In
the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Last
night we heard of the angels singing,
and
the shepherds rushing off to the manger
to
see the newborn king.
But
in the light of this morning,
the
angels are present only in the letter to the Hebrews.
And
the author of the letter to the Hebrews
seems
only to want to put them in their place.
We
read that this babe in the manger
is
far superior to angels.
We
hear that God does not say to the angels,
‘You
are My Son; today I have begotten you!’
The
letter to the Hebrews goes on and on like this.
The
author seems to delight in putting everyone and everything in its place.
The
prophets; angels; Moses; the Torah; the Temple -
everything
must take its place in relation and subjugation to the Son
who
entered the world as a human child.
This
Son of God does not sound much like a human being to us.
Hebrews
puts it like this:
‘In
these last days [God] has spoken to us by a Son,
whom
he appointed heir of all things,
through
whom he also created the worlds.
He
is the reflection of God’s glory
and
the exact imprint of God’s very being,
and
he sustains all things by his powerful word.’
The
Gospel of John goes further.
The
Son does not only speak a powerful word;
he
is God’s Word himself.
‘In
the beginning was the Word,
and
the Word was with God,
and
the Word was God.
He
was in the beginning with God.
All
things were made through him,
and
without him not one thing came into being.’
The
Son of God participates in the Father’s work of creation.
The
angels, from the cute cherubs
to
the powerful St Michael with a sword,
to
the archangel Gabriel with his trumpet,
to
the angel who sang over Bethlehem
the
good news of great joy,
are
creatures.
Being
pure spirit, they worship God and they serve God.
And
in worshiping God, they worship him
when
he comes into the world as a human being.
When
we see a particularly cute baby,
we’re
apt to say,
‘Oh,
what a little angel!’
To
which the parents may respond,
‘Oh,
really?
You
can have him for a couple of nights.
See
what you think then.’
And
yet, the children
resemble
not so much the angels
as
they do the Son of God,
the
Word of God,
through
whom God created the worlds.
For
the Word of God became one of them,
becoming
incarnate for them.
The
one who created the spiritual beings
becomes
an animal,
becomes
a human being for their sake,
to
raise them up to the things of God.
There
are many who believe that human beings
are
simply a class of animals
who
have evolved to a higher state
than
the other animals.
If
this is true,
whether
we are really more advanced
is
perhaps a matter of opinion.
Douglas
Adams gently pokes fun at us
in
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
‘Man
had always assumed
that
he was more intelligent than dolphins
because
he had achieved so much —
the
wheel, New York, wars and so on —
whilst
all the dolphins had ever done
was
muck about in the water having a good time.
But
conversely, the dolphins had always believed
that
they were far more intelligent than man —
for
precisely the same reasons.'
If
evolutionary status is the yardstick,
perhaps
we’ve got nothing to brag about.
But
in The Screwtape Letters,
C.S.
Lewis postulates
that
we are both animal and spiritual.
Screwtape,
the senior devil,
explains
to his nephew Wormwood:
‘“Humans are amphibians...half spirit and
half animal...
as spirits they belong to the eternal world,
but as animals they inhabit time.
Although
this is not a biblical story,
the
Church Fathers that Lucifer,
being
the chief of the angels,
a
purely spiritual being,
could
not bear the thought
that
human beings were to be superior to him,
and
so he and some of his fellow angels
rebelled
against God,
seeking
to draw human beings into his orbit.
These
animals should serve and be in thrall to the spiritual.
But
the Word came into the world
to
redeem us from sin, death, and the devil,
so
that human beings should be what they are,
one
of the animals,
but
with the unique privilege and responsibility
of
bearing God’s image,
of
being carnal creatures
with
the ability to recognize and praise and serve God,
to
converse with him and walk with him.
So
this is a pretty heady sermon for Christmas morning.
Perhaps
we are not awake enough for this.
Blame
it on being carnal creatures
who
need sleep.
But
the God who slumbers not nor sleeps
slept
in a manger,
after
the Virgin gave birth to him.
The
God who created the worlds
became
a creature.
The
God who inhabits eternity stepped into time.
And
so we worship,
not
an angel,
but
a God,
who
became truly one of us,
in
order that we might share in his Spirit.
Think
about it when you’re more awake.
Merry
Christmas!
