Dec 27 2020 John 1:1-14

Today, in the common lectionary used by many churches we hear a different sort Jesus birth narrative. Christmas day, we hear Luke’s account, full of human-ness. Today, to round out the picture of Jesus’ complex nature, we hear John’s account, full of Jesus’ divine-ness.

Some of the preachers in my diocese agreed to record a sermon for an assigned Sunday, and we shared those recordings. This gave exhausted church leaders the opportunity to take a few Sundays off in preaching, as they’ve also figured out how to connect virtually, and be digital and social media wizards. Today was my Sunday. Here’s the text of my sermon, and below is a link, should you want to see it instead. Merry Christmas!

https://youtu.be/etqM_9Y2ENs

Merry Christmas.

I have always appreciated our tradition’s fierce insistence that Christmas is more than a day, it’s a season that stretches until Epiphany. This year, perhaps more than any other, I’m grateful to hold on to that sense of Christmas joy and wonder. So again, I say, Merry Christmas!

If you were able to catch a Christmas service, you heard the traditional story of Jesus’ birth. His parents were unmarried, she was a teen, they were refugees in a strange land, and effectively homeless. This is the context in which God chooses to join us. To me this absolutely illustrates that Jesus was fully human. His life carried all the human challenges, risks and emotions that our lives do. Through his fully human nature, Jesus fully understood our lives and our plight. That means, that through his fully human nature, God fully understood our lives and our plight.

Today we hear another sort of Jesus’ birth narrative, a very different narrative. It begins with a phase used earlier in Scripture, “In the beginning was the word”.

Word is a tricky word to translate as originally intended. In Greek, word is logos, or the basis of logic. Word is the mastermind behind the way things are, logos is the source and reasoning. And in John’s birth narrative, the word is Jesus.

In the beginning was the Word, was the source, the logic, the reason. We’ve heard that opening before; In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. This is no accidental repeat. With this opening, we are intentionally reminded of the very beginning. It’s the same beginning. God created heavens and the earth, and now we hear the Word was there too.

Looking back at the creation of everything, God created it not by conjuring, or imagining, or wishing it into being. God said, let there be light. And there was light. The creation narrative uses words or speech in very powerful ways. In Genesis, as in our day, words have the ability to bring things into being, things that didn’t previously exist. In current day, examples can be seen of things being created through words – both horrible and beautiful. Hate speech creates something that cannot be undone. Hurtful words to children create permanent scars. Words matter, and words create. And words can create things of beauty and worlds that previously didn’t exist. A spoken statement of love. A beautiful poem. Words create now, and Words created then.

So with these simple six words, we’ve learned a great deal about Jesus’ birth narrative through John.

1. We are to hearken back to the beginning – the very beginning, when God created all things. But as opposed to being created in the beginning, the Word was right there, all along.

2. Jesus, as the word or logos, is the mastermind, reason or logic behind all things.

3. Words create new realities. God spoke the heavens and earth into being, spoke us into being. Jesus is that new word.

From this multi-faceted and dense opening, John’s narrative story continues into something that has been referred to as a cosmic birth story. Where Luke’s telling with the manger, the inn, and the shepherds illustrate how Jesus was fully human, it’s fair to say that John’s cosmic birth story illustrates how Jesus was fully divine.

The Word was with God, the Word was God. As someone with a very strong sense of the tangible and logical, I am drawn to Luke’s fully human exploration of Jesus’ nature. As a fallible human, who knows I cannot do all, know all, understand all, I can appreciate John’s narratives that round out my understanding of Jesus – fully divine.

In the beginning God created heavens and the earth. In the beginning was the word. Have you ever seen photos taken from the Hubble telescope?. I’m not an astronomy nerd, and I couldn’t describe what you’re seeing technically, but I can tell you is that these photos are spectacular. They are photos of stars, and galaxies millions of years way. They have spectacular colors, and shapes, and are what I imagine God sees when God looks out over God’s creation.

During one of the Eucharistic prayers we hear the words, at your command, all things came into being, the vast expanse of interstellar space. These images are what I envision when those words are spoken. What we hear today, links Jesus to these same images. In the beginning was the Word.

So from Luke’s story, we get the image of Jesus fully human and from John, Jesus fully divine. And here’s the magical part of John’s story. It continues, and does a beautiful way of merging these two truths that seem a mutually exclusive. Fully human. Fully divine.

John continues, and the Word became flesh and lived among us. After hearing about Jesus, fully divine, in the beginning, with God, now John says that all of that divinity is wrapped up in human flesh, in this baby born to the unwed refugee homeless teen.

When I hear this, I get a picture in my head. Imagine a genie bottle being opened up, releasing all sorts of magic, but there are a few changes. First what’s coming out of the bottle is the vast galaxies, perhaps something you’ve seen from a Hubble photo. Second, run that image in reverse. So the vast expanse is being sucked back into the bottle. Finally, the bottle is an infant in a manger.

This human Christ child has all of this. This infant, this galaxy producing, from the beginning of time, God child who lived among us. It’s no wonder that the shepherds quaked with fear.

While there are other instances of God interacting with humanity – the burning bush, Daniel and Lion, the whole Exodus story, this is the first time God enters our world as a human. Theologian Richard Rohr says it well, “Christ is the image of the invisible God”.

Jesus Christ – fully human and fully divine. That’s pretty spectacular good news. But, there’s more. In the midst of John’s cosmic birth story we hear that “There was a man sent from God whose name was John”. While we frequently refer to him as John the Baptist, today, it’s more fitting to think of him as John the Witness. John who testifies to the light so that all might believe through him. This little bit about John falls in the middle of this amazing birth story. Why? Perhaps it’s because of John’s role, and what it means for us. John testified to the light, so that others might believe through him. The light John speaks of is a light that cannot be overcome by darkness.

Here’s where you and I come in to this story. It’s not just John that’s sent by God to testify to the light, to point people to the light. You and I are called, by God, to testify to the light. We can shine that light, and others can see it in us, and though us, we point others to Christ’s light, to God’s love.

This is the last Sunday of 2020 and some, many, would say good riddance. But through this strange 2020, there have been uncountable examples of Christ’s light shining in the otherwise dark year. Fire responders saving lives and property throughout our communities, medical professionals and chaplains showing up to give care, and love to people affected by the virus, store employees, mail carriers, business owners who carry on, despite the pandemic, for us. And the ways we have adapted with video church, delivered groceries, and video gatherings with family and friends.

If you think about it, there are hundreds of examples of seeing Christ’s love in others. Far from dampening it, the surrounding darkness of this year has just made that light even more stark, more bright.

That is what Christmas is about, and that is why we hear this interrupted cosmic birth story. Jesus, fully human and fully divine is a light that cannot be overcome by the darkness. And like John the Witness, we are sent by God to testify to the light, to let Christ’s light shine through us, to point others to God’s unbelievable and unending love.

So go be the light. Merry Christmas.