A while back, I saw an interview with Matt Damon, and he was talking about how he basically
only does action movies now.
And the reason why, I never really knew he did anything but action movies, but he used
to do, I guess, non-action movies.
But why he only does action movies now is because with streaming services, people go
to the movies primarily to see action and big special effects, big kind of epics.
And those are the movies that make money.
So it's changed the industry for him and the industry in general.
And it just got me thinking about how the majority of movies that are in the theaters, there
are fantasy or superhero movies or some kind of big epic good versus evil.
And oftentimes, the plot surrounds a villain who tries to become some kind of all-powerful
being or a god-like person.
That's pretty common.
Never in those movies is a villain satisfied with anything but taking over the entire world
or the entire galaxy or whatever it may be.
In every case, when those finite characters seek to become like the infinite god, nothing
goes well.
They don't become loving and benevolent or just, but rather evil, maniacal, and tyrannical.
Power corrupts, and so it does.
And this is a case in our world as well.
Idiomin, he was the ruler of Uganda for years.
He came with promise, left, and they called him the Hitler of Africa.
Power corrupts.
It's never enough.
And regular people become tyrants when regular people try to become like gods.
Human beings ought not to become gods.
It's something that is germane and key all throughout the Bible whenever human beings fashion themselves
as God's bad things happen.
So what do we make of God becoming man?
If humans shouldn't become God, what happens when God becomes man?
And this is what Christmas is about, the incarnation.
God, the Son of God, the eternal Word, being made flesh.
He doesn't cease to be God, but he becomes fully man.
I bring this up as just a bit of a background because the 4th century church father, Athanasius,
wrote a small book.
It's worth your time.
Maybe you read it every year.
It's excellent.
Apart from scripture, it is the most thorough and worthwhile examination of the incarnation.
It's actually called On the Incarnation.
And among other things that Athanasius says, he says a very provocative and scandalous line.
He says this,
God became man so that man might become God.
What did Athanasius mean by such a provocative statement?
Is this a good development in human history?
Or do we have a closeted heretic here in Athanasius?
Why is it that when man becomes God, or tries to, I should say, things go terribly wrong?
The story of humanity is not one of joy.
There's pockets of joy.
There's beautiful things within the human story.
But by and large, it is a story of angst and frustration.
It goes back to the beginning of creation itself.
A few weeks ago, we had a lessons and carols service.
And if you're unfamiliar with it, that's okay.
It is a service where we sing Christmas carols.
And interspersed with those Christmas carols, we read nine portions of scripture that, in a way,
that's not exhaustive, but in a way tells the entire Christian story leading up to John 1.
We start at Genesis chapter 3, the very beginning, at the fall of man and original sin,
where mankind sins and then the plague of perpetual sin continues on.
So we start in Genesis chapter 3.
And we actually end in John chapter 1.
And we see in the biblical story that humanity is plagued with brokenness and sin,
angst and frustration, desire to be like God.
And when they do, things, again, go terribly, terribly wrong.
So the biblical story is one of, among other things,
recounting and examining the darkness of the human condition.
The angst that death is coming and cannot be avoided.
The angst that there is no happy resolution to the story.
That when men and women, but oftentimes men, fashion themselves to be gods,
they become devils instead.
God, in his love and wisdom, sees the brokenness.
Oftentimes, if I start a project and I mess up at the initial kind of bit,
I usually scrap it.
Or I start from the beginning.
I strip down what I've done.
I am not super handy.
I'm not a train wreck either with some hammer and nails.
But seldom do I start a project and it's mistake-free from the beginning to the end.
Seldom, if ever.
So it makes sense to me that God creates everything.
He calls it good.
He creates mankind.
He calls it very good.
And then mankind sins.
In my mind, just hit the reset button.
Start again.
You messed it up.
It's okay.
People mess things up.
God is perfect.
I'm not saying somehow God is not perfect.
But in my mind, you just start again.
You figure it out.
You know?
You regroup.
Okay, it went wrong there.
We're going to adjust.
But instead, we see something different.
The angst, the darkness, the brokenness, the sin, the death.
How does God deal with it?
Well, we see how he deals with it in John 1, verses 1 to 5.
And if you have your Bible, follow along.
We read it already, but it bears repeating.
It says this, verse 1.
In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Here it is, verse 5.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Word, who is God, the Son of God, the Eternal Word, the Creator of all things, the very source of life and light,
does not hit the reset button, but enters into the story itself.
He shines light in the darkness, which is to say that he seeks to fix and restore and redeem.
The incarnation promises that good will triumph over evil, that humanity will not suffer indefinitely in darkness and despair.
It's this beautiful picture of God's mercy and His kindness and His great love for us.
And yet, such a wonderful gift is not embraced by all, for it threatens the status quo.
The thing is, we often enjoy darkness a little too much.
Not because we are necessarily evil, diabolical, tyrannical people,
but because the devil we know sometimes can be better than, in this case, the God we don't know.
We're unfamiliar and therefore uncomfortable with our sin, our brokenness, our angst, the darkness,
being exposed and being healed.
We're going to skip over the portion, verses 6 to 8, that speaks of John the Baptist.
But look with me in verse 9 to 11, and it says this,
The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Although what Jesus did in the incarnation, and when I say the incarnation,
you can think the entirety of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, his entire ministry,
although it would be for all people, not everyone would experience the light,
for darkness has a hold on the human heart.
Our good and godly desires are all too often disordered because of sin.
So, we want to be loved, but we take that desire to be loved,
and all too often turn it into selfishness.
And we hurt others.
We want to have security, but that desire manifests itself in insatiable greed.
We want to enjoy pleasure, but instead our eyes lust and covet after things that are not ours,
and we ought not to have.
We want to be appreciated.
Again, all these things are very good, but when they get disordered, bad things happen.
We want to be appreciated, but what ends up happening is we develop anger and bitterness
when we're overlooked.
You see, darkness has an interesting hold on our lives,
because there's always bits of light that get distorted,
bits of goodness that become bits of evil.
And what ends up happening is when we reject the light, we claim authority over the light.
We say that the light is really darkness, and the darkness is really light,
and we start to see confusion abound within the human condition.
But what happens when we do embrace the light?
When this creator enters into creation,
and he shines life and light into darkness and death,
what happens when we embrace that?
When we bend a knee to Christ the King,
the very essence of everything good and holy and just and loving.
Look with me, verses 12 and 13.
It says this,
But to all who did receive him,
that is the word, that is Christ,
who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God,
who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but born of God.
You see, the God of Scripture, the real and only God,
doesn't interact with mankind to manipulate our affairs,
like Greek gods, or subjugate us,
like the God of Islam,
or get a hold of our hearts,
like the God of secularism and materialism.
But what does he do?
He comes into our experience
to remove our sin and to remedy our death
and conquer the foe of our soul.
The God of Scripture
does not command us to come to him,
but he comes to us,
and he shines the light into every dark corner of our being,
if we would but bend a knee and receive him.
He offers a gift.
Will we say yes?
And what does he do?
He takes humanity upon himself.
And this brings us back to the first part
of that Athanasius provocative statement,
that God became man.
Verse 14 says this,
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.
You see,
the Word became flesh
in the original language.
It's literally,
the Word
became enfleshed
and then
set up a tent amongst us,
which is to say,
came into the very
existence
that he created.
There is no more,
there's not an aspect
of the human creation
that he didn't enter into.
Everything that it was
to become human,
he became.
God himself,
the light that enlightens everything,
the Word that created all things,
becomes like you and I.
It's scandalous to think.
Literally human flesh,
skin,
muscles,
blood,
hair,
nails,
Jesus had kneecaps
and big toes,
lips,
kidneys.
The Word
became flesh.
Light has taken on humanity
and he dwelt among us.
The incarnation proclaims
the entire light,
life of Christ.
When we gather
on Christmas Day
and of course we think of
the baby in the manger,
but really
we're thinking that God
lived amongst us
and died on our behalf.
It's the full life of Christ.
God became man
yet remained God
and he never stopped
becoming God.
This God
again descends
to earth
to become man
and descends
even further
to the point of death,
dying
as a sinful man
even though
he was without sin.
He did not
take
a death,
did not die
on the cross
taking upon
the sin of himself
but taking upon
our sin.
He died
and was buried
in a borrowed grave
and then he rose again
to new life.
It is a beautiful
picture
but also
a wondrous mystery
how the Word
was made flesh
and how he did this.
And it says
that we are invited
to embrace this.
And what happens
when we embrace it?
We are united
to him.
And this brings us
back to the second part
of Athanasius'
provocative statement.
So if God
became man
he did so
so that man
might become God.
I'll just
spare you
any of the fears
around Athanasius
being a heretic.
He was not.
He was an Orthodox
Christian.
He did not truly
believe that God
would allow
and make a way
for regular
human beings
like you and I
to become
exactly like him.
But he said it
in a way
to articulate
that those
that are in Christ
are united to him.
They become a part
of his mystical body.
They will be made
perfect.
So that one day
even though God
made us
our original fathers
father, mother
Adam and Eve
in the garden
perfect
but they had
the propensity
to sin
the possibility
of sin
one day
we will be made
perfect
and it will be
impossible
for us
to sin.
This is what
Athanasius
is getting at.
We will enjoy
the beauty
and majesty
and glory
of heaven
forever
in the presence
of God himself
enjoying his love
never exhausting
his goodness
being with him
forever
and we will be
transformed
into
his likeness
here on earth.
At least we begin
that process
here on earth.
So what does
it look like
for man
to become
God?
What does
it look like
for us
to grow
in holiness
because Christ
has marked us
out?
We are united
to him.
I'll give a
wonderful example.
I mentioned
Idi Amin
at the beginning
a very horrendous
tyrant of the
20th century.
I'll talk about
his contemporary
a man named
Bishop Festo
Kavengra.
Bishop Festo
was a Ugandan
and instead
of going
along
with Idi Amin's
evil
instead of
being corrupted
himself
he opposed
Idi Amin.
Him and
a number
of other
bishops
and clerics
were under
they were
on a government
watch list
his archbishop
was actually
dealt with
and it
caused Bishop
Festo
to run away
and he fled
Uganda.
He fled
Uganda
after one
of his
dear friends
was
dispatched.
Bunch of
kids in the
room.
That was
in 1977.
That same
year
he wrote
a book
called
I Love
Idi Amin.
He wrote
that book
the same
year
that his
good friend
was dispatched.
I Love
Idi Amin
and this
is what he
said
when he
was asked
why he
wrote
this
book.
He said
this
quote
the Holy
Spirit
showed
me
that
I
was
getting
hard
in my
spirit
and that
my
hardness
and bitterness
toward those
who were
persecuting
us could
only bring
spiritual loss.
So I
had to ask
for forgiveness
from the
Lord and
for grace
to love
President Amin
even more.
And then he
would go on
to say
we should
lovingly pray
for those
dictators.
We owe
them the
debt of
love for
they are
part of
those
for whom
Christ shed
his precious
blood.
As long
as they
are still
alive they
are still
redeemable.
By the way
he was
called
the Hitler
of Africa.
Pray for
them that
in the end
they may see
a new way
of life
rather than
a way
of death.
God
God became
man so
that man
might become
God or
better yet
so that we
could grow
in Christ
likeness and
extend his
mercy and
grace and
love wherever
we go.
And friends
this is what
it looks
like.
Bishop
Festo would
live in
exile until
Idi Amin
was deposed
and left
Uganda and
he came
back not
necessarily to
a hero's
welcome because
he lived only
a short time
later and
died of
cancer.
But I'm
telling you
this man
lived as
if Jesus
truly came
in the flesh
lived and
died took
away his
sins even
though he
didn't deserve
it and rose
again to new
life.
Bishop
Festo is
united to
Christ.
He has
become like
his savior.
It's a call
for us and
I mean listen
we don't have
to deal with
Idi Amins.
Children might
feel like their
parents are a
bit like a
tyrannical
dictator but
by and large
we're not having
to deal with
this thank
God.
But there are
people in our
lives you might
be one of those
people in
somebody else's
life where you
just need God's
grace to wash
over you.
God's love to
direct you for
God himself to
transform you and
continually transform
you into
Christ's likeness so
that you can
extend the same
ministry that
Christ extended to
you.
John he ends
this portion in
verse 16 and I
didn't read it in
the gospel reading
but I'll read it
for you now.
It says this
John 1 16
and from his
fullness we have
all received grace
upon grace.
friends it takes
nothing less than
the grace of God
at work in our
lives to
transform us into
Christ's likeness.
The incarnation of
Jesus this is what
it's about.
This is what we
celebrate on Christmas
day.
Let us pray.
Father in heaven we
thank you for
wonderful examples
like Bishop
Festo
like his archbishop
like countless
others who were
lost to history
but faithfully
looked to you
and you gave
them the grace
upon grace they
needed to live out
this life and they
are an example to
us of what it
means to be united
to Christ and to
live like him for
his glory.
Lord we pray that
the incarnation that
we are reminded of
that we are
worshipping you for
this morning that it
will so change our
lives and that we
would be conduits of
God's grace and
love and mercy and
joy so that the
darkness that we
experience in our
own lives but also
in the lives and
situations that we
experience in this
life Lord we might
shine your light and
your life and see
the world transform.
Lord thank you for
the incarnation thank
you for your son
Jesus Christ fully man
and fully God.
Amen.