What Does the Incarnation Say to Us?
Luke 2:8-14
Incarnation is one of those big church words we hear a lot about at Christmas. But what does it mean? If I asked you to define “Incarnation” could you do it? Let me give you a hint… it is not a flower and it does not come from contented cows.
Incarnation is the ultimate and final disclosure of the eternal God. It is the self-revelation of the Absolute Being Himself, the pre-existent Son of God, the second person of the Trinity taking human form.
John, in the fourth gospel, defines the incarnation as “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The incarnation is God, creator of all the universe, entering into the womb of a young virgin and being born in the flesh as a baby.
If you think of the incarnation it is not only a miracle… it is a great paradox.
The God from whom all things come, came forth from a human
He who is spirit became flesh and blood in order that flesh and blood might become spirit.
Jesus, who was sinless, was made sin, so that whose who were sinners might be made sinless.
Jesus, who was eternal, took on the form of the temporal, in order that those temporal creations might gain eternal life.
Jesus, who is one with the Father, endured separation from God so that those who were separated might become one with God.
So now, Jesus, who is truly God, came to be born in a flesh and blood body, born to a virgin, born in a barn, born a nobody.
That is great it makes for great Christmas carols and beautiful Christmas card covers.
But the question we raise is…
What does it mean to the person who is scratching out a living by the skin of their teeth, who are not sure where the money for next weeks groceries will come from?
What does the incarnation mean to a young unmarried girl who just found out that she is pregnant and is scared to death to tell her parents?
How does the incarnation help a nursing home resident who on the one hand does not want to be a burden on their family but on the other hand hungers for the love of their children and grandchildren?
Or what does the incarnation say to a person who has cancer, or AIDS, or who struggles with depression, or the gathering clouds of age… OR DEATH?
Does the incarnation… the birth of the Christ-child have something to say to them? If not, then what good is it?
If it does not have some help for those in need… the Christmas is just an excuse to express our worldliness and our greed.
If it offers no hope then Christmas is just an excuse for a party and a hangover.
If Christmas offers does not speak to our needy situation then it is just an excuse to forget the diet or take a vacation.
The good news we offer is that WE HAVE MORE THAN SANTA CLAUSE AND PRESENTS AND LIGHTS.
CHRISTMAS MAKES A DIFFERENCE!!!!!
First of all; The Incarnation says…
1. GOD IS LOVE.
To that person languishing in a nursing home, forgotten and abandoned by family and friends… the incarnation says That the same God who saw our hopeless and horrid condition, lost in our sin, and who left Heaven to come to us is the same God who today sees you in that nursing home and comes to be with you.
He is there, He is with you… not in the flesh but better… HE LIVES INSIDE OF YOU AND WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU.
To the wife whose husband has run off with another woman, or who suspects her husband is cheating on her… To the child whose parents are getting a divorce and he is fighting feelings of being unwanted and unlovable…
The message of the incarnation is I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU AND NEVER FORSAKE YOU.
To the teenager who sits home every weekend because they are too insecure to ask someone out or because no one asks them out…
The baby in the manger says God loves you and HE CHOSE YOU. God looked down from heaven, He saw you in your need and HE CHOSE TO COME TO YOU EVEN THOUGH IT MEANT PERSONAL SACRIFICE.
God loves you. John 3:16 says He loves you so much that He went out of his way, made personal sacrifice, did whatever was necessary to come to you and show His love.
There once was a farmer in Tennessee. One winter evening, just before dark, he heard something hit the bay window in the dining room. He went to investigate and saw a small bird flying into the window repeatedly. Farther out in the yard he saw a whole flock of little songbirds. He realized that these were birds migrating south and they had been caught by an early snowfall. They were cold and scratching through the thin snow in search of food. The one bird had seen the light and had tried to get into the house where it was warm. The farmer had an idea: He had a large barn where the birds would be safe and warm and there was plenty of hay on the floor so they could find seed. He put on his coat to go out and open the barn doors. He did… but the birds did not come in. He turned on a light hoping that would attract them. No luck. He sprinkled seed on the ground to make a path for them to follow. They ate some but did not come close to the barn. Fearing for their safety, he decided to take more drastic measures. He planned to circle around behind the flock and chase them into the barn. THAT WAS A REAL FLOP! After running himself ragged, he dropped to his knees on the snow. Finally a thought hit him--- “If only I were a bird. Then I could tell them about the warm barn and the seed. I could save their lives.”
That is a modern parable of the bible. God saw the sinful and hopeless situation of his people. He tried prophets and miracles and kings and teachers and all kinds of ways to call His people to the safety of his love. It all failed… as with the farmer. Finally God said, “If only I were a man. Then I would tell them about their sin and about my provision. I could save their souls.”
The incarnation says GOD LOVES YOU.
The second message of the incarnation is…
2. LIFE HAS MEANING.
In the movie, City Slickers,” comedian Billy Crystal plays the part of a bored baby boomer who sells radio advertising time. One the day he visits his son’s school to tell about his work along with other fathers, he suddenly lets loose a deadpan monologue to the bewildered youngsters in the class:
”Value this time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. It goes by fast.
When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur.
Thirties you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, "What happened to my twenties?"
Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud, one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother.
Fifties, you have a minor surgery-you’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery.
Sixties, you’ll have a major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway.
Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00 in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10:00, breakfast the night before, spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, "How come the kids don’t call? How come the kids don’t call?"
The eighties, you’ll have a major stroke, and you end up babbling with some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand, but who you call mama.
Any questions?”
Many of you can identify with Billy Crystal.
As a matter of fact, if there is any emotion or fear that humans have in common it is the fear of INSIGNIFICANCE. The fear that we have made no difference, that when we die we will be out of sight and out of mind.
That is the main reason for the materialistic grasping that we see all around us. Their mistake is not in seeking significance… but in seeking it in the wrong places. It is what happens when we confuse having with being.
It stems from a hope that if we can acquire enough stuff or rise high enough on the company or social ladder, or if we can gain enough power or influence… then it might last a while after we are gone.
But we are afraid that our pile is so small that it will be blown away with the winds of time.
All of us want the answer to the question, "What makes a life significant?"
That is a burning question for us all.
Young mothers who are confined to home with small children ask, "Am I missing out on life?
Young husbands who are grinding out 60 hour weeks wonder “Is this all there is to life,,, sleep, work, eat and collect a pay check?”
Those over forty find themselves faced with the mid-life crisis and wonder if their lives have been significant." As a result, some are changing jobs or even spouses in an effort to find greater significance.
The elderly, finding themselves becoming less active and less influential, question their lives and their self-worth. Is my life significant?"
All of us hunger for significance. We want to be part of the mainstream of life, to live lives that count.
Modern existentialism has told us that there are no absolutes… like right and wrong.
Modern prophets have told us there is no after life… this is all there is.
On the one hand the world wants to believe that… they are relieved of dealing with God.
But on the other hand, something in them cries out in protest, in despair…”There must be more than this. Dear God, please let there be more than this.”
If this is all there is, and we see people, ideas, inventions and countries come and go, replaced by something else as though they never existed… we fear that we will go the same way… that we will not count for anything.
I stood by the grave of Irene Picket. Irene was 91 years old and had out lived her husband and children. She had an abrasive personality and a sharp tongue. That meant she had few friends. As her pastor I had visited her and had learned to love Irene. She was terribly interesting. She had been paralyzed for a decade by some disease but could walk again. She had great stories to tell about being paralyzed in the depression years and still having to work. She was her own carpenter and a pretty good one. She never drove a car but could handle a buggy. She still heated with wood.
At her funeral there were only 5 people. She had some prearranged funeral plans for another pastor to do the service. He drove his car right up to the grave because he was too old to walk, it was a cold as blue blazes so he made it very brief. He read one or two scriptures, read some generic eulogy he had used a thousand times before. HE NEVER SAID HER NAME. Then he prayed and got in the car and drove away.
I thought to myself… Irene lived 91 years, lived through unbelievable events, and was one of the most unusual characters I have ever known.. and this is all you get… some stranger to say a few generic words over you grave.. and not even say your name. THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE.
That is the cry of the world… THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE. Please, tell me that my life has meaning, that I have significance.
The incarnation is a message of hope… LIFE HAS VALUE, MEANING, and SIGNIFICANCE.
The significance is that YOU WERE CREATED FOR A PURPOSE… FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
The truth of I Corinthians 3:16-17 is that WE ARE GOD’S HOUSE, HIS PERSONAL POSSESSION AND HIS HOLY PLACE.
16 Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person, because God’s temple is holy and you are that temple. (NCV)
WE ARE HIS HOUSE… HE CHOSE TO LIVE IN US.
Think of the houses that have “George Washington slept here.” Think of how it increases their value.
Of you God says, “GOD LIVES HERE.”
If that is not significance, nothing is.
WE ARE HIS PERSONAL POSSESSION.
Why does God warn that if anyone destroys his temple he will destroy them? BECAUSE THAT TEMPLE IS HIS… His temple, His dwelling place, His personal possession.
And the scripture says YOU ARE THAT TEMPLE.
We are God’s personal possession… what significance!!!!
Finally, WE ARE HIS HOLY PLACE
In scripture, what makes something holy, what sets it apart as holy was not something innate about the object… not some property or goodness. What makes something holy is ownership… who owns it.
You and I are holy because WE ARE HIS. Because WE BELONG TO HIM.
Not because we live holy lives or do holy deeds or speak holy words.
We are HOLY because we surrendered our life to Jesus and He owns us and WE ARE NOW HOLY.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says the winds of time may take blur your name on the stone, progress may cause you to be forgotten by the job, change may obscure your accomplishments… BUT YOUR TRUE SIGNIFICANCE AS A CHILD OF GOD WILL NEVER BE LOST, CHANGED OR FORGOTTEN.
Because God knows you by name, the very hairs of your head are numbered, he knows your every thought, he treasures you so much that he purchased you with the ultimate price… HIS SON.
“Contemporary culture with its powerful consumerism is a sophisticated carnival hawker luring us to the cotton candy of happiness, defined as more and more things. But the human spirit hungers for something more deeply satisfying than having things. We want to count. We want to be real.
I want to close by reading a selection from one of my favorite theology books of all time (besides the bible), “The Velveteen Rabbit.”
(((READ))) “What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room, “ Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
“Real isn’t how you are made," said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not, just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.
"Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes, “ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are REAL you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand."
* The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams, Page 5
The incarnation says… YOU CAN BE REAL… LOVED… and SIGNIFICANT.
How???
Like the skin horse said, in a relationship… with the one who loves you… Your Father… God.
Do you need to be loved? Are you looking for significance?
Come today, confess your sin, ask God to forgive you… and you will become His House, His Personal Possession and His Holy Place… He will love you and give you significance… and you will be real.
Rick Pendleton @ rhpendleton57@gmail.com
NOTE* I “borrowed” much of the outline, ideas and illustrations from other sermons. Some are on this site. If it was yours, Thank You. I hope they don’t mind if I use their stuff and I don’t mind if you use mine. You do not need to give credit to
