Sermons for the Month
The Arrival of Touchable Grace
DATE: December 26th, 2004
SERVICE: First Sunday of Christmas
TEXT: John 1:1-18To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
The celebration of our Lord's birthday continues today, and as a part of the celebration many people have given gifts to one another. So, now that the packages are opened, but perhaps still occupying space under the tree, does one present stand out as a favorite? Or, for those who may have retired from exchanging gifts, can you reflect on years-gone-by and conjure up in your minds the image of a toy or a book that was special?
I can, although surprisingly it's not the dolls named Susie and Kitty who still sit in my bedroom or the "Little House" books that are on my shelf that immediately come to mind. Instead, the image I see is a set of nesting barrels.
They were plastic and the largest one was about 8 inches tall and was bright red. When you twisted it open there was another barrel inside; I think there were six of them. For some reason this simple toy fascinated me. I especially liked the last barrel; it was tiny - about the size of the eraser on the end of a pencil - and it was bright green. Amazingly, it opened and I always hoped to find another miniscule barrel inside.
Those barrels caused me to contemplate infinity for the first time as I imagined tinier and tinier barrels until they became so small that they were no longer visible to the human eye.
For some odd reason it was the barrels came to mind this week not just when I was remembering Christmas gifts but also as I reflected on one phrase in today's Gospel lesson. It was verse 16. "From his (Jesus') fullness we have all received grace upon grace."
In other words, the infant whose birth we are celebrating is full to the brim with truth and grace, the very attributes of God. And it is from the one who is full of truth and grace and we receive grace upon grace.
The sense of this is that we have received grace in infinite amounts. That verse could have been translated "grace on top of grace" - a stack of grace reaching into the heavens! Before I say more - just so we are all on the same page - perhaps I should define grace.
The sentences in the Bible Dictionary are a bit complicated, so let me use my own. Grace is the love, the forgiveness, the blessings of God that is given to people even though they have done nothing to earn or deserve it.
Therefore, to say that we have all received grace on top of grace means that Divine love, forgiveness and blessings are ours' in a inexhaustible supply. Regardless of our need for grace, the supply is greater. Think about that regardless of our need for grace, the supply is greater.
So, it's like those barrels of my childhood that taught me about infinity; I would open one and see another and I'd unscrew that one and another barrel would be there. In my imagination there was always one more; they never ran out. And that's the way it is with the gift of grace; it never runs out.
That's a concept that may be difficult for us to grasp. So, God helped us out by sending Jesus to us; I like to think of him as touchable grace. In Verse 14 we are eloquently reminded, "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."
As I said earlier this baby was full to the brim with the very attributes of God. That should not surprise us since before he was born into this human world the one we call Jesus - referred to as "the Word" in John 1 - was of the very same character and quality and essence and being of God. (Barclay, William, The Daily Study Bible, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1)
This Word participated in bringing order to the formless void and light to the darkness as the world was created. For thousands of years this Word loved humanity and guided them through the law and the prophets. It never seemed to be enough, though; somehow people could not grasp the inexhaustible love of God and allow it to rule their lives.
So the Word became touchable grace, a person, who lived in this imperfect world. It's interesting that the word that is translated as "lived" in this verse is actually "tabernacled". ("And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.") That means little to us but was quite significant to the first Christians who remembered how the Israelites traveled with the tabernacle - an elaborate tent that served as a symbol of God's presence in their midst.
The message is clear - God who once lived with them in the tent came to live with them in the flesh. And while their ancestors could not see the face of God and live, they saw God's glory in the face of Jesus, for those who have seen him have seen God.
What we are talking about today is much, much more than a touching story about a baby who was born to poor parents in a barn in Bethlehem. It's even much more than a beautiful picture of a choir of angels singing in the night sky, as amazing as that is. What we are talking about today is the heart and soul of Christian theology, the profound message that God came to us and that God's grace is unstoppable and infinite.
In his article, "The Greatest Gift of All" William R. Matthews quotes Thomas Merton who wrote, "The root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved that one is loved by God." Indeed, Mr. Matthews writes, "I want to share with you this December the insight that God, throughout my long life, has given me: God never gives up loving us." ("The Lutheran" December 2004, pg. 7)
On this final Sunday of 2004 what better message is there for us than that? We have not earned it, we don't deserve it, but in Jesus we have received grace upon grace, grace on top of grace, grace in unending supply.
It's as if each time we need grace - because we have sinned, or because we are sad, or because our faith is wavering - someone hands us a container marked "grace" and no matter how often we open it, it is never empty.
We may have sung "Happy Birthday" to Jesus today, and given and received many memorable gifts as part of his birthday celebration, but no gift is as significant as the gift of our Lord himself and the infinite grace we all have received in him. AMEN