December 19, 2021
John 1: 1-18

From last week’s lesson with Isaiah to this week’s reading from John, we have moved about 400 years.

If it is not a dark time, at the very least it is a shadowy time … life had a greyness to it.

The exiles have long-since returned to Jerusalem and the surrounding region … the temple had been rebuilt … there have been more conquering armies over the years until we get to the Roman occupation that has placed what was once the two kingdoms under its control.

On a basic level, not much had changed.

The people still have little control over their lives and livelihoods. Over the years, they have lost their sense of ancestry … of their identity … and many of their relationships … have been severed by the exile and violence of occupation.

John’s gospel is about origin, relationship and identity … three things that would resonate with a people who have been displaced, disconnected and whose future is uncertain and laced with anxiety.

Yet, they were a people who found themselves at the edge of something new.

The beginning of John’s gospel offers an invitation as John bears witness to the mystery of the incarnation.

In the beginning was the Word … a creative and communicative power comes to life among the people. In this passage, John offers an invitation to view things differently … for people to reorient themselves to a different relationship with God.

The Word is the only child of the divine parent.

When we heard the words of the prophets earlier this Fall, we saw a God who was with the people wherever they traveled … whether it was Israel … or Judea … or in exile, God was always present. God hadn’t forgotten the people.

But today, John presents the image of a more intimate God … one who is among us … who brings comfort, healing and love … who has become flesh in order to draw near to us.

In John, we see a God who meets us in the person of Jesus.

Theologian Craig Koester once said of Jesus’ introduction in John’s gospel:

“You get the power of God, the presence of God revealed even in the human touch that Jesus has in his healing … the human words he speaks, but also the human death he experiences.

“The power of divine love being revealed in a human being is ultimately what gives life.”

Unlike Moses and others, who could not look at God because it would be too overwhelming, the people can now know God in a form that’s accessible to us … in the form of Jesus.

Throughout the season of Advent, we have anticipated the coming of the light into the darkness of the world … which we will mark in the next few days.

On Friday, we’ll hear the nativity story offered by Luke. It’s a story that we all know so well.

But in John’s gospel, there is only a sentence or so about Jesus’ human birth.

There is no visit from an angel to set the stage with Mary … no one is making the long trip to Bethlehem only to discover there is no room at the Inn … there is no manger scene with animals bearing witness to the birth … there are no familiar images when it comes to Jesus’ entrance in the world.

John’s gospel … especially in today’s passage … goes in a different direction than the other gospel writers. The writer of this passage links creation to God and then links God to Jesus – and Jesus to all that is in creation. And through it, links God to us through the incarnation.

Scholar Lamar Williamson Jr. once wrote that “the nativity story tells us what happened, the incarnation story tells us what it means.”

Moving from the season of Advent into Christmas is a time of transition … of transformation.

It is a time when we mark Jesus’ entrance into the world … a time when we are invited to take note that Jesus didn’t simply bring light into the world and make us children of God, but Jesus came to accomplish this in a particular way … by joining us in our suffering and through his redemptive suffering and death to gift us with grace.

Today’s reading shows that … through Jesus … we are connected to God … and through God … connected to creation and to one another.

It’s all pretty heady stuff to wrap our minds around.

The Gospel of John begins with God’s communicating to the people and it recognizes that we were created to be in relationship with God … a loving, inclusive relationship that is intended to spread out from our hearts.

John’s gospel shows us what grace looks like … what it tastes like … what it sounds like … and what it feels like.

This is something we need to consider as we exit the Advent season and move through the Christmas season – what does grace look like … sound like … feel like to each of us and where do we encounter it?

In our words and deeds … in our relationships, do we model grace for others … or do we model something else … something that diminishes rather than raises … something that is exclusive rather than inclusive … are we self-righteous or do we advocate for justice for the oppressed and marginalized.

Do we model hope … peace … and joy … and through these three, ultimately do we model love?

God’s blessings and grace be with you this season as the light draws near.

AMEN