Father, as we prepare to reflect upon your word and to be fed by your word,
Father, we know that we ultimately have come here this morning to be fed by you.
You have no needs.
We are one unending, constant, unfailing need.
And so, Father, we know you do not need our praise.
You love our praise, but you do not need it.
But we come, Father, to receive from you,
to receive grace from you through your word,
through the Holy Communion, through the prayers,
through the songs, through the music,
through the presence of Jesus in our midst.
We desire, Father, to receive from you.
So we ask that your Holy Spirit would grant us hearts that are deeply receptive
to all that you desire to give us and do in our lives this morning.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
So please be seated.
Those of you, if you were here at the beginning,
this is the most unusual church service that we do in the whole year.
It's the most informal church service.
Our numbers range anything from about 19 or 20 people to about 50.
People are just in a bit of a different mood.
I'm not even wearing a clergy shirt.
And our sermon is a bit different, and it's especially different.
I usually intersperse my sermon with some videos.
And this first video we're going to show is a longer video.
It's 12 minutes long.
Usually they're short ones, but we don't have as many kids at this service.
But it fits in very powerfully with the John text that we're going to look at
in our theme of the difference between Christian Christmas and Canadian or secular Christmas.
So please enjoy this video, and then I'll continue on with the sermon topic.
Thank you.
I think it's a very, very powerful line.
Before I saw this video, I hadn't realized it was 50 years ago that that iconic picture was first shown.
I was 12 years old when that happened.
You can figure out my age from that.
And I remember it very clearly, actually.
It was quite a momentous thing for those of us who are old enough to remember it.
But I thought the line for the astronaut, that it's far more important and remarkable that God walked on earth
than that a man walked on the moon, it's a very powerful line.
If you turn your Bibles to John chapter 1, that is the message.
In a sense, what that is doing is just reflecting what the Bible teaches.
And because John wants to communicate that as clearly as he can.
Each of Matthew and in many ways, each of the gospel writers communicates the divinity of Jesus.
But John does it in a very, very powerful and ingenious way.
If you listen to it like this,
In the beginning was the Word, John chapter 1, 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 light, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Let's sort of pause here for a second.
You know, just every Christmas, I've been ordained.
I got ordained in 1985, and so I've now, I think this is, if I'm counting right,
this is my 34th Christmas as a pastor.
So every year I have to reflect on these texts.
And I don't know if I could, I wish I could say that every year I learn something new about them,
but I often do.
And this year, something really struck me about it.
It's just, like, several things about it.
Because I've often puzzled around the word, word.
Like, why did he use something like that?
And this year, two things struck me about it.
The first thing, I've continued to think about my trip to Angola a year and a half ago.
And as some of you know, I had the great privilege of being able, invited to go to a people group
that had just recently heard the gospel.
A missionary organization had figured out a way to connect with a semi-nomadic tribe on the Kalahari Desert.
And so I was there to speak to missionaries, and I had an opportunity to preach to this group.
And I had to preach with two translators, because some of the people spoke Portuguese,
and others just spoke the nomadic language.
So I would say a few words, and then it would be said in Portuguese,
and then it would be said in the language of the semi-nomadic tribe.
And I think I've shared with you, I caused, there'd be sometimes I'd say something which is very simple,
and there'd be this long argument between people as to what the best way was to try to translate that word into the local language.
One of them was when I tried to describe to them, I was just trying to relate to them at the beginning,
and I said I came from a place that had over three meters of snow last winter,
because that's how much snow we get.
They had this long, long, long talk.
It took almost five minutes, because there was no word in their language for snow.
So I ended up translating it that I came from where there were three meters of ice every winter,
which just left them all shaking their head, wondering how you could have three meters of ice land on you and live.
But we just kept on going.
But, you know, but just something simple like that, if you think about it, the challenge of the missionary.
If you think about the challenge of the missionary,
how do you communicate the gospel, Jesus, to a tribe in, a semi-nomadic tribe in the Kalahari?
How do you translate it to the Inuit?
How can you, it's really interesting.
I was in Kenya a couple of years ago, and I shared with the Kenyans that there was an Eskimo with me.
He wasn't with me right then, but he was, I was staying with him.
And they were all unbelievably fascinated that there was an Eskimo in Kenya.
And I said to, I said to my friend, I said, probably if you lined up and said I'm a real Eskimo,
there'd be a whole pile of people who'd want to line up and take your picture with them,
just because it would be so, it was so unusual to them.
But anyway, how do you translate the gospel to the Inuit?
How do you translate the gospel to, I mean, to a sub, you know, a tribe from the Kalahari?
Or to go back, you know, my ancestors, I'm Irish.
So, you know, 17, 1800 years ago, my ancestors stripped themselves naked,
painted themselves blue, and taunted the Romans.
How do you communicate the gospel to people who would think that the way to fight the Romans
is to take all your clothes off and paint yourself blue and yell at them?
I mean, how do you communicate the gospel to all of that?
And if you think about it, it's really complicated.
But John is so brilliant.
He's so brilliant.
That's what struck me this time.
Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he uses simple things.
He's going to communicate who Jesus is with such simple words as light and darkness and word and life.
Every culture has those types of ideas.
Every culture.
And, you know, and so you could go back and you could read, you know,
we have really learned people here like Victor,
and he could probably tell you all about the Greek idea of the Logos and all that.
And sure, that was there in John's mind probably,
because John would be the first one to say that he's not smart enough.
He just learned from Jesus, and he's just passing it on.
But you think about, just think about how unbelievably exciting it would be
if when they went to the moon,
when they went to the moon and they went to leave their plaque,
if they found something that obviously was a word on the moon.
Like, it would be electrifying.
It would be the front page news of every newspaper on the planet.
It would be the lead news item of every news station on the planet.
It would be tweeted a hundred gazillion,
and it would break the internet.
It would be tweeted so much.
And in fact, if there was a picture of it,
it would break Instagram.
It would be shared so much.
If they found something that looked like a word on Mars or on the Earth.
Why?
Well, because a word, what does a word communicate to you?
A word communicates that there's a person,
that there's a mind,
that there's an intelligence,
that there's language,
that there's communication,
that there's relationship.
It would communicate all of these things
in a very, very powerful way.
One of the problems I had,
when I spoke to this tribe,
when I preached,
and one of the problems I had
was I used the word Holy Spirit.
And they didn't have,
they had, I don't know,
I'm going to get this wrong.
I think they had like 37 different words for spirit.
But they didn't have a word for spirit in general.
They'd have a way to identify a spirit
connected to a tree and a bush
and this and this and this and this.
But they didn't have one word for it.
That was another one of those words that I was sharing.
And it caused this long discussion
as to how on earth they were going to try to communicate it.
And fortunately or unfortunately,
I used that word about 20 times in the sermon actually.
But here you have these very, very, very simple words.
And what it's communicating
is at the very, very beginning,
the God who does exist,
one of the best ways to understand
that the God who exists
is that he is the word.
And we,
if you just think about
what it would be like to see word
on a planet like Mars,
or if all of a sudden
one of the space stations
that listened to communications
from the deep space
got something from the deep space
that was clearly a word
and would be electrifying
because if all of it signifies,
in the same way,
John effortlessly is trying to communicate
something very important about God
and something very important
about human beginnings.
See, every system of thought,
either,
the first,
the thing that causes all things to be
is either a who or a what.
Christians believe that a what makes no sense.
And as science progresses,
everyday science makes the fact,
the idea that everything began with a what
rather than a who,
more and more impossible.
It's the thing that doesn't want to be reported
in the press.
Every development of science
shows that evolution
is more and more impossible.
All the time.
Every day.
Science is just pushing it
to become less and less possible.
So here we have this wonderful text
and he's trying to communicate
in a very powerful way.
Listen to it again.
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.
The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it.
I was doing it from memory.
I didn't have my glasses.
And then it goes on.
It talks about John the Baptist.
And then if you just come on down,
if you just want to skip down
to verse 11,
he came to his own
and his own people
did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him,
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 of God.
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,
what John is trying to communicate
is that God walked on the earth.
And I'm just going to unpack that
very briefly in two ways,
but could we just see a short video
before I do that?
Thank you.
God's children by adoption
and by grace.
It will be his accomplishment,
his sacrifice,
his perfect life,
which is somehow offered for us.
And here's two takeaways for us.
If you could put the first one up,
Andrew.
My situation must be vastly worse
than I imagine
if the Word became flesh
to live,
if the Word became flesh
had to live and die to save me.
I think I'm missing a word there.
My grammar bad?
Yes.
My situation must be vastly worse
than I imagine
if the Word became flesh
to live and die to save me.
It really struck me this week.
If God couldn't do it
some other way,
if he couldn't have just
sacrificed an angel
or, I don't know,
Barb or Andrew or me
or something like that
and we were all saved,
my situation must be vastly worse
than I imagine
even when I am
in my most depressed state
if the Word became flesh
to live and die to save me
and to save you.
Our situation is vastly worse.
Our doom is far deeper.
But at the same time
that this is communicating this to us,
it's also communicating something else
because, you see,
the very same text says
that if we put our faith
and trust in Jesus,
that he gives us the right
to become the children of God,
that he makes us the children of God
when we believe and receive him.
And if on one hand,
this story is in a very odd way,
in a very subtle way,
communicating how vastly worse
our situation is
than we ever could possibly imagine
that the Word had to become flesh
to live and die to save us.
At the same time,
when we put our faith
and trust in Jesus,
what does that say
about our security?
If you could put up
the next point, Andrew.
My need for a secure salvation
must be vastly greater
than I imagine
if the Word became flesh
to live and die to save me.
Not only is my need vastly greater,
but my need for a secure salvation
must be vastly greater.
And the Lord has provided us
this unbelievably secure salvation,
the very same God
who created all things,
who is the source of all life
and all ability to think
and reason,
that very same God
who formed and created the planets
is the same God
who died on the cross
to save me.
And when I put my faith
and trust in Him,
I am putting my faith
and trust in something greater
than the entire sum
of the universe,
that which holds
all of the universe together.
That is the security
of my hope
and my salvation
when I trust in Him.
And one of my themes
throughout these last sermons
is we Christians in the West
and Canada
are increasingly being confused
by the difference
by Canadian Christmas
and Christian Christmas.
They're two different things.
Maybe at one time
they were one thing,
but now they've become
two different things
and we're increasingly confused.
And I'm not trying to solve
what Christian Christmas should be,
but if you go back
and you look at the Ten Commandments
and you see about the way
they talk about
keeping the Sabbath
and the Lord's Day,
you see some very basic principle
expressed in those commandments
about how it is
that we're to celebrate
the Lord's Day
and from that
how to celebrate
any type of act
of Christian remembrance.
And I've summarized it like this
if you could put it up.
In celebration of His birth,
remember with others,
rejoice with others,
recommit with others,
feast with others.
See, in a sense
that's what every Lord's Day
is to be about.
On the Lord's Day
we gather together
with others
to remember,
to remember Jesus,
to remember the Gospel,
to remember who He is,
what He's accomplished.
And so when we come
on a Sunday,
on the Lord's Day,
we come to rejoice
at who He is
and what He's accomplished for us
and what He's done for us.
And it's not just a matter
of rejoicing,
but to recommit.
To recommit once again
to the Gospel,
recommit to Jesus
and say,
Lord, you know,
this week I had a terrible week.
I denied you constantly.
I was mean and rude to my wife.
I was terrible to my kids.
I was an atrocious boss
or an atrocious guy
under a boss
or gal under a boss.
And I'm just so glad
I can come to you once again
and I can say,
I've really messed up this week.
Thank you that my security
is in you, Jesus.
And I recommit to you again.
I recommit to you.
And then the Lord's Day
is also a day of feasting
with others.
And so, you know,
I guess all the message is
is that we've shared
the four fundamental
primary stories of Christmas.
And I don't know
how Christian Christmas
will develop over the years,
but I know that
however it develops,
it will develop
around these four pillars
where once again,
every year we say,
we're going to remember
once again,
the birth of Jesus.
Comes up throughout the year,
obviously,
different sermon texts
and all that,
but there's going to be
one time a year
we're going to always
really commit
and we're going to remember
with others
and we're going to rejoice
with others
and we're going to reconnect
with others
and we're going to feast
with others
as we celebrate
and allow the fundamental stories
to shape who we are
and shape how we celebrate,
how we remember,
how we rejoice
and how we recommit.
Just going to show
one last video
before we,
and then I'll say
a closing prayer
and we'll move on
with our service.
Just a piece of
free advertisement.
I don't know,
we Anglicans
don't get often
many chances
to pat ourselves
on the back
so to speak
in a humble,
unassuming way.
The space video
was done
by an Anglican evangelist.
Yes,
that is not an oxymoron,
Anglican evangelist,
by an Anglican evangelist
out of England
called Glenn Scrivener
and this last thing,
you're going to see
Glenn Scrivener
and he's done
this other thing as well
and as a good evangelist,
all of his two things
were free.
We had to pay
for the middle video
but the other two things
are completely free.
You can go look him up.
He's with an organization
called Speak Life
in the UK
and he also has
a weekly podcast
by the way
about how to share
the faith
and do other types
of things
which can be very helpful
but let's watch
this last one
and then we'll just
close in prayer
and we'll keep on
with our service.
every idiot
who goes about
with Merry Christmas
on his lips
should be boiled
with his own pudding
and buried
with a stake of holly
through his heart.
I like the darkness
at least it's cheap
I keep adjusted
to the gloom
the creeping doom
that soon consumes
the earth in tombs
I hum its tune
assume its tone
and make my home
right here
in the only world
we know
this world of woe
let others
throw their festive flings
I think I'll keep
my five gold rings
four calling birds
three French hens
two turtle doves
she loves the doves
yeah shove it
on the card above
no never fear my dear
I'll pay it all
next year
for now we'll drink
to Christmas cheer
and deck the halls
with tinsel bling
forget what our
tomorrows bring
we'll raise a glass
of festive sherry
eat and drink
and be quite merry
Merry Christmas everyone
and what's your wish
from me my son
a hamper full
of festive fun
with snowdrops
rainbows
furry mittens
unicorns
and mule and kittens
Santa's sleigh
may bring them near
but were you good
for me this year
why yes
I think
I didn't sink
as low as some
I know
although
hey no
Father Christmas
mind your own business
the kids might believe
but they are naive
I know for certain
I see through the curtain
but when you strip it all bare
what exactly is there
see Scrooge looks
darkness full in the face
embracing the chill
but he loses the will
to hope
the shopper copes better
throws off fetters
wears garish sweaters
but becomes a debtor
spending now
but nothing later
tending down
into death's crater
Santa offers Christmas cheer
the most wonderful time
of the year
but is it real
at least Scrooge
knew the deal
with the dark
in this stark world
can we face facts
like Scrooge
then paint it rouge
like the shopper
proper banter
like Santa
but below the ho ho ho
can we know a truth
beneath treacle
good news of great joy
for all people
are we able to strip back
to the stable
this fable made flesh
our maker enmeshed
in the mess
to bless us
possess us
and be heaven's yes
to our race
to embrace us in grace
ever more in our place
pledging flesh
blood and bone
to exchange a throne
for a manger
endangering all
to be present to you
to be God's present
to you
if you're Santa
or shopper
or any such thing
if you're shepherd
or Mary
or Joseph
or king
for this
the herald angels sing
in him the light shines
and all is forgiven
to you
this Christmas child
is given
let's just stand
for a moment
stretch a bit
and let's close
the sermon
part in prayer
Father thank you
for Jesus
Father thank you
we confess before you
that we often
flatter ourselves
too much
to detect
or hate our own sin
we flatter ourselves
to forget
how
how doomed we were
apart from Jesus
and
we thank you
Father
that you saw
our great need
and you
provided the only way
for us to be made
right with you
when you're the
the word was made flesh
the word became flesh
when Jesus came amongst us
to live a perfect life
that we could not live
and die
the death
that we could not die
bearing the doom
that we could not bear
and eat it all for us
out of love
Father help us
to remember this
to recommit to this
to rejoice with this
and to celebrate
and to feast
around the memory
and this we ask
in the name of Jesus
your son and our savior
amen