The Word became Flesh to Contradict False Words

John 1:10-13   He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

God understood that at the very heart of living life on this earth is using words to convey thoughts.  He designed us to be social creatures that thrive in community.  He created us and made us with the ability to learn—especially to learn about each other.

Can you imagine that moment when Adam and Eve first met? A brand new world sparkles and vibrates with color and movement.  God’s anesthetic has just worn off from the first surgical procedure and Adam has just awakened and looked into the face of God, wondering what had just happened.   God simply re-directs Adam’s gaze over at Eve and for the first time they see each other.  God speaks an introduction.  “Adam, this is Eve.  I have made her to be a companion for you.  Eve, this is Adam.  You’re just going to love this guy! I’ve have made you and he to be perfect companions.  I’ve already told him what needs to be done.  Help him do it, would you?” Adam and Eve both nod, but are too lost in the wonder of the gift of each other.  

Adventist Artist, Nathan Greene captured what it must have been like in his painting “The Introduction”.  I love that painting. You may have seen it.  It is a stunning portrayal of that first moment of man's special blessing from God.  Adam and Eve gaze with a wonder and tenderness to set the standard for all time.  And from that moment on, they spend hours getting to know one another.  They form their thoughts into words and share what is in their minds.  They converse and exchange ideas.  And love grows.  They thought they were in love to begin with, but they find that as they express their thoughts and feelings, love deepens.  Then it begins to be seen in their actions towards each other.  This was the perfect marriage.  A match truly made in heaven.  And the actions and words and emotions converge to bring them back to gratitude for a God so loving that He would provide so abundantly for the two of them by giving them a perfect world and each other.  Words were never cruel, never harsh, never impatient or demanding.  Nor were they ever unkind.  And they were never, ever false.

Which is why the words of a serpent in the tree were so easy to believe. Eve had never heard a lie before.  Only truthful words had ever been spoken.  And she suddenly finds herself in conflict, because here is a beautiful snake contradicting God himself.  Unfortunately, she bit on the lie and we were cut off from face to face contact with the Word.

That’s why it was necessary for the Word to come to earth in the form of a Baby.  When man first sinned, they could remember what it was like in the Garden, and could communicate that to generations before the flood.  Adam and Even lived over 900 years, so they told and retold the story of their introduction and what life was like in the garden.  They told of the fateful day when a serpent had deceived them, and how they had been removed from their garden home so that they could not eat any longer of the tree of life and thus perpetuate sin.  They told of how Abel had already died and that each of them was doomed to death, but that there was a Savior coming to redeem them.  The Word Himself. 

But the longer man was out of the Garden, the more man forgot the Word of God.  The farther man got from the Word, the more man’s words were harsh and cruel and untrue. Lies abounded. And the more lies that were told, the less God was recognizable in our world.  And as God became so obscure in the lives of men, He knew that if He were to redeem us, He would have to speak a Word so powerfully that it would resonate down through the corridors of time to all future generations.

And so the Word became flesh. John 1:14   The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

That’s exactly what we needed from the Father.  One who came full of grace and truth.  We needed to once again see God and to sense His presence among us.  So the Word came and He lived a vibrant and passionate life in the midst of the grayness of our existence.  Where we saw shadows, He brought light.  Where we felt pain, He brought healing.  Where we found ourselves mired in the endless cycle of toil, pain and death, He brought joy, hope and life.

Deck the Halls...with Grace!

Luke 2:4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,  7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

No fanfare.  No Santa’s.  No blinking lights and tinsel.  Here we arrive at just a quiet stable cave and a feedbox—the original Christmas.  No wish lists. No blaring music or irritating advertising.  Just peace at the end of the labor of childbirth, as Grace Himself, came into the world.  No decorations. No icicle lights on their cave or lighted deer in the front yard.  No ringing bells. No trumpets. Nothing.  Except Grace.  The Grace of a God who would leave the treasures of heaven for the filth of this earth.  Grace that would step out of eternity into time in order to allow us to step out of time into eternity with Him.  Grace that loved His creation so much that He would rather die than live without us.  He would rather risk having us reject Him for eternity, than know that He could have done something to rescue us, but didn’t.

You see, when Jesus came, He decked the halls of this world with nothing more and nothing less than Grace.  He splashed grace around as He decorated lives with it.  The colors of grace brightened the crowds after He had passed by. The touch of grace was felt on the hand of a little dead girl and she lived once again.   The sounds of grace filled the ears of those who heard, “Neither do I condemn you.”  Or “Go in peace, your faith has made you well.”  The smell of grace was in the air as the rotting, oozing flesh of lepers was suddenly fresh and clean.  And the taste of grace filled the stomachs of at least 5,000, not to mention the 12 at the last supper.  Everywhere Jesus went, he decorated lives with grace.  And there is nothing more beautiful than a grace-filled life.

There is nothing so amazing as seeing one who has been caked with the filth of sin suddenly clean.  Nothing so lovely as seeing one who has suffered unimaginable abuse suddenly free to sing.  Nothing quite so attractive as a once-harsh life, now softened and considerate of others.  There is nothing so appealing as a grace-filled, gracious person.

And that’s why He came.  That’s what gets lost in the celebration of our times.  That’s what the ads cover up and the commercialism smothers.  That’s what the frenetic pace causes us to forget.  That God decorated our lives with grace, and wants us to extend that same grace to others.  He wants us to realize each Christmas that He is actually calling  us to help Him decorate for the season!  He wants us to actually be a seasoning for the season.  To be people who have been changed by grace, and can joyfully splash his grace around a graceless world.  To be so changed by his grace that your very being is different from those in the world around you, and you can’t help decking the halls with His grace.

Why Did God Pick the Wrong Place?

Can you hear Mary?  We often try to deify her, but come on, she was a teenager.  Even the most spiritual teens I know will gripe.  I can hear her on that last day, as the labor pains begin saying, “ I didn’t know when I said yes that it would mean I would have to do this.  It’s too hard God!  I can’t make it.  I can see Bethlehem off in the distance but this pain is too great.  I can’t make it.  And as they seek lodging, she is to the point where she is having to stick her sleeve in her mouth so it muffles her screams of pain from the labor.  And now she’s stuck in a barn, with the smell of animal poop filling it.  She knows it is time and I’m sure between contractions she must have wondered about the irony of it all.  I’m sure she must have said, “No God, not here!  Your Son deserves better than this.  Please find us a better place!  Get us out of this dump!”  Pretty hard to say at a time like this, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be done to me as you have said.”

So why did God pick the wrong place?  Why didn’t he just whip up an ultra-modern hospital out on the plain with a giant rotating beacon to guide them in?  His Son of course would be the sole occupant and then the beacon could forever guide the faithful on their pilgrimage to the hospital shrine.  The birthplace of Jesus.  But the barn?  Wrong place!

You may feel you are in the wrong place in your life.  You may have committed your life to Jesus and then feel He abandoned you.  Take a lesson from Mary.  Such is not the case.

The message of Christmas is that God intrudes upon the weak and the vulnerable, and this is precisely the message that we so often miss. God does not come to that part of us that swaggers through life, confident in our self-sufficiency. God leaves his treasure in the broken fragmented places of our life. God comes to us in those rare moments when we are able to transcend our own selfishness long enough to really care about another human being.

He must necessarily lead us through those dark places, not to burden us or to scare us, but to change us.  We look at our circumstances and say “I don’t like that.”  God isn’t concerned about our circumstances.  He is interested in our heart.  I like how Rev John Schmidt put it.

Maybe where we are right now in life feels like the wrong place.

Either looking back to what was or looking forward to what might be. 
-- Just not here and now!

We assume that we are going to have to leave this place to get to the right place.

But God is present in all our "wrong" places. God is at work there.

Our circumstances are not the most important thing in life. God is, and our response to Him.  God uses the wrong places of life to make the right changes in us.

Our focus is on making things right for us.  God's focus is making things right in us.

We need to do what God has given us to do.  Right now, right here.

On the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line of a gas chamber. The child, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over he child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. When people come into the museum they do not whisk by this photo hurriedly. They pause. They almost feel the pain. And deep inside I think that they are all saying: "O God, don't let that be all that there is."

 (from Sermon Illustrations.com)

God's hears those prayers and it is in just such situations of hopelessness and helplessness that his almighty power is born. It is there that God leaves his treasure. As for Mary, so it is with you and I that it is there, right in the middle of the brokenness, right in the middle of the stench, right in the middle of the darkness, when you feel you are lost or in the wrong place,  that’s when Christ is born anew within.
 

Don’t miss it.  Let it happen in you once again and you will find the Hope of the world will restore your hope and give you strength to go on.