Christmas Sermon for 1999

“No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” John 1:18 

It was a popular song a few years ago.  She sang a thought-provoking refrain, “What if God was one of us?”  Well he is.  One need not ask, “What if?”  God is one of us.  This is the message of Christmas.  Now that God is one of us, we can see him as he really is. 

But how can anyone see God?  You maybe heard the story about little Johnny in Sunday school who offered to draw a picture of God for his teacher.  She said, “Now, Johnny, no one actually knows what God looks like.”  Johnny sighed as if she were a little slow and said, “I know.  That’s why I am going to draw everyone a picture.” 

Now this brings up an interesting point.  What does God look like?  Literally, he doesn’t look like anything because God cannot be seen.  He is invisible.  Jesus says that God is a spirit.  A spirit has no material form or substance.  So God has no appearance at all.  He cannot be seen.  Therefore it is silly to ask what he looks like.   

Still, folks who live in this visible world must be able to think visually about God or they won’t be able to think of him at all.  This is why the Bible sometimes talks about God as if he had certain human bodily characteristics.  Moses describes him as walking in the Garden of Eden.  The Bible frequently mentions his right hand.  There’s even a word for this figure of speech that describes God in human terms.  It’s called an anthropomorphism.  The Mormon religion takes biblical anthropomorphisms literally.  They imagine that God was created a man and then became God by doing good things.  So they teach that man may become God, just as God did.  But that is pagan, not Christian.  God is a spirit and has no body.  He is invisible, yet he fills all things.  He is eternal and he cannot change.  This is why he calls himself “I AM.”   

But we have to have something in our mind’s eye when we think of God.  Do we think of a kindly old grandfather with gray hair and glasses who gives us whatever our heart desires?  Do we think of a stern judge who requires of us strict obedience and will punish us for disobeying?  The famous German atheist, Ludwig Feuerbach, argued that people simply invent their own gods, ascribing to them those human characteristics that they admire or fear.  Well, I’m sure that they do, but that begs the question.  What is the real God actually like?  What does he look like, that is, what is his nature?  The atheist denies that God exists, but the Bible calls the atheist a fool.  His denial of God ignores the abundant evidence that God is real, that he has created this world, that he sets down permanent standards of right and wrong, that he has judged mankind in the past, and will do so again in the future.   

Most Americans are not atheists.  They think there is a God, but they are becoming more and more uncertain about what God is like.  What does God look like?  What do Lutherans believe?  Among nominal Lutherans – those who call themselves Lutheran whether they are or not – a recent poll commissioned by Lutheran Brotherhood gives us some alarming statistics.  Only 34% of Lutherans in American “say salvation is received only by those who believe in Christ.”  Well, then, do they teach that those who don’t believe in Jesus can work their way to heaven?  No, they don’t believe that, either.  Only 7% believe salvation is earned by doing good.  What do they believe, then?  Not much.  Jesus isn’t necessary, good deeds aren’t necessary.  Nobody really needs a Savior.  Despite the fact that 83% of nominal Lutherans say that they believe there is a hell, it’s pretty obvious that they don’t think God will actually send anyone there. 

Universalism – the teaching that everyone goes to heaven, with or without Jesus – has replaced the Christian gospel as the central doctrine of the faith.  This is so, not only among nominal Lutherans, but among all of the major denominations as well. Universalism paints God as that rather indulgent and generous grandfather who would really prefer that we be nice to one another, but he won’t actually do anything about our misbehavior.  He doesn’t punish.  He doesn’t judge.  He doesn’t hold us accountable.  In fact, he doesn’t even talk, at least not so you can understand him.  He’s like the distracted Dad who says “uh huh” to every question his six year old asks him, while not really paying any attention to him at all.  He’s like Santa Clause who says that he knows if you’ve been bad or good, but he’ll give you the present even if you’re bad, so you start wondering just how much he knows.  Obviously this grandfather, Santa Claus god has nothing to do with Jesus or Christmas. 

If God doesn’t much care what you do or what you believe why should you?  And, of course, most folks don’t.  Oh, they won’t admit this, of course.  They have their standards and they have their faith, but they certainly won’t claim that their standards are God’s standards or that their faith is the truth revealed by God.  So Christmas – the holiday during which we have traditionally looked at God as he really is and as he wants to be seen – has become thoroughly secularized.  I’m not talking about the overflowing shopping malls, the harmless stories and symbols of Santa, Rudolph and the reindeer, or the pop music, movies, and TV specials.  I’m talking about churches.  Christ the Savior who came into this world to save sinners is used as a propaganda tool to promote whatever political or social cause is in style – from caring for the homeless to working for world peace.  And, of course, the cure to what ails humanity is not identified as the God become flesh lying in a manger.  No, that’s just a religious picture to direct you into yourself to find within yourself the spirit of peace and goodwill that will enable you to make a difference for good in this world. 

I wonder if those who have no interest in the deeper theological implications of Christmas don’t feel an emptiness inside as they so confidently set aside as ancient myth the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God.  Do they wonder, what is God really like?  Do they stop and ask, as they see the little baby in the manger, is this God?  Is this what God looks like?  Could it be that God really did become one of us?  Could it be that this is no ancient myth, but the literal truth?  If that little one is my God, he is also my Creator and my Judge.  But look at him.  Certainly, he means me no harm. 

Deep down in every human heart there is a sense of sin, of shame, of weakness that nobody gets to see.  I am talking about the very secret places of the heart that harbor memories of failure, of deliberate sin, of weakness in the face of trial.  There is that place we are ashamed to go and so we don’t go there.  But God knows.  Yes, he who knows all things because of his very nature as God knows what you and I and every other sinner try so desperately to hide.  He knows, he sees, and when he knows and when he sees, he knows and sees as the one whose very nature also requires him to punish, and to judge, and to hold accountable.   

He’s the God the atheist denies.  He’s the God the modern Christian ignores.  He’s the God who speaks quite plainly and tells us what is right and wrong, true and false.  He’s the God before whom all nations will be gathered and every individual will give an account.  I cannot stand before this God, and neither can you.  I cannot know him or love him or trust in him and neither can you.  But he is real.  He created the sun that shines on us and if he were to change his mind concerning that sun, it would vanish in an instant and the whole world would be destroyed.  That is the nature of his power.  He is real.  He sends the snow and the wind.  He causes the drought and the sends the flood.  He decides whether the bird will fly or fall.  He decided how tall you would grow.  He is the real God, the only God. 

What does he look like?  Look into the manger and see.  He comes to us, a little baby boy.  There is no room in the inn.  He is born among the animals.  He is laid in the straw.  He is so small.  Who’s afraid of such a Child? 

Contrary to modern myth, babies are sinful, selfish, and filled with evil.  They need forgiveness as much as the rest of us.  This is one reason we bring them to God who graciously baptizes them and adopts them as his own.  But this little One, this infant is no sinner.  His conception was the only Immaculate Conception.  Now look and see what human innocence is.  It is an obedient life.  It is a humble life.  It is a life willing to suffer for others.  It is a life bearing the burdens of others.  It is a life of self-denial, all the way the cruel and most barbaric form of death.  This is the innocent, obedient, perfect human life.  This is the life of Jesus.  And he is your God.  Yes, he is.  He is the God who made you.  Look at your God.  He is a baby, a boy, a man.  

He is the only begotten Son, the only begotten God, the eternal Son of the eternal Father, and only he makes God known.  He alone shows you God.  Where and how does he show you your God?  He shows you your God in his own humanity.  Look at Jesus the baby, the boy, and the man, and know that there is your God, and nowhere else can you know him.  Those who teach that one need not believe in Jesus Christ to go to heaven know nothing about Jesus, God or heaven.  Universalism is simply a denial of Christmas and of Christ.  If you would know God, and find him to be your God, you must look in the manger, you must look on the cross, you must look to Jesus.  He alone declares to you the true God.   

What does God look like?  What is his nature?  He sees you as you are.  He sees you, as you don’t want to be or admit you are.  And seeing your shame, he removes it.  Seeing your sin, he bears it.  Seeing your weaknesses and your failures and your denials, he comes to you and he loves you.  He forgives you – fully, freely, and forever – and he does so by bearing your sin, not by excusing it or by defining it away or by pretending that you didn’t do it or that he didn’t see it.  He is no ignorant store Santa to make you feel good by giving you false promises.  Everything he promises he gives.  And every gift of God’s grace he gives you he won.  He earned.  He came to be your brother.  Nobody knows you better, yet nobody loves you more, and nobody judges you less.  Unto you he is born; for you he lived and died; to you he speaks his gospel of peace and by that speaking gives you the treasures of heaven.  He is at the bosom of the Father and he is here among us, our Immanuel.  So we welcome him this evening.  He who reveals God the Father remains God with us in our baptism by which we were joined to him, in the gospel which continues to absolve us of all our sin, in the Sacrament of his body and blood, where we, like Simeon of old, actually see our salvation, as the body of God and God’s precious blood are given to us to eat and to drink for our eternal salvation.  Jesus is still our God.  He is still with us.  He still shows us what God really looks like.  Amen.

Rolf D. Preus

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