[Machine transcription]
Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters looking at the gospel reading for today especially where it says
the word became flesh and dwelt among us please be seated. Christmas is here isn’t it wonderful
as the song says it’s the most wonderful time of the year but you know what
Christmas Christmas is weird a virgin teen gets pregnant by a spirit and an
angel tells her about it and her fiance gets directions about their life in
dreams the girl has the baby and she puts them in a feed box and then there’s
angels and shepherds it’s it’s just weird but the non-religious side of
Christmas is pretty weird too okay we put dead or plastic trees in our house
and then decorate them we get candy out of a sock hanging on the fireplace we
send cards to people we don’t usually communicate with all year some people
hope for snow in Texas that is weird yeah elf on a shelf hippos for a present
and then disputes over a song about someone staying or leaving and then the
cap it off there’s this there’s this old guy that lives at the North Pole and he
lives there with elves and reindeer and once a year he packs a sled full of toys
and visits every house in the world going down their chimney
and puts those toys under said dead or plastic tree.
And he’s scary.
Santa Claus is scary.
He sees you when you’re sleeping.
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows if you’ve been bad or good.
Wow!
And we let our kids sit on his lap and send him letters?
people say Christianity is weird and it is Christmas and Christianity is weird
in the gospel reading today it says the word became flesh and dwelt among us
God’s Word became flesh God’s Word that is his will his message his promise
became flesh. That is weird. And this weirdness has a name. We have a fancy
name for it in church. It’s called the incarnation. A fancy word for God
becoming flesh. God becoming human. Of course, this incarnation is in the person
of Jesus Christ, whose birth is the celebration of Him becoming flesh,
becoming human. In Jesus, God becomes human and chooses to dwell with us. This
is so central to the Christian faith, so vital, so weird. This is so weird because
it kind of begs the question why? What kind of a God would want to dwell with
humans? Especially when you consider how weird we are. And what I mean is the
weird things that we do. Things that are wrong. Things that are sinful. Especially
when we we know that things are wrong and we we do them anyway. Or just the
opposite, right? That’s sin. In Romans chapter 7 in the Bible it says, St. Paul
said this about this, about doing, knowing what’s wrong and doing it anyway. He
says, I don’t understand my own actions for I don’t do what I want but I do the
very thing I hate. For I want to do what is right but I don’t. I don’t do the good
I want, but the evil I don’t want, that’s what I do,” he says. This frustration. We
know what’s wrong, we know what’s sinful, and we do it anyway. It’s kind of weird.
We know we shouldn’t hurt others, but we do. We know it’s wrong to lie, cheat, steal,
gossip, be selfish, greedy, or prideful. We’ve all got our own little guilty
pleasure sin that we know is wrong but we like it anyway. Oh what pitifully weird
creatures we are. Sin dwells in us. It lives in us and it comes out of us. I
guess what’s not weird is it’s it’s part of us. It’s in our nature. We even confess
that in the in the confession we are by nature sinful and unclean so what does
God do about this what does he do with us his weird creation well he does
something weird God became flesh as the gospel says he became human but the
incarnation of Jesus wasn’t just some cute, predictable, hallmarky Christmas
kind of thing. Jesus came into our weird, sinful world and became part of it.
Jesus joined our weirdness and he does something weird in it. Jesus not only
dwells in our world but he also suffered in it and died in it that’s a weird
thing for a God to do in speaking about injustice in things that are just a
human could die for human sins only a human can do that in real justice but in
God’s justice it’s only God’s death the sinless Son of God that would be big
enough to do the job. That’s why the incarnation is needed. We need somebody
to come into this world to dwell with us and die for us. That’s what’s really
weird about it is is that becoming flesh and coming into our world is that God
does it for us. Not for his sake, not for his entertainment, not for his pleasure,
But He does it for us.
In spite of our weird and sinful behavior, Jesus comes into our world, God incarnate
and dies for us.
Not only in spite of it, but because of it to forgive us.
To forgive our weird, sinful behavior.
And God weirdly forgives us instead of punishing us.
Jesus takes the punishment. That’s weird. And God forgives us instead. That might
be even weirder. And all of this, this centrality of the incarnation to
Christianity, it’s not only just weird to other religions, it’s detestable.
They’ll argue, what kind of a God becomes flesh? What kind of a God becomes human?
What kind of a God gets dirty, or hungry, or fills a diaper?
What kind of God deals with sinful people, much less wants to dwell with them?
What kind of a God dies?
Why would God do that, they ask.
And well, Christians, we’ve got a weird answer for that.
Why does God do this?
because He is madly and passionately in love with you. He’s madly and
passionately in love with His creation, with all humans, with you. God wants to
save you and to forgive you of your weird sinfulness, and He’s willing to die
for that, willing to die for you for that.
The Incarnation says that although God is so big
and almighty and he can do anything,
God is also so small and humble
that there’s nothing he won’t do for you.
I’m going to repeat that because I thought
it was really good actually, just came up with this.
The Incarnation of Jesus says that God is so almighty
and so big that he can do anything,
but He’s also so small and humble
that there’s nothing He won’t do to save you.
And it doesn’t stop there.
There’s more weirdness to come.
Because not only was it weird enough
that Jesus would die for us,
He got back up.
Jesus rose from the dead
and is still alive.
Still incarnational.
still dwelling with us.
Why?
So that we can live too.
So that we can live forever.
This is the weird way
that God destroys death,
forgives our sins,
and gives us life.
And you know what?
We’re okay with that.
That is weirdness that we can hang on to.
And all of it we take by faith.
We’re okay with it, we believe it, we receive it, we receive it by faith, all of the weirdness
of God becoming flesh, dwelling with us, dying for us, it’s a gift we receive by faith.
Jesus said this in John 11, the one who believes in me will live even though they die.
Yeah, that’s weird, but that’s Christianity.
That’s our faith, the incarnation of our God, becoming flesh to dwell with us, to suffer
like us, and to die for us.
To the world and other religions, yeah, it’s weird, but to those who believe, it is wonderful.
Yes, it still is the most wonderful time of the year.
maybe we could call it wonderfully weird that’s Christmas that is Christianity
it’s weird it’s weird but it’s full of wonder and wonderfully weird is not
something we should shy away from like I said we should take a hold of it we
should embrace it we should flaunt it embrace the weirdness there’s your
lesson for today. As Christians, we hear all kinds of different definitions of
Christianity. Some of it is really syrupy and sentimental or moral or therapeutic
or political. That’s not what Christianity is. We’re much weirder than
that, okay? We’re much more wonderfully weird than that. The world needs to hear
that. It needs to hear the true, wonderfully weirdness of Christianity.
They need to hear the wonderful weirdness that God became flesh and
dwelt among us to live with us, to suffer like us, and to die for them too. Maybe
you know people that need to hear that good news. Or maybe you’re the one that
needs to hear it today, that God is madly and passionately in love with you.
Yeah, Christmas is weird. Christianity is weird. But hey, this is Austin. We’re
supposed to keep Austin weird, right? Well, Christians, we’re doing our part.
Truly, wonderfully, truly, wonderfully weird. We thank God for that. In His name,
Amen.
Now, may the wonderfully weird grace of God,
which passes all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
