John 1:1-5, 9-14
You've just heard the beginning of the
Gospel of John. It used to be the last part of the old Tridentine
Mass, and it was said at every Mass. No shepherds, no wise men, no
angel choirs or manger. The Gospel of John begins at the beginning
of everything. So what does this have to do with Christmas?
Well, lets go back to the beginning,
to the Book of Genesis. It introduces God the Creator. And God
creates with his word. He says, “let there be. … and there is.
And he creates by drawing lines. Lines define. GK Chesterton once
said, “every beautiful painting begins with a line”. We remember
how god separated light from darkness, the waters of the heaves from
the waters of the earth, the land from the sea. He then assigned the
fish to the sea, the birds to the air, and the animals to the land.
He finally created man in his image and likeness. He formed man out
the earth and breathed his own spirit into him. Then he drew another
line; he made eve from the side of the man. Sometimes we interpret
this to mean that the woman was created as an afterthought; but the
old rabbis said that what God created out of the earth was neither
male nor female, and when God created Eve the woman, what was left
was the man. Man and woman came into existence as such at the same
time. First there was Word, then flesh, then community. And God
assigned them to the Garden of Eden. This was the place made for
them; a place of abundance, of every good thing to eat and drink; a
place where there was no death or suffering. Having completed all
this, God rested; because what he had created was perfect and needed
nothing else.
And then we have the story of the
Fall. The couple were not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. But the serpent begins to undo God's work. He
tells Eve a lie – that if they eat the fruit, they will be like
gods. The words of creatures begins to undo God's perfect creation.
The man hides from God; he says it is because he is naked, but the
truth is that he knows he disobeyed God. He blames the woman even
though he made the decision to eat the fruit, and the woman blames
the serpent. And the beautiful order God created becomes disorder
when mankind leaves the Garden prepared for him. Death and suffering
are the result.
Now we know the story in Genesis is
theology, not history. But the theme continues. Abraham, the friend
of God, lies about his relationship with his wife Sarah. Jacob and
his mother Rebekah conspire to lie to Isaac about who Jacob is.
Jacob's father in law lies to Jacob to marry off his daughter Leah
and so forth. Lies are always about words that no longer describe a
reality. Lies always put disorder into creation. And today we can
see that still. When we lie about gender, when we lie about the
nature of marriage, when we lie about who is and who isn't a human
being we get farther and farther from the creator's intentions.
And that's where John comes in. In
the beginning was the Word, he says. The Word through which all
things were made. And the Word became flesh. In the beginning God
created humans; now the Word that is God becomes human. And the
Word, now flesh, dwells among us. Again, first Word, then flesh,
then community. The vision of John is that what God did in the
beginning, which mankind destroyed, God is doing again. This time
the Word itself comes forth to create a new community, a community
formed through light shining in the darkness.
It's good to think about that image.
If you have a light shining in the darkness, there is still darkness.
And if you are in darkness, you can move toward the light or away
from it. So we have learned that The Word came to repair God's
creation, but through those that receive him, who would receive the
power to become Children of God. It is through the children of God
that the Word will repair creation. The Word of God, unlike the
words of mankind, can never be false.
I once talked with a Unitarian
minister. In the course of our conversation, he said something that
I knew already – Unitarians aren't big on dogma. Dogma, by the
way, simply describes statements about God and man's relationship to
God which we know to be true. Many of our friends in other
denominations and other religions no longer hold to dogma of any
kind. But when people no longer believe in something, they
eventually believe anything.
John ends his introduction to the
story of Jesus' life by proclaiming that “we saw his glory, glory
as of the Father's only son, full of grace and of truth.” He goes
on to say that the law came through Moses, but through Jesus Christ,
grace and truth. And this Word, who is God, has revealed God to us.
Grace we understand – God's favor,
God's gifts, God's unmerited mercy. But truth? Truth represents
reality. And as we approach the light shining in the darkness, not
only do we receive grace upon grace, but we also receive that for
which our whole beings desire – ultimate truth.
So I think you can see why this gospel
is so appropriate to read and reflect upon on the day we celebrate
the birth of Jesus Christ. God became flesh, became man, to form a
new community. Moses' community was formed by laws. God gave the
law and it provided a fence around the people. When you broke the
law, you were outside the fence, you were no longer part of the
people. But in the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, we
become children of God, we are part of God's family, we are partners
in making a new world, a kingdom in which God will reign as he does
in heaven.
The incarnation is about God giving us
power, power which we may accept or reject, power which has something
to do with whether we turn toward the light or away from it, whether
we embrace the truth He has revealed, truth which creates – or
whether we reject it. No angels, no shepherds, no manger for John –
but John celebrates something much more powerful – the Word which
creates dwells among us.
