Christmas: Empty and Full; Philippians 2:5-11

It's Christmas morning, and not a creature is stirring except for me (and one cat). My mornings usually start early anyway, but this morning I found myself lying awake in bed, contemplating getting up, contemplating Christmas on a Sunday, thinking about the old, old story and the new sermon I'll deliver today. I finally decided it was time to get up a little over an hour ago. The cat was already waiting for me. One of the struggles preachers feel this time of year is the question, "how do we tell the same story again this year and make it feel fresh and new?" Does it require a laser light show or drummers suspended on wires (I've seen videos of both this year)? Or, as the Grinch wondered all those years ago, "What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?" The truth is, it means quite a bit more! That moment in time we call the incarnation—the Christmas story—originates in eternity itself. Long before "unto us a child is born," there was, as John puts it, "the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). In Christmas, that eternal Word stepped from eternity into time and, as Paul follows up, "emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7). The story we tell again this year is not just about the birth of a baby but that God emptied himself of himself, submitted to life among us, and death for us. It's not just the old, old story, it's the eternal story, and every time I hear it, I hear something new.