Christmas Certainties in an Uncertain World: God Understands Us
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
John 1:1-4, 14-18; Phil. 2:5-8
December 13, 2009

          One time when I was a youth director, I took about 80 Sr. Highers on a Spring retreat to a primitive, wooded camp.  We were playing a Capture the Flag type game at dusk.  Unfortunately, one of our adult leaders ran into a tree and injured himself.  Since he was having trouble breathing, we called an ambulance.  The rescue squad sent two fire trucks along with the ambulance.  They created quite a spectacle as they rolled into our very dark camp, lights flashing and sirens wailing.  Meanwhile, one of our girls had become overwrought about something and fainted.  The paramedic, assuming she was the reason we had called them, began to make his way toward her.  Meanwhile, kids were still playing the game, running, chasing each other, and screaming all over the camp.
          I had to explain to the paramedic that the real victim was down over the hill in the woods.  I’ll never forget his response:  “What on earth are you all doing here?” he asked.  I wondered, too!
That wasn’t the only time I felt like I’d gotten in over my head in ministry.  As a young youth director, I had the privilege and challenge of listening while kids and sometimes their parents shared their life-struggles with me.  Some of the issues were typical boyfriend-girlfriend issues, but I also heard about depression, violence in the home, alcohol and drug abuse, and anorexia.  I wanted to help these folks, but was ill-equipped to do so.  You see, in my home growing up, we didn’t pay much attention to feelings.  My dad was a mechanical engineer and he tended to reduce complex emotional problems to simple solutions.  “Just do so and so….,” he’d say.  And that was the end of it.  But when I offered my simple solutions to the thorny family and personal problems people brought to me, it didn’t help much.
          That drove me to graduate work in Marriage and Family Therapy.  There I learned the power of simply listening to someone and letting them know you understand what they are thinking and feeling.  That in itself can be healing, and it may also open the person up so they are willing to try some new strategies.
          One of the great things about the Christmas story is that it assures us that God understands us, that we are not alone.  The Creator of the universe understands what it is like to be you!  That is a Christmas certainty and a foundational message of Christmas- that God became a real human being, just like you, and therefore understands all the uncertainty that goes with being human.
          Take a look at John 1:1-4. 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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.   What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  “In the beginning was the Word.”  Our English word “word” is an attempt to translate the Greek word “Logos,” which John uses here.  In Greek philosophy, the Logos was the principle of order that held the whole universe together.  According to John, this “Word” or Logos of God created the world in the beginning, and was the source all life.  The Word was God, in all his unparalleled majesty and power, creativity and freedom. 
          Next comes the amazing part.  “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.  (John 1:14,18)
          The Word became flesh!  In the words of the Christmas carol, “Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing,” “veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity.”  This was unthinkable to the Greek philosophers of John’s time.  For them the Word was so far above humanity, that it couldn’t possibly risk the corruption of human flesh or be confined like a human being.  So some sects (s-e-c-t-s) in the early church tried to say that Jesus wasn’t really God in the flesh, but that he only appeared to be a human being!  But John will have none of that!  He says that he and others lived with the Word, with Jesus, and with their own eyes witnessed the fact that God had become a 1st century Jew named Jesus.
A few years ago I was sitting in church next to a three year-old little girl named Rebecca.  She was coloring quietly next to me when she turned to Kellie, the woman next to her and asked, “What color is God?”  Kellie responded, “That is a very good question!”  Rebecca thought about it for a minute and decided, “I think he’s skin color,” chose an appropriate crayon, and kept on drawing.  I doubt Rebecca understood the implications of what she had said, but she had a great theological insight.  In Jesus Christ, God took on human flesh- God is indeed skin-color! 
          But why did God become a human being?  Joe Torre had been a catcher and broadcast announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals and had already managed several teams when he was hired as manager of the New York Yankees.  In an interview with Yankee’s announcer, Phil Rizzuto, Rizzuto suggested that managing could be done better from high above the baseball field, from the level of the broadcast booth.  Torre disagreed.  “Upstairs, you can’t look into their eyes,” he said.   God wanted to look into our eyes, to know and understand us, so he came to earth and lived on our level as one of us.
          But how could this be?  How could the infinite God of the universe live as a human being?  It seems impossible, when you think about it.  We have to admit up front that we’re dealing with matters of great mystery here.  But the Apostle Paul gives us some insights into this profound mystery in Philippians 2.  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross.”  (Phil. 2:5-8)
          The Word, the second person of the trinity, Jesus- was equal with God, but chose to let go of all the privileges of deity, to “empty himself” in order to become one of us.  He set aside his omniscience- his ability to know everything.  He set aside his omnipresence- his ability to be everywhere and every time at once.  He set aside his power and became vulnerable- like a servant.  And he did all of this, knowing it would lead to a tortured death on a cross, the only way to accomplish our salvation.  We thank God for that!
          And we thank God that the incarnation, as we call it, also has very practical implications for our lives here and now.  First of all, it means that Jesus understands our weaknesses.  He came as a helpless infant, needing to be changed and fed.  Like us, he got sick.  He became tired.  He had to learn stuff, like how to lace his sandals and how to read.  He had to learn to control his emotions- anger, disappointment, fear, sadness, and jealousy.  He had to deal with difficult family situations.  The only story we have from his childhood involved a misunderstanding with his parents at age twelve at the temple in Jerusalem.  He had wandered away from them in the big city, and they were beside themselves with worry trying to find him.  When he tried to explain to them what he had been doing in the temple, we’re told, “But they did not understand what he said to them.”  (Luke 2:50)  How many kids can identify with that statement- trying to explain something to your parents, but they just can’t understand it?  Later, his family would try to have him committed as if he had a mental illness!
Jesus experienced human weakness, and therefore we can be assured that he understands our limits and weaknesses- sickness, sorrow, trying family relationships.  Jesus understands your weaknesses!
He also understands our hopes and fears.  He had great hopes for his ministry, that his kingdom would change the world.  That those twelve disciples into whom he poured his life, would stand shoulder to shoulder with him as the kingdom of God began to take root.  Instead, they betrayed and abandoned him when he needed them most.  Jesus understands it when we feel betrayed or disappointed.  He knows what it means to be misunderstood and unjustly condemned.  He understands when you face dashed hopes.  He understands your fears for the future.  He’s been there!
And finally, Jesus also knows what it is to struggle with desires.  He was tempted specifically with power, tempted to compromise in order to rise higher and achieve more, tempted to let the ends justify the means.  He was tempted by material things, to be able to live his life in comfort.  He was tempted by sexual desires.  If that shocks you to think of Jesus having sexual thoughts, then I would suggest that your Christology needs some work!  The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are, and is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.  Jesus understands what it means to be tempted.  So, we can talk to him about those things, knowing he will sympathize.
          A few years ago Christian writer and speaker Jill Briscoe was invited to speak to a gathering of about 200 newly-arrived refugees in Croatia.  They were mostly women and were staying in a seminary that was just far enough away from the fighting to avoid the constant bombardment in the city.  Jill worked all day visiting with the refugees.  She thought long and hard about what she would say to them that evening, but nothing came to her.
          So she simply stood to speak, praying that God would give her the words.  She recalls, “I told them about Jesus, who as a baby became a refugee.  He was hunted by soldiers, and his parents had to flee to Egypt at night, leaving everything behind.  I could tell the people began to click with what I was saying.  I continued telling them about Jesus’ life, and when I got to the cross, I said, “He hung there (completely) naked, not like the pictures show you.”  They knew what that meant.  Some of them had been stripped naked and tortured.  At the end of the message, Jill said, “All these things have happened to you.  You are homeless.  You have had to flee.  You have suffered unjustly.  But you didn’t have a choice.  He had a choice.  He knew all this would happen to him, but he still came.”  Many of them just knelt down, put their hands up, and wept.  Jill said, “He’s the only one who really understands.  How can I possibly understand, but he can.  He’s the suffering God.  You can give your pain to him,” she concluded.
          You can give your pain to him, too.  God understands our difficulties and our joys, because he has experienced them himself!  In his humanity, Jesus knows what it is like to be human, and he cares!  And in his divinity, Jesus has the ability to assist us, to encourage us, to empower us to overcome our weaknesses and the situations in which we find ourselves.  And that is a certainty that we can hang onto at Christmas. 
          I’d like to close with a final word for those of you who are about to be ordained and installed as church officers this morning.  Let me read the verse prior to the Philippians passage that we read earlier.  “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:4)   And then it picks up with “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” as we read earlier.  As you begin your work as church officers, remember that God is calling you to look out for the interests of others.  That is what good leadership is.  It means you set aside your own wants and preferences for the good of the church.  Now that doesn’t mean that you should give into every desire or opinion that you hear!  It means that you do what you believe is best for the whole church and more importantly for the mission of Jesus Christ.  And you do that best when you imitate the heart, mind, and life of Jesus.  He was humble and invested his life in serving others.  And God calls you to do the same.

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