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+ + + 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.
Last night you may have had (or this morning you may still have) some mysterious gifts under your tree or in your stocking. You know the kind of gift I am talking about, the kind of gift that you can shake and still not know what it is (if wrapped a certain way, underwear will not make a sound), or the kind of gift that shape or size does not give away (too small to be a bicycle and too big to be an iPhone, unless it has been wrapped to mislead), or maybe the mystery is whom the gift is to and from, because its tag fell off or because it never had one (such is the case at my house, where even with the “key” to my sister’s gifts we have some mysterious gifts before we unwrap them).
God’s gift of His only Son at Christmas would be a complete mystery to us, if God did not reveal the gift through His Word, such as St. John’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account that we heard this morning. While St. John there does not use the word “mystery” to refer to the Word’s becoming flesh, elsewhere Holy Scripture and the Church Fathers do use the word “mystery” in regards to the Son of God’s Incarnation in the flesh of the Virgin Mary (for background on this point and others, see Bornkamm, TDNT 4:813-827). So, at the risk of sounding like a title for a sensationalizing television show, I titled our meditation this morning “The mystery of the Word become flesh revealed”.
I know some children still read the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries and watch Scooby Doo; and we might also remember Encyclopedia Brown, Ellery Queen, and Hercule Poirot; or we might think of Remington Steele, Castle, and the like. The mysteries those detectives solved often involved some sort of crime that at least the criminals wanted kept secret. Similarly, the word that the New Testament uses for “mystery”, originally meant a “secret” not to be divulged, but the word came to be used in the Greek version of the Old Testament to refer to future events, whose disclosure and interpretation were reserved to God alone (Daniel 2:28, 29, 47), or to those inspired by His Holy Spirit (Daniel 4:9). As the author of Hebrews said in today’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 1:1-6), “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son”. St. John in the Gospel Reading said simply, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, Who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.” So, with the birth of Jesus mysteries that were concealed for centuries, if not millennia, were disclosed (Romans 16:25), even as new mysteries were added.
Some gift‑givers do not mind their recipients’ shaking or otherwise sizing‑up presents under the tree or in the stockings before they are opened, while other gift‑givers get a little upset if their recipients try too hard to figure out what the presents are. Perhaps, as in so many other things, moderation is in order. Because we would not otherwise know Him, even though we were made through Him, God reveals Himself to us, especially in the mystery of the Word become flesh. God’s signs and visions are to make us know the power by which all things have come into being. Yet, like an eager child with a perhaps‑breakable gift, we might try to probe too far into what God at least presently does not reveal about Himself, such as His unsearchable being and rule, and, by such probing too far, we can bring on ourselves judgment—judgment like that we deserve for all of our sins, if we do not turn from them in sorrow and trust God to forgive them for Jesus’s sake.
One of the greatest mysteries about salvation is why God predestines some to be saved and not others. Jesus Himself even says that His disciples have been given the secrets (or “mysteries”) of the Kingdom of Heaven but that not everyone has been given the secrets; for example, the disciples end up understanding Jesus’s parables, while the crowds in general do not (Matthew 13:10-11; Mark 4:11-12; Luke 8:10). We hear God’s call to repent and believe go out to all people, but we see that only some do so repent and believe, while others are hardened in their impenitence and unbelief. In today’s Gospel Reading, St. John says Jesus’s own people did not receive Him, but to those who did receive Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God. We are saved only by God’s free mercy and grace for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh, in His conception and birth years ago.
St. John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And then St. John writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who was distinct from God the Father but shared His Divine substance, at a moment in time took into His Person a human nature and soul, was the tabernacle of God among His people, and showed forth from that tabernacle the glory of God. How does the Trinity work? How does the Incarnation work? To some extent, such things remain shrouded in mystery, despite God’s revealing them to us—perhaps like electronic toys and other gadgets that we might get at Christmas and can value and benefit from, even without knowing exactly how they work. As one of my now‑sainted Sunday School teachers used to say, “I may not understand it, but I believe it.” God has revealed all we need to know and believe: the Word become flesh died on the cross for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. The preaching of Christ crucified not only reveals to us the once secret and hidden wisdom of God, which only God Himself working through His Means of Grace can give, but the preaching of Christ crucified also changes us and gives us His benefits (1 Corinthians 2:1, 6-16; Colossians 2:2; 4:3).
God reveals the mystery of the Word become flesh and incorporates us into that mystery through pastors reading and preaching God’s Gospel and sacramentally applying that Gospel to individuals in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. St. Paul writes that people should regard pastors as “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1), and later that expression “mysteries of God” became a fixed term for the sacraments. Today’s Gospel Reading and St. John’s account as a whole specifically refer to our being born from above of water and the Spirit as children of God in Holy Baptism (John 3:1-6)—born not of the will of human beings but of the will of God. As if Baptism were not enough, the sins that we know and feel in our hearts are forgiven by God’s called and ordained servants (John 20:22-23), and we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood and so have life in us (John 6:53). As St. John wrote in today’s Gospel Reading, “from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” In all these ways, God forgives our sins—our sins of probing too far into His unsearchable being and rule, or whatever our sins may be.
Like the exiles comforted with the Lord’s words through Isaiah in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 52:7-10) that they would return home in safety to serve the Lord, we break forth together into singing, for the Lord has comforted and redeemed us. We hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience, confessing it in creeds and hymns (1 Timothy 3:9, 16). The mystery of the Word become flesh is for all people, Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 1:1-13), male and female, young and old, those of every nation, tribe, people, and language (Revelation 7:9). We know that the mystery of Christ in us is the sure and certain hope of our glory beyond the suffering of this world (Colossians 1:27), namely the changing of our bodies, whether or not they are asleep in death at the Lord’s return, putting on the imperishable and immortal, victorious over death, thanks to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh. So, we are steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord our labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58).
Some of those mysterious gifts under the tree or in the stocking will eventually break, wear out, or otherwise cease to be used, but we cannot exhaust—in this sermon, this Divine Service, this Season of Christmas, this Church Year, or even in our lifetimes—we cannot exhaust our meditation on God’s gift of His only Son at Christmas, “The mystery of the Word become flesh revealed” and all that that entails. God loved you and me by giving His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. We conclude this mediation on the Incarnation with the call to rejoice and the response that we sang in the final stanza of the Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 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 + + +