Sermon for December 26, 2021 House of Prayer Lutheran Church Rev. Karl-John N. Stone

Observed as Christmas Day John 1:1-14; Isaiah 52:1-7; Psalm 98

Did you ever hear a song, and something about that song strikes you as just right? You love the lyrics, the melody, the harmony, the chord progression. You love the instrumentation and the style of it. You never get tired of listening to it, and whenever you hear it, your face lights up, and maybe you start to sing along, and you want others to join in. That song—whichever one it is for you—just seems like it has always existed, and you can’t imagine a world where this song has not existed.

It’s like this song has always been sung, it’s always been shared with others, it’s even always been written down in musical notation. This song—you can hear it, you can sing it, you can play it, you can even hold the music in your hands and look at it.

And that is like “the Word” as described in John’s gospel, chapter 1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And this Word is what we now know as Jesus Christ. He is the “song of God” if you will, who has been sung from all eternity, and yet he is a song that is always new, always making room for more and more to become involved; a song that brings light to everyone’s life; a song that shares love wherever it is heard; and a song that empowers others to go and share that light and life themselves.

It’s a song that makes you feel that it’s good to be alive, good to be human, good to be a body inhabiting this earth, good to be connected in community with others; good to know that you are one small part of a vast, beautiful, and amazing creation that goes from the tiniest microscopic particle on earth all the way to the largest, densest, incomprehensibly-far-away corner of the universe. It’s a song that inspires your mind in creativity, and shines a light on the true nature of reality; a song that fills you with hope that comes from experiencing grace, and a gift that kindles in your heart the power of a living faith. And because of that, it’s a song that inspires your soul to face any darkness before you with the confidence that something better awaits on the other side.

This kind of song is what happens in the Incarnation that we celebrate on Christmas. The Incarnation, meaning “the Word became flesh”—that God took on our human nature and our lot, being born in a particular time and place as the person Jesus, as well as existing eternally and being available to all times and places as the Christ; and that being fully God and fully human he made all of time and life holy and precious.

The Incarnation that we celebrate on Christmas is not just about Jesus being born to redeem us with God’s peace, justice, mercy, and salvation in this time and for all eternity—as wonderful and worthy of praise as that is! Christmas is not only a time to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, but it’s also a time to celebrate our own birthdays, because “to all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

What an amazing possibility that God has opened in this world, to be adopted as God’s own children! Because the Word became flesh and lived among us, God has given us the gift of being born into a new identity and reality—set free from sin, set free to love—claimed by God, and connected to one another and to the whole cosmos. What a song of joy to sing, for the Lord who has done such marvelous things! Amen.