Week 3: The Glory of God at Christmas

SERMONS

Dec 22

O Come, O Come Emmanuel is a translation of an anonymous latin hymn put together by Thomas Helmore in 1851. It flows with lyrics anticipating and longing for the advent of the promised messiah. It’s easy to forget that Christmas (the celebration of the birth of Christ, which is literally translated from the Hebrew word messiah, meaning savior) starts in the very beginning of the creation narrative. Our story starts in Genesis 3 at the fall.

Light entering the darkness is often an abrupt, almost violent, thing. For anyone consumed by darkness, wrapped in its shroud, the radical introduction of light is an assault on their senses. Think of being awoken from a deep sleep in a dark room by someone turning on a bright light — your eyes squint and you instinctively flinch from the jolt.

And here with the Christmas story, we have the most dramatic intrusion of light imaginable. It’s the story of the holy One, the Son of God in flesh arrayed, breaking into realms of darkness to reclaim his fallen bride — his people. In essence — The unapproachable God is approaching his enemies. Our instinct should be to flinch from the threat, as we see the Old Testament saints doing whenever God draws near as a pillar of fire, a whirlwind, or a cloud of glory.

But when God became man, his entrance into the darkness was disarming rather than jarring. A baby is not threatening. Why the difference? Keller asks and answers this question in his book ‘Hidden Christmas’: “Why would God come this time in the form of a baby, rather than a firestorm or whirlwind? Because this time he has not come to bring judgment but to bear it, to pay the penalty for our sins, to take away the barrier between humanity and God, so we can be together. Jesus is God with us [Emmanuel].”