Tuesday 24th December – Christmas Eve – Pastor Adrian Kitson
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive 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.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth
I am aware it has been a tough year for a lot of people.
The season has been very harsh, and it is not over yet. There will be more disappointment for those on the land – and more stress to come.
As a church we have experienced significant shift – we are heading more into division and two Lutheran communities in Austral once again. Many of us a very sad about that.
There are more people touching the edge of lack of food security, or housing, of financial stability than there has been for a long time. So the Lutheran Care people tell me.
The usual world problems persist. War, famine, injustice, crime, violence and the like.
So, I search for joy. Not a feeling. Not a passing high. Not a happy place. Not positive thinking – these are all too weak. They don’t sustain me. No, I search for a but biblical joy – a gift from God that is a buoyancy. A gift that helps me stay afloat in a tossing sea. In the worry and the fear and the pain I search for that which helps me be hopeful – and not fake hope – not dismissing the problem, ignoring the difficulty, trying to escape anything; not hiding from the tossing sea but seeing it and being in it but staying afloat; getting through it with faith and hope and most importantly with love.
Every time I hear these words of John, joy rises …. I find joy in tough times tonight.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
What’s the joy? The truth of things and the grace I long for came to me in a way that I could see him, touch him. I would be all alone or drowning my sorrows with other lost sinners if he did not come to me like he did.
Martin Luther apparently got more and more chirpy around the house as Christmas approached. He tells us why:
If Christ had arrived with trumpets and lain in a cradle of gold, his birth would have been a splendid affair. But it would not be a comfort to me. He was rather to lie in the lap of a poor maiden and be thought of little significance in the eyes of the world. Now I can come to him. Now he reveals himself to the miserable in order not to give any impression that he arrives with great power, splendour, wisdom, and aristocratic manners. (Martin Luther, Christmas Sermon 1530)
Now I can come to the God who created it all and me. The barrier between us is removed and I can see God, hear God, touch God, know God, find hope for living through anything in this human-God person born to die and rise for all the darkness and shame of the world and in my heart.
Now, this Jesus is my life. Why so? Luther again:
[This teaching that] Christ is both very God and very human is the rock on which our eternal welfare and salvation are built. On this we are baptized; on this we live and die.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 22: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1-4, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 22 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 25.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 22: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1-4, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 22 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 102.
In these tough times we hear God speaking into our tough things from along side of us; with us; for us; close to us; one of us.
He condescends to assume my flesh and blood, my body and soul. He does not become an angel or another magnificent creature; He becomes man.
This is our great delight and our great hope to share tonight.
Let’s not lose this amazing truth that brings so great a joy to us in whatever troubles we are in.
“Now I can come to Him” because he has come to me to save me, love me, know me, walk with me.
I have that buoyancy again. This human baby holds me up. Keeps me afloat. I have that joy in it all that pulls me through.
How can I get this joy into your heart tonight?
Luther wrote a children’s hymn for Christmas. “From Heaven High.” The carol seems to have been written for a Christmas pageant to be performed in Luther’s church.
I speak it now as a way of getting this joy in this boy Saviour into your heart tonight – for that is what brings joy in tough times:
Look now, you children, at the sign,
A manger cradle far from fine.
A tiny baby you will see.
Upholder of the world is he.
How glad we’ll be if it is so!
With all the shepherds let us go
To see what God for us has done
In sending us his own dear Son.
Look, look, my heart, and let me peek.
Whom in the manger do you seek?
Who is that lovely little one?
The Baby Jesus, God’s own Son.
Be welcome, Lord; be now our guest.
By you poor sinners have been blessed.
In nakedness and cold you lie.
How can I thank you–how can I?
O dear Lord Jesus, for your head
Now will I make the softest bed.
The chamber where this bed shall be
Is in my heart, inside of me.
Take this human God home tonight. He is pure joy.
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