December 25, 2025

Sermon Transcript

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  (Isaiah 9:6)

These words from the prophet Isaiah remind me of an open, active debate that is taking place in society right now.  Indeed, even around my family dinner table, and on long car trips, the question is: Who is the GOAT?  GOAT, of course, is an acronym for Greatest Of All Time.  The question usually applies to professional athletes according to the sport they play.  Strangely, sparks fly, tempers flare, even fisticuffs ensue as the conversation unfolds in some settings.  In fact, what I am about to say might enrage some of you, so remember: it’s Christmas, and we’re in church.  Be nice, not naughty.

Let’s warm up with an easy one.  Who is the GOAT of Major League Baseball.  No question about it: it is Babe Ruth, who might in fact be the GOAT of all sporting GOATS.  Ruth played from 1914 to 1934, and many of his statistics are impressive still today.  But even more than the homeruns he hit, and the championships he won is how he transformed the entire game.  Ruth put the whole sport upon his shoulder and elevated it to another level.  It was one thing when he began, and something else – something larger when he finished.  Think about it: every player today is enjoying the reality that Babe Ruth created.

Turning up the heat just a bit, you can see the same thing happening now in the WNBA.  Caitlin Clark is already the GOAT.  She has put the league on her shoulders and elevated the sport to a new level of skill and visibility.  It will never be the same.  Moving on to hockey, this one is easy.  The GOAT is Wayne Gretzky, whom they call “the great one.”  No more needs to be said, especially since I don’t know anything about hockey, which to me seems like soccer, but on ice.  Football?  Many will disagree with me, but sorry to say, the GOAT is not Tom Brady.  The GOAT is – wait for it – Joe Namath.  Tom Brady, despite all his rings and records, merely played in the reality that Joe Namath created in 1969, when he guaranteed that the Jets would beat the Colts in the Super Bowl.  Broadway Joe backed it up, and the game has never been the same.

Finally, the NBA.  This one generates more controversy than all the others combined.  Who is the GOAT?  Is it Michael Jordan or is it LeBron James?  It is clear to me – and I happen to be the preacher today – that the greatest of all time is Michael Jordan.  LeBron is a great champion.  He might play until he’s 50, score more points, and win more titles than anyone else, but again: he is playing in the supercharged NBA reality that Michael Jordan created.  Jordan is the GOAT.  Recently, an interviewer asked Jordan who would win if his 1990s Bulls played against LeBron’s Lakers of today.  Jordan replied that he and the Bulls would win, but only by two or three points.  “Why such as close game,” asked the interviewer?  Jordan replied, “You have to understand, most of us today are in our 60s.”

Today, my thesis is simple.  Jesus is the GOAT.  Jesus is the GOAT of GOATS.  He is the King of kings, and Lord of lords.  Centuries before Jesus, at a time of tremendous anxiety and fear, when hostile armies were encircling Jerusalem, the Spirit of the Lord descended into the chaos, and spoke to the prophet Isaiah.  God promised to send a redeemer – the Messiah – to save the people.  And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 

 Isaiah was a forerunner of John the Baptist, who believed that the Messiah’s arrival was close at hand: After me comes one who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie (Luke 3:15).  Paul the Apostle also would proclaim Jesus as the greatest of all time.  To the Philippians (2:9-10) he would write: Therefore, God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.  To the Colossians (1:15) he would write that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. 

But it’s the Gospel writers, and the witness they bear to Jesus the Messiah, who capture our attention today.  Luke and Matthew were bold enough to imagine the circumstances of his birth.  Surely, mystery and intrigue must have surrounded his entrance into the world.  Luke (1:33-34) tells us that no less than the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that the child in her womb would be the GOAT.  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:  And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.  Matthew (2:1-6) describes a star in the sky, and Wise Men who followed it to the place where Jesus was born.  Make of the pageant cast what you will.  The Gospel writers had a simple thesis to convey: Jesus is the GOAT.

Certain questions naturally follow.  If Jesus is the GOAT, what is his game?  To the best of our scholarly knowledge, sports were not his thing – although you can’t help admiring his vertical leap on Ascension Day.  And I wouldn’t want to take him on in a race across the swimming pool.  He’d just run.  But if sports were not his game, what is his game?  His game is nothing less than being human.  Jesus was the greatest of all time at living human life as God intended it to be lived.  No one reflected the image of the invisible God more clearly than did Jesus.  Where does that leave the rest of us?  Are we to imitate Jesus, and strive after his example?

In the 1990s, when Michael Jordon was at the height of his basketball prowess, the energy drink Gatorade hired him to star in a series of commercials, with the theme, “Be Like Mike.”  The promise was, if you drank Gatorade, perhaps you could be like Mike.  Perhaps you could jump, shoot, or at least exude the confident coolness of Jordan.  The problem was, no amount of Gatorade was going to help you take off from the foul line, fly through the air with the greatest of ease, and slam dunk the ball.  I remember once seeing Michael Jordan play in person.  It was as if his feet barely touched the floor.  Be like Mike?  I don’t think so.

Likewise, Jesus.  Be like Jesus?  Gosh, we’re all just really impressed down here, but I don’t think so.  Changing water into wine, multiplying loaves and fish, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, loving my enemies, to saying nothing about just being a generally nice person – these things are too high for me to attain by my own strength.  One of my favorite buildings in all of New York City is 11 Madison Avenue, just north of the MetLife clock tower at Madison Square.  The building occupies an entire city block.  It’s massive base, graceful curves, and numerous Art Deco setbacks all suggest an upward momentum.  The building was meant to soar.  Indeed, its 1929 design called for 100 stories, which would have made it the tallest, greatest building in the world at the time.  Alas, the Great Depression occurred, money ran out, and the builders finally capped 11 Madison Avenue at 30 stories.  It is a mere stump of what it was supposed to be.

Likewise, human nature.  One of our Christmas Eve services, the Festival of Nine Lesson and Carols, always begins with the story of humanity’s fall from grace.  We look at humanity and see glimmers of an upward momentum.  God created us to soar into his presence.  Yet here we are, amidst thorns and thistles, at enmity with each other, in sorrow and suffering, and returning to the dust.  We are a mere stump of what we were supposed to be.  It is for this very reason that God came to us in the person of Jesus: not to impress us, not to beat us, but to redeem and save us.  In the birth of Jesus, otherwise known as the Incarnation, God descended into our chaos, bearing the image of who he created us to be.  What Jesus then did by his precious death, his mighty resurrection, and glorious ascension was not by his own strength, not by the will of the flesh, but by the power of God.  He was God.  The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.  Isaiah prophesied that the government would be on the shoulders of the Messiah.  Well, Jesus put all of humanity on his shoulders, and lifted human life to a new level.  You and I live, and move, and have our being in the reality that Jesus created.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it.

What is more, the light and life of God that shines in the darkness is a gift for you and for me.  The mysterious John, author of the Gospel and three Epistles, has much to say on the matter.  He writes that to all who receive him, he gives power to become the children of God (John 1:1).  He goes on in the Epistles: Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when Jesus appears, we shall be like him (1 John 3:2).  Understand the scope of the promise: We will be like Jesus.  The image of God will shine through us, as God always intended it to do.

Before I studied for the priesthood, I worked in mental health – in the locked unit of a psychiatric hospital.  I will never forget a recurring patient whose name was Tom.  Through his life and illness, Tom taught me something about the great mystery of the Incarnation.  Tom was an enormous guy with a body built for the sumo wrestling ring.  He suffered from bipolar disorder, and in his manic phases became intensely agitated.  He would refuse his medications, begin shouting and lashing out, even throwing tables and chairs across the room.  Other patients would retreat to safety while we called for help to subdue Tom and wrestle him into a seclusion room.  The seclusion room had padded, concrete walls and only a small, Plexi-glass window in the reinforced door.  Anyone in seclusion required constant observation.  I recall watching Tom screaming at the top of his voice, and hurling his body at the door with every bit of force he could muster: again, and again, and again.  The place would shudder under the power of his blows.  Tom suffered much from the intensity of what his illness drove him to do.

In speaking with Tom during his calmer moments, I learned that no one was more grieved than he himself by how far he had fallen from who he was supposed to be.  One of the saving graces of Tom’s life was his devoted father, who would visit him in the hospital every day.  He carried in his wallet a picture of Tom.  One day he showed it to me while the two of them were talking.  It was a school photo of Tom in the years just before mental illness gripped him.  There he was, in his right mind, ready to embrace life.  It was an image of who Tom was supposed to be, and yearned to be again.  Tom and his father had an agreement that he would always carry the picture with him so that they would not lose sight of the image they were trying to recover.  They pledged to each other that they would not flag in their faith, hope, and love, trusting that with God, nothing shall be impossible.

Likewise, Christmas.  In the birth of Jesus, God descended into the chaos of our human life.  God, like Tom’s father, carries an image of human nature close to his heart: human nature restored to our right mind, clothed with Christ, all of us one as children of God.  Jesus puts all of humanity on his shoulder, and elevates the whole game to a new level.  In so doing, he opens unto us the gates of everlasting life.  For this reason, Jesus is the greatest of all time.  Jesus is the GOAT.  And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.