Firstborn

Colossians 1: 9-20

 

 

         My first name, my given name, is a little weird.  It sounds like a last name. So do my middle and last names, for that matter. They are all last names. That’s probably because I am a firstborn son. It didn’t help that I was born on my father’s birthday. I guess that sealed the deal. My father was also a firstborn son. He got all the family names and passed them down to me.  Firstborn. It’s still a pretty big deal today, but in ancient times, it was a very big deal. Such a big deal that the book of Genesis describes Esau’s twin Jacob as holding on to Esau’s foot in delivery, as if to pass him in the birth canal. Such a big deal that the same kid swindled Esau out of his birthright by bribing him with food. Today in western society at least, children, both male and female, tend to inherit equally. Not so in ancient Israel. The first born son got a double portion of dad’s estate. So being the firstborn was a big deal.

          Is Jesus a firstborn, a first born son? The Apostles Creed tells us that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. The gospels of Matthew and Luke record a virgin birth; that is, birth of the child Jesus, to a virgin named Mary. The father was not her future husband Joseph, but none other than God the Holy Spirit.  But think about that. God the Holy Spirit is the father of God the Son? Really, Jesus has no father, as least not in the way we think of fatherhood and biology. So yes, Jesus is a firstborn, but only of Mary or, if you will, only as a human being. With God, Jesus is his only son, not his firstborn, for Jesus was with God in the beginning. Jesus, like the other members of the Trinity, never was not. This is what we believe.  This is decided theology.

          If we hearken back to the fourth century, we can hear the arguments of Arius, a great theologian who simply got it wrong when he posited that Jesus Christ was a created being. For that, he was ultimately called a heretic. The Nicene Creed was written to make clear that the position of the Church and, more importantly that of Scripture, is that Jesus is “before all things.” The apostle John writes that Jesus is the Word whom was there in the beginning. In the eighth chapter of John’s gospel Jesus answers the Jews about seeing their ancestor Abraham and he himself replies: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”  In the first chapter of Genesis, God addresses his creation and says “Let us make man in our image.” The point is this. Jesus is. He never was not. He is God’s only son, but he is begotten, not created or made. If you can’t get there from here, just chalk it up to the God-thing that it is. Come on, how hard can that be? If you can believe that God stands outside his creation, then to put Jesus there with him is a very small leap of faith.

          But Jesus is a firstborn. Paul says so twice in his letter to the Colossians. He says so twice in the space of three verses. First, says Paul, Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. Here. Paul is not talking about some physical attribute. Rather, he is talking about the preeminence of Christ. Paul says that it is by Jesus that all things were created. He is the agent of God! But that’s not all. Paul goes on to say that all things were created through Jesus and for Jesus. If creation were a book, Jesus, as the agent of God, would be the binding and the cover, the very container of that which was and is created. He is even the glue that holds it together.

          Jesus is also the firstborn of the dead. But wait, you say, other people died and were resurrected. Jesus himself raised Lazarus. This is true. But Jesus, Jesus the Son of God and Son of Man, was raised from the dead never to die again. In that very physical sense, he is the firstborn of the dead, born again to never die.

          So no, Jesus is not the firstborn but the only, Son of God. And yes, Jesus is the firstborn of all creation in his power and agency from God, and firstborn again in that he alone has conquered death for all time. It is up to us as believers of the gospel to call upon him as our agent to conquer death for us as well.

          Why is it so important at Christmas for us to talk about creation and death? Because we are talking about something so amazing, so phenomenal that the only way to describe it is to make it normal…and that’s a shame, because it is a country mile from normal! The story of Christmas is not about a short season of buying and gifting and “Christmas spirit.” The story of Christmas is the story of a radical invasion of God into our world! Yes, God came down, came down as one of us and stepped into the chaos and the mess and the hate and the injustice and the poverty. He came barefooted and bled with us. He came in that manger and he came…to claim that cross!

          We just heard Ashlee and Christina and Missy sing a beautiful song about the cross. The lyrics show how music can open us to God every bit as deeply as any message. Listen once more:

It’s not just about the manger

It’s not about the angels

It’s not about the shepherds

It’s not about the wisemen

 

It’s about the cross

It’s about the stone rolled away

 

It’s not about the presents

It’s not about coming home

It’s not about the beauty of the snow

 

It’s about the cross

It’s about my sin

It’s about how Jesus came to be born once

So that we could be born again

 

It’s about the cross

 

          I ran across this quotation from Winston Churchill from December, 1941. Churchill was in Washington and it wasn’t long after the attack on Pearl Harbor that he uttered these words as part of a speech. Spoken a full 75 years ago, they continue to resonate today. Listen.

          This is a strange Christmas Eve.  Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other.  Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field.  Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart.  Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm.  Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.

          Let the children have their night of fun and laughter.  Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play.  Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

 

          This whole month, we have touched on the themes of Advent: hope and joy and love and peace. We have talked about darkness turning to light, about waiting for the Lord, about expectation. Christmas, Christ day, is all those things. But it is also an arrow that points oh so directly at the reason Jesus came to dwell among us. It was man who designed the cross, but it was Jesus who was fitted for it. It was his instrument of peace. Through his blood, our peace was bought. Even on this day, even amidst all the happiness and joy of the Incarnation of God on earth, there is the cross. It is what he was born for. Today, while we hug and kiss and rock and relax, help us to remember that he was, and is, alive and vigilant. We are his children. His love will bring us home.

          Merry Christmas!