The Perfect Outfit
Colossians 3:12-17; John 1:1-9
Let’s see how much Christmas spirit we have collectively in this room…
If you have sung more than three Christmas carols in celebration of Christmas raise your hand –
If you have Christmas lights outside where you live, raise your hand –
If you have a wreath on your door, raise your hand –
If you have a nativity scene displayed in your home –
If you have wrapped a gift for someone else this season –
If you have done an act of service with Christmas cheer for someone –
If you have played an instrument or sung with a choir for a special Christmas concert –
If you have made Christmas cookies – And shared them –
If you have watched more than two Christmas movies this season –
How do you think we did? Are we a spirited bunch? I have one more question for you...
What has 15 actors, four settings, two writers, and one plot?
632 Hallmark Christmas movies!!
Has your Christmas spirit needed every twinkling light and gingerbread house you could find this year? Are you a sucker for the syrupy sweetness of the Hallmark movie? The predictability, the perfect decorations, the small-town snowfall… Yes please. Sign me up. Show me more “big city,” workaholic, beautiful people who become stranded in small towns and decide they would be so much happier in a town called Christmasville. They might even find true love, or bring a family back together, save the town, and live happily ever after.
It all sounds pretty good against the backdrop of reality. But when the movie is over, my choices are to stay dialed in, numbing in front of the next Saccharine-y sweet story, nursing dreams of the perfect holiday, perfect relationships, and problems that are perfectly resolved… OR… Push back the fairytale and turn to something REAL.
Choosing to be here today on the 5th day of Christmas is choosing something REAL. You are putting yourself in proximity to the Word and words of God.
The late Roger Paynter used to pray this public prayer of illumination before his sermons at FBC, Austin, Texas, “Words and WORD… among the many let us hear the ONE.” The intent of the prayer is to ask God to help us be found by the Living Word of Christ amidst the plethora of human words used in worship.[1]
That phrase, word of God, is probably something you’ve heard all your life if you’ve been in church. “Word of God” was an ancient concept for a way of knowing God. Some scholars, including Jewish teachers, wrote that nobody could actually know God as God is, but the Word of God is the God we can know.
In the early centuries of the Church, Augustine (philosopher and theologian) impressed many with his gifts for learning and speaking. When Augustine became a Christian, he read the Gospel of John and said, “I have read all this before, about the Word that was in the world at the beginning, and that he was with God and was God, and that all things were created through him.” And then he added, but “I’ve never read in any of those books that the Word became flesh and lived among us.”[2] That’s God’s move.
Somehow the logos of God, that is, the “word,” “matter,” “thing,” or “speech”of God is a complex idea. In John’s Gospel, the Greek logos/word or speech was and becomes the closest thing to God, if not God. The word was “with God”—accompanied, partnered with, attached to, or was in the presence of God. And it, the logos, becomes flesh (human) and dwells among his fellow humans. The word of God pitches its tent right here with us.[3]
This Sunday after Christmas, could we reflect on what the Incarnation means? Find a pen in the pew (thanks Brad Emerson!). Next, find a spot on your worship guide (for those online, something to write with and a piece of paper). Now, draw or jot a few words that come to mind when I say: incarnation. Embodiment, personification are synonyms. You might think, taking physical form.
A few phrases from the Nicene creed come to my mind when I think of incarnation - eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.
It’s not really about the cute little baby. It’s about God’s love embodied among us, and even within us. Part of the mystery of the incarnation is that God is not far away on some heavenly cloud, but intimately with us. Yet part of the mystery is that God is more in some “places” in our lives than others: God is more readily apprehended in certain experiences, attitudes, or ways of being mindful than others.[4] We can choose to put ourselves in closer proximity to God and God’s people by our own actions, choices. Christmastide invites us to continue to search for those places where convergence happens – where God appears (in a God-moment, a God-wink) and we recognize it and we know that God wants to be found. God wants to be in relationship to us, that God cares deeply for us.
Let me tell you a story I heard a long time ago. One bitterly cold night a farmer heard a thumping sound on his kitchen storm door. Standing near the stove, he looked out the window to see what was causing the noise. There he saw some tiny sparrows trying repeatedly to fly into the warmth of the kitchen because they could see the light in the window. The birds kept beating against the glass to no avail. Compassion for the cold little creatures caused the farmer to bundle up, trudge through the snow, and open the barn to give the birds a warmer place to rest. He turned on the lights and tossed some hay in a corner. Then he sprinkled a trail of crumbs to lead them to the barn. But the sparrows, afraid of him, scattered as he came out of the house.
The farmer tried circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing the crumbs in the air toward them. Still the birds seemed paralyzed by the cold and fear. They couldn’t understand that this huge man was trying to help them. Discouraged, he went back into his kitchen and watched the doomed sparrows through the window… “If only I could become a bird for a moment, then I wouldn’t frighten them. I could show them the way to safety and warmth,” thought the farmer.
The farmer had expressed the true meaning of Word in flesh, dwelling among us. The very best way for God to share God’s love, hope and grace with us was to come be one of us. It is also true that we experience the Divine, often in the places we least expect.
Paul in his letter to the Colossians invited readers to put on a new outfit, dress like the incarnation of God in these new clothes: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and tie it all on with Love. Above all else, show love. If we wear these godly characteristics, perhaps others could find their way to God.
Erin Hall and her husband Jake are friends and ministers in Georgia. A few years ago, Erin wrote about a snowy night that turned out differently than expected. She wrote, Tonight was supposed to be our church Christmas party – a meal, games, and wrapping gifts for children in need, but when ice and sleet started around 4pm, we had to call it off even though dinner was already prepared. A few folks gathered quickly to handle the gifts, make plans for wrapping them another time and refrigerate the food. It was clear that we all needed to get home quickly. After an hour of trying, no one was able to get farther than ½ mile away from the church. Traffic was at a stand-still in the ice. Accidents were happening everywhere. Erin and Jake decided to play it safe, get out of their car and walk back to the church. The minister of music called to say he was also walking back and was picking up folks along the way who were stranded. Erin and Jake stopped at cars they passed and said, “Don’t know where you’re headed, but if you want to come inside and get warm, we’re walking back up to the church. There’s food there. C’mon!” Almost every stranger they met thanked them and prepared to leave their cars on the side of the road. A young mom, her son, and Erin held hands as they slipped up the hill to the church.
Once inside, they took the meal out of the fridge which was mostly still warm. They made hot chocolate. They ate a wonderful meal of ham, potato casserole, veggies and warm rolls. People kept piling inside until 70 strangers ended up eating and getting to know one another. The best surprise was that one group of teenagers had been headed to dress rehearsal for “The Nutcracker.” So, after dinner, the students put on a live performance of the ballet in the fellowship hall. Then someone found ingredients to make a cake. A police officer stopped by to update them on the conditions of the road. No one needed to leave until things thawed the next morning. So, they set up the screen and projector and watched a Christmas movie.
Putting on compassion, kindness and above all love, some of God’s people (stranded themselves) welcomed strangers, shared a meal, celebrated Christmas in a way they couldn’t have planned any better. Almost like a Hallmark movie, except REAL! Sounds like the word of God dwelled among them that night; like the incarnation of God in the people of God. Throughout Advent and Christmas this year, where have you experience the incarnate God? Has God in flesh, appeared to you?
[1] Sledge, Sharlande, Prayers and Litanies for the Christian Season
[2] Beasley-Murray, George
[3] Smith, Mitzi J.
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/christmas-day-nativity-of-our-lord-iii/commentary-on-john-11-14-10
[4] Garnaas-Holmes, Steve https://unfoldinglight.net/2009/12/01/sunday-after-christmas-december-26-2021/