SPECIAL DAYS Christmas Eve, 11:00 p.m., 1998

December 24, 1998

LESSONS: Psalm 98; Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-14, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: The Word Becomes Flesh

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. Dr. John Fiedler of First United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas, (1) in "For All the Saints," tells about a story that he read in a magazine.
    1. He presumes that it is true because it was printed in the section where people write in to share an anecdote that happened personally to them.
    2. The story is about an adult child whose mother, a middle-aged matriarch who made an announcement to her children regarding her upcoming birthday.
      1. She said, "This is it! No more birthdays after this.
      2. I'm not celebrating anymore.
      3. I don't want to hear about birthdays anymore.
      4. I don't want you counting.
      5. I don't want to keep track.
      6. Is that understood?"
    3. Her children were not excited about that, but, as this is what their mother wanted, they consented.
    4. The day of her birthday came.
      1. The doorbell rang, she answered it, and there was a florist holding a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
      2. The bouquet was gorgeous, but the florist was very mournful and long-faced.
      3. She showed him into the living room where he placed the flowers on the mantle.
      4. Then he turned in an unusually pastoral manner, patted her on the shoulder, and said, "I'm thinking of you today."
      5. Sadly nodding his head, he walked out.

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    5. She wondered what that was all about.
    6. She was puzzled until she read the card on the bouquet.
      1. It was from her children.
      2. It read, "Mom, wishing you a great day on this, your last birthday."
    7. I suppose that we all, at some point in our lives, feel like this.
      1. Another birthday will come.
      2. How we approach it is up to us.

MAIN BODY:

  1. It is not only our birthdays with which we are concerned.
    1. There is another which comes around and reminds those willing to pay attention that this birth which comes so unnoticed has a genuine impact on life.
    2. Phillips Brooks was an Episcopal priest in Philadelphia, PA.
      1. He wanted to do something unusual for the Children's Christmas program in his church.
      2. He would write his memories of Bethlehem--where he had spent Christmas Eve in 1865.
      3. He started to write: "O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie.
      4. 24 lines flowed from his pen as we have them today.

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in Thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary,
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth!
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to men on earth.

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in;
Be born in us today.
We hear the heavenly angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.

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    1. O holy child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin, and enter in; Be born in us today.
    2. And the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.
  1. The word became flesh for those who have not yet heard.
    1. Jeffrey Burkhardt sent me an e-mail which contained the story of Misha.
    2. Two Babies in the Manger
      1. In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in the public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage.
      2. They related the following story in their own words: It was nearing the holiday season, 1994, time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.
      3. Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. (No colored paper was available in the city.)
      4. Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby's blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States.
      5. The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat-he looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy's manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.
      6. Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift"
      7. And Jesus told me, "If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him-for always."
      8. As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him-FOR ALWAYS.
      9. I've learned that it's not WHAT you have in your life, but WHO you have in your life that counts.

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    3. And the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.
  2. Christ is born also for those who have heard the sounds of Christmas.
    1. We also need to celebrate, to remember his birth.
    2. A 4-year-old boy was waiting with his mother in the doctor's office.
      1. They were discussing all kinds of great issues such as
        1. "What am I doing here?"
        2. (and) "Where's the doctor?"
        3. (and) "Why isn't God married?"--things like that.
        4. Finally, the little boy asked the ultimate question: "Why doesn't God ever just get tired and stop?"
        5. His mother thought a long time before she answered. Then she said, "God is love, and love never gets tired."
      2. God is love and love never gets tired.
        1. We might, just might, argue with that conclusion.
        2. Celebrating Jesus birth reminds us that God's love does not get tired.

CONCLUSION:

  1. Thomas Merton in Mornings With Thomas Merton, (2) reminds us that
    1. God know us.
    2. "He knew that some of us would rebel against his love and his mercy, and that others would love him from the moment that they could love anything, and never change that love. He knew that there would be joy in heaven among the angels of his house for the conversion of some of us...In one sense, we are always traveling, and traveling as if we did not know where we were going. In another sense, we have already arrived. We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are traveling and in darkness. But we already possess him by grace, and therefore, in that sense we have arrived and are dwelling in the light."
  2. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it...The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world (John 1:1-5, 9, NRSV).
  3. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth, (John 1:14, NRSV).

    1. Dr. John Fiedler, "For All the Saints," First United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas, November 2, 1997.

    2. Thomas Merton in Mornings With Thomas Merton, cited in Christianity Today, July 13, 1998, 72.

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