Christmas

John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. 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. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

I am not the world's biggest fan of John. I'll admit it. For one, this gospel isn't as authoritative as the others. For another, it is distracting and depicts a very different vision of Jesus. But as I read this gospel for this past Sunday, I was struck by what it said.

Let's be honest: for the first Sunday after Christmas, this is a weird gospel lesson. There isn't childbirth or shepherds, there are no angels or wise men, and there certainly isn't any action or plot. In literary terms, this is only exposition. The writer is only describing the circumstances--not even the setting of the story. In fact, by even beginning with the famous opening sentence, this gospel is in danger of leaving us out--not making it easy for us to engage the text: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God..."

But take a step back and think about Christmas--everything about Christmas--and list all of the elements:

• Gift-giving: making, buying, wrapping, choosing, receiving, tasting
• Caroling: music, singing, hymns, Nat King Cole
• Characters: baby, Mary, angels, Santa, Rudolph, Charlie Brown
• Traditions: tree, ornaments, garland, mistletoe, stockings
• Food: ham/turkey, chocolates, sweets, milk and cookies, reindeer food
• People: family--parents, siblings, children; friends; strangers
• and many more...
  

All of those things that we associate with Christmas. And seemingly none of them have anything to do with the gospel we read on Christmas. Well, Jesus and Mary and the angels do, but that's it. We don't see wrapping paper and stockings in the Christmas story anywhere. And yet, they represent Christmas. They represent what Christmas means. We'll get back to John in just a minute more.

Despite what anybody says, Christmas isn't about a battle between the secular and the sacred (the world and the church). It isn't about putting Christ back into Christmas any more than having a manger scene outside of a public building makes a person want to be a Christian. It isn't about buying or receiving stuff you and your friends won't even use or buying lame gifts for your parents because you don't know what they would like. It isn't about 24 hours of A Christmas Story. It isn't even about the birth of a baby.

It is about Jesus. Who Jesus is and was. It isn't about celebrating the day Jesus was born, or the time when Jesus was a baby, but a celebration of Jesus as living life as a human being!

In the Nicene Creed, we sometimes bow during the words of the incarnation--when we say:

For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.

We bow in recognition of this incredible thing, this most beautiful gift from God: that God wanted to be with us, in the flesh. To be among us, to live as we do, and deal with all of the annoying things that come along with it. We bow in recognition that this was done, not because we deserved it or because God was bored, but because we needed it. We needed God's presence among us.

Perhaps most astonishing about the John reading is that it reminds us that Jesus isn't a baby. At one point in time He was a baby. We tell stories about that time in the way that we tell stories about each other as babies and children. It is how we relate to one another: and to Jesus.

What are some of your stories about others? What are some of the stories your parents have about you? What do you think these stories tell us about ourselves and other people?

What stories do we tell about Jesus? What do you think those stories tell us about Him? About who He was as person and who He is now (as the Word)?

Christmas is about Jesus. All of Jesus. Our gospel from John demonstrates that a conversation about a Jesus that is born must also be about a Jesus that is killed. A conversation about Jesus as incarnate.

May you continue to give gifts and share in the love of friends and family as an expression of Jesus's love for each of us, and we to one another.