This sermon was delivered to the people of the Lutheran Church of the Nativity on December 22, 2013. The text for this sermon is John 1:1-18.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
- John 1:1
It seems a little strange to go back to the beginning, now that we are about halfway through our faith journey. We’ve seen creation, we seen the faith of the Patriarchs, we’ve seen guidance in the wilderness, we’ve seen kings and temples, and seen grief in the time of exile. And now, as we get ready to see the Messiah, we take a slight detour. We go “back to the beginning.”
Now while this seems a little disjointed, it shouldn’t surprise us. I think that we love the beginnings of stories best, especially when we’re little. We love the rhythm of the “once upon a time” or “in a land far away” or “a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away.” This familiar rhythm helps us get immersed in the story, and this text from John isn’t any different. It opens like the familiar story from Genesis, “In the beginning…” But then John immediately shakes things up.
John doesn’t follow that next part that we know so well, the “...when God created the heavens and the earth…” instead he says “In the beginning was the Word.” Right off the bat, John hints that his story isn’t going to be the familiar one that his audience grew up with, instead this story is new. This story has a different ending.
In the Genesis story, creation ends with exile from the Garden and being cut off from a relationship with God. That story ends with so much of what we see when we turn on the tv or read the newspaper. It’s a story that ends with tragedy, disasters, violence, and hate. It’s a story that requires competition to be successful. It’s a story that says the lion eats the lamb. It’s a story that has oppression and darkness. It’s a story that we have found ourselves in time after time, even as we long for the “happily ever after” ending of the stories from our childhood.
John’s story is different from the Genesis story though. John’s story ends with the coming of the light, but not being overwhelmed by the darkness. John’s story ends with the Word breaking through the darkness of the world that does not know him and still brings light and life to all the world. John’s story ends with grace upon grace, which reveals God for all people. John’s story gives us our “happily ever after.”
Our “happily ever after” comes when we hear that the Word is Jesus Christ. That Jesus is the Word of God, and brought us grace upon grace. That even though there was darkness, the light of Christ could not be overcome. The light of Christ will fill everyone and shine through everyone, out into the world. Yep, that sounds like “happily ever after” to me.
Except, we look out into the world, and it still looks like the end to the Genesis story. We see lives plagued by addiction, loneliness, mental illness, brokenness, violence; lives plagued by darkness. We look into our world and it seems that “the world does not know him.” We feel like the light of Christ has been overcome by the darkness. And so, to find hope in the story we currently see, we push this text from John into the future. We read it and hope that when Jesus returns, then all of these things will happen. That’s part of why we celebrate Advent after all, we prepare ourselves for the time when we will get to see things work out “happily ever after.”
Yet, why not prepare the way for Christ’s return now, in our own lives and in our own hearts? Why not let Christ’s light shine in the darkness through us? Why do we focus on the Bible as the Word of God, when the Word of God was really flesh and blood? Why do we shy away from pouring out grace upon grace, so that we can make God’s presence known? Why do we “testify” or “witness” to the light, when we have become a source of the light through our baptisms?
One of my favorite authors, Peter Rollins, tells a parable about a woman who lives as this light, and as a faithful witness to the Word of God.
There was a once a young and gifted woman who set herself the almost impossible task of setting up a printing press so that she could translate and distribute the Word of God to the people. Yet such a job would require a great deal of money, and so, almost as soon as she had conceived the idea, she sold the few items that she possessed and went to live on the streets, begging for the money that she needed.
Raising the necessary funds took many years, for while there were a few who gave generously, most only gave a little, if anything at all. But gradually the money began to accumulate.
However, shortly before the plans for the printing press could be set in motion, a dreadful flood devastated a nearby town, destroying many people’s homes and livelihoods. Without hesitation the woman used all the money she had gathered to feed the hungry and rebuild lost homes.
Once the town began to recover, the woman silently went back to the streets in order to start all over again, collecting the money needed to translate the Word of God.
Many more years passed, with many cold winters that caused great suffering to the woman. Then, shortly before the target amount was reached, disaster struck again. This time a deadly plague descended like a cloud over the city, stealing the lives of thousands.
By now the woman herself was tired and ill, yet without thought she spent the money she had collected on medicines and care for the sick and orphaned.
Then, once the shadow of the plague was lifted, she again went onto the streets, driven by her desire to translate the Word of God.
Finally, shortly before her death, this faithful woman gathered the money needed for the printing press and completed the project she had set herself many years before.
After she passed away, it is rumoured by some that this godly woman had actually spent her time making three translations of the Word, the first two being the most splendid of all.
I love that line, the first two being the most splendid of them all. This nameless woman was incredibly faithful and had the light of Christ shine through her into the darkness of the tragedies she found herself surrounded by. And the darkness could not overcome the light shining through her. Despite her witness, I cannot help but wonder if this woman also missed the point. Was she so focused on the literary Word of God, like so many of us, that she couldn’t see that her actions were in fact, the best possible way to translate the living Word of God shining through her?
Did she see her actions, that were filled with grace upon grace, made God known more clearly than any book could ever do? And even ifher head might not have ever understood it, her heart was transformed by the light. This light that brings life, and grace, and truth. The Word is flesh and lives among us. That “in the beginning” of this woman’s story, the Word was there, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and this woman came into being through the Word. And God was made known through her.
And so, as John reminds us, this isn’t our Genesis story. Rather it’s a story that happens at the beginning of time, when all things were made. It’s a story that happens when Jesus first comes into the world. It’s a story that happens when our lives are joined to Christ in our baptisms. It’s a story about how things will be when Jesus comes again. But mostly it’s a story about “grace upon grace” breaking into this world, shining in the darkness, and illuminating our lives and the lives around us, so that God might be revealed. And in our own translations of the Word, we can demonstrate exactly how things end. We can show people what it means to live “happily ever after” now. Amen.
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