St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN
Last night, I spoke about the discomfort of the nativity story. When the world was a mess, God decided to break through, become one of us, and become what we understand as incarnate. Making us realize that the divine and human can and do coexist.
We were encouraged at the service to look at one another differently; look at each other as bearers of the divine spark, the Christ light. But we heard all that in the context of a story of a baby born in Bethlehem. But today is a little different.
Today, there is no baby or stable or barn. Today, there are no angles and no shepherds. This morning, we get the Good News from John’s gospel, “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We hear the stoic philosophy of John’s “logos” or WORD taking on human flesh.
Prior to Jesus, God’s WORD was spoken by the prophets and written down in the Torah. It was all the people knew of God. God’s WORD was something that they chiseled onto stone tablets and carried around in a golden ark. They used that WORD as the place where they encountered God. And they honored God by keeping that Word.
God’s WORD was a promise made in a covenant that included a blood pact and agreements to abide, worship, sacrifice, and keep the law. In turn, God would continue to provide for and protect the people and keep them safe from harm. This is the WORD that became FLESH and BONE in the person of Jesus And lived out as a human. A human being that embodied everything they knew the WORD of God to be.
The people would be familiar with the Hebrew scriptures and the stories in Genesis about God, who spoke the world into being by saying let there be light.
Frederick Buchner says, “When God said, “Let there be light,” there was light where before, there was only darkness. When I say I love you, there is love where before, there was only ambiguous silence. In a sense, I do not love you first and then speak it, but only by speaking it gives it reality.” And John writes.
“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Jesus came to shine light in the darkness of the world. I think folks who have night blindness can understand this a little better than others. In the dark, you can’t see anything, especially in ancient times when they didn’t suffer from light pollution. If Jesus is the light of all people that shined in the darkness,
then Jesus helps us see what has been hidden in the dark, the things that society tries to deny and cover-up. The poverty and disease, the marginalized, and the forgotten. We know that Jesus went about in his ministry healing and restoring those who were unloved and seen by society as sinful and excluded. Jesus brought light to that darkness.
We use candles in worship. And I sometimes use them in my personal prayer practice. Candles help remind me that Jesus is the light of the world. When we light a candle, we tap into that ancient, never-ending cycle of life-giving, restorative energy. When we understand it like this, we understand what John is trying to tell us.
This is John’s Christmas. This is where John begins the story. I sometimes feel it gets to be more complicated than Christmas needs to be, but that’s what Christmas is, as seen through the eyes of John’s gospel. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and from his fullness have we all received grace upon grace.”
The “WORD” of God became flesh. That same Word spoke everything in creation into being. That same Word that creates, redeems, and sustains and the same WORD that was in the beginning is now, and will be forever.
The Word that is often translated as “Dwelt” or lived literally means “tabernacled” or “pitched his tent” among us. This means that when we pick up our tent stakes and move on, that same WORD can pull up and go with us, travel with us, and be wherever we are, much like when the Israelites were wandering in the desert. The ark contained the tablets and the “presence” of God and was taken with them. It went where they went.
This WORD, Jesus, from which all creation, all life, all things, and all light proceeds, is shared with us all.
Everyone and everything. As in “all.” Not some, not a lot, but like creation itself, all persons and things receive this grace... all that God has done since before, in, and beyond time.
Then, John talks about a man named John, who was a lampstand. “He was not the light but came to bear witness to the light.” So now, it becomes our mission. We are the ones to bear witness to the light that comes from Jesus, the WORD, who was with God and was God in the beginning.
This is what we are called to be and do: bear witness to the light and do all in our power to help others also bear witness to the light. This is best done by seeking and serving Christ, the Word, the logos, in all persons, everywhere, always.
None of us can be Christ-like by ourselves. However, each of us carries a particular Christ-like characteristic. We each have a piece of the light. All together, we can make up a Christ-like community. That is why, when we baptize new members of the Body of Christ, the whole body is changed and made new. That is why it is so important to take the promises we make seriously. Especially the promise to do all in our power to support one another in our lives in Christ. Because the piece of Christ that I need is the piece you have, and the piece you need is the piece I have. Together, we can strive for unity, justice, and peace for all people and respect the dignity of every human being.
Because we are the WORD, the Body Christ that became flesh and dwelt among us. And together, we make up the Word, the logos, the Christ, for the world. Merry Christmas! Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment