This sermon is based on John, chapter 1, verses 1-18 (which is inserted along the way)
I was at work one day looking at a picture of atoms – the picture was from an electron microscope.
Let me try to give you some perspective. I was looking at images about the size of a pea and that would be like taking a basketball to the surface of the moon, and then standing here and looking through a powerful microscope and seeing a little bump about the size of a pea – it would be like 1 basketball 238,857 miles away.
The week I was looking at that picture was the week I was being ordained a priest.
In a prior life I was an engineer and I worked with brilliant – really brilliant – scientists and engineers.
I sat in this office with one of those brilliant scientists and we were trying to figure something out.
He said to me, “My wife and I got your invitation and we’re going to be there Saturday”.
He was talking about the invitation to my ordination.
I responded, “Great, I’m really glad you can come!”
To which he said, “You really don’t believe all that stuff do you, I mean my wife does, but you, you can’t believe that!”
I thought of being sarcastic, telling him, no I don’t believe in God I was just doing it for the dresses I could wear – but God in his infinite wisdom sent the Holy Spirit to shut down my sarcasm and instead I asked:
“What do you see when you look at this picture?”
He said – “Atoms (duh)”.
I said – I see order, I see a hand behind all this, I see, not proof of God, but certainly echoes of God’s work.
I went on to talk to him about what he already knew – that there are these things called “Universal Constants”.
You all know what universal constants are yet you probably haven’t thought too much about them.
Let me try and give and example.
Gravity – you know the old apple that feel on
Or the speed of light – it is constant!
In fact there are many of these in our world and scientists have observed that if these “constants” these “numbers” were a little different it ISN’T that my nose would be a little off the side of my face – IT WOULD BE THAT NONE OF THIS – the sky, water, animals, the earth, the planets – NONE OF IT WOULD EXIST.
Scientists have observed a curious thing – everything in nature works together so that we exist! (It’s called the anthropomorphic principle).
I said to my friend that day – I believe it is a reasonable step of faith to believe in God!
Think about it, atoms lined up in a row, and yet we also see of galaxies stretching out across the universe – it’s beautiful, and it exists in a way that humans can observe it.
Humans for years have observed these things and more:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
SO THIS IS POINT #1 – THAT THERE IS AN AMAZING GOD. Sometimes we go through our days and weeks not thinking about just how amazing this all is and how amazing God is – CHRISTMAS PROVIDES A TIME WHEN WE CAN PAUSE AND TAKE IT IN.
So I want to press on to the next step in this discussion:
If you make that step of faith, that there is a God, you run right into a problem – if God is so smart then why is there so much pain, so much evil in the world?
At Christmas we want to celebrate God, but at the same time we shouldn’t “duck this issue” – this issue of pain and suffering.
And so there are people in church, enjoying God coming to earth, and people who won’t go into a church because they think we are avoiding the obvious.
Have you ever met someone who struggles with the problem of all the evil and all the pain and all the sickness that exists in this world?
I know its Christmas, but if we are going to proclaim that God has come to earth, then we need to press into this question a little.
The question: “Why is there pain and evil and suffering?
People often answer because of “The Fall” – that moment when Adam and Eve disobeyed God – and while that is the moment that evil entered the world, the moment when pain became a reality – while that is the moment in time, it isn’t the reason.
The reason there is pain and evil and suffering in the world is LOVE.
Love? You might think I’ve got something backwards here, but let’s think about this a little bit.
Have you ever been in love? Are you in love? Want to be in love?
So let me ask you, if you could have someone love you and do it by making an adjustment in their brain and heart, a little tweak, that would ensure they always loved you, that you knew it was impossible for them to override this “new wiring” – would you want that?
Most people would say NO – most people would say that if a person couldn’t choose on their own to love me, if a person when the “chips are down” couldn’t choose on their own to “hang in there” with me – well then it wouldn’t be love – would it?
Does that make sense – for love to be real a person has to have the ability to choose to love.
And that’s a risk – A HUGE RISK.
God takes the “Risk of Love”.
God created us – in His Image in order to be in a relationship with us.
It says in Genesis that God was walking through the garden in the cool of the day looking for Adam and Eve. (Gen 3:8-9) God wanted to “hang out with them”.
God desires a relationship with us. God loves us and want us to love Him.
Do we have this point – that God, the creator of the universe, desires that you love Him?
And He is willing to take the risk – He desires true love – and He knows for that love to be true you and I have to have a choice – a choice to either love Him, or not.
And unfortunately people choose to not love God – to literally turn their back on God and choose all sorts of things that aren’t of God.
And when we say NO to God, when we invite God out of the world, disorder begins to set in.
Even in the presence of God – the presence of God on earth:
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
It isn’t as if it is some Neutral ground.
The “true light” was in the world – let me ask you to think about a dark room with a candle in it – the candle is pushing back the darkness, but when we blow the candle out what happens?
The darkness pushes in – there is no neutral ground.
We know this!
We’ve seen on a worldwide scale – the evil of the Holocaust.
We’ve experienced it on a family scale – the pain of rejection by family, friends, and those we love.
We live it on a personal scale, the disease and suffering in our own lives.
Our brokenness, our disease is a direct result of a world that for thousands of years has said no to God in millions of ways.
Please don’t misunderstand – I’m not saying you’re sick because you’ve sinned – that harsh form of religion which says to people, “Not only do you have cancer, but it’s your fault.”
That is not what I’m saying. I’m saying that as we, collectively, have rejected God over and over again – that it has consequences.
The cause of evil is the rejection of God’s love.
And Jesus has experienced this rejection – we heard read this morning:
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
DOES THAT MAKE SENSE – THAT’S POINT #2 – THAT THE EVIL WE SEE IS A RESULT OF THE RISK AND REJECTION OF GOD’S LOVE.
Are we doing OK? I know this is a little heavy lifting, especially for Christmas, but if we are going to proclaim God has come into the world we need to have the courage to look at this situation.
We’re coming down to the home stretch:
The amazing thing about God is that He doesn’t give up!
This God, who takes the risk of love, He loves us so much that He doesn’t give up!
That’s Christmas isn’t it – God again taking risk – God coming to earth – God trying again and again to get us to understand His Love – this time God comes to earth in the form of a baby.
It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that God has placed Himself totally dependent on Mary and Joseph.
It doesn’t take much imagination for us to realize that Jesus has placed himself one dream away from Herod killing him along with all the other young boys in
And yet He takes that risk again – the risk of love.
He comes to earth to deal with all that is wrong and to demonstrate to us that He is more powerful than any evil. God and Evil are NOT two equally opposite forces – God is supreme!
This BIG GOD – this GOD who orders the atoms and universes, who makes the Adirondacks and the ants and the atoms – this God “climbs down” to earth, leaving all of His Glory and says:
Give it to me all, all the rejection, all the brokenness, all the hate, all the evil, all the SIN – give it to me all – lay it on me so that I might show them how much I love them.
This Christmas story is a beautiful one and yet we know where it leads – we know what lays ahead for this baby.
And the point – God does it for love:
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
Let’s pray.
