John's Story

Father, as we prepare to reflect upon your word and to be fed by your word,

Father, we know that we ultimately have come here this morning to be fed by you.

You have no needs.

We are one unending, constant, unfailing need.

And so, Father, we know you do not need our praise.

You love our praise, but you do not need it.

But we come, Father, to receive from you,

to receive grace from you through your word,

through the Holy Communion, through the prayers,

through the songs, through the music,

through the presence of Jesus in our midst.

We desire, Father, to receive from you.

So we ask that your Holy Spirit would grant us hearts that are deeply receptive

to all that you desire to give us and do in our lives this morning.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

So please be seated.

Those of you, if you were here at the beginning,

this is the most unusual church service that we do in the whole year.

It's the most informal church service.

Our numbers range anything from about 19 or 20 people to about 50.

People are just in a bit of a different mood.

I'm not even wearing a clergy shirt.

And our sermon is a bit different, and it's especially different.

I usually intersperse my sermon with some videos.

And this first video we're going to show is a longer video.

It's 12 minutes long.

Usually they're short ones, but we don't have as many kids at this service.

But it fits in very powerfully with the John text that we're going to look at

in our theme of the difference between Christian Christmas and Canadian or secular Christmas.

So please enjoy this video, and then I'll continue on with the sermon topic.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think it's a very, very powerful line.

Before I saw this video, I hadn't realized it was 50 years ago that that iconic picture was first shown.

I was 12 years old when that happened.

You can figure out my age from that.

And I remember it very clearly, actually.

It was quite a momentous thing for those of us who are old enough to remember it.

But I thought the line for the astronaut, that it's far more important and remarkable that God walked on earth

than that a man walked on the moon, it's a very powerful line.

If you turn your Bibles to John chapter 1, that is the message.

John 1 · chapter mention

In a sense, what that is doing is just reflecting what the Bible teaches.

And because John wants to communicate that as clearly as he can.

Each of Matthew and in many ways, each of the gospel writers communicates the divinity of Jesus.

But John does it in a very, very powerful and ingenious way.

If you listen to it like this,

In the beginning was the Word, John chapter 1, verse 1.

John 1:1

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 were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the light, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Let's sort of pause here for a second.

You know, just every Christmas, I've been ordained.

I got ordained in 1985, and so I've now, I think this is, if I'm counting right,

this is my 34th Christmas as a pastor.

So every year I have to reflect on these texts.

And I don't know if I could, I wish I could say that every year I learn something new about them,

but I often do.

And this year, something really struck me about it.

It's just, like, several things about it.

Because I've often puzzled around the word, word.

Like, why did he use something like that?

And this year, two things struck me about it.

The first thing, I've continued to think about my trip to Angola a year and a half ago.

And as some of you know, I had the great privilege of being able, invited to go to a people group

that had just recently heard the gospel.

A missionary organization had figured out a way to connect with a semi-nomadic tribe on the Kalahari Desert.

And so I was there to speak to missionaries, and I had an opportunity to preach to this group.

And I had to preach with two translators, because some of the people spoke Portuguese,

and others just spoke the nomadic language.

So I would say a few words, and then it would be said in Portuguese,

and then it would be said in the language of the semi-nomadic tribe.

And I think I've shared with you, I caused, there'd be sometimes I'd say something which is very simple,

and there'd be this long argument between people as to what the best way was to try to translate that word into the local language.

One of them was when I tried to describe to them, I was just trying to relate to them at the beginning,

and I said I came from a place that had over three meters of snow last winter,

because that's how much snow we get.

They had this long, long, long talk.

It took almost five minutes, because there was no word in their language for snow.

So I ended up translating it that I came from where there were three meters of ice every winter,

which just left them all shaking their head, wondering how you could have three meters of ice land on you and live.

But we just kept on going.

But, you know, but just something simple like that, if you think about it, the challenge of the missionary.

If you think about the challenge of the missionary,

how do you communicate the gospel, Jesus, to a tribe in, a semi-nomadic tribe in the Kalahari?

How do you translate it to the Inuit?

How can you, it's really interesting.

I was in Kenya a couple of years ago, and I shared with the Kenyans that there was an Eskimo with me.

He wasn't with me right then, but he was, I was staying with him.

And they were all unbelievably fascinated that there was an Eskimo in Kenya.

And I said to, I said to my friend, I said, probably if you lined up and said I'm a real Eskimo,

there'd be a whole pile of people who'd want to line up and take your picture with them,

just because it would be so, it was so unusual to them.

But anyway, how do you translate the gospel to the Inuit?

How do you translate the gospel to, I mean, to a sub, you know, a tribe from the Kalahari?

Or to go back, you know, my ancestors, I'm Irish.

So, you know, 17, 1800 years ago, my ancestors stripped themselves naked,

painted themselves blue, and taunted the Romans.

How do you communicate the gospel to people who would think that the way to fight the Romans

is to take all your clothes off and paint yourself blue and yell at them?

I mean, how do you communicate the gospel to all of that?

And if you think about it, it's really complicated.

But John is so brilliant.

He's so brilliant.

That's what struck me this time.

Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he uses simple things.

He's going to communicate who Jesus is with such simple words as light and darkness and word and life.

Every culture has those types of ideas.

Every culture.

And, you know, and so you could go back and you could read, you know,

we have really learned people here like Victor,

and he could probably tell you all about the Greek idea of the Logos and all that.

And sure, that was there in John's mind probably,

because John would be the first one to say that he's not smart enough.

He just learned from Jesus, and he's just passing it on.

But you think about, just think about how unbelievably exciting it would be

if when they went to the moon,

when they went to the moon and they went to leave their plaque,

if they found something that obviously was a word on the moon.

Like, it would be electrifying.

It would be the front page news of every newspaper on the planet.

It would be the lead news item of every news station on the planet.

It would be tweeted a hundred gazillion,

and it would break the internet.

It would be tweeted so much.

And in fact, if there was a picture of it,

it would break Instagram.

It would be shared so much.

If they found something that looked like a word on Mars or on the Earth.

Why?

Well, because a word, what does a word communicate to you?

A word communicates that there's a person,

that there's a mind,

that there's an intelligence,

that there's language,

that there's communication,

that there's relationship.

It would communicate all of these things

in a very, very powerful way.

One of the problems I had,

when I spoke to this tribe,

when I preached,

and one of the problems I had

was I used the word Holy Spirit.

And they didn't have,

they had, I don't know,

I'm going to get this wrong.

I think they had like 37 different words for spirit.

But they didn't have a word for spirit in general.

They'd have a way to identify a spirit

connected to a tree and a bush

and this and this and this and this.

But they didn't have one word for it.

That was another one of those words that I was sharing.

And it caused this long discussion

as to how on earth they were going to try to communicate it.

And fortunately or unfortunately,

I used that word about 20 times in the sermon actually.

But here you have these very, very, very simple words.

And what it's communicating

is at the very, very beginning,

the God who does exist,

one of the best ways to understand

that the God who exists

is that he is the word.

And we,

if you just think about

what it would be like to see word

on a planet like Mars,

or if all of a sudden

one of the space stations

that listened to communications

from the deep space

got something from the deep space

that was clearly a word

and would be electrifying

because if all of it signifies,

in the same way,

John effortlessly is trying to communicate

something very important about God

and something very important

about human beginnings.

See, every system of thought,

either,

the first,

the thing that causes all things to be

is either a who or a what.

Christians believe that a what makes no sense.

And as science progresses,

everyday science makes the fact,

the idea that everything began with a what

rather than a who,

more and more impossible.

It's the thing that doesn't want to be reported

in the press.

Every development of science

shows that evolution

is more and more impossible.

All the time.

Every day.

Science is just pushing it

to become less and less possible.

So here we have this wonderful text

and he's trying to communicate

in a very powerful way.

Listen to it again.

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 were made through him

and without him

was not anything made that was made.

In him was life

and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness

and the darkness has not overcome it.

I was doing it from memory.

I didn't have my glasses.

And then it goes on.

It talks about John the Baptist.

And then if you just come on down,

if you just want to skip down

to verse 11,

he came to his own

and his own people

did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him,

who believed in his name,

he gave the right

to become children of God

who were born not of blood

nor of the will of the flesh

nor of the will of man

but of God.

And the Word became flesh

and dwelt among us

and we have seen his glory,

glory as of the only Son

from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

You see,

what John is trying to communicate

is that God walked on the earth.

And I'm just going to unpack that

very briefly in two ways,

but could we just see a short video

before I do that?

Thank you.

God's children by adoption

and by grace.

It will be his accomplishment,

his sacrifice,

his perfect life,

which is somehow offered for us.

And here's two takeaways for us.

If you could put the first one up,

Andrew.

My situation must be vastly worse

than I imagine

if the Word became flesh

to live,

if the Word became flesh

had to live and die to save me.

I think I'm missing a word there.

My grammar bad?

Yes.

My situation must be vastly worse

than I imagine

if the Word became flesh

to live and die to save me.

It really struck me this week.

If God couldn't do it

some other way,

if he couldn't have just

sacrificed an angel

or, I don't know,

Barb or Andrew or me

or something like that

and we were all saved,

my situation must be vastly worse

than I imagine

even when I am

in my most depressed state

if the Word became flesh

to live and die to save me

and to save you.

Our situation is vastly worse.

Our doom is far deeper.

But at the same time

that this is communicating this to us,

it's also communicating something else

because, you see,

the very same text says

that if we put our faith

and trust in Jesus,

that he gives us the right

to become the children of God,

that he makes us the children of God

when we believe and receive him.

And if on one hand,

this story is in a very odd way,

in a very subtle way,

communicating how vastly worse

our situation is

than we ever could possibly imagine

that the Word had to become flesh

to live and die to save us.

At the same time,

when we put our faith

and trust in Jesus,

what does that say

about our security?

If you could put up

the next point, Andrew.

My need for a secure salvation

must be vastly greater

than I imagine

if the Word became flesh

to live and die to save me.

Not only is my need vastly greater,

but my need for a secure salvation

must be vastly greater.

And the Lord has provided us

this unbelievably secure salvation,

the very same God

who created all things,

who is the source of all life

and all ability to think

and reason,

that very same God

who formed and created the planets

is the same God

who died on the cross

to save me.

And when I put my faith

and trust in Him,

I am putting my faith

and trust in something greater

than the entire sum

of the universe,

that which holds

all of the universe together.

That is the security

of my hope

and my salvation

when I trust in Him.

And one of my themes

throughout these last sermons

is we Christians in the West

and Canada

are increasingly being confused

by the difference

by Canadian Christmas

and Christian Christmas.

They're two different things.

Maybe at one time

they were one thing,

but now they've become

two different things

and we're increasingly confused.

And I'm not trying to solve

what Christian Christmas should be,

but if you go back

and you look at the Ten Commandments

and you see about the way

they talk about

keeping the Sabbath

and the Lord's Day,

you see some very basic principle

expressed in those commandments

about how it is

that we're to celebrate

the Lord's Day

and from that

how to celebrate

any type of act

of Christian remembrance.

And I've summarized it like this

if you could put it up.

In celebration of His birth,

remember with others,

rejoice with others,

recommit with others,

feast with others.

See, in a sense

that's what every Lord's Day

is to be about.

On the Lord's Day

we gather together

with others

to remember,

to remember Jesus,

to remember the Gospel,

to remember who He is,

what He's accomplished.

And so when we come

on a Sunday,

on the Lord's Day,

we come to rejoice

at who He is

and what He's accomplished for us

and what He's done for us.

And it's not just a matter

of rejoicing,

but to recommit.

To recommit once again

to the Gospel,

recommit to Jesus

and say,

Lord, you know,

this week I had a terrible week.

I denied you constantly.

I was mean and rude to my wife.

I was terrible to my kids.

I was an atrocious boss

or an atrocious guy

under a boss

or gal under a boss.

And I'm just so glad

I can come to you once again

and I can say,

I've really messed up this week.

Thank you that my security

is in you, Jesus.

And I recommit to you again.

I recommit to you.

And then the Lord's Day

is also a day of feasting

with others.

And so, you know,

I guess all the message is

is that we've shared

the four fundamental

primary stories of Christmas.

And I don't know

how Christian Christmas

will develop over the years,

but I know that

however it develops,

it will develop

around these four pillars

where once again,

every year we say,

we're going to remember

once again,

the birth of Jesus.

Comes up throughout the year,

obviously,

different sermon texts

and all that,

but there's going to be

one time a year

we're going to always

really commit

and we're going to remember

with others

and we're going to rejoice

with others

and we're going to reconnect

with others

and we're going to feast

with others

as we celebrate

and allow the fundamental stories

to shape who we are

and shape how we celebrate,

how we remember,

how we rejoice

and how we recommit.

Just going to show

one last video

before we,

and then I'll say

a closing prayer

and we'll move on

with our service.

Just a piece of

free advertisement.

I don't know,

we Anglicans

don't get often

many chances

to pat ourselves

on the back

so to speak

in a humble,

unassuming way.

The space video

was done

by an Anglican evangelist.

Yes,

that is not an oxymoron,

Anglican evangelist,

by an Anglican evangelist

out of England

called Glenn Scrivener

and this last thing,

you're going to see

Glenn Scrivener

and he's done

this other thing as well

and as a good evangelist,

all of his two things

were free.

We had to pay

for the middle video

but the other two things

are completely free.

You can go look him up.

He's with an organization

called Speak Life

in the UK

and he also has

a weekly podcast

by the way

about how to share

the faith

and do other types

of things

which can be very helpful

but let's watch

this last one

and then we'll just

close in prayer

and we'll keep on

with our service.

every idiot

who goes about

with Merry Christmas

on his lips

should be boiled

with his own pudding

and buried

with a stake of holly

through his heart.

I like the darkness

at least it's cheap

I keep adjusted

to the gloom

the creeping doom

that soon consumes

the earth in tombs

I hum its tune

assume its tone

and make my home

right here

in the only world

we know

this world of woe

let others

throw their festive flings

I think I'll keep

my five gold rings

four calling birds

three French hens

two turtle doves

she loves the doves

yeah shove it

on the card above

no never fear my dear

I'll pay it all

next year

for now we'll drink

to Christmas cheer

and deck the halls

with tinsel bling

forget what our

tomorrows bring

we'll raise a glass

of festive sherry

eat and drink

and be quite merry

Merry Christmas everyone

and what's your wish

from me my son

a hamper full

of festive fun

with snowdrops

rainbows

furry mittens

unicorns

and mule and kittens

Santa's sleigh

may bring them near

but were you good

for me this year

why yes

I think

I didn't sink

as low as some

I know

although

hey no

Father Christmas

mind your own business

the kids might believe

but they are naive

I know for certain

I see through the curtain

but when you strip it all bare

what exactly is there

see Scrooge looks

darkness full in the face

embracing the chill

but he loses the will

to hope

the shopper copes better

throws off fetters

wears garish sweaters

but becomes a debtor

spending now

but nothing later

tending down

into death's crater

Santa offers Christmas cheer

the most wonderful time

of the year

but is it real

at least Scrooge

knew the deal

with the dark

in this stark world

can we face facts

like Scrooge

then paint it rouge

like the shopper

proper banter

like Santa

but below the ho ho ho

can we know a truth

beneath treacle

good news of great joy

for all people

are we able to strip back

to the stable

this fable made flesh

our maker enmeshed

in the mess

to bless us

possess us

and be heaven's yes

to our race

to embrace us in grace

ever more in our place

pledging flesh

blood and bone

to exchange a throne

for a manger

endangering all

to be present to you

to be God's present

to you

if you're Santa

or shopper

or any such thing

if you're shepherd

or Mary

or Joseph

or king

for this

the herald angels sing

in him the light shines

and all is forgiven

to you

this Christmas child

is given

let's just stand

for a moment

stretch a bit

and let's close

the sermon

part in prayer

Father thank you

for Jesus

Father thank you

we confess before you

that we often

flatter ourselves

too much

to detect

or hate our own sin

we flatter ourselves

to forget

how

how doomed we were

apart from Jesus

and

we thank you

Father

that you saw

our great need

and you

provided the only way

for us to be made

right with you

when you're the

the word was made flesh

the word became flesh

when Jesus came amongst us

to live a perfect life

that we could not live

and die

the death

that we could not die

bearing the doom

that we could not bear

and eat it all for us

out of love

Father help us

to remember this

to recommit to this

to rejoice with this

and to celebrate

and to feast

around the memory

and this we ask

in the name of Jesus

your son and our savior

amen