Some Thoughts on Going to See a Baby

This year, the week before Christmas, we had the joy of visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Texas.  It’s always great to see them but this year was, well, especially special:  We also got to see our first grandchild—a tiny little boy who was only two and a half weeks old when we first held him.  It was a delight being there.  In that short week, I think we could almost watch him grow. 

One morning, I got up early, sat at their kitchen table, and began to scribble out the following thoughts, thoughts I planned to use at this year’s Christmas Eve service  (a service we almost missed due to a late plane connection in Atlanta—but that’s another story).  I’ve tried to weave together two ideas, our experience in seeing our grandchild for the first time and how I’ve so often heard mothers say, “No matter how old your child gets he/she will always be a baby to you.”

This is as I presented it on Christmas Eve, with only some minor edits.  I have, of course, also used a bit of imagination in Mary's story.

Some Thoughts on Going to See a Baby

We missed the cantata last Sunday.  We heard it was great but, you see, we had gone to see a Baby.  In fact, if you had come by our home, we wouldn’t have answered the door;  we weren’t there, we had gone to see a Baby.  Nor would we have answered the phone, had you called;  we had gone to see a Baby.

One night, hundreds of years ago, had you searched on the hills outside Bethlehem, you would have found some sheep;  you wouldn’t have found the shepherds.  You would have searched all over the hills for those shepherds and not found them.  They had gone to see a Baby.

Of course, that same night, if you had somehow been able to look into the throne room of heaven, you would have found it wasn’t quite as full as usual.  A whole multitude of angels was missing.  Those angels that Isaiah said spent their entire time praising God—where were they?  They had gone to see a Baby.

A few days later, at the temple in Jerusalem, you might have seen an old man and an old woman praying there.  Everyone knew them, Anna and Simeon;  they were familiar faces around the temple.  But, today, their faces seem different:  They are brighter, more joyful, satisfied.  When they rose this morning, they didn’t know their dreams were about to come true, didn’t know, as they walked the familiar streets to the temple, they were going to see a Baby.

Later, in far away Babylon, you would have heard rumors that some of the Magi (wise men) had been gone a long time.  There were lots of explanations offered for their absence but the most persistent was that they had gone to see a Baby.

Years have passed and a worried mother and father are rushing back to Jerusalem.  They had been to a festival, left for home, and found someone was missing.  They were rushing back, hoping to see their Baby.

They found him and the whole experience left his mother pondering, thinking deep, deep thoughts every time she saw her Baby.

Now many years have passed and the Baby born in Bethlehem had grown to become a man who did remarkable things and spoke remarkable words.  A good mother, Mary could probably sense the tension growing around her son—her Baby.  Of course, many loved him.  But many hated him.  And those who hated him were the ones with influence and power.  Their hatred for him had been growing, yet, when the crisis came, it seemed to come quickly.  She feared for her Baby.

She didn’t want to believe the sentence that had been passed.  She knew what it meant.  She had heard the horror stories.  She didn’t want to go out to that hill.  But she couldn’t leave him to die alone.  She had to see her Baby.

When it was over, his mother sat alone.  His closest friends were in hiding.  Some of the women were looking after her.  This morning some of those women had gone to make sure her Baby’s body was properly prepared for its endless stay in the tomb—the tomb donated by  the kindly Joseph of Arimathea.  Joseph had been her husband’s name.  She wished he were here but, of course, he wasn’t.  So, she was alone with her thoughts, thoughts about her Baby.  She remembered holding him to her breast, she remembered watching him take his first steps, she remembered seeing her growing boy play in the Galilean sun, she remembered feeling proud as he worked with Joseph’s tools, all the while wondering what would become of her son, her Baby.

Then, she remembered the last time she had seen him.  Was this what old Simeon had meant when he told her “a sword will pierce your heart,” words he had spoken to her that long ago day in the temple when he saw her Baby?

Mary was shaken from her thought when one of the other women came in.  She, too, was named Mary.  This Mary was a woman with a sketchy past, a woman whose life had been changed when she met Mary of Nazareth’s son.  This Mary Magdalene had left this morning a picture of grief.  Now, back from her errand, she was excited, joyous in fact.  Mary of Magdala breathlessly said, “Mary, Mary, I’ve seen him, seen your Baby!”

The world has never been the same since Mary and Joseph first saw that Baby.  Oh, yes, there is still hatred, still wars, still sorrow,   But, perhaps, that’s because so many don’t really understand Christmas, haven’t really seen the Baby.

Oh Christmas Tree

     Lots of Christmas memories involve the Christmas tree. 
     My friend Ben tells of how he and his brother would gather up the Christmas trees their neighbors had discarded the week after Christmas.   The enterprising boys would then take them over to the Greek neighborhood in his hometown to sell them cheap to the Orthodox believers who celebrated Christmas in early January.
     During most of my childhood, my parents stored all our Christmas decorations in an old, dark blue muffler box.  All the ornaments fit in that one box.  That box lasted for years. Today, boxes for storing decorations come in all shapes and sizes.  There are even special boxes for wreaths.  My family's Christmas decorations take up a corner of the attic. 
     One memory I have about Christmas trees involves a tree that never was.  At the first church I served, the pastor was expected to lead a children's group known as "Kids for Christ."  Meeting on Tuesday evenings, the group involved Bible study and crafts. 
     Now, let me say that this story actually began, not during the Christmas season, but on the previous Halloween.  Then, too, you should know that every Halloween the church made its van available to take children around the farming community so they could do the Trick or Treat routine.  On Halloween afternoon, I stopped by the home of a boy and his two sisters to let their mother know when to bring the kids to the church that night.  She came to the door dressed as a witch!  Fake spider-webs draped the door and a cauldron was on the porch ready to be filled with a witch's brew.  They were newcomers to the community and I admit being amused at their enthusiasm for Halloween.
     Flash forward a couple months to a Kids for Christ meeting.  Our craft that evening was a Christmas tree ornament.  The boy and his sisters just sat, doing nothing.  I asked why.  "We don't have a Christmas tree," the boy replied and his sisters nodded in agreement.  "Well," I said, "you just don't have it yet.  You'll have one soon."  "No," he insisted, "my parents don't believe in Christmas trees."
     I called the home the next day and told the mother that I hoped the children didn't feel left out.  Their mother said it was okay and then began a lengthy discussion of why Christmas trees are wrong.  She even cited a verse from Isaiah that she said  proved it.  (As it happens, the verse was about idols, not Christmas trees.)   I didn't argue because it was clear I'd be wasting my breath and possibly cause them to leave the church.  
    Over the years, I've often thought about that incident.  Here was a young Christian couple who were absolutely inspired by Halloween (a holiday many Christians find pagan and immoral).  Yet, they were firmly opposed to Christmas trees, so opposed it was clear this mother thought her neighbors were joining the Druids when they put up a tree.
    Sometimes we Christians can be a funny lot. 
    Anyway, this mother would never have to worry about where to store Christmas ornaments.

Christmas in One Word

This message from the prologue to the Gospel of John discusses the concept of the Logos (the word translated as “The Word”).  There was a time when such discussions would have   remained in the seminary or university classroom.  The internet and the availability of scholarly commentaries mean that many Christians now have opportunities to encounter such subjects.  Some of what has been written about the Logos overstates the case for John’s depending on Greek philosophy for his ideas.  I’ve tried to correct that and explain the significance of John’s “Christmas story.”  The sermon was preached on 5 December 2010.

Christmas in One Word

John 1:1-18

He died almost two years ago but I’m sure some still miss his voice.  For almost seventy years he had been on the radio somewhere, most of that time bringing us news and commentary from the heartland.  Of course, I’m talking about Paul Harvey.  I most enjoyed his program “The Rest of the Story.”  Maybe it’s because I enjoy trivia but I find learning some arcane fact about a celebrated person to be great fun. 

For example, he might tell us about a “mama’s boy” whose mother was so domineering he actually hid from her the fact he had a girlfriend.  This mother badgered his superiors until they finally agreed to give him a promotion, making him the youngest person around to hold that position.  Only after a couple more such tales of motherly aggression would Harvey reveal he had been talking about the youngest brigadier in WW I, Douglas MacArthur, and then Harvey would conclude his essay by observing; “Now you know the rest of the story.”

John seemed to write with an intention to let his readers know the rest of the story.

From the very first sentence John lets us know some things that might not have been immediately apparent to the casual observer.  “In the beginning was the Word…”

The Word Unseen

John’s opening words recall the very opening words of the Bible, “In the beginning God…”  There may be several reasons why he chose to commit that bit of plagiarism but I can’t help but wonder if he was trying to signal his readers that what he is about to say is every bit as momentous as the story of the Creation

Here John introduces us to the Logos, the Word.  Introduces us, but not necessarily his first readers.  Many of them, both Jewish and Greek, would have been familiar with the term Logos. 

For the Greeks, the Logos had come to mean the underlying rational principle guiding the universe.   From about the sixth century before Christ the term was used to describe an expression of the divine will or thought, but it was never personal.  John may have known the Greek version of the concept but it’s unlikely he borrowed it from them.

There are enough similar notions in the Old Testament that John could have easily found it there

Among the Jews, the Logos (Word) of God was highly revered.  It was the instrument of Creation. (Gen. 1; Ps 33:6)   Eight times in the first chapter of Genesis God speaks the word and another phase of Creation begins. 

Some Palestinian Jews, fearful of taking God’s Name in vain, actually substituted Logos for Yahweh as they read the Scriptures aloud in the synagogues. 

Then, too, John’s own observations of the One who was the Logos may have prompted him to conclude that the term was appropriate.

What’s important is not the source of John’s terminology but what he says about the Logos.  Listen to his description.

The Logos was Pre-existent. V1 a “In the beginning…”  The New Living Bible’s translation is to the point “In the beginning the Word already existed…” 

It’s hard to wrap our minds around that.  We say “The estimated age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.17 billion years….”  But we struggle when asked what may have been there some 15 billion years ago.  John would tell us the Logos was there.

The Logos was God, fully and completely. V 1c.  “The Word was God…”  The notion here is unequivocal deity.

This is such a clear notion in John’s words that one cult that comes knocking on your door deliberately mistranslates this verse because in four words it contradicts their false teachings about Christ.  They force John to say, “The Word was a god.”

The Logos was in communion with God from the beginning.  This fellowship with God existed from before creation.  The Logos was not a created being, the Logos was eternally in a special relationship with God.  In both verses 1 and 2 John says “the Word was with God” or  “toward God.“  The language suggests a face to face relationship;  on the one hand is says they were on the same plane, equal;  on the other hand, it points to a profound intimacy. 

John assumes the doctrine of the Trinity in the prologue to his Gospel.  The fundamental notion that God has eternally existed as three “Persons” is a profound mystery, but it also points to the reality of an eternal fellowship within what we call the Godhead.

From time to time well-meaning preachers or poets suggest that God Created humankind because He was lonely.  The Bible nowhere suggests that.

What is important here is the fact that the Logos enjoyed this eternal fellowship with God.   As Williams translates verse 2, “He is the One who was face to face with God in the beginning.”  That reality makes what John will eventually say about the Logos all the more shocking.

The Logos was the agent of Creation.  (v 3)  Jews already understood this.  Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,  their starry host by the breath of his mouth.”

  This idea is important because later on John will let us know that the One who was the agent of creation will be the agent of the new creation.  Right now, John is telling us that the Logos is the answer to the old question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?”

The Logos is the source of life and light.  John speaks of a particular event.  He may be speaking on two levels.  Physical light came from the act of creation, the act of the Logos.  At the same time spiritual life has its origin in him, as well  

He not only has bathed the world in physical light, he has shown a spiritual light onto the world.  Sometimes human rebellion and sin has threatened that light but the darkness has never extinguished that light.  The theme of these verses seems to be the unconquerable nature of the Light. 

John may be letting us know that there will be those who try to put out the Light;  he’s also letting us know that that “ain’t gonna happen.”

For most human history the One whom John calls the Word, or the Logos, was unseen, known only through his works.  What John has thus far said about the Logos is enlightening but hardly prepares us for his next shocking statement.  He takes a brief detour to tell us about John the Baptist and then return to the Logos

 In so doing he gives us his Christmas story in only twenty-one Greek words.

The Word Seen

Listen to the shocking thing John has to say about the Logos.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NASB)

Please understand what John is saying here.  It is at the heart of the Christmas story.  It is more significant than mangers, than shepherds, wise men, than gold, frankincense, or myrrh. 

 "The Word became flesh (a particular human named Jesus) and tented with us" or ("lived a while among us").    Think of what John says:  God--the Creator--became a human being and lived for a while among humans.  Some of the religions told of gods posing as men but there is nothing like this.

The awesome truth is that for a while, in a small province under the boot heel of the Romans, God spoke Aramaic with a Galilean accent.

This is a profound mystery.  There are many questions left unanswered, questions concerning the day to day life of an Incarnate God.  In Joseph’s carpenter shop, did Jesus--whose word had created the light pouring through that shop’s windows--abide by the principle “measure twice, cut once?”  We don’t know enough to answer such questions.  We do know that when it was cold, he was cold.  When it was hot, he was hot.  If circumstance ever caused the family larder to be bare, he was hungry.  

As he lay in that manger did the God-Man, the Incarnate Deity we hail in our carols, think to himself, “Boy are you going to be surprised when I grow up!”  As he lay in his crib did he cry at the sound of a thunder clap, the thunder he had created?  We don’t know.

We do know that John thought we should know something more important than the answers to such questions.  So he shares a testimony--the kind an eye-witness would give, and offers a conclusion.

In his testimony he says,   “We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father's unique Son, full of grace and truth.” 

What did John--and the other apostles--see in Jesus?  They saw a glory which could only belong to God, a glory which was reflected in grace and truth.  That, of course, is important.  Grace without truth leaves us ignorant.  Truth without grace leave us lost.

They saw it reflected every day in his life.  Not once did sin diminish that glory.  Time did not stop the outpouring of that grace.  Writing years after his original encounter with Jesus he could still write, “We have all received one blessing after another from the fullness of his gracious love.” (John 1:16).  Every year at Christmas we’re encouraged to give special gifts to our loved ones.  God’s gift to us  the first Christmas was one which never has been exhausted.

This led John to what he saw as the only reasonable conclusion.

1:17.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

 1:18.  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, (only begotten God) who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

John invites a comparison between Moses and Jesus Christ.  He does not denigrate Moses but he does challenge his readers to weigh the impact of Jesus' coming.  Moses gave the Law ;   Jesus Christ, on the other hand, gave merciful forgiveness.  Because the Logos became flesh, our relationship with God is on a new foundation, not one of our own effort but one of grace.

Jesus--the Logos incarnate--has not only brought us grace, he has given us a clearer picture of God.

A key assertion of Christianity says, "If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus."  He reveals God's character.  How can he do this?  William's translation of “only begotten Son” suggests it is because he is "Deity Himself."  The notion of Jesus--the Incarnate Logos-- as the is a crucial part of what John says about him.

.  The Incarnate Logos has a Sonlike relationship with the Father.  It is a unique and unparalleled relationship.  That is part of John’s Christmas message to us.  Jesus Christ was the Son of God in a way that no one else ever has been or ever will be the son (or  daughter) of God.

At Christmas we have a better view of God because God gave us that better view.

Conclusion

As John reaches the end of this Prologue you can almost hear him saying, “Now you know the rest of the story.”

Back when I was in college there was a popular Christian song which we don’t hear much anymore.  It was written by William Booth-Clibborn back in 1921.  Here are the words

Oh, how I love Him
How I adore Him
My breath, my sunshine
My all in all
The great Creator
Became my Savior
And all God's fullness
Dwelleth in Him

Down from His Glory
Ever living story
My God my Savior came
And Jesus was His name
Born in a manger
To His own, a stranger
A Man of sorrows, fears and agony

The great Creator
Became my Savior
And all God's fullness
Dwelleth in Him.

Without reluctance
Flesh and blood His substance
He took the form of man
Revealed the hidden plan
Oh, glorious myst'ry
Sacrifice of Calv'ry
And now I know Thou wert the great "I am"

It’s an old, but maybe, new way to see Christmas.