With Christmas blessings to one and all from here in River City!
In Christ,
Fr. Charles
Sermon for Christmas Day-2017
(Given at St. Alban’s, Richmond, Virginia)
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
–St. John i.14
No book has so breath-taking an opening as these shattering findings on the life and character of Christ. It is a crowded preface. It creates an atmosphere in which we read, awed and tense, holding our breath. We know in this Gospel that we are right there-face to face with something tremendous and illimitable.
St. Augustine sums up the thoughts of most preachers who approach the Gospel passage for Christmas Day-”I am in great difficulty how, as the Lord shall grant, I may be able to express, or in my small measure to explain, what has been read from the Gospel, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;’ for this the natural man does not perceive.”
We can take any verse of the Gospel, indeed we can take parts of verses and even single words of this prologue and think about them, pray on them and in the way of the desert fathers chew upon them. But none is more fitting this Christmas Day than the single verse that shouts, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us….”
Here is the mystery of the Incarnation itself. Here is God made man-one of us, to know us and our burdens, to save us and restore us to our proper relation to the Father.
We can try to parse it, to exegete it, or to work our way through the passage. We find at once the antidote to heresy, the wonder of the very nature of God, the key to our salvation, and an account of those who rejected this most marvelous gift.
In the last few verses of the prologue to his gospel, St. John identifies the Word. We hear that the Word was in the beginning with God, and was God, and through Him all things were made. He was life, and the light of men who came into the world, though many did not receive Him. Yet those who received Him, were given the right to become children of God.
There is no manger scene, no Annunciation, no star or Magi. We hear in straightforward manner the truth: The Word is Jesus Christ.
And here is the key part-the Incarnational part-the saving part:
The Word became flesh and lived among men. His glory was seen by men. And, let’s note, the word “glory” as used here can mean “majesty, dignity, splendor.” St. John writes “We beheld His glory.”
Well, what majesty, dignity, or splendor did people see in Jesus when He walked as a man among men? They beheld His glory. They beheld the Glory of His Deity. Listen to the words: “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” This is the dignity which was appropriate to the only begotten Son of God.
Such glory or splendor as could belong to no other. It is the shekinah. “This glory was seen eminently on the mount of transfiguration.” “It was also seen in his miracles, his doctrine, his resurrection, his ascension.” (John 2:11) “All of which were such as to illustrate the perfections, and manifest the glory that belongs only to the Son of God.”
They beheld the glory of His Grace. We hear in the words of John, “full of grace…grace for grace…grace and truth came through Jesus.”
“The word grace means favors, gifts, acts of beneficence.” This is ultimate Christmas gift, the only Christmas gift that has real value. It is the gift of becoming one of us, knowing and understanding our troubles and burdens. And what better gift could He give than Himself for our salvation? What an astounding Christmas gift!
Men beheld the glory of His truth. In the Gospel words we hear “full…of truth…truth came through Jesus Christ.” “He declared the truth. In him was no falsehood.” He was not like the false prophets and false Messiahs-the impostors of His day and, indeed, our day. “He represented things as they are, and thus became the truth as well as the way and the life.”
Men beheld the Glory of His preeminence. We hear the words of John the Baptist, “He who comes after me is preferred before me…” St. John recognized His superiority, as did the apostle Paul. These men understood Christ by virtue of His preexistence-as St. John the Baptist said, “He was before me.” They knew it by virtue of His creative powers-as the creator Himself.
And here is a key to our own salvation, they beheld the Glory of His revelation. We hear in the words of St. John’s Gospel that, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son…He has declared Him.” This passage is not meant to deny that men had witnessed manifestations of God, as when he appeared to Moses and the prophets.” What it does is that no one had seen the essence of God, or has fully known God.
“Before our Lord’s birth the prophets delivered what they heard God speak; Jesus what he knew of God as his equal, and as understanding fully his nature.” Jesus manifested or declared the Father as no one had done before! Indeed, Jesus told this to St. Philip-He who has seen me has seen the Father. We hear our Lord express it in His prayer in the 17th Chapter of John. We hear it declared in the in the epistles.
What a wonderful experience it must have been to behold the glory of God’s only begotten Son! It transformed the life of St. John and others who saw Him, and it changes and transforms the lives of all who believe in Him today. Here is the Christmas gift that truly keeps on giving.
By the grace of God, it also possible that we can behold His glory in this life. We can behold His glory, the glory of His deity, grace and truth, the glory of His preeminence and revelation! How? How can we do this? We can behold him through the words of His eyewitnesses who made known the power and coming of our Lord! We can know these things through those who declared what they heard, saw, even handled, that we might share with them in their fellowship with the Father and Son. Through their gospels, their letters, their inspired writings, we can behold His glory!
This is life changing. Indeed, we must behold His glory to be transformed. Our transformation involves renewing the mind, a mind set on things above where Christ is. We are transformed through Grace and truth so that, we will see Him face-to-face. We are transformed so that we will behold His glory when He appears, when He comes again, to be glorified in His saints. By the power of the Incarnate Word, every eye will see Him, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess Him.
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory…” We may not have seen Jesus in the flesh, but we can still behold His glory. Even now, through the testimony of His apostles and the Word of God. Even then, when Jesus comes again to be revealed in His glory.
Beloved in Christ, here is the central fact of Christianity, the very heart of our religion, the wonder of all wonders in an all-wonderful faith, that has moved, and impressed and changed countless souls. It changing and transforming the world.
Why? Why has our faith flourished and the Gospel spread to all the corners of the earth? Why? Because God entered into the world, he chose to be one of us-not looking down on a troubled world, no more disturbed by it and its problems than if bothered by a faintly buzzing insect.
Suddenly, we beheld Him and we found that we are not alone, that there is someone beside us, and that someone is God. He is in the world, at the sore heart of it; touched by our infirmities, afflicted with our afflictions, and always there. He is full of grace and truth that we can and will behold. And, when all our resources are gone, we can lean upon Him, draw upon Him, and bring our frail and foolish hearts to him and he will bear it all because he knows us.
The psalmist says, “Blessed be the Lord who daily beareth our burden.” Blessed indeed! This is the truth-the truth of Christ, the truth of Christmas! Amen.
Each year when I celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision, I am asked some variant of, “What’s up with this feast day? Isn’t that kind of gross?” For some reason, the modern mind, which is saturated with some pretty “earthy” images (and that’s just on awards programs), recoils at the mere mention of the circumcision of Christ. I suppose I don’t understand the squeamishness, unless it is part of a general unease with a Christ Jesus who is too human, too real. Many would prefer a less vivid way to begin the year like commemorating the Holy Name, and avoiding all of that messy blood spilling stuff.
The Cathedral Close 