+ Christmas Day December 25, 2008
Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12); John 1:1-14
“Cradled in a Book”
Christ is born among us!... and let the people of God say, “Amen!”
In a French devotional book fashioned in the Middle Ages a medieval artist has depicted Jesus, not in the manger that we so lovingly and tenderly sing about. The artist has painted the Virgin Mary standing and admiring the infant Jesus, but he’s not in a feeding trough. The artist has jettisoned the manger and moved Jesus into fancier digs. The artist portrays the Child cradled in a book, with a leather strap holding the book so the baby won’t fall out.
The artist has creatively captured one of the core Christian beliefs that we hear from the opening of the Gospel of John: the Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth. Christ, the Word, is cradled among words.
The Gospel of John begins begging us to recall the first words of the Hebrew Scriptures, “In the beginning,” John intended the first words of Genesis to be remembered as he began his Gospel with the same words. John intends to conjure in the hearer’s mind the God who spoke into the chaos and, word by word, articulated creation. This God who worded the world into being, John tells us, is the very Word who took flesh and came to live in our neighborhood. Christ, the Word, is cradled in the word. It’s a fantastic image that helps us make sense of the artist’s imaginative rendition of a baby cradled in a book.
What does it mean… this child cradled in a book? It means that Gods intention for his creation is taking shape. This Child cradled in a book is calling us to remember, not just creation coming into existence through the word of God, but also, now, at Christmas, the beginning of the last act of our salvation is taking flesh. The pieces are all falling into place: the parents have come to the town of Bethlehem… David’s city… where the Messiah would be born; the angels heralded his birth because heaven could not contain the joy that has come to the world; the shepherds came to see what had taken place and then couldn’t keep their mouths shut, spreading the good news as they went back to work; and soon, the magi, and the old woman Anna in the Temple, and Simeon with his song, and Jesus growing up, and Jesus in the Temple when he’s a boy, and Jesus by the Jordan River with John, and Jesus in the wilderness tempted by the devil, and Jesus teaching and performing miracles and healing the sick and turning the world upside down.
And then, and yes, we have to talk about it today… even though it’s a day of great rejoicing we still must recall the other events in Jesus’ life because without them today is just another day. Without Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, without Jesus’ Last Supper, without Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, without Jesus’ “trail” by the Sanhedrin, without Jesus’ humiliation before Pilate, without Jesus’ being whipped, without Jesus’ carrying his cross, without the crown of thorns, without the nails piercing his flesh… Christmas is just another day.
Some families are blessed with a special ornament for their Christmas tree.
To be sure, everyone’s tree has an abundance of sentimental ornaments and beautiful ornaments and antique ornaments and nostalgic ornaments. But, added to the tree in some homes is something different.
Hidden deep within the branches of the tree, virtually invisible to all but the most careful observer, is a nail… but no ordinary nail. (Take out The Christmas Nail)
I saved our Christmas Nail this year so I could share its meaning with you this morning. Every year when we take out our Christmas decorations we find this Nail. It seems so out of place at Christmas. Its appearance is startling. I don’t remember who gave it to us but whoever it was had their Christmas head on straight. They knew that without the Nails, without what Jesus endured for us on the cross, Christmas is just another day. They knew that without the Nails a baby cradled in a book is a pretty picture and not much more.
However, with a Nail like this tucked deep within a Christmas tree those who place it there know the true and lasting meaning of Christmas and of a baby cradled in a book! This baby will also be “cradled” on a cross so that our salvation, our absolute and, by God, sure SALVATION will be assured by the grace and love of God.
The Christmas tree, you see, foreshadows the other tree… the “Christ-tree”… the cross upon which our salvation was forged.
Today is not just “another day” because today we celebrate the Word taking flesh. He became flesh and in his humanity he became fully like us so that his sacrifice would be perfect.
We celebrate today because the divine came to earth… this peculiar and unexpected thing for God to do. And now we get to reap the incredible benefits of God doing the unthinkable. We get to participate in the events this fleshy God left us. The Bible says, and the church has enacted for its entire life, here’s what you are to do… “Have some bread; drink some wine; God is with you in the Body and Blood of Jesus.”
The Child who was safely cradled in a book is in our lives as we are what we eat in the feast of Holy Communion. God has come to meet us in the Body of His Son. He is with us now, Emmanuel, “cradled” in us, thanks be to God!
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
