Good Morning! And Happy New Year! This week we are beginning a new year - and a new decade. This week there have been lots of news programs looking back on the last decade at all the things we hope to leave behind and looking forward to all the things we hope to achieve.
It’s a good time for us to read the opening verses of John’s gospel. We’ll want to take one more look at the beginnings of Jesus as John wants us to understand it.
The first three New Testament gospels are called ‘synoptic’ from the Greek word ‘sunoptikos’, which means ‘seeing together’. The ‘see together’ because they share a large amount of material and quotations – but John’s gospel is different. John writes not so much to tell us about the life and work of Christ, but to show us that Jesus is the Christ. As he does this he starts out by eliciting the interest of all his prospective readers.
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This is the third time the story of the beginnings is told in the gospels, yet there is no manger, no angels, no shepherds – those are in Luke’s gospel. There is no star in the east, no Magi and no slaughter of the innocents – those are in Matthew’s gospel. The birth of Jesus is not simply passed over as it is in Mark’s gospel. John’s gospel gives us an entirely different perspective on the Christmas story – the heavenly one.
John begins his gospel with the words ‘in the beginning’. Hebrews will immediately recall the opening words of Genesis – ‘in the beginning, God created’. They will recall that God spoke and the creation came into existence. When John writes ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God’ they will listen more attentively and they will be looking for the coming relationship between the Word – the speaking of God – and this man Jesus about whom they have heard.
He contrasts the law of Moses with the grace and truth of Christ – not to place one above the other, but to put law and grace on equal terms and elevate Jesus to that of the greatest of the prophets.
John even speaks about the contrasts of ‘light and darkness’ and ‘spirit and flesh’ to pique the interest of Gentile and Greek readers. There is something in Jesus to appeal to every one and John wants them to be interested from the opening paragraphs of his gospel.
And then he goes even further –
Jesus was not created ‘in the beginning’ when the creation was spoken into existence. Jesus is not a son of the creation – not a fellow creature – not lower than God – not something, someone, with a beginning and so not someone with an end.
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John’s gospel doesn’t start with a genealogy of the Christ because John is not concerned with assuring the legitimacy of Christ as a Jew to other Jews. He doesn’t include any reference to Mary and Joseph and their long journey. Nor is there any mention of the shepherds because John is not concerned about guaranteeing the humanity of Christ or of showing that Christ was an outsider in his society.
John doesn’t care so much about the historical details of the birth of Jesus, he cares about the meaning, the significance of the coming of Jesus - the man - in the flesh. The point of John’s gospel is that Jesus is God. John shows us the Christ from the heavenly perspective – the eternal perspective.
The coming of Christ in the flesh is about more than the story of a small, helpless infant who grew to become a great man. It is the not first century Lincoln-log cabin in the woods – it is the story of God acting in history – in the flesh – to redeem a humanity that was lost in sin – that was overcome with injustice - that was overwhelmed by greed and poverty – of spirit as well as body.
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John’s gospel assures us that through not just the grace, but the miraculous action of God, the laws of the universe were suspended. The second person of the trinity broke through the cosmos and entered the scene of humanity as one of us.
This is always how God chooses to come to us – not as some ethereal spirit, although God is Spirit and God still speaks to us in Spirit and truth – not as some insightful theological reflection, although God can be contemplated in such rarified realms – not as some persuasive argument or logical construct, although we use such concepts to make a case for faith. God still comes in the flesh – God in the world, is still incarnate – and we who call ourselves Christians still need to live our lives in this world as Jesus lived his.
Jesus went about among the people, performing the miraculous, to be sure, but while the miraculous signs recorded in John’s gospel show us the divinity of Christ, the more immediate miracles are the lives changed by their encounter with the holy – the important thing in John’s gospel is not the miracle itself, but what the miracle represents – what the miracle reveals about the Miracle worker - the result and on-going consequence of it.
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That the Word of God became flesh and lived among us, is not the real story of the opening verses of John’s gospel – it is the result of that ’becoming’ that is important to John. The gospel of Christ is always embodied. It is not enough to have faith and have it to yourself. It is not enough to have faith and declare with smug delight that ‘the world may be on the highway to hell, but at least I’m saved’. It is not enough to have faith and sit at home with your Bible and your Christian wall decorations or even your WWJD bracelets and be indifferent to the world God created and that Jesus came to redeem. It is not enough to see the unfortunate and leave them in their misery while you go home to forget you ever saw them. This is not the Good News of the Gospel and it is certainly not the Good News of the gospel of John.
The 21st century world may not see the Christ as a young infant in a stable. The modern age may not see the man Jesus walking the streets and healing the blind. But every person on the planet can see the Christ embodied in the flesh, in the acts of every person who carried the spirit and the love of God within them.
Kind thoughts do not feed the hungry, feelings of superiority to not comfort the lonely, and all the prayers we can offer cannot bring peace of earth if we are not willing to live in peace with all we meet.
The Word became flesh and lived among us because that’s what it takes to spread the gospel – and we have seen his glory – but in these days, God’s glory is not always so easy to see – God’s love and care are not always apparent.
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John’s Christmas story does have one thing in common with Matthew and Luke – there is a great light. Not just the star of Matthew that guided the Magi, not just the midnight sky lit up by the glory of the heavenly host of Mark – but the light that shone in the darkness over all the earth – the light that dispelled the darkness of the darkest night of the year, the light that pushed back the darkness of a world full of evil – the light that overcomes the darkness of every human heard – the darkness that says me first and me best.
We all understand how light draws things to itself. Our eyes are drawn to candles lit in the darkness and the promise of dawn in the eastern sky. It is light that shows us the way - that keeps us from stepping into holes - that allows us to recognize safety from danger.
John’s gospel has something else in common with Matthew and Luke – not everyone saw – not everyone believed – and not every one received – but those who do, receive the light and the spirit of God in the flesh.
The good news of Jesus Christ, the light that shines in the darkness, the redeemer, the deliverer, the lamb of God – always comes in the flesh - is always embodied in the concrete – is always acted out in ways that give light to the world. The Word is always made flesh. It is the flesh of the man Jesus, the flesh of the apostles, the faithful saints who followed the gospel to persecution, the men, women and children of faith who carry the love of Christ in their hearts.
In these days, we are that light. In these days we are that Word made flesh. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God we are the embodiment of Christ in the world.
The Christ, the Messiah, the Light of the world, is embodied in the faithful – and it is always so. This is the great mystery and the good news of Christmas: the Word was and is made flesh – and lives among us and because of that light
Amen.
