The Incarnation. WBC 14/12/03pm Jn 1:1-2, 14, Phil 2:5-11
Read Jn 1 passage
WORDS ARE NOTE ENOUGH
You have probably never heard of the island of Molokai. Well, it’s located in the state of Hawaii. And it has quite a history. You have to go way back to the late 1800’s to understand its significance. You see, back then, there was no cure for the highly contagious and deadly disease called leprosy. A disease that would attack the extremities of the body, the ears, the toes, the nose, the fingers. A horrible dreadful disease which today is curable, But, it wasn’t back then.
- So, in order to keep the disease at bay. In order to keep it from spreading and creating an epidemic, the government would send lepers to a colony on the island of Molakai where they would be secluded and isolated from those who were not infected with the disease.
- Well, in 1873, there was a young, brave Catholic priest named Father Damien who volunteered to spend his life serving the people secluded on the island of Molokai. When he arrived, he was startled to see people who were not only suffering physically, but socially, and emotionally, and spiritually. In the leper colony he saw extreme drunkenness, immorality, abuse, and an overall sense of hopelessness. What he saw were people who desperately needed to know the answer to a question we all ask... where is God? They needed God’s presence in their life.
- And so, in 1873, Father Damien lived among the 700 lepers. Knowing the dangers, realizing the inevitable results of so much personal contact with a highly contagious disease. He built hospitals, clinics, and churches and built some 600 coffins. And the whole while he was giving them the answer to that question... where is God?
- And whenever a church service was held. He would stand up in front of the lepers, and he would warmly, and lovingly address them as "my dear brethren." But then one morning in 1885, at the age of 45, in a calm clear voice, instead of "my dear brethren," he began with, "My fellow lepers, I am one of you now."
- You see it was out of love that a humble priest became one of the them. Out of love he gave those lepers a gift that would change their life for all of eternity. He shared with them the answer to the ever present question... "Where is God?" And the only way he could give them the answer is by becoming one of them.
(from www.sermoncentral.com)
Talking to ‘Tom’- a PhD at KAC at Panto. Studying ‘words and psychology’
- talking of power of words
- power of words in Xianty. (He’s not far from KOG!)
o creation- God spoke.
o God communicating through his prophets
o Concept of the ‘word’
Gk- ‘intermediary’, ‘interface’
• (actually a way of not touching the world)
But- with God- words are not enough.
- can isolate… keep distant … be our ivory tower (do we ever use words for that?)
- talking with Adam is not enough- walks with him in garden
- > the Word is not enough. It becomes FLESH.
In his book The Life of God in the Soul of Man, Henry Scougal, the seventeenth-century Scottish minister, said, “God hath long contended with a stubborn world, and thrown down many a blessing upon them; and when all his other gifts could not prevail, he at last made a gift of himself.”
Christian Theology in Plain Language, p. 86. from SermonCentral PRO
He becomes IN- CARNATE and walks the talk.
Invisible in His own nature [God] became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, He chose to come within our grasp.”
— Leo the Great from www.sermoncentral.com
What an incredible concept!
- abhorrent to the Greek. Touching earth! Matter
- blasphemous to a Jew. God is transcendent
o but the distance travelled makes the incarnation, communication all the more powerful
An African boy listened carefully as his teacher explained why Christians give presents to each other on Christmas day. "The gift is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship for each other," she said.
When Christmas day came, the boy brought the teacher a seashell of lustrous beauty. "Where did you ever find such a beautiful shell?" the teacher asked.
The youth told her that there was only one spot where such extraordinary shells could be found. When he named the place, a certain bay several miles away, the teacher was left speechless. "Why ... why, it’s gorgeous ... wonderful, but you shouldn’t have gone all that way to get the gift for me."
His eyes brightening, the boy answered, "Long walk part of gift."
God came from heaven to a manger, from a manger to a cross, from a cross to the grave and from a grave back to heaven. And we ask, "Why all this trouble, God?"
And God would say to us, "Long walk part of gift." SOURCE: from Sharon Jaynes’ book, Celebrating a Christ-centred Christmas.
Contributed by: Dana Chau
God became one of us (Listen to ‘one of us’?)
“God knows!”
Read Phil 2:5-11
Jesus- though in very nature God. Fully divine. Pre-existent. Omniscient. Omnipresent. Omnipotent
- didn’t consider these attributes something to be ‘held on to’ (v6b)… treasured
- v7- ‘emptied Himself ‘(Kenosis)
o of what? Surely omnipresence. Most likely also omniscience. Maybe even omnipotence (he certainly let that go and didn’t use it!)
of all of the advantages of being God
- and though in nature God (v6)… took on the nature of man (v7)
o fully God, fully man
o enters time and history
Fully- emotional, tired, hungry, vulnerable
- cold in the manger. Cried. Donkeys (and visitors?) made a mess- Caganer
o maybe our Christmases are not MATERIALISTIC enough 9in the right sense)
The wonder of the incarnation is this
- God travelled to US (more in a moment)
One of the ancient kings of Persia loved to mingle with his people in disguise. Once, dressed as a poor man, he descended the long flight of stairs, dark and damp to the tiny cellar where the fireman, seated on ashes, was tending the furnace.. The king sat down beside him and began to talk. At meal time the fireman produced some coarse black bread and a jug of water and they ate and drank. The king went away but returned again and again for his heart was filled with sympathy for the lonely man. They became very good friends as time passed. At last the king thought, “I’ll tell him who I am, and see what gift he will ask.” So he did, but the fireman didn’t ask for a thing. The king was astonished and said, “Don’t you realize that I can give you anything—a city, a throne?” The man gently replied, “I understand your Majesty. You have already given the greatest gift a man could receive. You left your palace to sit with me here in this dark and lonely place. You could give nothing more precious. You have given yourself and that is far more than I could ever deserve.”
Contributed by: Bruce Howell www.sermoncentral.com
And “God knows!”. He knows what it’s like
o talking with someone this week. Words would have been trite like job’s counsellors). But ‘God knows’
even the silences… God knows
John Howard Griffin was a white man who believed he could never understand the plight of African-Americans unless he became like one. In 1959, he darkened his skin with medication, sun lamps, and stains, then travelled throughout the South. His book, Black Like Me, helped whites better understand the humiliation and discrimination faced daily by people of colour.
Jesus Christ became like us; the Incarnation is evidence that God understands our plight. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isa. 53:3).
Because of Christmas… because of the incarnation- we know what God is truly like.
- because God is Christ-like
A pastor from a bygone age, named Arthur John Gossip, wrote:
The wonderful thing about Christ is that as people looked at Him, followed Him, and watched Him, it became apparent to them that this is what God must be like. They concluded that if there is a God at all, then He must have Christ’s eyes, Christ’s ways, Christ’s ever-helpful hands, Christ’s character…Stand upon Calvary and know that if today he loves like that, he always loves like that. Even when our hearts become hot and suspicious of Him or soured and bad-tempered toward Him for His ordering of our lives and crossing our wishes, He still loves us. To be God means always to stoop lower by far than any man could stoop, to bear what never a human heart would dream of bearing, to give Oneself with an abandon of unselfishness that leaves us staring in slack-jawed wonder. His love is a hugeness beyond all human reckoning. It is an everlasting Calvary.
BE INCARNATED
And here’s the application of tonight’s message
Words are not enough. They must be incarnated into the time and culture of the hearers for ‘communication’ to take place.
- the gospel… Jesus
o must be incarnated into our world for Him to be born in people’s hearts
it’s no use hoping they will just ‘hear the words’… get saved
we must take it to them. Put legs on the words.
• Jesus left heaven for earth to INCARNATE the love of God
What does this mean
- it means you’ve gotta be where THEY are this Christmas
o with your family (aaaargh!! ?))
o at the works do. Socialising
o being salt and light.. Fun but different
that’s where Jesus would have been
- it means having a drinks party (or something) and inviting friends: christen and pre-Christian
o making a point of not only having Xian friends. If you do- you’re in your ivory tower
- it means
o going out on the doors
o going to Homerise this week
o going to THEIR culture to incarnate the message
all priests. Latin for priest = bridge-builder (Pontifax). Building a bridge to them for God to walk over
youth: the Edge
old folks: Liz’s research this Jan
mission: is God calling you to incarnate the message into another culture?
• Maybe where the gospel isn’t preached
• Take your practical skills and ‘be incarnate’
The gospel must be incarnate to be received
And we must be incarnate, too
- to be effective OUR love must be made flesh among people to communicate
o our words must be made flesh
o = most often an act of the will
- be there, in the flesh, for
o Christians
o People not Christians, as well
Nightshelter has need for trustees/committee members
PHP 2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
PHP 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
PHP 2:6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
PHP 2:7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
