Is Christmas Over?

 This is the sermon I preached on 1/5/15 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text is John 1:10-18. 

Now, much of the excitement of Christmas is over. For some people, it was over as they picked up the wrapping paper from opened gifts and threw it out. For others, vacations are finished and grandkids are back to school. Today is the second Sunday after Christmas. The bell ringers for the Salvation Army are gone, and the special efforts to help the poor may not be mentioned as much as they were throughout Christmas. 

So, now everything is over for another year or is it? Is Christmas over? The church calendar says it is still Christmas until tomorrow, January 6, Epiphany, when we celebrate the coming of the wise men to Jesus. 

What happened at that first Christmas? What is still happening? “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” as our gospel declares. How does Jesus make God known? He came as one of us, among us. “It is God the only Son, This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day.”

Can you imagine someone moving into your neighborhood and giving you gifts? Seems strange, doesn't it? If anything, we would go over to our new neighbors, acquaint ourselves with them, maybe give them a welcoming gift, like a plate of cookies. 

Now I’m digging far into the past. Does anyone here remember something called the Welcome Wagon? When you were new to a neighborhood, someone would come to the door with all kinds of information about the area and some goodies. The company still exists, but coupons and information come through the mail. 

But when Jesus moved into our neighborhood, he was the one giving gifts. And oh the gifts that God showers upon us: we are made to be our true selves, we are seeing God with our own eyes, we are given God’s generosity and truth, gift giving, God’s endless knowing and understanding! God could be seen and touched. Jesus is Emanuel, God with us, God close by and always with us. 

Maybe we are trying to run from God. We don’t like where God is leading us. We can move out of the neighborhood, but guess what, God moves in again and again. One of my favorite Psalms is Ps. 139. These verses seem to apply to us today:

Where can I go from your spirit?

 Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

    and your right hand shall hold me fast.

We cannot escape God.

This is where our purpose as the church, the community of faith, we as God’s people, comes in. Incarnation, what happened at Christmas, is more than when Jesus came as a baby. God comes to us through each other and through the sacraments. God comes to us today in bread and wine. God is made known to others through us as we let the Holy Spirit work through us, as we live incarnational lives of faith.

A lot of good stuff has been happening at St. Timothy. We have continued to feed hungry children through the 5 and 2 Ministry. We have called each other, sent cards and kept in touch in various ways through Caring and Sharing. A group is going this year to Honduras to work with our missionaries there. We have prayed for each other and so much more. All of this is part of making the Father known. “This mission of Jesus is picked up in the last verse of our text: ‘No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day’… [Jesus] 'interprets' the Father for us.” 

We do not know what this year will bring. There may be big changes ahead for our families. The economic times remain uncertain: those without jobs can’t be sure they will find work, those with jobs can’t be sure they will keep them. Such things can increase stress. (Scott Hoezee)

This is when we especially need God. This is when we as a faith community become the eyes and ears and mouth and hands and feet of God for others. This is when the words of the hymn, “Love has Come,” ring true for us.

Later in our service, we will confess together in the words of the Creed that we believe in Christ’s coming to us, being born of the Virgin Mary, of his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. Concerning this, Luther wrote, “…the entire Gospel which we preach is based on this, that we properly understand this article as that upon which our salvation and all our happiness rest…” 

We have started a new year. We don’t know what it will bring. Are we looking for signs of God's presence?  Just look at the people here in these pews and out in their cars. We will see the eyes and ears and mouth and hands and feet of God, the God who moved into our neighborhood, who came down to us. 

Let us pray:

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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