Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

The Feast of the Nativity of our Lord

Text: John 1: 1-14

Theme: The Story is all about Jesus

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.

What is the Christmas story all about: Its all about our need for remedy here where we live. During this Advent season we have explored this reality in the shadows of Bethlehem. The Christmas story is about the fallen condition of things here on earth - the corrupt state of affairs with which we have to contend. We are an occupied people: occupied by the world of sin and the Devil’s dominion. The bottom line of living in the shadows is that we are not in a position to get out of them or master them for our own good. We cannot control them and therefore we cannot control our own destinies and make everything come out OK for ourselves. We are not able to fashion for ourselves or our loved ones a set of principles to be followed faithfully to guarantee that all will work out well for us. In fact, it is just the opposite. We face grim realities of fallenness that promise that things will not work out for us even if the best laid plans are carried through successfully.

Nevertheless, we gather together here this morning knowing that the Christmas story is about more than the dreary realities of this world that have us in their grip. It is about some real good news. It is about Jesus. Yes, the Christmas story is all about Jesus. But it is more than just about the baby Jesus we beheld last night and this morning in the manger. It is a story that began within the Holy Triune God Himself . . . revealed in His Words and Promises throughout the Old Testament . . . brought to life and light in the Holy Nativity of Christ Jesus our Lord . . . accomplished by His sacrificial death upon the Cross . . . made available for all the world in His Resurrection from the dead . . . and continuously lived within His one holy Christian and Apostolic Church (in heaven and on earth). And it is here in the life of the Church, where it has become -- and still becomes -- your story, your real life in Christ.

From the babe in the manger, God has provided for us an amazing view of the greatest story ever to be told. The story is about the Christ child, Jesus. But different from the view of him in the manger as we behold him in Matthew and Luke - it is our text in John that wishes to expand our view of Christmas into a huge epic that spans time and eternity. The entry of the Eternal Word of God into the world is John’s Christmas story. The story is both told by the Word and it is about the Word. For the Word with which this story is told is more than language or communication, more than paper and ink, more than simply sound-waves moving through the air. This Word in the beginning was not only with God - he is God by Whom all things were made (and without whom nothing was made that has been made). And this divine Word has become flesh and lives among us. This Word incarnate narrates the story of the Holy Triune God with His own flesh and blood . . . and He continues to narrate that story -and brings it to life - among you. In Jesus we see our Maker and redeemer personally and apart from him God remains just an abstract concept.

As the conception of the incarnate Word was announced to the Virgin Mary -- and that Word became flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood -- so does that same Word of God come to you, to be conceived in you (as it were) and born in you today. His Word to you is forgiveness and life, whereby He lifts you up from the frenzied disarray of your sinful existence in a sinful world to give to you His story - filled with real meaning and purpose. . . and a happy ending. This incarnate Word who is now named Jesus has come to give you His own divine, eternal story in the flesh. The One Who made you, Who crafted you by His Word and Spirit -- Who has given you all that you are and all that you have -- Who made the world in which you live . . . He was not content or willing that you should remain in your sin, or be under its subjection. --this very Word of God has taken your flesh and blood to be His own; and it is in that humble frailty that we now behold Him in the manger. He has gone on to bear your griefs and carry all your sorrows . . . throughout the course of an ordinary human life (with all the joys and heartaches, ups and downs of your own story, save only without sin) . . . all the way to the Cross. The Word who was babied among us and named Jesus, grows in wisdom and stature and then suffers and dies for your sins. His cross becomes the battle field where He gains the victory over all the forces of evil.

From the story of the eternal Word now become the baby Jesus, you and I also have received a story that is being played out in time and in eternity. Because Jesus becomes your story . . . your sin, your death, your battles with the Devil, are taken on and defeated by Him. Indeed, the story given to Jesus by the Father is to take your story and make it his own. Your death because of sin becomes his death to sin. Your battle with the world, the flesh and the Devil becomes His battle, but then also a stage for His victory. But, then, you also join His story . . . His victory over all the powers of darkness–his life and fellowship with the Father, and His glory and light which will enlighten and lift you up forever. . . these now are written into your life and future. In the story of Jesus you have a story . . . it is a story of Good News, with a happy ending.

Christmas celebrates the birthday of the Incarnate Word. The story takes on flesh and dwells among us. Your baptism marks the birthday of when you were born into the family of God. It marks the day when you became a part of the Christmas story. You were not there at the beginning, but you shall surely be there at the beginning of the end when the Word returns to bring the story to an end and a new beginning.

This is what Christmas is all about. It is the real joy we gain from traveling to Bethlehem and viewing the baby Jesus. It is the realization that as you hear the Christmas story, again, again, and again, it never gets old. It is always new, because it is about this Word become flesh . . . it is about this Jesus, this one who will save his people from their sins . . . it is about this Immanuel, this God with us . . . It is about the new life and refreshment that comes again and again for the first time to sinners who die to sin and are raised again and again. As you hear THIS story, you know, don’t you, that you are no mere spectator. You have been taken up into it. Jesus has claimed you for himself and therefore you have become a part of His story as you have become a part of his body, the Church. The story about Jesus is a story that in your baptism and through the eyes of faith, you realize is a story also about you. It is about how your Creator and Redeemer has come into this world to give you life and light. To give you deliverance from a fallen world . . . to give you victory over your own sinful nature . . . to rout the Devil with all his works and ways and send them all to Hell. To restore you to the position of royal sons and daughters in his household and kingdom forever.

That is quite a story isn’t it! And it all here this day for us to behold with a stable and a few animals, where Joseph, Mary, a few shaken-up shepherds, and, of course, each of us here, staring into a feed trough beholding the eternal Word of God who has become the baby Jesus. A blessed and Merry Christmas to you all. A-men.