Jesus At Home With Us - Christmas Day
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
December 25, 2024
In the weeks before Christmas, people ask if I will be
doing anything special for Christmas, or if I get to go home for Christmas, or
if I am having everyone home for Christmas. These social niceties are on auto
pilot and kindly meant, but it surprises some if I remind them that the work
schedule doesn’t really jive with that and frankly, we tend to celebrate with
our adult daughters and beloveds before or after Christmas because, well there
may be room at the inn, but not on the calendar. Some people, however, tell me
they feel bad because for a pastor like me. “You don’t get to enjoy what we
do.”
But it really depends upon what that joy is about.
Sometimes we put so much of our selves into whether the holiday is joyful, when
in fact the real joy is right before us.
I love that we hear that Jesus, the Word, became flesh
and lived among us. Those first hearers of John would remember that during the
Exodus God traveled with the people of Israel who were not “home,” revealing
the divine glory to Moses and to the people at the tent of meeting. Later when
they had a temple, God dwelt in the ark of the covenant and then in the holy of
holies when the people had a home. But “home” didn’t feel like home for many.
And so, Jesus, the Word, ends up here in the flesh.
Jesus’ body in this world is not the time the Word of God
just got an AirBnB for an experience. We hear that Jesus “pitches a tent among
us.” Jesus says “yes” to an adventure that will at best seem like an episode of
“It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.” Jesus leaves behind whatever you
imagine it is like being with the God the Father and the heavenly hosts and
ends up here. Jesus’ birth saga is one
of noise and chaos and uncertainty, but Jesus pitched that tent and stayed. The
one who created us and KNOWS us set up camp. And most folks had no idea he was
even there. And each year in the still space of the dawning light of this day
at some point I think upon this not with happiness, but with joy. That somehow
Jesus chose to be here and chooses still to be here and is here. It also means
Jesus completely knows how you feel if you do not feel at home or if “special”
is more of a Hallmark Christmas movie thing.
Years ago, Michael and I were leading the church youth
group on summer trip that involved visiting Antietam Battlefield, riding bikes,
and using a local campground as our base. That meant tents. As it turned out,
the campsite we got was almost all rock, and on a slant, almost impossible for
tent pegs. Then a wild thunder and windstorm showed up while we were trying to
pitch tents and after sheltering in cars, we realized that the tents were wet,
and one was damaged and now it was night. Some slept in cars, and some in those
soggy tents and the next morning at least a couple were ready to pull up stakes
and leave. The next morning, as light dawned, I discovered someone had rolled
over on my glasses which were not in their case because everything was so chaotic
the night before. And as we all emerged, we discovered that overnight cicadas
had also emerged and were everywhere. I think people rode their bikes faster
just to get out of camp. We made it through that day, and then, the next day we
went to worship at a small Lutheran
church that had survived this country’s Civil War- the gunshells still in the
walls. These days they were barely afloat. But the day we came to worship with
a youth group of 20, it was as if Jesus himself was there. They got to make
more copies of bulletins, and there was brightness on their faces and joy that
we had pitched our tents nearby. Sometimes we don’t realize Jesus is here,
sometimes we only see it later, and some times there is that light that shines
and we can be in awe that of all places, being as we are, Jesus shows up here.
He really does.
In Jesus the infinite Word of God has become human. God’s
Word becomes not just a concept or a spiritual reality, but flesh.
Throughout history some strains of Christianity have emphasized the spiritual
at the expense of the physical world. Many have dismissed earthly life and the
body itself as unimportant, distracting, or even dangerous. But if we in the
flesh were indeed unimportant, there would be no reason for Christ, the Word,
to come and live our life and infuse it with God’s light. God chose to live a
human life in a human body in our human world. Jesus’ body was not a
distraction to be subjugated, denied, or dismissed. It becomes the place of
revelation. And since this is true, our bodies are likewise not to be
subjugated, denied or dismissed either. We become places where the word takes
on flesh.
In the gospels, in Jesus’ words and actions God’s glory will
shine. Jesus’ face and touch will communicate God’s grace and love as he not
only teaches but embodies God’s truth.
We will perceive God’s glory and truth most clearly when
Jesus is “lifted up,” his body tortured and broken on the cross, dying before
being raised to life again. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness
did not overcome it.”
In Jesus’ mortal human body, the immortal God is revealed
for all to see. We, by entrusting ourselves to Jesus, are born of God and become
so fully permeated by the divine being that our lives begin to shine with God’s
own radiance. John makes it clear that God created and loves this physical
fleshy world and the beings who live in it, and that God took on this same form
in order to redeem it and us. God became incarnate in Jesus. Jesus—though uniquely God’s child and God’s
incarnate Word—makes it possible for all of us to become God’s children who
embody God’s word. Through Christ, our ordinary human lives can become places
where God’s glory shines. The Word became flesh to bring us all into God’s
family and to help us see every human life as a temple of the Holy One. The
Word became flesh so that witnesses could point to person after person
throughout history and now and say, “that’s God at work, right there!”
And this is the beauty and the twinge of this good news.
Because every so often, when I take a hot shower, Jesus enlightens me that
someone cannot. When I eat and am full, Jesus enlightens me that someone did
not. When I am glad for my physical home, Jesus enlightens me that someone else
is in an actual tent. Every human life is the same flesh as the one who came so
that you and I have the gift of the power to become children of God. To testify
to the light.
But first, for today, as you remember that Christ was
born for you and for this, let’s pause. Close your eyes and look in the mirror
of your soul. See the baby whose gift each of us has received. Feel the power
to become children of God- it means you are beloved. It means you are home. And
no matter whether you think your earthly home seems great or that it looks like
it should be condemned, remember Jesus did not come and pitch a tent to
condemn. Jesus came and pitched that tent so that all might be saved. All might
be home. May we bear his light into the world for his sake.
AMEN
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon Text: John 1:1-14
1 In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. 2 He
was in the beginning with God. 3 All
things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into
being. What has come into being 4 in
him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There
was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify
to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light,
but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was
coming into the world.
10 He was
in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not
know him. 11 He
came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who
believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or
of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And
the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory
as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
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