Christmas Day 2024

A while back, I saw an interview with Matt Damon, and he was talking about how he basically

only does action movies now.

And the reason why, I never really knew he did anything but action movies, but he used

to do, I guess, non-action movies.

But why he only does action movies now is because with streaming services, people go

to the movies primarily to see action and big special effects, big kind of epics.

And those are the movies that make money.

So it's changed the industry for him and the industry in general.

And it just got me thinking about how the majority of movies that are in the theaters, there

are fantasy or superhero movies or some kind of big epic good versus evil.

And oftentimes, the plot surrounds a villain who tries to become some kind of all-powerful

being or a god-like person.

That's pretty common.

Never in those movies is a villain satisfied with anything but taking over the entire world

or the entire galaxy or whatever it may be.

In every case, when those finite characters seek to become like the infinite god, nothing

goes well.

They don't become loving and benevolent or just, but rather evil, maniacal, and tyrannical.

Power corrupts, and so it does.

And this is a case in our world as well.

Idiomin, he was the ruler of Uganda for years.

He came with promise, left, and they called him the Hitler of Africa.

Power corrupts.

It's never enough.

And regular people become tyrants when regular people try to become like gods.

Human beings ought not to become gods.

It's something that is germane and key all throughout the Bible whenever human beings fashion themselves

as God's bad things happen.

So what do we make of God becoming man?

If humans shouldn't become God, what happens when God becomes man?

And this is what Christmas is about, the incarnation.

God, the Son of God, the eternal Word, being made flesh.

He doesn't cease to be God, but he becomes fully man.

I bring this up as just a bit of a background because the 4th century church father, Athanasius,

wrote a small book.

It's worth your time.

Maybe you read it every year.

It's excellent.

Apart from scripture, it is the most thorough and worthwhile examination of the incarnation.

It's actually called On the Incarnation.

And among other things that Athanasius says, he says a very provocative and scandalous line.

He says this,

God became man so that man might become God.

What did Athanasius mean by such a provocative statement?

Is this a good development in human history?

Or do we have a closeted heretic here in Athanasius?

Why is it that when man becomes God, or tries to, I should say, things go terribly wrong?

The story of humanity is not one of joy.

There's pockets of joy.

There's beautiful things within the human story.

But by and large, it is a story of angst and frustration.

It goes back to the beginning of creation itself.

A few weeks ago, we had a lessons and carols service.

And if you're unfamiliar with it, that's okay.

It is a service where we sing Christmas carols.

And interspersed with those Christmas carols, we read nine portions of scripture that, in a way,

that's not exhaustive, but in a way tells the entire Christian story leading up to John 1.

We start at Genesis chapter 3, the very beginning, at the fall of man and original sin,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

where mankind sins and then the plague of perpetual sin continues on.

So we start in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And we actually end in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

And we see in the biblical story that humanity is plagued with brokenness and sin,

angst and frustration, desire to be like God.

And when they do, things, again, go terribly, terribly wrong.

So the biblical story is one of, among other things,

recounting and examining the darkness of the human condition.

The angst that death is coming and cannot be avoided.

The angst that there is no happy resolution to the story.

That when men and women, but oftentimes men, fashion themselves to be gods,

they become devils instead.

God, in his love and wisdom, sees the brokenness.

Oftentimes, if I start a project and I mess up at the initial kind of bit,

I usually scrap it.

Or I start from the beginning.

I strip down what I've done.

I am not super handy.

I'm not a train wreck either with some hammer and nails.

But seldom do I start a project and it's mistake-free from the beginning to the end.

Seldom, if ever.

So it makes sense to me that God creates everything.

He calls it good.

He creates mankind.

He calls it very good.

And then mankind sins.

In my mind, just hit the reset button.

Start again.

You messed it up.

It's okay.

People mess things up.

God is perfect.

I'm not saying somehow God is not perfect.

But in my mind, you just start again.

You figure it out.

You know?

You regroup.

Okay, it went wrong there.

We're going to adjust.

But instead, we see something different.

The angst, the darkness, the brokenness, the sin, the death.

How does God deal with it?

Well, we see how he deals with it in John 1, verses 1 to 5.

John 1:1–5

And if you have your Bible, follow along.

We read it already, but it bears repeating.

It says this, verse 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 life was the light of men.

Here it is, verse 5.

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

The Word, who is God, the Son of God, the Eternal Word, the Creator of all things, the very source of life and light,

does not hit the reset button, but enters into the story itself.

He shines light in the darkness, which is to say that he seeks to fix and restore and redeem.

The incarnation promises that good will triumph over evil, that humanity will not suffer indefinitely in darkness and despair.

It's this beautiful picture of God's mercy and His kindness and His great love for us.

And yet, such a wonderful gift is not embraced by all, for it threatens the status quo.

The thing is, we often enjoy darkness a little too much.

Not because we are necessarily evil, diabolical, tyrannical people,

but because the devil we know sometimes can be better than, in this case, the God we don't know.

We're unfamiliar and therefore uncomfortable with our sin, our brokenness, our angst, the darkness,

being exposed and being healed.

We're going to skip over the portion, verses 6 to 8, that speaks of John the Baptist.

But look with me in verse 9 to 11, and it says this,

The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Although what Jesus did in the incarnation, and when I say the incarnation,

you can think the entirety of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, his entire ministry,

although it would be for all people, not everyone would experience the light,

for darkness has a hold on the human heart.

Our good and godly desires are all too often disordered because of sin.

So, we want to be loved, but we take that desire to be loved,

and all too often turn it into selfishness.

And we hurt others.

We want to have security, but that desire manifests itself in insatiable greed.

We want to enjoy pleasure, but instead our eyes lust and covet after things that are not ours,

and we ought not to have.

We want to be appreciated.

Again, all these things are very good, but when they get disordered, bad things happen.

We want to be appreciated, but what ends up happening is we develop anger and bitterness

when we're overlooked.

You see, darkness has an interesting hold on our lives,

because there's always bits of light that get distorted,

bits of goodness that become bits of evil.

And what ends up happening is when we reject the light, we claim authority over the light.

We say that the light is really darkness, and the darkness is really light,

and we start to see confusion abound within the human condition.

But what happens when we do embrace the light?

When this creator enters into creation,

and he shines life and light into darkness and death,

what happens when we embrace that?

When we bend a knee to Christ the King,

the very essence of everything good and holy and just and loving.

Look with me, verses 12 and 13.

It says this,

But to all who did receive him,

that is the word, that is Christ,

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 born of God.

You see, the God of Scripture, the real and only God,

doesn't interact with mankind to manipulate our affairs,

like Greek gods, or subjugate us,

like the God of Islam,

or get a hold of our hearts,

like the God of secularism and materialism.

But what does he do?

He comes into our experience

to remove our sin and to remedy our death

and conquer the foe of our soul.

The God of Scripture

does not command us to come to him,

but he comes to us,

and he shines the light into every dark corner of our being,

if we would but bend a knee and receive him.

He offers a gift.

Will we say yes?

And what does he do?

He takes humanity upon himself.

And this brings us back to the first part

of that Athanasius provocative statement,

that God became man.

Verse 14 says this,

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,

the Word became flesh

in the original language.

It's literally,

the Word

became enfleshed

and then

set up a tent amongst us,

which is to say,

came into the very

existence

that he created.

There is no more,

there's not an aspect

of the human creation

that he didn't enter into.

Everything that it was

to become human,

he became.

God himself,

the light that enlightens everything,

the Word that created all things,

becomes like you and I.

It's scandalous to think.

Literally human flesh,

skin,

muscles,

blood,

hair,

nails,

Jesus had kneecaps

and big toes,

lips,

kidneys.

The Word

became flesh.

Light has taken on humanity

and he dwelt among us.

The incarnation proclaims

the entire light,

life of Christ.

When we gather

on Christmas Day

and of course we think of

the baby in the manger,

but really

we're thinking that God

lived amongst us

and died on our behalf.

It's the full life of Christ.

God became man

yet remained God

and he never stopped

becoming God.

This God

again descends

to earth

to become man

and descends

even further

to the point of death,

dying

as a sinful man

even though

he was without sin.

He did not

take

a death,

did not die

on the cross

taking upon

the sin of himself

but taking upon

our sin.

He died

and was buried

in a borrowed grave

and then he rose again

to new life.

It is a beautiful

picture

but also

a wondrous mystery

how the Word

was made flesh

and how he did this.

And it says

that we are invited

to embrace this.

And what happens

when we embrace it?

We are united

to him.

And this brings us

back to the second part

of Athanasius'

provocative statement.

So if God

became man

he did so

so that man

might become God.

I'll just

spare you

any of the fears

around Athanasius

being a heretic.

He was not.

He was an Orthodox

Christian.

He did not truly

believe that God

would allow

and make a way

for regular

human beings

like you and I

to become

exactly like him.

But he said it

in a way

to articulate

that those

that are in Christ

are united to him.

They become a part

of his mystical body.

They will be made

perfect.

So that one day

even though God

made us

our original fathers

father, mother

Adam and Eve

in the garden

perfect

but they had

the propensity

to sin

the possibility

of sin

one day

we will be made

perfect

and it will be

impossible

for us

to sin.

This is what

Athanasius

is getting at.

We will enjoy

the beauty

and majesty

and glory

of heaven

forever

in the presence

of God himself

enjoying his love

never exhausting

his goodness

being with him

forever

and we will be

transformed

into

his likeness

here on earth.

At least we begin

that process

here on earth.

So what does

it look like

for man

to become

God?

What does

it look like

for us

to grow

in holiness

because Christ

has marked us

out?

We are united

to him.

I'll give a

wonderful example.

I mentioned

Idi Amin

at the beginning

a very horrendous

tyrant of the

20th century.

I'll talk about

his contemporary

a man named

Bishop Festo

Kavengra.

Bishop Festo

was a Ugandan

and instead

of going

along

with Idi Amin's

evil

instead of

being corrupted

himself

he opposed

Idi Amin.

Him and

a number

of other

bishops

and clerics

were under

they were

on a government

watch list

his archbishop

was actually

dealt with

and it

caused Bishop

Festo

to run away

and he fled

Uganda.

He fled

Uganda

after one

of his

dear friends

was

dispatched.

Bunch of

kids in the

room.

That was

in 1977.

That same

year

he wrote

a book

called

I Love

Idi Amin.

He wrote

that book

the same

year

that his

good friend

was dispatched.

I Love

Idi Amin

and this

is what he

said

when he

was asked

why he

wrote

this

book.

He said

this

quote

the Holy

Spirit

showed

me

that

I

was

getting

hard

in my

spirit

and that

my

hardness

and bitterness

toward those

who were

persecuting

us could

only bring

spiritual loss.

So I

had to ask

for forgiveness

from the

Lord and

for grace

to love

President Amin

even more.

And then he

would go on

to say

we should

lovingly pray

for those

dictators.

We owe

them the

debt of

love for

they are

part of

those

for whom

Christ shed

his precious

blood.

As long

as they

are still

alive they

are still

redeemable.

By the way

he was

called

the Hitler

of Africa.

Pray for

them that

in the end

they may see

a new way

of life

rather than

a way

of death.

God

God became

man so

that man

might become

God or

better yet

so that we

could grow

in Christ

likeness and

extend his

mercy and

grace and

love wherever

we go.

And friends

this is what

it looks

like.

Bishop

Festo would

live in

exile until

Idi Amin

was deposed

and left

Uganda and

he came

back not

necessarily to

a hero's

welcome because

he lived only

a short time

later and

died of

cancer.

But I'm

telling you

this man

this man

lived as

if Jesus

truly came

in the flesh

lived and

died took

away his

sins even

though he

didn't deserve

it and rose

again to new

life.

Bishop

Festo is

united to

Christ.

He has

become like

his savior.

It's a call

for us and

I mean listen

we don't have

to deal with

Idi Amins.

Children might

feel like their

parents are a

bit like a

tyrannical

dictator but

by and large

we're not having

to deal with

this thank

God.

But there are

people in our

lives you might

be one of those

people in

somebody else's

life where you

just need God's

grace to wash

over you.

God's love to

direct you for

God himself to

transform you and

continually transform

you into

Christ's likeness so

that you can

extend the same

ministry that

Christ extended to

you.

John he ends

this portion in

verse 16 and I

didn't read it in

the gospel reading

but I'll read it

for you now.

It says this

John 1 16

and from his

fullness we have

all received grace

upon grace.

friends it takes

nothing less than

the grace of God

at work in our

lives to

transform us into

Christ's likeness.

The incarnation of

Jesus this is what

it's about.

This is what we

celebrate on Christmas

day.

Let us pray.

Father in heaven we

thank you for

wonderful examples

like Bishop

Festo

like his archbishop

like countless

others who were

lost to history

but faithfully

looked to you

and you gave

them the grace

upon grace they

needed to live out

this life and they

are an example to

us of what it

means to be united

to Christ and to

live like him for

his glory.

Lord we pray that

the incarnation that

we are reminded of

that we are

worshipping you for

this morning that it

will so change our

lives and that we

would be conduits of

God's grace and

love and mercy and

joy so that the

darkness that we

experience in our

own lives but also

in the lives and

situations that we

experience in this

life Lord we might

shine your light and

your life and see

the world transform.

Lord thank you for

the incarnation thank

you for your son

Jesus Christ fully man

and fully God.

Amen.