One of my favorite things about Christmas carols is that so many people can sing them by heart. One year after going to the "Messiah Sing-along" at the Music Center in Los Angeles, I had the memorable experience of walking in a crowd of people descending the stairs and slowly making their way out of the building when someone started spontaneously singing a Christmas carol. Immediately almost everyone joined in. It was a wonderful simple moment. It seemed as if EVERYONE knew the words, and in knowing the words knew the message. Or did they?
In this advent series I have been re-considering the incarnation, that is the belief that in Jesus the triune God took on a human body so that he could be one of us and be with us. Today I simply want us to pause to consider the incongruity of a world that is so familiar with the holiday words, but often misses the wonder of the message.
Colossians 1:15-17 says: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Jesus is the invisible God, the creator and sustainer of all things, made visible for us. Or as we sing in this line from a favorite Christmas carol: "Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see."
How many times have we heard that verse or sung those words without the wonder they deserve?
How often have we heard the Christmas story or considered the notion of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us without stopping to gasp?
How many Christmases have come and gone without pausing from the holiday hurly-burly to think about what all of this means?
Think about it this way. The God who made all of this earth and every flower, every raindrop, every different snowflake and every line in the fingerprint of your little finger once walked upon this planet. He who made it all went through it all. The Triune God, the great I AM, the creator of heaven and earth became a kid with dirty diapers, a boy with a sweaty head, a teenager who felt embarrassed when his mother hugged him, an adult who drank wine at parties, wept at the death of a friend, and made his brothers and sisters frustrated in confusion.
And because he did, we have a human face to show us the face of God. Is God's final word revealing himself.
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. (Hebrews 1:1-3)
God's self-revelation was not delegated to an angel, a prophet, or a holy writ. God took on a human form and lived amongst us, even as it will say later in Hebrews in the most mind-boggling idea, being made "perfect through sufferings." (Heb 2:10)
But, what is most awesome to me is not that God gave up his divine powers to become a human, but the reason why he did it:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:15)
God took on a human face, and that human face suffered every human indignity so that God could also be our great high priest. In the incarnation we find the great lengths that the Creator-King went to redeem creation and save his subjects. Every action full of grace, every action from the first word of Genesis to the final consummation in Revelation an expression of the God-who-is-love.
Isn't that worthy of our awe?
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