John 1:1-14; December 29, 2024; First Sunday of Christmas
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Everyone have a good Christmas?
Get some nice gifts under the tree?
It occurred to me on Wednesday that most of the gifts we opened were things that would keep us inside.
Entertained, yes, but inside all the same. Video games, board games, books, wine, etc.
Almost like a subconscious attempt to fortify our home with even more stuff so that we would never feel a burning impulse to leave the warmth and safety of it.
Which had foresight perhaps, since it’s been so dreary outside, cold and bitter, that these last several days we’ve rolled over in bed and thought, yeah, “we’re not going anywhere today.”
And aren’t those sometimes great? Those stay-at-home days?
When the first glance outside makes you both shudder and yet grateful that you have the luxury to say “nope, nah-uh, I’m not leaving.”
And sometimes it’s not just when waking up in the morning but also when coming home in the evening, right?
Like, when you get home after a long day at the job, and when your spouse reminds you that two months ago you made plans to go out with so and so… you’re internally like, “nope, nah-uh, I ain’t leaving and certainly not for them.”
Sometimes those feelings can get you into trouble. When you don’t want to get dressed up and head out for other people.
But here’s the crazy and amazing thing.
God elected to do just that.
And not to get dressed up, but ironically, to get dressed down; taking off the raiment of angels and swapping it for bands of tattered cloth down here.
Think for a second on that wonderful irony…
And also on this:
We often think of our salvation as occurring up there in Heaven after we escape this place.
And yet, it was secured for us down here on Earth in this cold and often bitter place where God in Jesus decided to be born.
Isn’t that amazing?
John’s gospel tells us that:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
According to Johannine theology, Jesus was there in the beginning with God. In Heaven, beyond time and space. And yet he decided to vacate that place, to leave the warmth, safety, and comfort of his eternal luxurious home, to step outside for this mortal one, bound by time and space, where he would be born and destined to die.
And he did that for us, without shuddering, so that he might know us, and so that through him, we might see God’s glory and receive the light of life, so that we might all be saved.
So that one day we won’t have to get up when the alarm rings or the bell tolls. But where we can just roll over and stay in with him, in Heaven.
Thankfully God is not us, right? That God didn’t say “nope, nah-uh, I’m not leaving, and certainly not for them.”
But rather, that God felt the burning impulse to get up, dress down, and step outside for us; sending the Word to us rather than keeping it inside for only the Angels to enjoy and be entertained by.
Thanks be to God, my friends.
Alleluia.
Amen
