John 1:1-18; Isaiah 9:2-7

Four Gospels ö one Gospel

I am sure that you have noticed that in the New Testament we do not have one, but four gospels.

In fact, of course, there is only one gospel, one good news; the good news that God linked his life to Jesus of Nazareth so that we might know and never forget that God is a good God.

But we are all different, and therefore the good news comes to us in different ways and finds expression in different ways. None of us believes in exactly the same way. Our fingerprints are different, and it wonât be long until the governments of the world will have records about each one of us because we are all different. Our genetic code is different. And our souls, our personalities, are different too. God has created us different and therefore the good news arrives in a different way and is expressed in a different way. Christians in Ghana are different to Christians in Russia, in Mongolia and in Australia. God affirms difference. Difference echoes the many colours of the rainbow of Godâs grace.

I want to invite you to join hands this morning through the ages with one of the early churches; with the church – probably somewhere in Syria – where the Gospel of John was written. How did they, let us call it the Johannine Church, tell the Christmas story?

Indeed, they sung it, just as we have celebrated Christmas with the singing of many hymns. And I have no illusion about the fact that the hymns ö the right hymns ö at least at Christmas time, are much more important than the sermon.

Let us enter the world of a Christmas hymn in the Johannine Church. Ross read it to us this morning.

“all things came into being through him ·”

After celebrating that God comes to us in words, we hear this amazing. statement: “all things came into being through him ·” Through “him”! Through the word that was in the beginning with God. But the celebrating community knows a secret. That “word” which was in the beginning with God, had touched them, and had freed them from fear and superstition and sin. It was a good word!

They wanted to affirm therefore that Godâs creation is a good creation. God looked at his creation and he found it to be beautiful. The beauty and the goodness of creation are emphasised by linking the story of Jesus with creation: “all things came into being through him ·” That means that a good God made a good world.

“the world did not know him”

But something happened. Something happens all the time. What a tragic statement: “the world did not know him”. The world, that is us, turned away. Created to focus our attention on God, on each other and on the beauty of Godâs creation; created to find our identity in relationship with God and with others, we have delegated others and God to the back benches and have reserved the front bench for ourselves.

That is what the Bible calls sin. The arrogance, the pride to make ourselves the centre of attention. The arrogance and the pride to think and to say that we can do it alone. How can we know him, the creator, if in arrogant self-sufficiency our conscience has curved away from him and is only concerned with ourselves?

And we have learned to live with our separation from God. Although the statistics say that more people go to church every Sunday than go to the football stadiums, and many people still like to use the word God when they celebrate important events in their lives, in fact God has been delegated to marginality in our society ö at least the God whose coming we celebrate at Christmas.

Honesty and realism demands not to explain sin and selfishness away, but to recognise in our hearts and in our midst and then deal with it. And dealing with it we can, because our Christmas hymn continues:

“the light shines in darkness”

We may become godless, but God will not let his creation go! Can a mother forget the children of her womb? “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you, says the Lord,” (Isaiah 66:13). And notice: it does not say “shone”, pointing us to the Christ-child 2000 years ago. No, it says: “shines”.

God remains involved with his creation. Creation continues. God is the mystery of the world. He provides ever new possibilities for us to put into action.

“The word became flesh”

The Christmas story becomes even clearer. It spells out the nature of the light that shines into the darkness of our lives. The word which was in the beginning “became flesh and dwelt among us.”

The word, the one word, that we need to hear, the word that can open up new possibilities, is not only divine, it is also human. Jesus, the man from Nazareth, fleshed out that word. In him God has opened his heart to the loneliness and ambiguity and injustice of our existence. That does not mean that God gives us easy answers for difficult questions. But it does mean that God shares our estrangement and graces it with his presence.

The cross is therefore as much of Christmas as the angels and the heavenly music. Some of you may not feel like singing Christmas hymns. While others rejoice, you may be sad inside. Please allow me to assure you that the God who was empowering his son, when Jesus touched the wounds of lepers, the God who was not far when Jesus knelt in the garden of Gethsemane agonising over his future, the God who was even there on the cross when his son felt forsaken, that God will also grace your life, even when you donât feel like singing.

No one can run so far that God cannot run further. No soul can be so dark that it can escape the light of God. No tear can be so heavy that God cannot carry it. The word has become flesh so that all human beings may know that God is always good for an unexpected surprise of joy.

For “all people”

And please notice and greet with anticipation that GodÃŽs salvation is for “all people”. The creator longs to have back his creation. The creator becomes the redeemer.

There is so much talk about who will be saved and who wonât be. One thing is sure, that by sharing his divine life with the human Jesus and by raising the human Jesus from the dead God has graced all humanity with the promise of salvation. God has not only created the world, but God loves the world (John 3:16), God has reconciled the world with himself (2 Corinthians 5:17-21), and God “desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

“… we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”

And the community of faith responds: “… we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” At Christmas we receive presents and gifts. Most of them are nice and we welcome them. They come to us. They are not thrown at us. They are given, and they are to be received. Mostly we receive the presents with joy and anticipation; and then, by receiving them, they become part of our life.

The Christmas story tells us that God has prepared a great present, a gift for us. Indeed, God has done everything he could to convince us that he is for us and that he wants to enrich our lives.

And we are created to receive the great present of Godâs love. That is why we are aware of our estrangement; that is why we are restless. But God has endowed us with freedom and responsibility. God took a risk in creating us as free and responsible beings. And there is an intimation of rejection in the Christmas story: “He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.”

But then there are the others: “… to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” This is my Christmas wish for you. That the many presents that you get will remind you of the one present that you need; that you may open your life and let God speak into your life that the word that has been there from the beginning is the word of life for you. Then you join the choir of voices through the ages and around the world: “we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”

Thorvald Lorenzen: Canberra, 25/1