Wars movies. Through careful contrasts, he was able to show how God was like and unlike that concept.
Behind all of this is the concept of power -- the power to create light and life. For people of the time, a word was seen as being much more powerful than we understand it today. A common saying of our time is, "Talk is cheap." But words carried great power for the Jews. A general gives a command and it is carried out. It has power. If human words carry power, how much more so is this true for the Word of God. For the Gospel writer, Jesus is the very Word of God, the power, the expression of God's will and God's own self. That power gives light and life, eternal life.
Verses 6-9. A portion of these verses we also studied for Advent 3. Suffice it to say here that right at the beginning, the writer points out that John the Baptist was not the light, was not the Word. John's role was to bear witness to the light. To draw upon the lookout image from Isaiah 52 for today, John was the herald who came shouting, "God is coming!" or "The Messiah is coming!"
Verses 10-13. Before he even talks about how the Word became flesh, the writer deals with the fact that many did not really hear (accept) the Word they heard. Many rejected it. But others did hear. That power worked in them, changing them into the children of God.
Verse 14. This has to be one of the most studied and meaningful verses in the whole Bible. In it we find the concept of the "Incarnation," that is, this Word of God becoming a human being in Jesus of Nazareth. It is another way of trying to say what the epistle lesson was saying, that is, Jesus is the imprint, the impression, the visible image of the invisible God. The name "Immanuel" given to Jesus expresses this well: "God with us."
Application
And it came to pass that there were two brothers 8 and 10 years old, who were exceedingly mischievous. Whatever went wrong in the neighborhood, it turned out they had a hand in it. Their parents were at their wits' end trying to control them.
Hearing about a priest nearby who worked with delinquent boys, the mother decided to ask the priest to talk to them. She went to the priest and made her request. He agreed, but said he wanted to see the younger boy first. So the mother sent him to the priest.
The priest wanted the boy to realize that God was everywhere and could see everything he did. He pointed his forefinger at the boy and asked, "Where is God?"
The boy said nothing.
Again, louder, the priest pointed at the boy and asked, "Where is God?"
Again the boy said nothing.
A third time, in a louder, firmer voice, the priest leaned far across the desk and put his forefinger almost to the boy's nose, and asked, "Where is God?"
The boy panicked and ran all the way home. Finding his older brother, he dragged him upstairs to their room, where they usually plotted their mischief. He said, "We are in BIG trouble this time."
The older boy asked, "What do you mean, BIG trouble?"
His brother replied, "God is missing and they think WE did it!"
It seemed to the people Isaiah addressed that God was missing. Indeed, God had left them. But in the reading for today, they received the wondrous news that God was not lost, missing, or distant. God was coming to them, to dwell among them again.
All this Advent, that has been the message: God is coming. Now, today, we greet each other with the wondrous Good News that that day has come -- God is here! God is with us.
For so long and in so many ways God sought to come to us. But now God has not sent a letter, not sent a prophet; God sent a Son, the only beloved Son (Epistle reading).
In the Son, God personally came to be with us, as one of us, in flesh and blood, so that we might know God's love, forgiveness, light, grace, and a life that never ends (Gospel reading).
We no longer have to wonder where God is, what God is like. We have in Jesus God with us. For Christians Jesus is the fullest revelation of God. If we wish to know God, we look at Jesus. If we wish to hear the voice of God, we listen to his teachings. If we wish to be close to God, we ask him to usher us into God's presence. What we discover in Jesus is that God never was lost or missing. We were. In Jesus God finds us.
An Alternative Application
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12). Two brothers quarreled. They part company for a long time. Then it occurs to one of them that this situation is just not right. He writes a letter to his brother suggesting that they make peace. He receives no reply. "Come now," he thinks, "I must try again." So he writes another letter and sends it Federal Express. "Let us make peace and get along once more," he writes. But still no reply. But he does not give up. He sends a singing telegram that shares his heartfelt desire to live as a family once again. But even this gets no response. So then the man decides one bitterly cold winter's night to brave the howling wind and deep snow to journey to his brother's house. He arrives panting, snow covering him, petrified with cold. He repeats by word of mouth face-to-face his invitation. And now it begins to dawn on his brother that he has before him a real human being, frozen, drenched with snow, and panting for air. Now his heart melts, and he takes the invitation seriously. Now he says, "Yes."
The brother reaching out is God. God has written to us many letters, sent many messengers, even prophets, tried many times to reach out to us, and we have not answered. Finally, in the Christ Child, God's own child, God has personally come to us to make things right again. Will we now say, "Yes"?
First Lesson Focus
Isaiah 52:7-10
Our text for this joyous Christmas Day is taken from the prophecies of Second Isaiah that were proclaimed to the Israelite exiles in Babylonia sometime between 550 and 538 B.C. As you know, most of the Israelites in Judah and Jerusalem were carried into exile by the Babylonians in three deportations, in 597, 587, and 582 B.C. They were finally released from their captivity by Cyrus of Persia, who defeated the Babylonian Empire, and who in 538 B.C. issued a decree allowing the Israelites to return to their homeland in Palestine. In the prophecies of Second Isaiah, that release and return are foreseen, but they have not yet taken place.
In this text from Isaiah 52, we are confronted for the first time in the biblical history with the figure of an evangelist. Now that is a term that has taken on rather poor connotations in our time, hasn't it? When we hear the word "evangelist," we think of preachers in tent meetings, imploring sinners to be saved. Or we think of TV evangelists, some of whom have been shown to be rather shady characters, but some, of course, who have very large television audiences.
From the word "evangelist," we get the noun "evangelicals," and that can have all sorts of meanings for us. It can signify the fundamentalists who insist that we believe their particular doctrines about the Bible and the cross and religious conversion if we want to be called truly Christian. But the term "evangelicals" also can simply be applied to that large group of church members who consider themselves to be rather conservative in their theological views. Or it can be applied to those who call themselves evangelicals because they teach and preach from the Bible. There are a lot of different meanings swirling around the terms "evangelist" and "evangelicals" in our society, and we probably would be a lot better off if we returned to the original meaning of the terms.
In the Bible and in our text for the morning, the "evangelist" is one who is the bearer of good news. In this sense, the writers of our four Gospels are sometimes called evangelists. But clearly in our stated text, the evangelist is one who is taking "good tidings" to Zion. He is bearing a "gospel" to the city of Jerusalem, because that is what "gospel" means, isn't it? "Gospel" is good news, and the evangelist is the one who delivers it.
Earlier in Second Isaiah's prophecies, Zion herself was called the "herald of good tidings" (Isaiah 40:9), but here in our text the good tidings are being delivered to Zion (so too in Isaiah 41:27; 61:1). And the feet of the messenger who bears that good news are called "beautiful." Now why?
When he proclaims this oracle, Second Isaiah draws on a very old custom in biblical Israel. When a new king was crowned in Israel, two acts took place. First, the king was crowned in the temple and presented with something called the "testimonies" (2 Kings 11:12; 2 Chronicles 23:11). These testimonies were probably some sort of document embodying the basic terms of the Lord's covenant with the house of David. As such, they served as the Lord's legitimization of the king's rule. Second, the newly crowned king was then led to his palace, he ascended the throne, and the beginning of his reign was announced, whereupon messengers were dispatched throughout the land with the joyous message, "So-and-so has become king!" Usually this was an occasion for great rejoicing among the people, because it meant that a new era had been introduced.
So in our text, the evangelist is that one whose feet are called beautiful, because he has been sent out, running across the hills and valleys, to proclaim the beginning of a new kingly reign. But this particular bearer of good tidings announces no ordinary reign. His message to Jerusalem is, "Your God reigns!" God is king. God is upon the throne of his people. God rules!
As our text continues, therefore, the watchmen on Jerusalem's ruined walls are portrayed sighting God's return to his people. They see him coming in the far distance, growing ever larger, marching on that highway prepared for him by the heavenly hosts (Isaiah 40:3-5), to take up his throne and residence once again in the midst of his people. He is redeeming his people from their exile, "buying them back" out of their captivity, which is what redemption means. God's strong and holy arm, the symbol throughout the Bible of his power, has defeated the empire of Babylonia and used the great ruler of Persia to free his people. And now he is returning with his covenant people to the holy city of Jerusalem (40:10-11). The result, therefore, is great rejoicing, even by the stones and ruins of Zion (cf. Luke 19:40).
We are told in Luke's Christmas story that the angels who appeared to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night also were evangelists, announcing good news of a great joy intended for all people (Luke 2:10). And the content of those glad tidings is not much different than what was first announced by Second Isaiah's messenger. "Your God reigns." What was it that the angels said? "... for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). The Lord, the Lord of all has been born. Jesus Christ rules. Your God reigns.
I wonder if we can take those glad tidings once again into our hearts on this Christmas day and find in them our reason for rejoicing. Jesus Christ rules. Can you remember that when the world seems to go awry and everything seems just a little out of joint? Can you hold it fast when you are in pain or are suffering some mental or physical disability? When you have a loss of some kind -- of job or security, of a relationship or loved one, of a promise for the future that was not fulfilled -- will you remember that Jesus Christ is in charge and that he is working out his good purpose for you? In trust, will you affirm with the Apostle Paul that in Christ's love and power, you can be content, in whatever situation you are? Can we say it with Paul? "I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:12-13). Because Jesus Christ who works in you by his Spirit does rule, dear Christian friends. Despite all appearances to the contrary, despite all the slings and arrows of this sin-saturated world, Jesus Christ is in charge of your life and mine, as he is in charge of all. And he is steadily at work to bring in his good kingdom on earth, even as it is in heaven. So there are good tidings at this Christmastime, aren't there? The good news of the Gospel rings out clear. Your God reigns through his Son Jesus Christ. Break forth together into singing!
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 98
Like Psalm 96 (see Christmas Eve), Psalm 98 is a psalm proclaiming the glory of Israel's God. Verses 7 and 8 speak of the whole orchestra of nature chiming in to praise God, including "the world and those who live in it."
Perhaps it is not too much of a stretch from there to talk about the birth of Christ in a stable for animals as an indication of his Lordship over them as well. Actually, during Advent last year, a young man in my congregation asked me, "Do dogs go to heaven?"
We who have been around animals readily understand how attached we can become to them, and in the case of a faithful pet, we'd like to believe that there is some kind of happy afterlife for them. But since they are not reasoning creatures, and, as far as we know, can't make the kinds of decisions about right or wrong that humans can, we may conclude that, while for us, there is a world to come, there is not one for animals.
Nonetheless, it seems that Christmas and animals go together. On the secular side, we've got Dasher and Dancer and the rest of the reindeer cohorts. But even the more serious side of Christmas has some critters. "Silent Night," for example, never would have been written, we're told, had not mice eaten the bellows of a church organ, forcing the composition of a simple carol that could be accompanied by guitar. But most of all, we've got Jesus born in a stable -- presumably in the presence of animals -- so we can assume that all of that means something.
Certainly it can be a reminder that all life is interconnected. We get jolted by that sometimes when we change the balance of nature by eliminating all the natural predators in an area. Pretty soon, we find ourselves overrun by rabbits or other creatures that are normally part of the food chain for other animals.
But in other ways, animals are part of the richness of our lives. Several years ago, I took a church youth group to a nursing home at Christmas time. But that year, in addition to singing Christmas carols and passing out little remembrances, we had the kids bring their pets along. We had a dog, a couple of cats, and even a mouse. As we went from room to room, the residents wanted to pet and hold the animals. Even some of the people who were unable to talk and seemed deep in senility responded to the animals.
Maybe the animals that first Christmas were there to remind us that God's love doesn't come only in big dramatic gestures like unique stars in the sky. Maybe sometimes God's love comes through the faithful companionship of God's other creatures. There are many people whose lives would be sadder and darker without a pet for companionship, or whose lives would be less open without an animal to care for.
Animals also challenge us to be better than we are. How much we all would improve if we lived as the kind of people our dogs seem to think we are!
That the seas should roar, the floods clap their hands, and the hills sing is poetic imagery to be sure, but the words remind us that the whole world has a stake in the redemption of creation.
