John 1:1-14; Hebrews 1:1-4; Isaiah 52:7-10
Comfort us, Lord. Redeem us as you redeemed Jerusalem. Help us to see and hear, sing and proclaim
the message of your salvation to all people.
In Jesus name, Amen.
As most of you know, a special baby was recently born
into the world.
This baby is the most brilliant, sweetest, most
adorable, smartest, most wonderful baby girl the world has ever seen.
Her name is Martha, and she’s my niece.
I have lots of pictures of her on my phone, if you’d
like to see them after worship. Did I mention that she’s adorable?
Also, in case you didn’t know, Martha has a big brother,
named Matthew.
Matthew is
the most brilliant, sweetest, most adorable, smartest, most wonderful little
toddler the world has ever seen.
I have pictures of him too, if you’re interested.
I even
have pictures of the two of them together. The cuteness factor is off the
charts on those ones.
As a parent of one – or, perhaps, as a grandparent or
uncle or aunt, in my case – when there is one child in your life, you love that
child with all your heart.
The next
time that the pregnancy test comes back positive, or you get that call from the
adoption agency, or you hear the good news from your relative about their
growing family, you start to wonder – how could I ever love a second child as
much as I love the first? My heart is so full of love already, how can it stand
loving any more?
And this is where the miracle occurs.
When
child #2 arrives, you don’t love the first child any less than you did before.
And you don’t love the second child any less than you love the first.
Your love isn’t diminished, it expands.
Our love can always
expand to include more people.
So it is with the love of God.
As the spirituality of humanity has grown, God’s love
has grown along with us.
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All
things came into being through the Word.
God has been around for a long time. A very long time.
People have been around for… slightly less
long.
But for the entire time that humans have existed, we
have had a relationship with God, through the Word described in John 1.
God created the world, and humankind was created in
God’s own image.
Over the
course of time, God came to the people as an angel and a burning bush, in king
David and the prophet Nathan, through a flood and a plague of frogs, and as the
sound of sheer silence.
In many and
various ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets.
Most of us who are here today have attended Sunday
School or Bible studies, or we’ve read the Bible on our own.
We’ve learned the stories about God and the Hebrew
people. We know something about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and about Moses, and
about the kings of Israel and the prophets.
God chose the family line of Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob to be the recipients of a promise for people, place, and purpose.
The
chosen people were promised descendants as numerous as the stars; they were
promised a land in which to live and worship God; and they were promised that
they would be a blessing to the entire rest of the world, as special emissaries
of God.
God had a relationship with humanity well before Jesus
was born.
But, of
course, the birth of Jesus drastically changed the way that God related to people
from that point forward.
In many and
various ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these
last days, God has spoken to us by a Son.
When
Jesus was born, God’s relationship with humanity took on a new angle – it expanded to allow for new adventures
But that does not mean that God abandoned the first
chosen people.
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And
the Word became flesh and lived among us.
The Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed
Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all
the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of
our God.
God has always loved the Hebrew people, and continues
to love the Hebrew people, according to the promises made in the Old Testament
of our Bible.
That
same God, who has been around and relating with people for a very long time,
came to humanity in a new way on Christmas.
God loved people both before and after the Word became
flesh… that love was just shown in different ways to different people.
Kind of
like how love is shown in different ways to a first-born and second-born child.
There is more love than there ever was before, and that love shows itself in
new and unexpected ways.
I can love Matthew when I see how good of a big brother
he is to Martha – and I can love Martha when I see how patient she is with Matthew. The
fact that there are two children to love just gives me more reasons to love
them both!
The love continues to grow, as they both
continue to grow.
The United Church of Christ, one of our denominational
partners, has a great way of describing this reality.
Don’t
put a period where God has put a comma.
God is
still speaking.
God will continue to come to humanity in new ways.
It’s not our job to close the book on God’s action in
the world – it’s our job to remain open to the new ways that God speaks to
people, starting with the incarnation of the Word, the birth of Jesus, on
Christmas.
When God
took on human flesh, it was a totally different manifestation of God’s love for
humanity than anything that had come before.
We, as Christians, recognize the incarnation as the
defining moment of God’s love for us.
This
doesn’t mean that God didn’t love humanity before, just that, maybe, we are
child #2 and we didn’t know anything about God’s love until the Word became
flesh in the person of Jesus.
The expanding nature of God’s love can be a challenge
for us to understand.
Western
thought tends to be dualistic.
Black or
white, male or female, citizen or foreigner, Republican or Democrat.
God doesn’t work that way.
God
isn’t an us-or-them being.
God is
an all-inclusive being.
Divine Word and
human flesh, light and life, good
shepherd and mother hen, righteous
judge and giver of unconditional
grace, ruler and slave, God the
Father and Jesus the Son…
God is big enough to include it all!
In many and
various ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these
last days, God has spoken to us by a Son.
God
spoke to the people in Hebrew and English and Hindi and Portuguese.
God spoke through men and women and through the beauty
of nature.
God spoke in music and sculpture and photographs and
watercolors.
In many and various ways, God has spoken to people
throughout time. And in many and various ways, God will continue to speak to
humanity and teach us more about Godself.
My sister has said that unless they can figure out a
way for her husband to carry a child through the 9 months of pregnancy, they
are done having kids.
But what
would happen if child 3 did come along?
Again, the love that they have – that the whole family
has – for Matthew and Martha would not decrease. Our love would expand to welcome
child #3!
And the same would happen if there was a
child #4 or 5 or 6!
Seriously, though, we’re talking in the abstract now –
if my sister were here, she’d be laughing at the suggestion of a 6-child family.
Thank goodness that God’s love is even more expansive
than our human love!
God wouldn’t balk at child #3, or 33, or 303.
God will continue speaking to people, in
many and various ways.
And God’s love will continue to expand to include
whatever people hear and respond and are reached by God’s Word.
God has had special relationships with people
throughout history – like Sarah and Rachel, Joseph and Moses, Ruth and Isaiah.
God kept
creating new relationships with people, which is where Jesus comes into the
picture, as the divine Word made flesh and sent to dwell among us.
And God will continue to come to us in new and
exciting and meaningful and earth-shattering ways.
Our job
isn’t to put limits on the ways that God can speak to people.
Our job is to keep our eyes and ears and hearts and
minds open to notice when God is speaking to us in new ways.
Our job is to invite more people into
relationship with God.
Our job is to see God in one another, and to treat
other people as we would treat God.
Our job is to be like
that messenger described in the reading from Isaiah, who announces peace, who
brings good news, who announces salvation, who breaks forth into singing:
For the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
Thanks be
to God. Amen.
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