Do not be afraid, for the Word has become flesh...

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 29, 2024
1 Christmas, C
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147
John 1:1-18 

“[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” “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.”

When Jesus was born, the Word of God became human. The Word of God which spoke creation into existence became human. The word of God which gave the law of Israel became human. The Word of God which spoke through the prophets became human, and most importantly of all, the Word of God which is God became human.

When God became human, an angel of the Lord went to nearby shepherds and told them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

That little baby, wrapped in bands of cloth, surrounded by family and no small amount of animals was God born among us as the human child, Jesus. The good news of great joy is that God became human and was born among us, as one of us, uniting all that we are in perfect union with God.

That’s good news of great joy, and yet we so often hear it told as remarkably bad news, don’t we. “If you don’t believe in Jesus, God’s gonna get you,” right? We do talk a lot about God’s judgement of the wicked, the unjust, and those who gain wealth by oppressing others. Thank God, God has judgement on such people.

Here’s the good news: even that judgement and that wickedness has been united to God in Jesus. That’s the whole point of the incarnation, of the Word of God becoming human; everything about us has been united to God. Nothing can separate us from God and God’s love. Amidst all the storms and crud of life all around us, we are perfectly united to God: in our faith, in our fears, in our kindness and in our sins. We are forever one with God through that baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

Now, I said earlier that Jesus, in the manger, was surrounded family as well as all the animals. I don’t just mean Mary and Joseph. As much as I love our manger scenes with more cows and sheep than people, as in a barn set away from the house, that was almost certainly not the case. The room where they were was attached to and part of the house where animals could be kept. They were probably at the home of a family member. So, Jesus was surrounded by Mary, Joseph, and other family members celebrating the birth of Mary’s firstborn son, and they were surrounded by animals.

Thinking of this manger scene of family and animals, I was reminded of Noah’s ark. The Manger, the birth of Jesus, was like a little ark, a little sanctuary amidst the flood of all the crazy that was going on around them. Rome was oppressing the Jewish people, there were fanatical religious leaders calling for armed rebellion, tax collectors and soldiers were extorting money from people, and as it turned out, the king of Israel was a crazy enough dude that he thought murdering babies was a good idea.

So yeah, life was like a terrible flood of crazy all around and in the midst of that flood, you had this ark, this manger in which God was born among us surrounded by loved ones and animals, a safe place from the storm, and a new beginning.

On that night, in that manger ark, our new life of perfect union with God began, and with that new life, God began once again God’s life of love among us. Remember that revolution of repentance I talked about last Sunday, Mary, singing her song of praise to God and of revolution on the earth? Remember, I said that God’s revolution for us is meant to change the crazy of the status quo not by violent revolution, but by the non-violent revolution of repentance? The next step is the non-violent revolution of love.

The Word of God became human because our union with God is what gives us the strength to love in the face of all of the crazy going on around us.

The strength to love in the face of oppression, the strength to love in the face of assault, the strength to love even in the face of murder and rape. That is the revolution of love that God gave us on that night when Jesus was born. We saw Jesus live out that revolution of love all the way through his death and into life everlasting beyond death.

We still see Jesus’ revolution of love being lived out among us in our world today. I think of the time after South African after apartheid. There was terrible violence and oppression during apartheid, and there was violence done in ending apartheid. Faced with this boiling rage among the people of South Africa, Nelson Mandella set up the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, and he asked Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu to lead the commission.

The commission offered amnesty for people involved in apartheid and in the violence done against apartheid. The commission sought truth from those who had harmed so many through their oppression and violence, and victims got to hear from those who had harmed them. The victims got to know that the perpetrators understood what they had done and see the humanity of their victims.

The work done through the Peace and Reconciliation Commission wasn’t perfect, and not everyone agreed with the work, but the work overall brought peace and reconciliation to a nation on the verge of collapse through conflict. Jesus’ revolution of love paved the way for the people of South Africa to move beyond the hurts of the past and find some peace amidst the hurt and hatred, amidst storms of the crazy of life.

Archbishop Tutu wrote:

To forgive is…a process that does not exclude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things: the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger.

However, when I talk of forgiveness I mean the belief that you can come out the other side a better person. A better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred. Remaining in that state locks you in a state of victimhood, making you almost dependent on the perpetrator.

If you can find it in yourself to forgive, then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator.

Freedom and salvation. Freedom from sin, including freedom from the sins of others. That is the salvation of Jesus and Jesus’ revolution of love. Gathering with Mary and Joseph, with family, and with animals around the manger and the babe wrapped in bands of cloth, we can rest in that ark of freedom and salvation amidst the storms of life around us. The Word of God has become human, uniting us perfectly with God. All of our faith, all of our fears, all of our kindness, and all of our sins have been united to God. So, “Do not be afraid, for we have been brought good news of great joy for all the people: to us is born…in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord,” for the Word has become flesh and dwells among us.