A film character prays only to the “baby Jesus”, because that Jesus feels safe and convenient. From that scene the message moves into the prologue of John’s Gospel (John 1), a hymn to the Word that was in the beginning, through whom everything came to be, and who pitched his tent among us. The sermon asks whose birth we are actually celebrating, and why the familiar nativity scene cannot contain what John wrote. Listen before you look at the Bethlehem manger again.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- John opens his Gospel with "In the beginning," echoing Genesis. What does John 1:1-3 tell us about the Word that the creation account alone does not?
- John writes that the Word "made his dwelling among us," literally "pitched his tent." What might the image of the tent of meeting from the wilderness years have meant to the first readers, and what does it say about Jesus?
- The speaker contrasts the cozy image of "baby Jesus" in the manger with what John writes. Why is it easier to hold on to the tame image of little Jesus, and what do we lose when we stop there?
- John notes that "his own did not receive him," yet those who believed, regardless of their background, became children of God. What does this say about whom God invites into his family, and how does it apply to you?
- "No one has ever seen God," but Jesus has made him known. Which qualities of God mentioned in the sermon, his greatness, wisdom, grace and truth, move you most when you look at Jesus?
- This week, amid the shopping, cleaning and preparations, how can you find a moment to look at the nativity scene through John's eyes and see in the child the Creator who came out of love?
