In the Beginning
Sunday, January 4th, 2009
Christmas 2B
John 1:1-18
Theme: Getting things right from the start
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And 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.’”)16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
Of the four Gospels, I think John takes the prize for best opening line.
Only Mark’s “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”, even comes close to having the same impact as John’s opening phrases, compared to Matthew’s stilted but serviceable “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” Or Luke’s self-consciously historically framed “Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, …”
John and Mark, at least in their English translations, convey a sense of the expectation wrapped up in the story of the Gospel from the very beginning.
That is why we read the first passages of John as part of the Advent readings and the Christmas story – because there in those opening words is where we find the majesty that came to us as a baby – it is where we are introduced to the person of God in human flesh – in Jesus Christ.
You see, that is John’s primary focus in writing his account – the good news according to John – of the life of Jesus Christ – is to underscore, to make it clear, in case there were any doubts, as to who exactly Jesus was and is.
So, just as I would introduce someone I knew to you first by name, then by some connection other than that – where they are from, who they might be related to, or what role they play in MY life – either as a relative, a friend, or whomever, John is doing the same thing here for Jesus.
John begins with the BIG picture – REALLY big. So big, that it goes beyond time – to before time and space even existed, and THAT is where he BEGINS to introduce us to Jesus. He doesn’t start at the birth of the baby Jesus, but comes out and boldly confesses that Jesus was preexistent, that he was the one through whom all creation came to exist. If you want to think of it this way, he gives us the biggest pill to swallow FIRST. Once we get that one down, we’re good – we’re ready – for the rest of the story.
Then he begins to make earthly connections.
Jarringly, he interrupts the introduction of the Trinitarian Christ, the second person of the trinity, to mention John the Baptist. It seems a LITTLE out of place, if you bracket out verses 6-8, there is an uninterrupted continuity between verses 5 and 9; the same theme, light, the same thrust – that it is an enduring light, not a temporary or fleeting light – and from one phrase to the next he connects that light with Christ. He again makes this elemental connection – one that can be conceptualized in so many ways – between creation and Jesus.
He even injects, in these opening sentences, a hint of what was to come at the end of Jesus’ earthly life. Indeed, it was to be the rule, rather than the exception, for people to NOT recognize Jesus for who he was.
And it is at THAT point, where people DO recognize him for who he is, that the Gospel message begins to come through:
12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
That is where he makes the connection between Christ and ANYONE with whom he comes in contact. He offers a reason to get to know him better, to spend time with him, to learn from him; not just his teachings, or his sayings, or his philosophy, though those are certainly worth learning and knowing, but even more than any of that, John offers us a reason to understand the LIFE of Christ – and I don’t mean just the one he LIVED while he was here on earth, but the one that is possible for him to live THROUGH US.
There is nothing about John that is shy, hesitant, or … reluctant in proclaiming Christ. He lays it out for us and for all to see and know up front.
So here’s the rub. We live in a rational era. Our society, our current civilization by and large is founded primarily on the idea that reason is foundational for all human interaction. It is what allows warring factions to eventually come to cease fire agreements. Even now it is what is being called for by the United Nations Security Council in light of the horrors that are occurring in the Gaza Strip at the hands of Israeli airplanes and in
The rub is that in light of those things, to proclaim a God who became human and lived among us and who was crucified and killed, buried and rose from the grave after three days goes against the general tenor of our environment.
How do we reconcile, then, a non-rational event – that is, one that cannot be readily explained or even after extensive study and thought, understood by the human mind and a rational existence?
I don’t have a quick answer to that question. I’m not sure I even have a slow answer to it. I suppose if I had to give something in the form of an answer, I would have to say that that is where faith comes in. That is where the mystical aspect of our faith steps in and provides us with that glimmer of certainty – not necessarily an overwhelming, all-encompassing knowledge that this is true, though it MAY present itself to us in that way on occasion, but maybe just that little glimmer that plants that hope in us that we talk about salvation.
You see, God made our minds the way they are. In orthodox Christianity we have to stop and qualify that by stating that, though they are made by God, they have been altered, damaged, if you will, by the presence of sin in our lives, but in the fundamental aspect of purpose, in being beings who are curious, who are intent on figuring out why the world around us is the way it is, why processes happen the way they do, why plants grow where and how they do, how rock formations form, how the ocean currents interact with the atmosphere and what that means for weather patterns, or how our industrial products – both finished and byproducts – affect the environment in which we live, that curiosity is a part of our DNA … we’ve been to one degree or another, wired that way. So that rationality is part of who we were created to BE.
Please notice that I said that it is PART of who we were created to be – because we are not purely rational beings. We are also capable of dreaming and imagining things that are fantastic – that are beyond the reality that we can see with our eyes or touch with our hands. And it is through that imagination – through that ability to conceive of that which we cannot see that I believe God touches us in ways that are profound in different ways than all the already-profound ways God calls us through our senses – through the beauty of a sunset, or the wonder of a starlit nighttime sky.
What does this mean for
In part, it means that we remember who it is we are introducing people to when we meet them for the first time. We are not simply introducing ourselves, but we are also introducing them to the Christ who dwells in us – to the one who created us and who has chosen to live through us and make us Children of God.
In part.
The other part is one that we figure out individually. It is one that cannot be stated clearly from up there (at the pulpit), because it is one that speaks from each of our individual experiences, and how our individual lives have connected to God and how God has connected to us. It’s the incredible variety that God is capable of, and of God’s taking the individual threads that are our lives and weaving them into this beautiful tapestry that is the church.
I would invite you, as we step into this year, to eagerly search for how it is God wants to be introduced to the world through you.
A pointer that comes to mind, but that is not definitive, is to let that be from your place of deepest joy, because I think that it’s through our joy that God speaks most clearly. It is in what puts a light in our eyes that people can see Christ reflected.
Let’s pray.
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