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December 25, 2002
Christmas Day
John 1:1-14
Pastor Robert Raasch

Celebrate God's Greatest Gift

1. A Gift Delivered in a Tent
2. A Gift Unrecognized by the World
3. A Gift Full of Grace and Truth

Well, most of your presents should be opened by now, right? Maybe you opened them last night. Maybe early this morning. So, which gift are you most fired up about? Did you get THAT X-Box that you just can't wait to play with? Maybe your mom or dad has to pull you away from it to get you to church today. Or maybe you received a stunning piece of jewelry. Or maybe your husband sprung for something to pamper you with, like a foot spa or a back massager. Or maybe if you are of the male persuasion, your greatest gift is a gift card to Fleet Farm or Home Depot or Gander Mountain. I expect that we all have one gift that we're especially excited about. And chances are, that one gift is different for each one of us. Or is it?

Is there any chance that if we were to all sit down and think about what our greatest Christmas gift is this year, we'd all come up with the very same gift? Could it be that we would all think of a gift not wrapped in pretty paper, but rather, a gift wrapped in rags? Not a gift under the tree, but a gift laid in a feed bunk? Not a gift from Santa Claus, but a gift from God? I mean, isn't that why you are all here this morning? I don't think you are here to simply thank God for a video game or a bottle of perfume or a crescent wrench you received for Christmas. I believe that like me you are here to thank God for the greatest gift anyone has ever received. And so let's do that this morning. On this Christmas Day, let us together:

Celebrate God's Greatest Gift

Here in our text, we'll see that God's gift of the Christchild is:

1. A Gift Delivered in a Tent
2. A Gift Unrecognized by the World
3. A Gift Full of Grace and Truth

First, God's greatest gift was a gift delivered in a tent. Now maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Wait a minute. What do you mean, delivered in a tent? I don't think the Bible says anything about Mary giving birth to a son in a tent. St. Luke says that Mary laid her son in a manger, but doesn't say anything about a tent. And you know, you're right. Luke doesn't say anything about a tent. But John does, right here in our text. John writes, "The Word became flesh and lived for awhile among us." Now, you're maybe thinking, "I still don't hear anything about a tent." What we need to do is get behind that phrase "he lived for awhile among us." The Greek word there is "skanuow." It means literally, "to pitch a tent or to tabernacle." So, what is what is John saying here? He's saying that the Word, that is God, or more specifically, the Second Person of the Godhead, took on human flesh and pitched his tent with mankind. He lived for a while among us.

Now you think about what an awesome thing that is. The birth of the Christchild means that the Almighty God of the universe, the one who lives in unapproachable light, the one whom no sinful human being can look at and live-that all-glorious God wrapped himself in human flesh (you might say that he climbed inside the tent of a human body) and he allowed himself to be delivered into this world as, of all things, a baby. Can you imagine what Mary and Joseph must have thought as they looked at this newly delivered baby and realized, "Wow! This child is God. This is Immanuel: God with us. This is God in the flesh!"

My friends, you realize, that that Child still means the same thing for you and me today! The birth of the Christchild means that God is with us. It means that God cared enough for the fallen human race that he came down here and lived as one of us. When you feel like God is just an idea or a force out there somewhere, or if you feel like God is a million miles away, take a closer look at that baby in the manger. For there you will find your God in the flesh. A God who can be seen and touched and handled.

Hmmm. If only we could see and touch that God in the flesh like Mary and Joseph could do. Wait a minute. Even though we don't have God in the form of a baby to see and touch, that doesn't mean that you and I don't have God in the flesh present here today. In a very short while you and I will gather here at God's altar and what will we receive? Yes, we will receive bread and wine. But more than that. According to God's promise, we will receive Jesus' very body and blood. The very same body which he wrapped himself in a child. The very same body he offered up for us on the cross.

Maybe some of you saw that we were going to celebrate Holy Communion on Christmas Day and thought to yourself, "Why would you put those two things together: Communion and Christmas?!?" But if you think about it, isn't there a definite connection between the two? Both are celebrations of God's presence among us. Just as surely as God came in bodily form at Christmas, so also God comes in body and blood in Holy Communion. Both are very visible reminders of God's greatest gift to mankind, the gift of a Savior from sin.

What a shame it is that not everyone to whom God wants to give his gift in fact realizes what a tremendous God has given. Or, as St. John puts it here in our text, God's greatest Christmas gift in many ways is II. A Gift Unrecognized by the World.

John writes, "[Jesus] was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." Certainly these words are true in a number of ways. On the one hand, many of Jesus' own countrymen did not recognize who he truly was. When Jesus said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was born, I am", the Jews tried to stone him to death. When he did not fit their concept of a Messiah, they nailed him to a cross. Certainly, it could be said that the Jews of Jesus' day did not recognize Jesus as God's Son and their Savior.

But couldn't the same thing be said of so many people today? How many people do you think see that baby lying in a manger to be God? How many people would acknowledge that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one comes to the Father except through him? People may admit that there was once a Jewish girl who gave birth to a child whom a lot of people thought was pretty special. But to say that child was God, who demands my obedience and without whom I'm doomed to hell-no, that's something that the world as a whole refuses to recognize. Satan still has the majority of the people in the world wearing blinders.

And yet, is that kind of spiritual blindness, that kind of hard-hearted obstinacy reserved only for the people "out there"? Or are there times when you and I display that same kind of attitude in our lives? We're willing to say that our greatest gift is in a manger, but then we act like our most important gifts are under the tree. Instead of allowing Jesus to be the focal point of our lives, we keep pushing him to the sidelines, relegating him to one hour of the week or one or two holidays of the year. Remember what St. John writes in his first epistle? "If we claim to have fellowship with [God], and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth." "The man who says, 'I know God,' but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him."

I don't know about you, but when I think about how often I've said I was going to do what God commands-and then I didn't; when I think about how often I've refused to walk in the light but instead clung to the darkness, kind of like a rat that just hates to come out into the light, but instead slinks along the shadows of the back alley, when I think about how often I've made decisions on the basis of what's right for me, rather than what's pleasing to God, man, I feel like such a hypocrite. When I compare what God expects of me, with where I am, I find myself thinking, "What a hopeless excuse for a Christian I am! Do I even belong here to day?" In fact, maybe you feel the same way on occasion. What right do you and I have to be here? How can we possibly celebrate God's greatest gift when we so regularly mistreat that gift? My friends, the answer to that question is found in the Gift itself. Thank God that the Gift he has given is: III. A Gift Full of Grace and Truth.

Now, what does John mean when he says that Jesus "came from the Father, full of grace and truth?" It means that Jesus did not come into this world as an expression of God's anger over our sin. Rather, Jesus was born in the world as an expression of God's love for sinners. If you want to know about how the Almighty, All knowing God feels about you as a weak and faltering sinner, then look at Jesus and hear him say, "Come to me you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Listen to Jesus intercede for those who were crucifying him, "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

My friends, let's face it. Jesus didn't come to save perfect people. He came to save sinners. God doesn't say, "Once you get your act together, come and see me." He doesn't say, "Once your life is all straightened out and your heart is pure, then come and worship me." No, because Jesus is a Savior full of grace and truth, he says, "I don't care who you are or what you have done. I don't care how dirty you are; I'm going to wash your sins away.

In that sense, Jesus is a little bit like a gift certificate to PDQ Car Wash. If you get one of those gift certificate for Christmas, can you imagine reading in the fine print on the bottom of the certificate the words, "This certificate can only be used if your car is already clean. No dirty cars allowed." Are you kidding? What's the point of a gift certificate to a car wash if your car has to be clean before you can use it? No, that certificate should be unconditional. It shouldn't matter how dirty your car is. A true gift certificate should entitle you to a free car what even if your car is a mess.

My friends, that's the kind of gift certificate God has given to you and me in Christ. God says that there are no strings attached, no conditions that need to be fulfilled. God simply says, "Here it is. A free wash for your soul. In Christ, I'm giving you full forgiveness for your sins. I'm giving you life as a child of God. I'm giving you heaven as your eternal home-at no cost to you, but at a tremendous cost to my Son.

And how can you know it? How can you know that God's gift certificate is valid-that his gift to you is real? You can know it because God has given you his word on it. And if God has given you his word, you can believe it. And when you believe it, what happens? Listen one more time to what John says, "To those who believed in [Jesus'] name, he gave the right to become children of God." Isn't that something? By the faith that God worked in your heart and mine, God has adopted us into his family. We are his dearly loved children.

You know, it's been said that Christmas makes everyone feel like a kid again. And maybe you did feel like jumping up and down when you opened that special present this year. But that gift under the tree can't compare to the gift in the manger. For while the gift under the tree may leave you feeling like a kid again, only the gift in the manger can truly make you a child again. God's gift of his Son, in the flesh, is my proof and yours, that God's love is real, that our faith in him is valid, and our status in his eyes is a precious child and heir of heaven. Now there's a Christmas gift worth celebrating today and every day. Amen.