Sermon: Christmas Morning

25 December 2009 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: John 1:1-18 (Ex 40:17-21, Titus 3:4-7)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

For some reason, people who shun the church love to teach pastors about theology. Often they will instruct me that all religions are equal, that it doesn’t really matter what one believes as long as one is sincere, and that one need not go to church – since God is everywhere.

This latter observation is a most convenient application of the Lord’s omnipresence. Since He is everywhere, the argument goes, I can experience God by sleeping in, playing golf, reading the paper, or doing all sorts of things that are more fun or convenient than going to church.

And while it is true that God is everywhere, that His presence is outside of space and time, that He is not forced into the restraints of creation like us humble creatures – His omnipresence is really is of no comfort. For when God is simply everywhere, He can seem impersonal. When God is so transcendent and otherworldly, I cannot relate to Him. I might as well do what I want on Sunday morning and pretend that it doesn’t matter to God. We might misinterpret God’s vastness as inattentiveness to us.

But on this Christmas morning, we celebrate the True God who allows Himself to be limited in a humble form, taking the flesh of a man – a baby that willingly takes on limitations, being present for us in a miraculous way within space and time. We can look at Him. We can touch Him. We can watch Him grow. He can speak to us personally. He can cast out our demons and heal our infirmities. And He does go to the cross to take away our sins. He does crush the head of the devil. And He does rise from the dead to blaze a trail for us unto everlasting life. And He does all of this while tabernacled in a physical body like ours.

This merciful tabernacling of God is foreshadowed in the Ark of the Covenant being placed in a tabernacle, a tent where the Lord’s Presence, miraculously limited to specific space and time, hovers over the Ark’s lid, known curiously as the mercy seat. And “the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” Far from taking comfort in the Lord’s omnipresence, the people knew that “throughout their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out.”

It comforted the people of Israel that God was right there with them. And they sought out His Presence, going where He promised to be, following His Presence wherever the Lord wanted them to be. That Presence was not in their beds nor on their fields of play. The Presence was where the Lord chose to be, where His Word was proclaimed, and He called the people to join Him there.

“In the beginning” says the Apostle John, “was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God the Creator is outside of all creation. And unlimited by time and space, God and His Word are omnipresent. John then tells us about another man named John, a man who is not omnipresent, but living in first century Judea. He came to “bear witness about the light” for “the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”

The light that tabernacled above the mercy seat is preparing to tabernacle yet again, coming to us in space and time. And “the Word became flesh and dwelt,” – that is, “tabernacled” – among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Just as the Presence hovered above the mercy seat and led the people, the Presence is once again – in the incarnation of Jesus, the Word made flesh – self-limited to a specific time and a specific place. This is the miracle of Christmas. God does not relate to us as the infinite, otherworldly, omnipresent Creator, but robes Himself in humble flesh. He comes to us where we can find Him. He appears and speaks where we may see and hear Him. And like the Israelites of old, we take comfort in the fact that God is present, Immanuel, God with us, the Word made flesh who dwells among us, “as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And just as the Magi traveled far and wide, following the sign of the star, seeking the God who limited Himself to a tabernacled presence, so that they might worship Him – we Christians too can follow the signs, seeking the God who continues to tabernacle with us in His flesh and blood, in His Word, and in His ironclad declaration of Holy Absolution by virtue of the authority delegated to His ministers.

You cannot find that Presence at a party, sports event, movie, or even sleeping in on Sunday. God is everywhere to be sure. But out of love for us, out of our desire to seek Him and be with Him, and out of His desire to be with us, to forgive us, to proclaim the Good News to us, He takes on flesh and dwells with us, present where He promises to dwell.

He becomes the Christ child. He preaches to a world that rejects Him. He tirelessly works miracles. He casts out demons and heals. He takes away the sin of the world. He sacrifices Himself, the perfect Lamb, the immaculate oblation, on the altar of the cross. He bears our sins and crushes the vile serpent’s head. And He rises from the dead. He advocates with His Father on our behalf, making us righteous. He nourishes us with His very body and blood. He purifies us again and again by His absolution. And He proclaims good news to us wherever and whenever the Word is preached and where His sacraments are administered. And this is Good News indeed!

This church, dear brothers and sisters, is a holy place. It is a tabernacle where the presence of the Lord dwells. This baptismal font is indeed a sacred space above which the Holy Spirit hovers like a dove, the Lord and giver of life, who broods over us, calls us, and draws us back to where we find the flesh and blood Presence of God.

And this God incarnate has completed His mission, as St. Paul preaches: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by washing of regeneration.”

This salvation is ours because of Christmas, because God chose to tabernacle with us though we do not deserve it. For we, though spirits, are also bodies. Though we, created to be eternal, dwell in time and space – so too is the gift of the Holy Spirit “poured out on us richly” is given to us in space and time, in the creation we dwell in, “through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

The Lord doesn’t come to us in good feelings, in imaginations and mantras, in clever words or in entertainment, rather He comes to us in the way and in the place that He Himself chose, “so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Dear friends, by virtue of the flesh and blood Christ, through His flesh and blood sacraments, and in His flesh and blood proclamation of the Good News – this Christmas gift is yours. It is the greatest gift of all, for even though it exists in our material world, this gift is eternal. It is a gift that “neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” This gift never goes out of style, becomes boring, or wears out. The Lord’s gift of Himself as the enfleshed Gospel never needs to be exchanged or returned under warrantee.

The gift of our flesh and blood Christ is here in space and time for you, so that you might have eternal life. May the Presence of the tabernacled Lord in the flesh and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ guide each one of you, even as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, in all your travels, now and unto eternity. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.