John 1.14c

Peace be to you and grace from him who freed us from our sins.

A professor in Seminary pushed us, when preparing for preaching, not to settle for the fun, but go to the word or phrase which troubles us the most. “And,” he said, “wrestle it to the ground like Jacob with the angel. And don’t let go till it yields its blessing.”

The phrase which has bothered me for the two weeks since I found I was preaching on this day, is in the Gospel just read.  Specifically it is part of the description of the Word become flesh.  Namely, “full of grace and truth.”

Familiar language to us by now, but what does it mean?   Grace is a word we Lutherans, following the lead of our brother Martin, find to be the liberating treasure, the freeing gift of God at the heart of our faith.  Actually grace is the gravity of God grabbing us and drawing us in to God’s never ending love.  Grace connects us not just to God but to one another.  Not surprisingly, the word grace shows up twenty five times in Luke/Acts especially in regard to the early church.  And in St Paul’s letters “grace” is a most frequent word for God’s redemption. 

But the word “grace” shows up only one time in the Gospel of John.  And this is it. Keep in mind the Greek world, the backdrop for Christian Scripture, viewed the physical world as something to be distained.  That is why they chiseled drop-dead beautiful statues and fashioned exquisite architecture as the ultimate or perfect form. In reality, they themselves probably carried around a few too many pounds and looked no different than you and me.

The Greeks and Romans after them wanted to be freed from the flesh. It was more than radical, more than scandalous, it was heresy to hear from this Christian cult that the Word of God which is God has now become flesh and lives among us. What kind of God loves creation enough to bless it by becoming part of it?  They would have thought it just plain wrong.  Now maybe we get a glimmer of the grace which dawned on the people of the early church.  God doesn’t distance.  God lovingly, intimately embraces humankind.

“Truth” on the other hand shows up 109 times in the New Testament.  45 of these are in the Johanine writings.  But really, as Pontius Pilate is later to say in the Gospel of John, “What is truth?”

Is the truth of Christmas that Jesus was really born on 25^th December in the year of our Lord 0000? Well if you believe that we should probably talk.  But not here and now.  The short answer as well as the long one is, probably No.

Is the truth about Christmas that the commercial world is right after all, that really it is about the spirit of giving; well I suppose buying first. But in any case we are done with it now at least until Valentine’s Day hits the shelves which should be any minute?  I think not.

Or is the truth really that celebrating the birth of Jesus is great.  But we need to keep our eyes and hands wide open.  Because since we met twelve hours ago in the last candlelight service, 245,000 babies have been born into the world.  And because Mary and Joseph in short order became refugees, with the U.N.’s current estimate that there are in the world at this very moment 43,700,000 people on the run from their home and country with only their shirts on their back, a certain number of whom are indeed pregnant, and incidentally since they are refugees a huge statistical increase in the likelihood that they do not have experienced birth attendants with them resulting in a disproportionately high number of infant and maternal deaths in birth, is this the truth?

Yes those statistics are true. And in this land of plenty we should be on our knees saying “thank you” because the truth at least in part is that the people behind those numbers and percentages tune the ears of our hearts to listen to what it means that the Word was made flesh among the most fragile of the vulnerable, as the most ignored among the most expendable of the world. No.  Christians are not baptized to be fixers of every ill in the world.  We are not called to be successful, but rather faithful.  We are baptized to be present, to be God’s grace wherever we go.

It might help us to know that the phrase “grace and truth” is used in John in a most unique way.  Those two words reflect the famous Old Testament pairing of the two Hebrew words behind “grace” and “truth.,” They are the very words used to describe God at Mount Sinai in the giving of the Law.  “Tender-loving-kindness” for grace and “constant faithfulness” for truth.  Perhaps then, this phrase “full of grace and truth” should be translated, “filled with enduring love” – the kind which is all powerful and never, ever goes away.

The pastor who baptized me sixty two years ago tomorrow, once wrote to remind me that “Christ is the ultimate Truth, and that to seek the happiness of others will ever be a source of happiness to you.”

The ultimate Truth of Christ is that God’s enduring love does not remain with God, but takes on flesh not just in Jesus but now in your hands and mine, your voice and mine, our beautiful feet which bring good news to all.  That’s what it means to seek the happiness, the health, the wholeness, the safety, the dignity, the joy, the life of others. 

It’s why the Baby in Bethlehem was born in the first place.

So dear friends, Blessed Christmas as we live in the grace and truth of Christ Jesus and over flow with God’s enduring love for everyone.