Loving God, it continues to amaze us that you would come “in the flesh” and live among us.  Help us to continue to learn from Jesus your Son, growing up into the people that you intended us to be; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    In some ways, this is the time of year when reality hits.  Those who have had some time off go back to school and to work.  The excitement and the preparations from before Christmas morph into bills that need to be paid and clean-up that needs to be done.  Some people will have confirmed that they really don’t get along with their families and perhaps will be glad that they don’t have to see them again until next year.  Others will be saddened by another New Year’s spent alone.  And still others will have already broken their New Year’s resolutions.

    Some will have had family or friends visiting and will be sad to see them go.  Some will be feeling over-tired and over-stuffed.  Some will be kind of like those nativity scenes where the figures never move and are always there around the manger, worshiping the Christ child.  Christmas Eve was nice, and we’d like to stay there, with our candles burning, gathered around the baby in the manger.  Yet, in the midst of all this there is the sense of wanting to make a fresh start for a new year, and wanting to get out with the old and in with the new.

    As you may have noticed, today is still Christmas on the church calendar.  This is the tenth day of Christmas, and yet, already next Sunday, Jesus will be an adult coming to be baptized in the river Jordan.  What we hear today, though, is John’s version of the Christmas story, told without Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and the angels, but focusing nevertheless on Jesus coming into this world.

    To many people, this is one of the most amazing passages in all of Scripture.  It tells us of the God who would dare to become flesh and “tent” among us.  It tells us of the one who is God’s living Word – Jesus – who makes God visible to us and known to us.  It tells us of life and light in the midst of the darkness and the gift of God’s grace and truth.  It tells us about becoming children of God and going out with the old and in with the new.

    You see, for many years, God had watched his people sin, and then promise to do better, and then sin again.  It is a pattern that many of us have experienced ourselves.  We’re going to quit smoking, or quit drinking, or quit eating so much.  We’re going to exercise every day and get in better shape.  We’re going to stop making that same mistake, over and over again.  We’re going to do better next time.  And then we slip back into our old habits and do it all over again.

    Of course, while these are examples of the same pattern, these things are not all as serious as sin.  Some are simply bad habits that we would like to break.  And while some people do manage to break bad habits themselves, people do not manage to break addictions or to break the power of sin by themselves.  If we could simply decide to do better and stop sinning, Jesus would not have needed to be born at all.

    However, Jesus did come in the flesh, experiencing all of the same temptations and appetites and fleshly weaknesses that all of us experience, yet without sinning.  It is only Jesus who can give us the power to become and to live as children of God.  It is only Jesus and the power of his Spirit that helps us to live – however imperfectly – in God’s way.

    We talked briefly about out with the old and in with the new, and in the gospel of John, darkness and light are used to help us to think about the old and the new.  In the Scriptures, and also in the writings of Martin Luther, there is our old self and our new self.  Our old self is described as the old Adam, or our sinful self, and our new self is the new creation that we become through Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

    Our old self, or our sinful self, tends to like the darkness.  We are told that those who do evil deeds love the darkness – presumably because they want to hide what they are doing (Jn. 3:19-20).  We are also told that those who think they are walking in the light but hate a brother or sister in Christ are actually still in the darkness (1 Jn. 2:9-11).  The darkness leads to stumbling (or falling into sin), and those who walk in the darkness do not know where they are going (Jn. 12:35).

    On the other hand, those who walk in the light by believing in Jesus Christ do know where they are going.  Remember when Jesus says to Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6)?  Those who believe in Jesus are going to life, and to the Father, and to Paradise (cf. Lk. 23:43).  Meanwhile, we are told to “believe in the light,” “become children of light,” and “[live] in the light” (Jn. 12:36; 1 Jn. 2:10).  Among other things, this means loving one another as Jesus has first loved us.

    It seems so simple, right? - and yet so difficult.  This is the one thing that is emphasized over and over again in the New Testament: Love one another!  This will show others that we are Christian.  This will enable other people to see God (1 Jn. 4:12)!  This will show others that we believe in Jesus Christ and that we walk in the light.  Others will look at the church in amazement and say, “See how they love one another!”

    The key to this, of course, is Jesus Christ.  He does not teach his followers simply to love one another, but he commands them, “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12).  Only when the love of Christ grows in our hearts can we even begin to live up to this command.  Left to ourselves, we will fail.  Our old selves will come to the forefront, with their selfish desires and their egos and their - well - humanness.  The new creation that is brought about in Christ is so needed, and it is something that we grow into, even as we grow up into Christ.

    This is the time of year when reality hits, but I pray that it may be God’s reality that hits us as we gather together today.  You see, God’s reality goes something like this: While we are fallible human beings who cannot save ourselves when it comes to sin, we are also so very deeply loved. In fact, we are chosen, and blessed, and destined for adoption as God’s children, and redeemed, and forgiven – all because of Jesus Christ.  God’s grace has been lavished on us, and we have been given the inheritance of eternal life.  We learn these things and more in the second reading that we heard today (Eph. 1:3-14).

    Yet, the crowning glory of God’s reality is found in today’s gospel, for the Creator chose to share in the earthly existence of the creature.  “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (Jn. 1:14).  The one who is the light that shines in the darkness came to bring us new life and to be with us.  The invisible God became visible, and Jesus showed us what God is like.

    People sometimes say that reality bites, but God’s reality does not.  For God loves us so much “that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Christmas 2                                    John 1:1-18
January 3, 2010                                Ephesians 1:3-14
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2010 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved