Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7, John 1:1-18
Merry
Christmas!
Today is the fourth day of Christmas, and I’m sorry to say
that I did not bring any calling birds or french hens or turtle doves or
partridge in a pear tree. No instead I bring to you a few words from the
brothers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist... In this season of
Christmas, “We are all called to be witnesses and to proclaim the good news of
Jesus as we have received it, as we have heard and understood it, as we have
experienced it in our own lives.”[1]
The season of Christmas is a special time when we, as the
church, focus on proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the rest of the world.
This season gives us space to really celebrate what God did for us when Jesus
became human. God didn’t give us presents wrapped in pretty paper, but God gave
us the greatest gift we could ever receive... Jesus. Our God became like us to
know us better, and to give us a chance to know God better.
So how does today’s gospel fit into the season of
Christmas? Well, have you ever heard two or three different people tell the
same story? Their stories usually end in the same place, but each person
highlights different parts, the parts that they think are the most important or
the most interesting. Sometimes the differences in the same story can
make it difficult for us to know what really happened, and other times the
differences can help us to hear the entire story.
For example, the story we heard last week from the gospel
of Matthew about the birth of Jesus went something like this:
When Mary was engaged to be
married to Joseph she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Joseph was unsure
about this and planned to dismiss Mary quietly. Before he could do that, an
angel appeared to him and told him that the baby Mary was carrying was going to
be special and it was being born in a way to fulfil scriptures of old. The
angel also told him to name the baby Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”
Joseph listened to the angel. Mary gave birth to a son and they named him
Jesus.
Luke’s version is even more detailed. It has that
dramatic tension of the Holy Family searching for a warm place. It has a
grand resolution as they find the humblest of places for the king of kings
birth. There are animals, angels, shepherds, and kings. All
elements of a great story.
And if we
look to John’s version of Jesus’ birth, it sounds something like this:
Jesus became human and lived with us.
Wow, that
is a much shorter story; so much shorter that it is almost difficult to tell
that it is in fact the same story of the incarnation of Jesus.
Where is all of the drama? Or the angels delivering
messages from God? John does not include any of those details because he wants
us to hear a different part of the story.
In order to hear the part that John wants us to hear, we
need to back up a little to the beginning of today’s gospel. In today’s
gospel we hear John’s version of the beginning of the life of Jesus – the Word.
Rather than starting with the earthly birth of Jesus, John
starts his story in the very beginning, before anything in the world was
created. John tells us that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.” John speaks in very poetic language,
but his message to us is clear. From the very beginning of everything
Jesus has been with God and is God. John tells us this because the focus
of most of his writing is about the divinity of Jesus.
With that being said, John does include the human side of
Jesus’ origin when he says “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The entire nativity summed up in these few powerful words! Jesus,
who was with God and is God from the very beginning became a human and lived on
this earth! This is what the season of Christmas celebrates. We
celebrate God incarnate, God becoming human.
John also includes the imagery of Jesus as light.
John says that Jesus is the “true light which enlightens everyone.”
It is this light, the light of Jesus – the light of God, that no darkness
can ever overcome. It is fitting that we are reminded of the light of God
at this time of year since in the winter we physically experience more hours of
darkness than light. During these months, when our days are shorter, it
can be hard to find hope on our own and it is during this time that we should
rely on the Light – the light of Christ. God became human in Jesus so that we
might better know God, so that we might have hope in the Light of God, so that
we might be saved by that light.
So why do we hear the beginning of John’s gospel every
first Sunday of Christmas? We are hearing it so that we may know the
whole story of the beginning of Jesus. We hear it so that we can remember
that although Jesus was born of a woman, like you and like me, Jesus is also
fully divine. We hear it so that we remember the true light that leads us
through any darkness.
We hear it so that we remember to tell our Christian story – “Jesus was born into this world of darkness to give to each one of us the gift of God’s blazing glory.”[2]
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