Christmas Day
December 25, 2001

John 1:1-14

Our family has a tendency to stubbornness. Our prime example was Great Uncle George. I remember one day going with him to the Old Mill Restaurant. We parked, and since I knew the way, I began to lead my Aunt and Uncle towards the front entrance. Uncle George stopped us. "This way is shorter," he declared, indicating that we should walk around the building. I pointed out the front entrance, but nothing would deter him from his chosen path. Aunt Alice and I walked up to the entrance and stood waiting at the steps for him. Finally, huffing and puffing, he met us and declared, "I told you my way was shorter!" We could have argued. We both knew that he was wrong. But it wouldn't have done any good. People are not often changed by arguments. They have to see for themselves. They have to experience. And they have to accept.

Theologians present arguments. Books of theology have been written arguing every aspect of the Christian faith. You can read countless volumes arguing the existence of God. The great theological debate of the Middle Ages was about how many angels you could fit on the point of a pin. There have been great debates on the Virgin birth. Nothing can have been argued more than the concept of the Incarnation.

But God did not give us a debate about the Incarnation. God did not argue with us. God gave us not an argument, but a Saviour. The Word became flesh and lived and died among us. God is made flesh. Christ is born. The Holy Spirit penetrates the darkness of our world.

Consider for a moment your own faith journey. How did you come to faith? It is a rare person who comes to faith through some intellectual pursuit. We see God's glory, not in arguments, but in unselfish lives. We are convinced about the love of God by experiencing it in our own lives. And then we pass it on to others as we might pass the light of a candle one to another.

With thanks to J.B. Phillips, I'm going to share a short story with you that strikes a resonating chord in me.

Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown the splendours and glories of God's realm by an experienced angel. It was quite wonderful, the experience of being shown whirling planets, blazing suns and magnificent comets. Son when the angel pointed out a rather insignificant sphere turning rather slowly on its axis, the little angel was, truth to tell, a little bored. It looked about as interesting as a dirty tennis ball after the wonders he had been shown.

But the senior angel persisted. "That," he declared, pointing to a speck on the horizon, "is the visited planet."

"The visited planet?" he questioned. "You don't mean visited by …"

"Indeed I do. God has visited that planet. God took on human form and went down to that planet and lived there as one of them." The thought was almost incomprehensible to the little angel. But the older one persisted. They went back in time and observed the planet from its beginnings. From time to time they saw flashes of light appear on the surface of the planet. The older angel explained that every glow of light was a time when God's knowledge and wisdom broke through. The earth went on turning and circling around the sun, and then there appeared a light so intense and bright that both angels hid their eyes. The little angel knew instinctively that it was the time of the visit. But it was over in a flash and the darkness returned. "Why did it last such a short time?" he asked.

"For the most part," the older angel told him, people failed to recognize him for who he was. They preferred their darkness to his light, and in the end they killed him."

The young angel was horrified. "That, I suppose is the end of the story," he said. But he was told to keep watching. The earth turned three times in absolute blackness. Then the brightest of lights appeared. "They killed him. But he conquered death," he was told. "He rose again and appeared to many people before he returned to Heaven."

The angels continued to watch. They observed that now instead of the darkness, little points of light spread out across the face of the earth causing a rosy glow. "You see what is happening?" asked the senior angel. "The bright glow is the people who believe. They continue to tell others about God's visit. The glow continues to spread as God is born in each one's life."