Communion Meditation by Dr. George Bryant Wirth
Christmas Eve
THE SEARCH FOR JESUS – DIVINE
REVELATION
Scripture: John
1
Text: And the
word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as
of the 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
INTRODUCTION
We have come a long way since
the first Sunday in this Advent Season, “Searching for Jesus” in our sermons
about Joseph and Mary, the angels and the shepherds, King Herod and the Wise Men. Finally, on this silent and star-filled
night, our journey has led us to
Reading the gospel lessons
this evening helps us remember what happened long ago when our Savior was
born. But no one, not even those who
wrote the Bible, has ever been able to completely explain it, and none of us
will ever fully comprehend it – the great mystery of God Almighty becoming a
human being to dwell among us, full of
grace and truth, as the Gospel of John proclaims.
The poet Christina Rosetti
tried to describe it this way:
“I know not how that
Could in the Godhead be;
I only know the Manger Child
Has brought God’s life to me”
As we know, that is the real
reason for this season and the center of our celebration tonight…although
sometimes we forget that’s what Christmas is all about.
A little girl who had been
counting the days until December 25, was puzzled and troubled by what was
happening in her home. Her father seemed
to be loaded down with worries and lots of packages, her mother’s anxiety had
reached the breaking point and boiled over with an outburst in the kitchen, and
her older brother was out and about on the party circuit with his college
friends.
That night, on Christmas Eve,
as her parents came upstairs to tuck their daughter in bed, she bowed her head
and said The Lord’s Prayer, but she changed some of the words this way: “Forgive us our Christmases, as we forgive
those who Christmas against us.” (From
an article “Forgive Us Our Christmases” by Rev. Rudy Thomas, Pastor of the Dover
Congregational Church,
Let it not be so in your home
and in mine this night and tomorrow.
God’s Divine Revelation was not intended to launch shopping sprees,
raise our blood pressure and increase the world’s anxiety – just the opposite. God sent His Son searching for us to save us
from our sin and fear, and to show us how to love each other and to live
together in peace right here on earth.
I
You say, Preacher, what about
all the trouble out there in the world?
We might be able to love each other and get along together in our
families, with our friends and most of the time, even in the church. But if you read the papers, listen to the
radio, or watch the news on television, the world around us is in such a mess
that sometimes it seems the best we can do is pray.”
Mark Twain felt that way,
except for the part about prayer. Cynic
that he was, Twain wrote these words to a friend many years ago:
“I’ve been reading the morning
paper. I do it every morning…well
knowing that I shall find in it the usual depravities and baseness and
hypocrisies and cruelties that make up civilization and cause me to put in the
rest of the day pleading for the damnation of the human race.”
What Twain failed to see was
the hope on the horizon which God has promised through Divine Revelation to all
those who believe in Him. For God so
loved the world, that He gave us (sent us) His only Son, so that everyone who
believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life…for God did not send
His Son into the world to condemn us, but rather to save the world through Him
(John 3:16-17)
That is not only our constant
prayer, my friends, asking God for reconciliation and peace on earth – that is
also our daily responsibility as Christians – to work and to make our witness
for God’s love and forgiveness which has been made possible through the birth,
life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
II
Do you believe that
tonight? Do you? Eugene Peterson believes it, and he said so
in a lecture he delivered last summer at
Dr. Peterson is a
Presbyterian pastor and author of many books, including “The Message,” which is
his own translation of the Psalms, Proverbs and the entire New Testament.
Now the lecture he gave last
summer which Craig Goodrich heard on his sabbatical leave and then shared with
me on CD, is probably going to be published as a book sooner than later. But tonight, in closing, I want to quote what
Eugene Peterson said, because this is a message that is truly profound. And although Peterson spoke these words, I
believe they have come from the Lord as part of His “Divine Revelation,” so
please listen:
“Most of the people who saw
Jesus during the thirty years He lived in
A few of the important people
of that time noticed Him only to dismiss Him – King Herod Antipas anticipating
the show-and-tell miracle was disappointed, Governor Pilate was puzzled but
unimpressed, High Priest Caiaphas was contemptuous…
In resurrection, He was still
unimpressive – Mary Magdalene mistook Him for a gardener, Cleopas and his
friend walked seven miles with Him in conversation all the way but they had no
idea they were in conversation with the Savior of the world…think of it! Seven miles walking and talking with Jesus
and they had no idea that He was the Word made flesh. Why didn’t they get it? Because they were pre-occupied with more
important things, spiritual things like Bible study –
And then He picked up a loaf
of bread, blessed it, broke it, passed it around, and now with the texture of
bread on their fingers, the taste of bread on their tongues, grounded in the
ordinary, they recognized Him!
So why do so many of us who
see Jesus every day of the week never see Him?
Are we looking for Jesus walking on the water? A cosmic light show and charismatic
circus? A transfiguration unto knowledge
that we can take a picture of and use as a metaphor in a poem?
Why doesn’t He advertise
Himself? If He wants to be known as God
present with us to heal and save us, why doesn’t He get our attention and let
us know what is going on? Why doesn’t He
at least raise His voice?
The short answer is this: God
reveals Himself in personal relationships – God is not a phenomenon to
consider, God is not a force to be used, God is not a proposition to be argued
– there is nothing in and of God that is impersonal, and God treats us with an
equivalent personal dignity. He is not
trying to impress us – He is here to eat bread with us, to receive us into His
love, just as we are and where we are…”
CONCLUSION
My friends, as we come to
this table to eat this bread and drink from this cup on Christmas Eve 2007, let
us remember and never forget the “Divine Revelation” which we believe is true:
that God has come searching for me and for you and for all of us in person,
through the incarnation of His Son our Savior Jesus.
He was born in
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