Wonder-filled
Commentary
What will be special about Christmas this year? What will be the same about Christmas this year? Every year Christmas comes with a sense of specialness and a sense of sameness. Perhaps the older one gets, the more the latter seems to be the case. If it is true that Christmas is for children, then we should all find the child within, so that we can enjoy with freshness the wonder of God's Word made flesh for us.
As we unwrap Christmas this year, let us do so with the knowledge that the world is longing for that Gift which brings joy and peace to heart and community and nation. There is a longing in the human heart for truth -- the truth of God and the truth about God. The commercialism of our culture reveals this (primarily through the media of television and movies), as we explore the essence of the season through all sorts of stories, most all of which are extra-biblical, yet reflect in subtle ways the influence of the central story. There is also a longing in the human heart for relationship, especially relationship with God. The sentimentality of the season divulges this, as we gush with anticipation and/or grief about the festive gatherings of family and friends and colleagues. There is also a longing in the human heart for meaning -- in terms of our life before God. The consumerism of our culture reveals this, as we invest so much material wealth and energy and time in gathering symbols of meaning and worth around ourselves.
So, let Christmas come once again and surprise us with the Word to address all our longings in a way that satisfies with joy and peace.
Isaiah 52:7-10
Every preacher should recite verse 7 before rising before the people to pronounce God's Word. It would be a reflective, affirming thing to do, to remind oneself of the importance of the task at hand and the essential message to bear. Better yet would be the congregation's acclamation, cheering these words as the preacher stood up before them. Perhaps this was what greeted Isaiah one time as he stepped forward to speak such a word, as he had been since chapter 40. They are hope-filled words, affirming the rule of God over the nations. God's reign will manifest itself now in a saving way for the people.
For seventy years they had been in exile in Babylon, judgment for the sinfulness that fueled God's wrath. But, now the warfare is over. "She has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Isaiah 40:2). There is good news to tell. Peace has come, a time of healing and restoration. God's reign will be revealed to the world in what he does for his people in a saving way. The people are to awake (52:1) to these good tidings and sing for joy. In a marvelous anthropological image, Isaiah pictures God baring his holy arm. One can picture God rolling up his sleeves to get the work done of bringing his people home from exile and restoring the ramparts of the city and the Temple. In a comic way, it's like Popeye flexing his biceps after eating a can of spinach to show his opponents and his friends who are in trouble that he is present and up to the task. God says, "Here am I" (52:6) and then bares his holy arm, so that the people indeed have cause to hope and rejoice. This is one of the focal points of the text, that God reigns and those who have been in exile need no longer doubt!
The feet of the proclaimer of this good news are on the mountain. The mountain is an important image throughout Scripture. Abraham took Isaac to a mount where the Lord provided a ram for the sacrifice. Moses ascended the mount to receive the Ten Commandments. Elijah proves that the Lord is God over Baal on Mount Carmel. Matthew gathers Jesus' teachings into a Sermon on the Mount. It was to "a high mountain apart" that Jesus took his disciples to witness his transfiguration. For the feet of the preacher to be on a mountain is like saying that what is being said is from God, important, holy, to be listened to, to be believed. God's Word is always to have an elevated position before the eyes and in the hearts of the people. (Read Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, University of Chicago Press, 1980, for a fascinating account of how we structure language with metaphorical concepts that shape our behavior.)
Another focal point of the text is that God presents globally what he does locally. Again, the particularity of God's activity is one of the hallmarks of the Judeo-Christian faith. Though this particularity roots God in history at specific times and specific places with specific people, it nonetheless creates a story to be told to the nations. All are invited to participate in the story through faith. "All the ends of the earth" (52:10) are included.
Since it is an ongoing, unfolding story, it is important to mention the larger plot, so as not to get too absorbed in a particular incident. Notice that shortly after our text, there is a description of the Suffering Servant (52:13-53:12), who will carry out God's will. This servant provides the model, the archetype, for Jesus, who fulfills God's will in a particular, suffering, and sacrificial way. The gift of myrrh that is presented him at his birth foreshadows the path he will take in baring God's holy arm for the salvation of the world. Myrrh, a fragrant ointment, is used in the burial of the dead. While we celebrate the birth of the One who brings good tidings of great joy for the whole world, let us not forget that his cradle swings over an open grave.
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)
To grasp the potency and cogency of the Letter to the Hebrews, one should read it through in one sitting. It's apologetic flavor will come out strong, helping the contemporary reader sense the persuasiveness of this tract for a Jewish Christian audience experiencing times of persecution and discouragement. "Let us hold fast our confession" (4:14) becomes a signal verse to muster the faith of those who have heard and believed the good news of Jesus.
All the prophets in the Old Testament are great in their own way, whether major prophets (longer writings) or minor prophets (shorter writings). Together, the prophets over the centuries provide a witness to God's Word of blessing and judgment. Whether subject to public ridicule or in peril of their lives, the prophets faithfully articulated the messages that God wanted his people to hear at the time. Just as the priestly tradition prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah, who would be the perfect high priest and offer the once for all sacrifice for the sins of the people, so too the prophet tradition prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah, who would speak God's word of power. Jesus is God's word of power for all to hear and believe. The same God who spoke "to our fathers" and now speaks "to us," also spoke to Jesus, identifying him with a name more excellent than the angels, affirming him as the Son of God, and ascribing eternity to his being.
Jesus, born in the flesh and of the flesh, is said to be "the heir of all things." From a human point of view, this does not seem to be much, given the fact that his earthly father was but a carpenter from a small hill country village. But, from a heavenly point of view, it means much; namely, that the power (dunamiz) of God is in him and expressed through him, that he virtually upholds the universe by his power, which is God's power. God's power can be expressed as simply and as profoundly as the spoken word. In Genesis 1, God speaks the creation into existence. Jesus will be the One who speaks a crippled man to walk and the blind to see, who speaks the forgiveness of sins and authorizes a radical understanding of the Law. Whether rhma or logoz, this word is the very Word of God. Whereas Isaiah pictured God baring his holy arm, the writer to the Hebrews might have pictured God opening up his holy mouth. In this way, the very things of God are made manifest among us. (rhma, used three times in Hebrews, is equivalent to logoz and is also the word used to translate the Hebrew dabar in the Septuagint.)
There is a wonderful text in Psalm 47, which expresses Isaiah's message that God rules and also Hebrews' message that Jesus is the heir. The Psalmist writes, "God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne (47:8). He also speaks on behalf of "the pride of Jacob whom he loves" (47:4), a reference at once to the people of God, as well as to their Messiah. Juxtapose the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, the genealogy of Matthew 1, and the heavenly voice at the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17) with this reference to capture its fullness of meaning.
John 1:1-14
If Matthew is the catechetical Gospel, John is the philosophical Gospel. Against a multi-textured culture of Greek gnosticism, Jewish Wisdom, and oriental religious cults, John writes a Gospel that points to Jesus as the incarnate Word (logoz) of God, who is the full revelation of God, who through his words and deeds authenticates himself as the One who gives life to all those who believe in him.
Of doctrinal significance against the theories of the culture and the later heresies in the church, ancient and modern, is the concept expressed in this text that the pre-existent Christ is the existent Jesus. Here is the theological precursor to the stumbling block that Paul wrote about: Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23). If we have nothing more than a human Messiah dying on the cross, then we have a martyr as the founder of the faith. But, if the Crucified One is indeed God with us -- crucified, yes, but also risen! -- then we have the skandalon that offends not only the Jew, but also the Moslem and even those who practice a religion of immanence or a religious philosophy of reason. Of course, it is the resurrection that empowers faith in this central tenant of orthodox, catholic Christianity. So, though we are reading this text in the season of Christmas, our thoughts must direct us to the mission of the Babe of Bethlehem, a mission that was played out in its entirety on a Golgotha cross and from an empty nearby tomb during Holy Week, on the other side of the calendar.
Though John recounts the Christmas story in but one verse (1:14), he is clear to point out that it is the Child of Bethlehem who enables those of faith to become children of God (1:12-13). This does not easily translate into a Christmas pageant, but it satisfies the mind that doggedly pursues truth through the meanderings and mazes of human reason and imagination. Because faith seeks understanding (credo ut intelligam), it is with relish that we notice the connection between John 1:1-5 and Hebrews 1:2-3 and Colossians 1:15-20 and Genesis 1:1, 26. Juxtaposing these texts, we observe that the creative and redemptive acts of God arise from the original will of God. This will is love that brings about life before God and brings life back to God.
To these things, we, as Christians, bear witness. One wonders if the Gospel writer John was having a little fun with his name being the same as another John (1:6). John the Baptist is identified as a witness to the light of Jesus Christ. He himself was not the Messiah, though some thought he might be. He makes it perfectly clear that his purpose, his meaning in life, is to give testimony to Jesus. In a similar way -- though not with fiery oratory and water, but with story-telling skill and pen -- the writer John gives testimony that his readers may believe in Jesus and find life through him (20:30-31). As soon as the readers find faith and life, they too become witnesses in their own way to point others to Jesus, whether their name be John or Jane or Sally or Stephen.
Although the shepherds and the wise men are missing from this Christmas text, John the Baptist serves the purpose of human herald to the presence of Immanuel, God with us, the Word made flesh. The star of Matthew's account is replaced with the concept of light, that Jesus embodies. The foreshadowing of his deadly end (in Matthew through Herod's rage upon the Bethlehem babies and in Luke through Simeon's veiled pronouncement to Mary in Luke 2:35) is suggested by the observation that the world did not know him, nor did his own people receive him (1:10-11).
Application
Christmas is a wonder-filled time of year to proclaim to the world that the truth of God and about God is known through Jesus. This proclamation needs to take place, not just in our pulpits, but also in the public square. The separation of church and state means that the state is not to promulgate a particular religion; it does not mean that religious truth is to be scoured from community conversation, whether in the courts, legislature, schools, or public agencies. If this scouring were to continue, we would do a disservice to the authority of religious experience (relegating it to a marginal role) and we would inadvertently encourage a kind of gnosticism to flourish. This gnosticism would arise in the garb of education being the essential answer to personal character development and of politics being the fundamental means of ordering civil life: we only need to know enough and apply it in the right ways to be successful in orchestrating our own successful, beneficent future. Listening closely, one can already hear gnostic hymns with these themes being sung on the streets and in the hallways.
The world needs to know the reason for the hope that is in us as Christians. Without the truth of God and the truth about God, both of which are revealed through the Christ event (which includes our theology on the pre-existent Christ through our theology on the returning and reigning pantocrator), we are subject to the a-theistic notions of modernity's death throws or the pan-theistic notions of post-modernity's birth pangs. (Jurgen Moltmann's God for a Secular Society, Fortress Press, 1999, offers one constructive proposal of how this can be done and why it is so important that it be done.)
Christmas is a wonder-filled time of year to proclaim that our relationship with God is assured through Jesus. Over against the "holiday blues," we can affirm that God is still God, who reigns over the nations, as well as over our mental and emotional life. Whatever personal burdens one may bear, whatever family struggles one may have, whatever griefs are fresh or revived at this time of year, there are good tidings to color the blues with joy. God has bared his holy arm with the bare baby flesh of Jesus. The very heart of God is connected to our hearts through this Word made flesh. "Blessed Assurance" the gospel hymn resounds, as we experience God re-localizing his love for us right where we are this year. Bethlehem today is Boston, Birmingham, or Beulah -- wherever we are living. He has come to find us, so that we can "break forth together into singing" (Isaiah 52:9).
Christmas is a wonder-filled time of year to proclaim that the meaning of the Christ of Christmas is the salvation of the world, and that our meaning is to believe and serve him in our everyday life. Christmases come and go. "In many and various ways" we celebrate each new Christmas, but the point is always the same: Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, the joy to the world. (See Hebrews 1:12 and 13:8.) While we create a festive moment over his birth, we acknowledge that this is but the prelude to the true feast, which is with the Lamb of God, the One who gave his life unto death for our salvation. We really don't sacrifice much to give presents to one another around the Christmas tree. Yet, these presents serve a good purpose if they remind us of how much Jesus sacrificed to give himself to us, wrapped in a crown of thorns, blood, and a burial cloth. When this sense of salvation overcomes the sentimentality of the season, faith will have hiked up higher on the mountain to join others in announcing the Good News which shall be of great joy to all the world.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 52:7-10
"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." With that joyful news, the angels visited the shepherds, who were keeping watch over their flocks by night. And with the same joyful news, we are greeted by our Old Testament text for the morning.
The messenger who brings such good tidings is called an evangel in the Bible, an evangelist, and in our Old Testament lesson, we have the first mention of an evangelist to be found in the Scriptures. His message is very much the same as that which the angel announced to the shepherds, because both messages have to do with the sovereignty of God and with God's rescue of a people who need to be saved from their sin and death.
"Your God reigns!" announces the evangelist in our lesson. And he proclaims that message to the people of Israel who have lost all hope because they are languishing in exile in Babylonia. God sent them into exile in the sixth century B.C. because of their sins and faithlessness toward him. And though their life wasn't all that bad in that foreign country, they were sure that God had deserted them. Some of them started businesses. Some carried on their worship. But, nevertheless, they mourned, "(Our) way is hid from the Lord" (Isaiah 40:27), because they were sure that they had been forgotten by God. And not very much else matters, does it, if God forgets about us? Some of the Israelites even thought that the Lord could do nothing against the power of the gods of Babylonia and that any release from their captivity was impossible (cf. Isaiah 46). And that too would be terrible, wouldn't it, if our God of love has no power to save?
But into that sad and helpless situation of the captives in Babylonia, God sent a messenger of good news, and he announced a two-fold gospel. First was that ringing proclamation, "Your God reigns!" God is in charge. He is the Ruler like no other. Nothing and no one can take you out of his hand -- not the armies of Babylonia, not the pagan deities of that land, not the hopeless situation in which you find yourself, not all the powers of death. And that is very much like the glad news that is given to us on this Christmas morning too, is it not? We are not captive to the tyrannical powers of our society or the deadly ways of the world. We are not even helpless and bound by our suffering or our circumstances, by our psychological or physical ills. They are not the final determiners of our life, of our welfare, or of our future. No. God is! God reigns supreme! God is in charge of our lives and destiny. And it is he who holds the outcome of all our living in his loving hands.
But what of our sin and faithlessness toward our one God? Israel was sent into exile because of her transgressions against her Lord, and surely we have equal ugly blots on our wayward lives -- our failures even to think about God except maybe at Christmas and Easter; our ignorance or indifference toward his will and purpose as we pursue our own selfish aims; our neglect toward doing what we ought to do, and our willingness so often to do what we know good and well we ought not to do. We surely have exiled ourselves from the service and life-giving presence of the Lord. Is there any good news, then, for us who are so subversive of the sovereignty of God? Will he have anything to do with us sinners? Is there anything left to us but finally the extinction of the grave?
That evangelist in our lesson from Second Isaiah announces his second message. "Hark, your watchmen lift up their voice, together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion." In other words, here comes God again! Here he comes, returning to his people! Behold! cries our prophet! Behold, the Lord God comes! (Isaiah 40:10). He has not left us forever because of our sin against him. He has not deserted us, though we have often deserted him. He comes to us nevertheless. And he comes to comfort and redeem us -- to forgive us, to reassure us in the midst of whatever our situation may be, and to rescue us from our captivity to evil and to death.
And that, too, is the message on this Christmas morning, is it not? Good news! God does not desert us! God does not give us up to evil and our end, or to the captivity of this world. God comes rushing to our side to comfort and to redeem. "For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." God in his Son, his Word made flesh, comes to save you and me. And that is very good news, the best news that we could possibly hear.
So it is that Second Isaiah sings this hymn in our Old Testament. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings." The prophet borrows that portrayal from the practice of kingship in Israel, for whenever a new king ascended to the throne, messengers were sent out to announce a new era. "Such and such reigns!" they would say, and that gave the people gladness, because they thought that perhaps with a new monarch things would be better. So the feet of those swift runners are described as beautiful, because they maybe would bring good news to Israel. But the news that Second Isaiah announced to the exiles and that the angels announce to us this Christmas morning is better good news than the proclamation of the reign of any human king. God reigns. God is in charge. And he comes to us, despite our sin, to comfort and to redeem us.
So note the response to that in our Scripture lesson, good Christians. The watchmen who see God returning to his people sing for joy. Even devastated Jerusalem, in ruins from the Babylonians, breaks forth into singing. And that is our proper response too, is it not, on this Christmas morning? It is no accident that through the ages, the church has always had a singing faith, and it is no accident either that some of the greatest music in the world is found in our hymns and anthems at Christmastime. For who can help but rejoice when we hear that God is the Ruler of all? Indeed, our text for the morning tells us that he rules over all nations and peoples. This crazy, sin-
pocked world, for all its waywardness, is in God's mighty hands and plans. And who can help but sing when we hear that despite earth's sin and yours and mine, God comes to forgive and redeem and save us all. He came to those Israelite exiles in Babylonia, and soon they were free to go home. And he comes to us this morning in his Son, and we are forgiven and freed from our past and taken back into the care of God, where there is good, and joy, and life everlasting. That's good news, friends. Our Savior is born. So let's sing and rejoice.
As we unwrap Christmas this year, let us do so with the knowledge that the world is longing for that Gift which brings joy and peace to heart and community and nation. There is a longing in the human heart for truth -- the truth of God and the truth about God. The commercialism of our culture reveals this (primarily through the media of television and movies), as we explore the essence of the season through all sorts of stories, most all of which are extra-biblical, yet reflect in subtle ways the influence of the central story. There is also a longing in the human heart for relationship, especially relationship with God. The sentimentality of the season divulges this, as we gush with anticipation and/or grief about the festive gatherings of family and friends and colleagues. There is also a longing in the human heart for meaning -- in terms of our life before God. The consumerism of our culture reveals this, as we invest so much material wealth and energy and time in gathering symbols of meaning and worth around ourselves.
So, let Christmas come once again and surprise us with the Word to address all our longings in a way that satisfies with joy and peace.
Isaiah 52:7-10
Every preacher should recite verse 7 before rising before the people to pronounce God's Word. It would be a reflective, affirming thing to do, to remind oneself of the importance of the task at hand and the essential message to bear. Better yet would be the congregation's acclamation, cheering these words as the preacher stood up before them. Perhaps this was what greeted Isaiah one time as he stepped forward to speak such a word, as he had been since chapter 40. They are hope-filled words, affirming the rule of God over the nations. God's reign will manifest itself now in a saving way for the people.
For seventy years they had been in exile in Babylon, judgment for the sinfulness that fueled God's wrath. But, now the warfare is over. "She has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Isaiah 40:2). There is good news to tell. Peace has come, a time of healing and restoration. God's reign will be revealed to the world in what he does for his people in a saving way. The people are to awake (52:1) to these good tidings and sing for joy. In a marvelous anthropological image, Isaiah pictures God baring his holy arm. One can picture God rolling up his sleeves to get the work done of bringing his people home from exile and restoring the ramparts of the city and the Temple. In a comic way, it's like Popeye flexing his biceps after eating a can of spinach to show his opponents and his friends who are in trouble that he is present and up to the task. God says, "Here am I" (52:6) and then bares his holy arm, so that the people indeed have cause to hope and rejoice. This is one of the focal points of the text, that God reigns and those who have been in exile need no longer doubt!
The feet of the proclaimer of this good news are on the mountain. The mountain is an important image throughout Scripture. Abraham took Isaac to a mount where the Lord provided a ram for the sacrifice. Moses ascended the mount to receive the Ten Commandments. Elijah proves that the Lord is God over Baal on Mount Carmel. Matthew gathers Jesus' teachings into a Sermon on the Mount. It was to "a high mountain apart" that Jesus took his disciples to witness his transfiguration. For the feet of the preacher to be on a mountain is like saying that what is being said is from God, important, holy, to be listened to, to be believed. God's Word is always to have an elevated position before the eyes and in the hearts of the people. (Read Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, University of Chicago Press, 1980, for a fascinating account of how we structure language with metaphorical concepts that shape our behavior.)
Another focal point of the text is that God presents globally what he does locally. Again, the particularity of God's activity is one of the hallmarks of the Judeo-Christian faith. Though this particularity roots God in history at specific times and specific places with specific people, it nonetheless creates a story to be told to the nations. All are invited to participate in the story through faith. "All the ends of the earth" (52:10) are included.
Since it is an ongoing, unfolding story, it is important to mention the larger plot, so as not to get too absorbed in a particular incident. Notice that shortly after our text, there is a description of the Suffering Servant (52:13-53:12), who will carry out God's will. This servant provides the model, the archetype, for Jesus, who fulfills God's will in a particular, suffering, and sacrificial way. The gift of myrrh that is presented him at his birth foreshadows the path he will take in baring God's holy arm for the salvation of the world. Myrrh, a fragrant ointment, is used in the burial of the dead. While we celebrate the birth of the One who brings good tidings of great joy for the whole world, let us not forget that his cradle swings over an open grave.
Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)
To grasp the potency and cogency of the Letter to the Hebrews, one should read it through in one sitting. It's apologetic flavor will come out strong, helping the contemporary reader sense the persuasiveness of this tract for a Jewish Christian audience experiencing times of persecution and discouragement. "Let us hold fast our confession" (4:14) becomes a signal verse to muster the faith of those who have heard and believed the good news of Jesus.
All the prophets in the Old Testament are great in their own way, whether major prophets (longer writings) or minor prophets (shorter writings). Together, the prophets over the centuries provide a witness to God's Word of blessing and judgment. Whether subject to public ridicule or in peril of their lives, the prophets faithfully articulated the messages that God wanted his people to hear at the time. Just as the priestly tradition prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah, who would be the perfect high priest and offer the once for all sacrifice for the sins of the people, so too the prophet tradition prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah, who would speak God's word of power. Jesus is God's word of power for all to hear and believe. The same God who spoke "to our fathers" and now speaks "to us," also spoke to Jesus, identifying him with a name more excellent than the angels, affirming him as the Son of God, and ascribing eternity to his being.
Jesus, born in the flesh and of the flesh, is said to be "the heir of all things." From a human point of view, this does not seem to be much, given the fact that his earthly father was but a carpenter from a small hill country village. But, from a heavenly point of view, it means much; namely, that the power (dunamiz) of God is in him and expressed through him, that he virtually upholds the universe by his power, which is God's power. God's power can be expressed as simply and as profoundly as the spoken word. In Genesis 1, God speaks the creation into existence. Jesus will be the One who speaks a crippled man to walk and the blind to see, who speaks the forgiveness of sins and authorizes a radical understanding of the Law. Whether rhma or logoz, this word is the very Word of God. Whereas Isaiah pictured God baring his holy arm, the writer to the Hebrews might have pictured God opening up his holy mouth. In this way, the very things of God are made manifest among us. (rhma, used three times in Hebrews, is equivalent to logoz and is also the word used to translate the Hebrew dabar in the Septuagint.)
There is a wonderful text in Psalm 47, which expresses Isaiah's message that God rules and also Hebrews' message that Jesus is the heir. The Psalmist writes, "God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne (47:8). He also speaks on behalf of "the pride of Jacob whom he loves" (47:4), a reference at once to the people of God, as well as to their Messiah. Juxtapose the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, the genealogy of Matthew 1, and the heavenly voice at the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17) with this reference to capture its fullness of meaning.
John 1:1-14
If Matthew is the catechetical Gospel, John is the philosophical Gospel. Against a multi-textured culture of Greek gnosticism, Jewish Wisdom, and oriental religious cults, John writes a Gospel that points to Jesus as the incarnate Word (logoz) of God, who is the full revelation of God, who through his words and deeds authenticates himself as the One who gives life to all those who believe in him.
Of doctrinal significance against the theories of the culture and the later heresies in the church, ancient and modern, is the concept expressed in this text that the pre-existent Christ is the existent Jesus. Here is the theological precursor to the stumbling block that Paul wrote about: Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23). If we have nothing more than a human Messiah dying on the cross, then we have a martyr as the founder of the faith. But, if the Crucified One is indeed God with us -- crucified, yes, but also risen! -- then we have the skandalon that offends not only the Jew, but also the Moslem and even those who practice a religion of immanence or a religious philosophy of reason. Of course, it is the resurrection that empowers faith in this central tenant of orthodox, catholic Christianity. So, though we are reading this text in the season of Christmas, our thoughts must direct us to the mission of the Babe of Bethlehem, a mission that was played out in its entirety on a Golgotha cross and from an empty nearby tomb during Holy Week, on the other side of the calendar.
Though John recounts the Christmas story in but one verse (1:14), he is clear to point out that it is the Child of Bethlehem who enables those of faith to become children of God (1:12-13). This does not easily translate into a Christmas pageant, but it satisfies the mind that doggedly pursues truth through the meanderings and mazes of human reason and imagination. Because faith seeks understanding (credo ut intelligam), it is with relish that we notice the connection between John 1:1-5 and Hebrews 1:2-3 and Colossians 1:15-20 and Genesis 1:1, 26. Juxtaposing these texts, we observe that the creative and redemptive acts of God arise from the original will of God. This will is love that brings about life before God and brings life back to God.
To these things, we, as Christians, bear witness. One wonders if the Gospel writer John was having a little fun with his name being the same as another John (1:6). John the Baptist is identified as a witness to the light of Jesus Christ. He himself was not the Messiah, though some thought he might be. He makes it perfectly clear that his purpose, his meaning in life, is to give testimony to Jesus. In a similar way -- though not with fiery oratory and water, but with story-telling skill and pen -- the writer John gives testimony that his readers may believe in Jesus and find life through him (20:30-31). As soon as the readers find faith and life, they too become witnesses in their own way to point others to Jesus, whether their name be John or Jane or Sally or Stephen.
Although the shepherds and the wise men are missing from this Christmas text, John the Baptist serves the purpose of human herald to the presence of Immanuel, God with us, the Word made flesh. The star of Matthew's account is replaced with the concept of light, that Jesus embodies. The foreshadowing of his deadly end (in Matthew through Herod's rage upon the Bethlehem babies and in Luke through Simeon's veiled pronouncement to Mary in Luke 2:35) is suggested by the observation that the world did not know him, nor did his own people receive him (1:10-11).
Application
Christmas is a wonder-filled time of year to proclaim to the world that the truth of God and about God is known through Jesus. This proclamation needs to take place, not just in our pulpits, but also in the public square. The separation of church and state means that the state is not to promulgate a particular religion; it does not mean that religious truth is to be scoured from community conversation, whether in the courts, legislature, schools, or public agencies. If this scouring were to continue, we would do a disservice to the authority of religious experience (relegating it to a marginal role) and we would inadvertently encourage a kind of gnosticism to flourish. This gnosticism would arise in the garb of education being the essential answer to personal character development and of politics being the fundamental means of ordering civil life: we only need to know enough and apply it in the right ways to be successful in orchestrating our own successful, beneficent future. Listening closely, one can already hear gnostic hymns with these themes being sung on the streets and in the hallways.
The world needs to know the reason for the hope that is in us as Christians. Without the truth of God and the truth about God, both of which are revealed through the Christ event (which includes our theology on the pre-existent Christ through our theology on the returning and reigning pantocrator), we are subject to the a-theistic notions of modernity's death throws or the pan-theistic notions of post-modernity's birth pangs. (Jurgen Moltmann's God for a Secular Society, Fortress Press, 1999, offers one constructive proposal of how this can be done and why it is so important that it be done.)
Christmas is a wonder-filled time of year to proclaim that our relationship with God is assured through Jesus. Over against the "holiday blues," we can affirm that God is still God, who reigns over the nations, as well as over our mental and emotional life. Whatever personal burdens one may bear, whatever family struggles one may have, whatever griefs are fresh or revived at this time of year, there are good tidings to color the blues with joy. God has bared his holy arm with the bare baby flesh of Jesus. The very heart of God is connected to our hearts through this Word made flesh. "Blessed Assurance" the gospel hymn resounds, as we experience God re-localizing his love for us right where we are this year. Bethlehem today is Boston, Birmingham, or Beulah -- wherever we are living. He has come to find us, so that we can "break forth together into singing" (Isaiah 52:9).
Christmas is a wonder-filled time of year to proclaim that the meaning of the Christ of Christmas is the salvation of the world, and that our meaning is to believe and serve him in our everyday life. Christmases come and go. "In many and various ways" we celebrate each new Christmas, but the point is always the same: Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, the joy to the world. (See Hebrews 1:12 and 13:8.) While we create a festive moment over his birth, we acknowledge that this is but the prelude to the true feast, which is with the Lamb of God, the One who gave his life unto death for our salvation. We really don't sacrifice much to give presents to one another around the Christmas tree. Yet, these presents serve a good purpose if they remind us of how much Jesus sacrificed to give himself to us, wrapped in a crown of thorns, blood, and a burial cloth. When this sense of salvation overcomes the sentimentality of the season, faith will have hiked up higher on the mountain to join others in announcing the Good News which shall be of great joy to all the world.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 52:7-10
"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." With that joyful news, the angels visited the shepherds, who were keeping watch over their flocks by night. And with the same joyful news, we are greeted by our Old Testament text for the morning.
The messenger who brings such good tidings is called an evangel in the Bible, an evangelist, and in our Old Testament lesson, we have the first mention of an evangelist to be found in the Scriptures. His message is very much the same as that which the angel announced to the shepherds, because both messages have to do with the sovereignty of God and with God's rescue of a people who need to be saved from their sin and death.
"Your God reigns!" announces the evangelist in our lesson. And he proclaims that message to the people of Israel who have lost all hope because they are languishing in exile in Babylonia. God sent them into exile in the sixth century B.C. because of their sins and faithlessness toward him. And though their life wasn't all that bad in that foreign country, they were sure that God had deserted them. Some of them started businesses. Some carried on their worship. But, nevertheless, they mourned, "(Our) way is hid from the Lord" (Isaiah 40:27), because they were sure that they had been forgotten by God. And not very much else matters, does it, if God forgets about us? Some of the Israelites even thought that the Lord could do nothing against the power of the gods of Babylonia and that any release from their captivity was impossible (cf. Isaiah 46). And that too would be terrible, wouldn't it, if our God of love has no power to save?
But into that sad and helpless situation of the captives in Babylonia, God sent a messenger of good news, and he announced a two-fold gospel. First was that ringing proclamation, "Your God reigns!" God is in charge. He is the Ruler like no other. Nothing and no one can take you out of his hand -- not the armies of Babylonia, not the pagan deities of that land, not the hopeless situation in which you find yourself, not all the powers of death. And that is very much like the glad news that is given to us on this Christmas morning too, is it not? We are not captive to the tyrannical powers of our society or the deadly ways of the world. We are not even helpless and bound by our suffering or our circumstances, by our psychological or physical ills. They are not the final determiners of our life, of our welfare, or of our future. No. God is! God reigns supreme! God is in charge of our lives and destiny. And it is he who holds the outcome of all our living in his loving hands.
But what of our sin and faithlessness toward our one God? Israel was sent into exile because of her transgressions against her Lord, and surely we have equal ugly blots on our wayward lives -- our failures even to think about God except maybe at Christmas and Easter; our ignorance or indifference toward his will and purpose as we pursue our own selfish aims; our neglect toward doing what we ought to do, and our willingness so often to do what we know good and well we ought not to do. We surely have exiled ourselves from the service and life-giving presence of the Lord. Is there any good news, then, for us who are so subversive of the sovereignty of God? Will he have anything to do with us sinners? Is there anything left to us but finally the extinction of the grave?
That evangelist in our lesson from Second Isaiah announces his second message. "Hark, your watchmen lift up their voice, together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion." In other words, here comes God again! Here he comes, returning to his people! Behold! cries our prophet! Behold, the Lord God comes! (Isaiah 40:10). He has not left us forever because of our sin against him. He has not deserted us, though we have often deserted him. He comes to us nevertheless. And he comes to comfort and redeem us -- to forgive us, to reassure us in the midst of whatever our situation may be, and to rescue us from our captivity to evil and to death.
And that, too, is the message on this Christmas morning, is it not? Good news! God does not desert us! God does not give us up to evil and our end, or to the captivity of this world. God comes rushing to our side to comfort and to redeem. "For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." God in his Son, his Word made flesh, comes to save you and me. And that is very good news, the best news that we could possibly hear.
So it is that Second Isaiah sings this hymn in our Old Testament. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings." The prophet borrows that portrayal from the practice of kingship in Israel, for whenever a new king ascended to the throne, messengers were sent out to announce a new era. "Such and such reigns!" they would say, and that gave the people gladness, because they thought that perhaps with a new monarch things would be better. So the feet of those swift runners are described as beautiful, because they maybe would bring good news to Israel. But the news that Second Isaiah announced to the exiles and that the angels announce to us this Christmas morning is better good news than the proclamation of the reign of any human king. God reigns. God is in charge. And he comes to us, despite our sin, to comfort and to redeem us.
So note the response to that in our Scripture lesson, good Christians. The watchmen who see God returning to his people sing for joy. Even devastated Jerusalem, in ruins from the Babylonians, breaks forth into singing. And that is our proper response too, is it not, on this Christmas morning? It is no accident that through the ages, the church has always had a singing faith, and it is no accident either that some of the greatest music in the world is found in our hymns and anthems at Christmastime. For who can help but rejoice when we hear that God is the Ruler of all? Indeed, our text for the morning tells us that he rules over all nations and peoples. This crazy, sin-
pocked world, for all its waywardness, is in God's mighty hands and plans. And who can help but sing when we hear that despite earth's sin and yours and mine, God comes to forgive and redeem and save us all. He came to those Israelite exiles in Babylonia, and soon they were free to go home. And he comes to us this morning in his Son, and we are forgiven and freed from our past and taken back into the care of God, where there is good, and joy, and life everlasting. That's good news, friends. Our Savior is born. So let's sing and rejoice.
