Children of God

John 1:1-14New International Version (NIV)

The Word Became Flesh

1 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 it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testifyconcerning 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 recognize 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.

Those who are apart of the Christian faith usually see Jesus one of two ways: either a champion for justice, seeking to right the wrongs of the downtrodden and bring equality throughout; or a prophetic, usually stoic, non-emotional savior of the human race.  No matter what side we tend to find ourselves on, we use the gospel to defend our position and usually disregard the arguments against our beliefs.  Each side has a compelling argument with bits of truth mixed in. It’s really no coincidence that your political views often help you to decide which version of Jesus you identify with or visa versa.  We find that Jesus that fits our narrative and we run with it, finding all necessary scriptures to help us back up our decision.  The Gospels outline the life of Christ in what seems like a dizzying way.  He is up and down.  In the public eye and disappearing to be alone.  He is fierce as he overturns the tables in the Temple and laid back as he sleeps on the boat and tells the storm to calm down.  At times, he is playful and other times couldn’t be more serious.  It is difficult to keep up!  Author John Eldredge has this to say on the topic, “Perhaps the Gospel stories seem dizzying only because we’ve never seen anyone act like this before.  Maybe what we are witnessing is actually one single quality, not many.  Maybe Jesus is simply being true.”  WHAT A RELIEF!

You mean to tell me that Jesus seems odd because he the most truthful thing this world has seen?  Let that float around in your mind for awhile.  Jesus seems odd because he is being true.... That can’t be right... he is a champion of justice.... Or he is the stoic savior-prophet.  Either way, Jesus wasn’t a one-dimensional human being.  How many of us here tonight can identify ourselves as a one trick pony?  How many of us are only loving, or only generous, or only honest, or only a farmer, or only a nurse, or only a teacher, or only an employee of some organization?  Most likely, none of us here want to only identify as one thing, there may be one aspect of our lives that we identify most with but it’s not the only thing.  So why would we wrap Jesus up to be the same way?  Jesus was a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional human being just like the rest of us.

3 of 4 Gospels give us a birth story of Jesus so one thing that we cannot deny is that Jesus had a human birth, just like all of us.  He was a child.  He was a child of God.  We have gathered to celebrate the birth of Christ tonight.  It seems like the one time of year we focus on the more human elements of Jesus but I think we are better served if we often recall his human nature.  In doing so, it affords us the chance to be better human beings because we see what we are capable of.  Sure, we cannot do everything Jesus did.  However, we can be true.  That is why Jesus pointed out the faith of child on more than one occasion.  They haven’t been smeared by certain falsehoods of certain religious teachings.  They have categorized Jesus to fit into their narrative.  They look at him with awe and wonder and mystery.  If only for a small amount time, let us head back to that place.  Let our minds slip back to that time, shedding all of our notions and stare into the awe and wonder and mystery of Christ.  

Being a child of God is not simply being a believer.  It is so much more.  It is doing our best to be true.  Young children do not have a choice to be who they are because they don’t know how to be anything else.  They haven’t learn how to lie and manipulate, plot and twist.  When Guthrie tells me no and doesn’t want to do what I am asking him to do, he is being more than stubborn.  He is being honest.  Which is incredibly frustrating when we are running late and he doesn’t want to boot his shoes on.  Later in life, we beg for that kind of honesty out of our friends and co-workers.  It may hurt sometimes, but we often wonder what so-and-so is thinking.  We beg for that kind of truthfulness as we age.  Being a child of God means being truthful and honest and we celebrate the birth of the one who teaches us how to be that way tonight.  

Ok, so how do we be truthful and not destroy the feelings of those around us?  The final verse of our scripture for tonight says, “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.”  When being honest, my children haven’t figured out the grace aspect of truth as John writes about.  They simply say the truth as they see it.  To be a child of God, our truth must also be surrounded by grace.  If we do manage to be truthful, we often do not surround it by grace.  We sometimes use the truth to misguide, hurt, or anger someone because it was not used alongside grace.

Tonight we celebrate the culmination of peace, hope, joy and love by lighting the Christ candle and spreading that light across this church.  Even within the tradition of Advent, the Christ candle is surrounded by four other candles that represent different aspects of Jesus.  As we leave here tonight, may we do our part in spreading the news to all of God’s children through truth that is surrounded and emboldened by grace.  May we take a moment to admire the awe, wonder and mystery of this baby Christ-child.    Amen.