God is with us in Word and Sacrament

The Nativity of Our Lord

The Nativity of Our Lord

John 1:1–18

+ IN NOMINE IESU +

God has always dwelt with and among His creation. His presence in the beginning, not only called forth everything that exists, but His presence holds it together and sustains it. For “In Him we live and move and have our being,” and “By Him all things consist.” Without Him, then, all that we have and all that we are would cease to exist. God has always dwelt with His creation.

Even in the Garden of Eden, God dwelt with His creatures. He would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. He taught them His will, gave to them His Word, showed them the way of life and warned them about the way of death. He covered their shame by sacrifice. He poured out His mercy in the shedding of blood. And He gave them a promise: The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent forever. God always dwelt with his creatures.

And in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God dwelt with His people. He led them out of slavery into the land He promised to their fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. He sheltered them from the heat of the day and gave them warmth and light in the night. He taught them His will, gave to them His Word, showed them the way of life and warned them about the way of death. He covered their lintels and doorposts with blood. He fed them on their journey with bread and meat from heaven. And He gave them a promise: I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. God has always dwelt with and among His people.

And in the tabernacle and the temple, God dwelt among His people. He was their God, and they were his people. He met with them. He taught them His will, gave them His Word, showed them the way of life and warned them about the way of death. He atoned for their sin by the shedding of blood. He poured out His mercy by sacrifice. He fed them with that sacrifice. And He gave them a promise: I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. God has always dwelt with and among His people.

And in exile in Babylon, God dwelt among His people. He taught them His will, gave them His Word, showed them the way of life and warned them about the way of death. By His presence, He saved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. And by His presence, He delivered Daniel from the den of lions. And He gave them a promise: You will return to the land that I promised to your fathers. God has always dwelt with and among His people.

That has not changed. But the means by which He now dwells with His creation has. For God now dwells with His creatures as a creature. He dwells among His people as one of the people. He dwells among us as one of us. For the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The eternal Word of God, that in the beginning was with God and in the beginning was God; the Word through whom all things were created, that Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God now dwells with us in human flesh. The Son of God, begotten of the Father from eternity, is true man, born of the Virgin Mary. “Offspring of the Virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity! Pleased as Man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel.” He is both God and man in one person, true God and true man. God dwells with us as one of us, of our flesh and blood, our brother, our kin.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God in the flesh. The eternal Son of God is the man Jesus. Whatever Jesus did, the eternal Son of God did. Whatever Jesus said, the eternal Son of God said. Whatever Jesus accomplished, the eternal Son of God accomplished. In Jesus Christ, eternity became a part of history. In Jesus, the finite contained the infinite. In Jesus, God dwells among us as one of us.

He came not only to teach the Father’s will, but to live it. He came not only to preach the Word, but to do it. He came not only to show the way of life and warn of the way of death, but to overcome and conquer death by His death and give true life by His resurrection to life. The perfect life He lived, he lived for us. And the death He died, He died for us. Very God of Very God in human flesh, submitting to His own law and giving His life into death so that the Law will not accuse us and death will not hold us. “Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.”

It is altogether fitting then that the eternal Word that in the beginning created all things, became flesh to dwell among us. For since by the Word all things were created and shaped, and that by Him we live, move, and have our being, so by and in that same Word, now made flesh, are we re-created, reshaped, given new life and being in Him. And it is altogether fitting that the eternal Son of God became flesh to dwell among us. For since we are by nature the children of wrath because of our disobedience, because of His obedience as the natural and only-begotten Son of God now in flesh, we are made the children of grace and receive the adoption of sons through Him.

God has always dwelt with and among His creation. He dwells with us by the eternal Word made flesh. And He dwells among us still. Jesus is our Immanuel. He meets with us. He gives us His Word. He pours out His mercy. He takes away our sin by the application of His blood. He feeds, renews, and enlivens us by Word and Sacrament. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God has always dwelt with His people. But now He dwells among us as one of us, for us. Amen.

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.