Sermon for Christmas

the reading 

 

John 1:1-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, "He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' ") 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

The message

This is mostly what i said at Christmas (a mix of my morning and evening messages, which i did without a manuscript)  

We are now starting John's Gospel. This journey will take us from today until Easter Sunday. This is a good start, the reading we just heard is the prologue, introduction or summary of John's Gospel. Everything we hear after this will be about providing evidence for or a deeper look at the ideas and statements of faith in these 18 verses.  

  

Its packed with incredible statements and each time you read it, you see something new. to engage with the start of John is intense and always interesting. I can walk down a street that I have walked down hundreds of times and notice something new, a small, unique architectural element on top of a house or building, a first conversation with someone that I have said hello to and that’s it for months or eating at a restaurant I always pass on the way someplace else. 

As I prepared for tonight I had the same experience with this reading from the opening verses of John’s Gospel.  John 1 is a street we have walked down many times before.  If you asked me where is “in the beginning was the word”  or “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”  in the bible, I could tell you oh that’s the start of John.  I always thought of it as beautiful, poetic language and I knew it was a summary of John’s gospel, sort of an abstract for the book or thesis statement for what comes next.  For me, looking again was an encounter with the power of God and experience of God’s saving, joy giving, sin forgiving grace.

 

John 1 is not just a summary of what the book will explain and argue, it says what it will do to you: You will be inspired by the story of Jesus’ greatest advocate and evangelist, a person who diminished himself so that the true light could shine, a man known as John the Baptist.  You will know that Jesus Christ is the word of God, the long promised savior and that the kingdom of God is open to all people.  You will see signs that verify and witness that these things are true. It will deepen your faith, call you back to a faith you have stopped believing or introduce you to the joy we experience here. It will assure you that your sins are forgiven by and only because of God’s grace. 

John 1 is good news. In elementary school, we learned that newspaper articles, all journalism really was based on answering 5 questions, or the 5 w’s who what where when why and sometimes how (which does not start with a w so I guess gets left out a lot). The quicker that was done, the better (attention spans aren’t always great, you wanted the reader to know everything they needed in the first minute in case they got bored or distracted, they would still know the main ideas).  We had an assignment to go home and look. To cut out 4 or 5 articles from different papers and look at who, what why when, where and how.  I still remember looking at the articles all those years ago and being surprised, like I had discovered some secret, that those 5 w’s were all there in each one.  I felt the same way as I looked at the opening words of John’s Gospel.  Wait a minute, all that is in there, in that chapter I read so many times before. 

Christmas has a big part in this who, what, why when and where of John’s Gospel.  We are much more familiar with the stories of Christmas in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels.  Matthew takes 2 chapters to tell the story of Christmas. He reports the genealogy of Jesus, connecting him to the family of King David and other great men (and even a few women) in the history of Israel.  Matthew tell us about the faith of Mary trusting the promises of the angel, the faith of Joseph trusting God’s word experienced in a vision, choirs of angels singing hymns of news and praise and the arrival of wise men, kings or magi to give gifts to the newborn Christ.  Luke’s Gospel takes 2 long chapters to tell the story of Christmas, sharing powerful songs by Zechariah and Mary, more information on the birth of John the Baptist and a census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. 

The story of Christmas takes 9 words for John to tell.  “the word made flesh and dwelled amongst us”.  For John, there are no angels bringing news or songs of celebration, no chorus of them in the night sky .  There is no stable or inn, there are no animals, no magi or kings, no new star in the sky,  there are no frightenend shepherds in their fields, there are no visions. there is only “the word made flesh dwelling amongst us”.    

Christmas is the time when the Word comes to the world.  The word of God is more than speech, it is God’s main agent in the world, it creates, it gives life, it redeems, it sustains.  It is God that we can encounter, experience and know. Jesus is the word made human, that is who is born on Christmas.   Now God’s word has come into the world before, spoken by prophets, given victory, stopped kings, made kings, parted seas, brought down walls, clouds of fire, changes in society, announced hope,  The word of God called creation into being, made air, water, land and sky, sustains life, parts waters, gives freedom,  but Christmas is different.  Now God’s word is not just spoken at particular times, bringing comfort and condemnation, hope and news.  God’s word when made flesh, brings salvation, forgives sins, makes a new covenant  Speaks healing and joy, peace and forgiveness, trust that God is in control of the world,

This Christmas we have to remember If God’s word spoken into nothing can create life, If God’s word spoken by Ezekiel can restore life to a pile of very dry bones, if God’s word spoken by Jeremiah can change the course of life for a whole people , if God’s word spoken by Moses and Aaron can set the people free from the Egyptian Empire, can make water flow from a rock and bread on the desert floor, imagine what that word made flesh, living amongst us can do,

To summarize a summary: 

Who = Jesus,

what = is the word of God physically with us

why =  God’s grace and desire for our salvation

when = spoken a lot but physically with us at Christmas

where = In the midst of the world  (everything human, social systems, culture, relationships, the daily things we interact with, oppression, suffering, history)

 (how = Death and resurrection )