Christmas Message
The impressive words of Luke’s second chapter
have been repeated over and over again in the past
few weeks by radio, television, and the press. The
story of our lord's birth is familiar to almost
everyone.
There is no more beautiful passage of scripture
than John’s first chapter to tell us of that joy.
Maybe this is the message the department stores
ought to play over and over again as they push their wares upon us. John
calls Christ “the Word” which, if you note carefully, in the Bible is
capitalized. In other words, he is saying that this Word is a living Word,
not spoken or printed word. He is telling us about the great God who
gives us our life. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and lived
among us. And right there is the Christmas message.
John identifies this Word made flesh, the Christ child born in a manger,
with the work of creation. “All things were made by him, and without
him was not anything made that was made.” In the beginning of time
when the Father brought this vast universe into being, and the spirit of
God moved upon the face of the waters, this Jesus, who was made flesh
in Bethlehem, shared in that mighty work of creation. Together, with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, He spoke “let there be” and all that exists
came to be. And now, wonder of wonders, this eternal Son of God, and
creator of the universe Himself, became a creature, flesh, like one of us.
How mysterious and exciting! Paul thought so too, when he wrote,
“Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.”
Light and life belong together. Christ is the life, and he is also “the light”.
But what does that mean?
It means that he takes away the darkness that surrounds us and replaces it
with light. And, of course, the words which stand in contrast here are
light and darkness.
In the last few years it has been said that scientists now believe, from
what they have observed from nature, that the sequence of the creation
story is pretty accurate. In other words, the order of creation recorded in
Genesis is appropriate. That story in the Bible reverses the process of
nature as we have thought about it in the past. We have learned how the
light, and all source of light to us on this earth, is from the sun. Accounts
of evolution and other theories lead us to think, whether we are aware of it
or not, that the sun is the center of life. But here in Genesis we read that
God, first of all, created light. Then he created the firmament. Later in the
16th verse he says: "And God made the two great lights, the greater to rule
the day and the lesser to rule the night."
Now, even the ancient writer could hardly have been so blind and innocent
to have failed to see that light comes from the sun. So when he placed the
creation of light before the creation of the sun and moon, he must have intended
to say something quite specific, which he could not say in any other
way.
And of course, in scripture, darkness is identified with sin. Christ's purpose
in coming was to deliver us from the darkness of sin and death.
For you and me the ancient prophecy has been fulfilled. This is our greatest
of all Christmas gifts. In our world of darkness, we have light. That light
shines in our darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
-Pastor Starkey
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