Too Quiet
The Problem With Christmas - Part 4
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Luke 2:1-20
She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him in snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.
Luke 2:7
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
"God and Jesus," we often say, as if they are separate. And often the Holy Spirit barely gets honorable mention.
Yet we worship GOD the Father, GOD the Son, and GOD the Holy Spirit... God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity.
Even with our theological framework of this great mystery, that God himself came to earth and put on flesh to dwell among us and show us how to live, we still tend to distance the human Christ from the Almighty Heavenly Being whom we call God.
God often feels so distant, so Holy, so other, so incomprehensible, and sometimes even unapproachable. We talk as if God's got bigger problems to deal with than our petty concerns, but often this is only an excuse to cover up the pain we feel from the prayers we think God didn't answer. After all, why should we expect the Creator of the Universe to be concerned about our jobs, our health, even our insignificant lives or the lives of our loved ones. Everybody struggles. Everybody dies. Why should God care?
Babies, on the other hand, are close. We wrap them in our arms. We care for them. We hold them close and take joy in their smiles, their bright innocent eyes, their laughter, their warmth. We feel responsible to protect them in their vulnerable state. We don't look away for a second. We keep them under constant supervision for years to make sure no harm comes to them. Babies are nothing like God.
And yet we are to believe that God became a baby? That an all powerful God made himself so weak and vulnerable?
We believe God gave us babies... children... as a precious gift. We even believe that God gave us his only Son, Jesus... even Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. God sent his son into the world to show us how much he loves us.
But Jesus is so much more than God's gift. Jesus is so much more than a symbol of God's love.
Jesus is God.
Baby Jesus is God.
Take a few moments to wrap your mind around that if you can. Have you ever really thought about what that means?
Does the thought of the God you worship on Sundays being a vulnerable baby bother you at all?
Does it make you uncomfortable that God had to be clothed and fed and changed by a teenage mother?
Does it surprise you that God had to be taught to walk and talk and learn right and wrong from a common craftsman named Joseph?
Maybe if we're really honest about our answers to those questions... if we're really honest about the lump in our throat and the tears in our eyes when we truly accept that God became a baby... we might finally realize that God is not too distant at all.
What if the opposite is true?
What if our real problem is that God is just a little too close for comfort?
"So Hard to Believe" – by: Craig J. Sefa
Verse 1:
Here I am, face to face with a faceless God
Gazing deep into the eyes of the all-seeing one
How can i hold you when I'm wrapped in your arms?
How can i feed the bread of life?
How can this baby have known me in the womb?
How can the angel's words be true?
Refrain:
All of my life, I've tried so hard to believe
In a God so high above, I wondered could you hear me
But now you're here, wrapped in my flesh and bone
And I'm still tryin' O Lord, so hard to believe
Verse 2:
Giver of life itself bleeding to death
Very breath of creation now taking your last breath
Have those metal spikes pierced you eternally?
Do the scars I gave you still remain?
How can I live with God’s blood on my hands?
Guilty yet forgiven by grace
Refrain
All of my life, I've tried so hard to believe
In a God so high above, I wondered could you hear me
But now you're here, wrapped in my flesh and bone
And I'm still tryin' O Lord, so hard to believe
Bridge:
The word who spoke creation into being
Now born in the flesh and torn upon a tree,
Oh how absurd that God would give his Son
As a precious gift for me, a sinner, yet your child.
Refrain
All of my life, I've tried so hard to believe
In a God so high above, I wondered could you hear me
But now you're here, wrapped in my flesh and bone
And I'm still tryin' O Lord, so hard to believe