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This tree at the Texas Children’s Hospital – Pavilion for Women, with its empty but beautiful boxes for no one in particular, was one that prompted the reflection for Pastor Galler’s sermon on Christmas Day 2013.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Recently you may have seen them in a mall or elsewhere around town. For the last monthI have been seeing them all around the medical center in Houston. Delightfully‑decorated Christmas trees anticipated the spirit of the season, and beneath many of them were placed perfectly‑papered packages with big, bright bows. The packages appeared to be Christmas gifts but, in fact, were empty but beautiful boxes for no one in particular. Do not get me wrong! The decorated trees would hardly be complete without wrapped gifts. Yet, what at least appeared to be wrapped gifts may well have come out of storage four weeks ago and be going back into storage for the next eleven months, in order to come out again and be placed under the same decorated tree next Christmas. Going to and coming from seeing my father the last month, I have had lots of time to reflect on those apparent gifts, and this morning I invite you to likewise reflect on them, as those empty but beautiful boxes for no one in particular provide an illuminating contrast to what our Christmas Day Gospel Reading describes: the fullness of the (unsightly) Word made flesh (Jesus Christ), for you and for me.
Our Christmas Day Gospel Reading is the Prologue from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. That account’s opening verses were also one of the nine readings that many of us heard last night in our Christmas Eve Service. We may already know the Reading’s highlights well: the Word was God, and then the Word became flesh. The Word was with God, and then the Word dwelt among us. The Reading’s description of our Lord’s incarnation permeates our service this morning. In the Entrance Hymn we sang, “Word of the Father / Now in flesh appearing” (LSB 379:4), and in the Second Sequence Hymn we sang, “Into flesh is made the Word, alleluia! / He, our refuge and our Lord, alleluia!” (LSB 381:4).
As the divinely‑inspired St. John describes the incarnation of the Word, we also realize some things about ourselves. We human beings need the light the Word offers, for we are in darkness that is opposed to Him. We need to believe, to have a right relationship with Him, to accept Him as He professes to be, but, on our own, we do not know Him, and we do not receive Him. By nature, we are not only spiritually as empty as the perfectly‑papered packages with big, bright bows beneath the delightfully‑decorated Christmas trees that we have seen at malls and hospitals, but, by nature, we are also spiritually hostile and opposed to the Word. He may be full of grace and truth, but, on our own, we are devoid of grace and full of falseness. By nature, we focus on our own merit and works, and so we are full of sin and guilt. That sin and guilt shows itself not only in our lack of a right relationship with God but also in our flawed relationships with one another, in how we treat our fellow human beings.
Through that contrast between the Incarnate Word and us, God calls us to repent. He calls us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. God enables us to receive Him, to believe in His Name, to become children of God born of the will of God, and to receive from His fullness grace upon grace.
We may be so accustomed to picturesque cards, scenic nativities, and ceramic crèches, that we are inclined to liken God’s gift of Jesus to those beautiful boxes, perfectly‑papered packages with big, bright bows. To be sure, the Word is perfect, big, and bright. The Word is eternal God, timelessly existing in the beginning before creation. Yet, the Word has always been distinct from God the Father: the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, He was with God the Father and uniquely begotten by God the Father. God the Father so loved us sinners in the world that He then gave this Only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God showed His love by sending His Only Son so that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9). The Word—through Whom all things were made, without Whom was not any thing made that was made, in Whom was life, which life was the light of men—that True light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. Without leaving the Father’s side, the Word became flesh for us and for our salvation, in order to redeem those of us made of flesh. He not only was made man, but He also humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). His human flesh was not a beautiful box: He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him (Isaiah 53:2). Especially on the cross, He was despised as one from whom people hide their faces (Isaiah 53:3). Yet, in the crucified flesh of the man Jesus, the Word, the Christ, makes the Father known, reveals His wisdom and power. The Word made flesh is a revelation superior both to the angels, as the Epistle Reading describes (Hebrews 1:1-12), and to the Law or writings of Moses, as the Gospel Reading describes. Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he or she has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God (John 3:18). Grace that we are offered and receive is for the sake of and comes to us through Jesus Christ. In the man Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. His glory is glory as of the Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Our minds cannot fathom it, but Jesus’s finite human nature shares God’s infinite divine powers, and it shares them for our benefit.
I have been saying that underneath the delightfully decorated trees at malls and hospitals are empty but beautiful boxes for no one in particular. Sure, some of them may have on them gift tags saying something like, “To Suzy, From Santa”, but that is just part of their purpose. If that gift is for Suzy, then you can imagine that there is likewise one for you. With Jesus Christ, you do not have to imagine! Today’s Gospel Reading says that God sent John the Baptist, who came as a witness, to bear witness about the Light so that all might believe. And, John did more than speak, he also acted sacramentally. Speech and action are especially united in St. John’s Gospel account, and we likewise find them united here in the Divine Service. Like John the Baptizer, the Spirit, the water, and the blood testify and agree (1 John 5:7-8). In the water of Holy Baptism, you and I are individually born from above of water and the Spirit by the will of God, as we must be born to see and enter the Kingdom of God (John 1:13; 3:3, 5). At the font, you and I individually are made children of God, and, as we believe in His Triune Name, we are adopted, as it were, made brothers and sisters of Christ, Who was uniquely begotten of His Father before all worlds. As baptized children, we eat the family meal. For the life of the world—for your life, and for mine—Jesus gives His flesh (John 6:51). Our Second Distribution Hymn confesses that truth as it has us sing, “In the body and the blood, / He will give to all the faithful / His own self for heav’nly food” (LSB 621:2). Unless you receive that heavenly food, unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood, you have no life in you (John 6:53). To find the Word in His flesh, we cannot go to the manger, to the cross, or to the tomb, but we can come here, to this altar, to this rail, and, in bread and wine, receive the Word in His flesh. Here we receive His body and blood, given and shed for you and for me, and so we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In the Sacraments we constantly have fresh experiences of Him. With the eyes of faith, we see His glory, the manifestation of His presence and power. In the Sacraments, we see with our eyes, we hear with our ears, and we touch with our hands that which was from the beginning (1 John 1:1). The fullness of the unsightly Word made flesh is for you and for me.
The empty but beautiful boxes for no one in particular are perfectly‑papered packages, with big, bright bows. Does anyone really wrap that way and that well? My father comes pretty close, but the paper I picked up from Walmart this year would not even stick to the tape, so that paper on the packages I am giving is held on with used and dirty rubber bands. The Word made flesh can be described as “unsightly” and so can our messy lives. Yet, He became flesh and dwelt among us because of and for our messy lives. He is full of grace and truth, loyalty and faithfulness. Our gifts to one another pale in comparison. Through His Word and Sacrament, we receive from His fullness grace upon grace, one blessing after another, gift after gift of His love. Unlike a Starbucks gift card or some other gift card that will run out at some point, we receive from His fullness grace for grace, as one wave follows another wave upon the shore.
Empty but beautiful boxes for no one in particular have provided an illuminating contrast to what our Christmas Day Gospel Reading describes: the fullness of the (unsightly) Word made flesh for you and for me. Without likening the Word made flesh to the empty but beautiful box, we with God’s help have realized the greatness of His gift to us in Jesus Christ. Like the watchmen of today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 52:7-10), I encourage you to break forth together into singing, for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed our flesh. As The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther once preached on today’s Gospel Reading, reportedly one of his favorite passages, even now we are certain that our bodies belong in heaven. Luther apparently expanded a previously existing German hymn into a Christmas hymn 490 years ago. With some re‑translated verses for Lutheran Service Book we sang it as our Hymn of the Day, and with its final stanza I again encourage you to break forth into singing (LSB 382:7).
All this for us our God has done / Granting love through His own Son.
Therefore, all Christendom, rejoice / And sing His praise with endless voice. / Alleluia!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +