December 25, 2003
|
|
|
|
Mindekirken Dec.25, 2003 Christmas – your birthday John 1.1-14 We’ve got quite a few rituals here at Mindekirken. One of them takes place during Church coffee. When we have sat down with our cup of coffee, and just got started with an interesting conversation with the person next to us, the noises from the amplifier interrupt us. It’s the president who is about to deliver his message. He’s got a question, and it comes as usual as if it was a ritual: Do we have any birthdays to celebrate today? Then the birthday song is sung, in Norwegian or English, whichever. We don’t have any coffee hour today. But we’ll stand right now, and we’ll sing the birthday song for Jesus: "To us a savior is born today." NOS 47 Read the text John 1. For whom do we sing the birthday song on Christmas Eve? For Jesus. We sing "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors." We get to sing with the angels whose song once was heard in the fields of Bethlehem. We get to go with the shepherds to see the child in the manger. We listen with Joseph and Mary to all they had to tell about this wonderful child. And we get to worship with the three wise men and give our gifts. We celebrate the birth of Jesus. He’s the center, and the star of Christmas. He’s our future and our hope. Whose birthday is it today? Isn’t that a superfluous question? Maybe it is, on the background of what I have said so far. But the theme of this sermon is "Christmas – your birthday." And then I’m not thinking of all the presents you got yesterday. And I don’t think of my daughter Linn, either, who was born on December 20, and the temptation to combine the birthday and Christmas celebrations. In our family, we’ve a rule which prohibits writing "Merry Christmas" and Happy Birthday" on the same card.
I simply try to be faithful to the text, and to find out who is the subject when today’s text speaks about birth. There is something written about birth in this so-called prologue of John, this pearl of world literature. Here the evangelist flies high as an eagle over the history and life of men. He catches a perspective which is far from what the other evangelists have. Luke refers to the emperor of Rome. Matthew doesn’t bother with history, he joins the three wise men and follows the star towards Bethlehem. But John looks far beyond emperors and star dust. He takes us to what was before space and time. "In the beginning.." is his start. What happened at the beginning? Creation, yes, but to John, the most important thing is not what was created, but who created it. It was LOGOS, THE WORD. For the Greeks, this was the principle reason, an impersonal principle which gives everything its order. In this way John relates to the most impressive philosophical system of his time. But he gives it a new interpretation. He gives a new meaning to LOGOS which was never heard about before. LOGOS is not an impersonal principle, but a living person. He was in the beginning with God. Jesus was and is LOGOS. He’s all things creator and beginning. Without him not one thing came into being. What a perspective. But how does John combine LOGOS with the child in the manger? John uses three ways of thinking to express the breakthrough message of Christmas, that the child in the manger was the same as the eternal LOGOS. He speaks about the light. And he uses an equally sad expression of the world, he calls it the darkness. The light shines in the darkness. In one of Rembrandt’s paintings, the stable is painted in dark colors. But there is a source of light in there. It’s not a lamp, but it’s the baby Jesus who is the source of light. In a master’s way the artist has interpreted the words of John about the light which shines in the darkness. The faces of the shepherds, Joseph and Mary all reflect the light coming from the baby Jesus. They create an exception from the otherwise negative conclusion of John; the darkness didn’t overcome it. John says: He came to what was his own. The stable belonged to somebody else. People in general rejected what Jesus had to say. His own people did not accept him. Even so, it was his own he came to. We’re his creatures whether we admit it or not. The finest expression that the child in the manger is the creator of the world comes in verse 14: Ant the word (LOGOS) became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of a fathers only son, full of grace and truth. The Greek text here says something like: He put up his tent among us. John’s message about the incarnation leaves no doubt. God has become man. But does the text here really say anything about a birth? The answer is Yes. But the great surprise is that the subject, the answer to the question of who is born, is not Jesus. Then who is born? The answer doesn’t lie on straw in a manger, but is sitting well-dressed in a pew in Minnesota. It looks like John turns everything upside down. The one who is born is you and me. You are born! Yes, you say, don’t I sit here? Nicodemus also thought that way: I’m born once forever of my mother. But the Christmas gospel is concerned about being born anew, not of blood or the will of flesh or the will of man, but of God. V.13. You and I are born by God. How did that happen? The text answers this: But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born…of God. V.12-13. Here the gospel is stated purely. Here there is no trace of our effort or benefit. We just have to receive, believe, be born… It’s tempting to go to John 3 where Jesus explains to Nicodemus that only the one who is born by water and Spirit may see the kingdom of God. Baptism gives us the new birth. Whose birthday do we celebrate today? We celebrate the birthday of all, who, thanks to the coming of Jesus, have seen grace and truth. That God became man is wonder over wonder. It means light in darkness, life out of death. We’re not only spectators to the incarnation. We’ve got eternal life in him. Glory be to God, the Father, Son and The Holy Spirit, one true God, now and for ever. Amen.
|
The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church · 924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 · (612)874-0716 |