John 1:1-5, 10-14
“A New Beginning”
I don’t want to sound like a Scrooge, but the other day when, yet another, Christmas commercial came on the t-v I immediately thought to myself: “Enough already! By the time Christmas gets here, we are all sick of it.”
But you know what?
Our waiting is over.
Christmas has come, and we can get maybe a bit of a reprieve from the commercialism that has drenched our culture since before Halloween!
But, you know, in all actuality, Christmas is about beginnings.
And it would be hard to read this passage from the Gospel of John without thinking of the resemblance it has to the Creation story in Genesis.
Verse 1 starts with, “In the beginning…”
In Genesis we are told that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Then we are told that “God said, Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
“And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters…”
“And God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered in one place…’”
“Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation…’”
You get where I am going with this.
God spoke this world into existence through His Word.
And in the 1st chapter of the Gospel of John we are told that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”
In the Old Testament, we are told that God regularly acts by means of His “Word.”
What God says, happens.
In Psalm 33 we are told, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made…”
Isaiah Chapter 40 informs us, “God’s word is the one thing that will last, even though people and plants wither and die.”
And Isaiah 55 says, “God’s word will go out of his mouth and bring life, healing and hope to Israel and the whole creation.”
John’s Gospel helps us to understand just how radically related Jesus is to life itself!!!
I mean, Jesus is the Organizing Principle of the cosmos!!!
“In the beginning was the Word” is really the same as saying, “In the beginning was God”!
And “God became flesh and lived among us,” in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth!!!
As incomprehensible as it may seem, the cosmic eternal Christ, the pre-existing God of the universe is also a flesh and blood Person, Who was born to a particular woman in a particular town at a particular time, and died a painful, physical death!!!
This is the central theme of Christmas, and it’s a big one!!!
The God Who said, “Let there be light,” and Who confirmed that the light was good, is the same God Who was born in a manger!!!
And the whole life, death and Resurrection of Jesus can’t be separated from Christmas!!!
This means we can’t celebrate Christmas without having Easter in view!!!
And when we proclaim Christ’s birth we cannot do it without proclaiming the reason for that birth!!!
For the wonder of Christmas is that when God becomes flesh, human history is irrevocably changed; the relationship between God and humankind is altered forever!!!
So, Christmas is a time for new beginnings.
How couldn’t it be?
What will you and I do after the trees are taken down?
What will we do after the last of the left-over turkey or ham has been eaten?
Will we go back to life as normal, or will something be different?
There is a story about a little boy who stood looking at a picture of his father who was away, out at sea.
Then he turned to his mother and said, “I wish father would step out of the picture.”
That little boy expressed, in his own way, the deepest hope of those who are living in miserable darkness…
…and are hungry, ever so hungry for the light of Christ!!!
If only the Father would step out of the picture….
…but He has stepped out of the picture…
…He stepped out at Bethlehem into the darkness as Light!!!
And He steps into any heart that is yearning and open to His love.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…”
God is here!!!
J.B. Phillips tells a little parable that goes something like this:
“Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown the glories of God’s universe by a more experienced angel.
He saw many spectacular things: whirling planets, blazing suns, magnificent comets.
Then the older angel pointed out a rather insignificant-looking blue-green sphere turning rather slowly on its axes.
The young angel was decidedly under-whelmed.
But the senior angel drew all his attention to this small celestial body.
‘That,’ he declared, ‘is the visited planet.’
‘The visited planet? You don’t mean visited by…?’
‘Indeed I do. God has visited that planet.
God took on human form and went down to that place and lived there as one of them.’
The thought was almost incomprehensible to the little angel.
But the older one persisted.
They went back in time and watched the planet from its beginnings.
From time to time they saw flashes of light appear on the planet’s surface.
The older angel explained that every glow of light was a time when God’s knowledge and wisdom broke through.
The earth went on circling around the sun, until there appeared a light so intense that both angels hid their eyes.
Then, it was over in an instant!
The little angel knew instinctively that this was the visit they had just witnessed.
‘Why did it last such a short time?’ he asked.
The older angel responded, ‘Most people failed to recognize Him for Who He was.
They preferred their own darkness to His light.
In the end, they killed Him.
But He conquered death.
He rose again and appeared to many people before He returned to heaven.’
The angels continued to watch.
The observed that now instead of the darkness, tiny points of light spread out across the face of the earth causing a rosy glow.
‘You see what is happening?’ the one angel said to the other.
‘The bright glow is all the people who believe.
They continue to tell others about God’s visit.
The glow continues to spread as God is born anew in each one’s life.’”
Has God been born anew in your life?
Back to Genesis for a moment.
After God created, by His Word, all that is…
…humankind, made a decision to separate ourselves from our Creator.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
For by God’s Word God made a promise, directly after the Fall of humankind that God would rescue us…
…that God’s love would pursue us, and save those who would want to be saved.
This is what scholars call the first Evangelum, or the first promise of the Messiah.
It’s found in Genesis 3:15.
It promises that Jesus will crush Satan’s head.
And God spoke it.
And we can bank on it!!!
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
We may get sick of Christmas commercials, but we can never get sick of this!!!
Our Gospel Lesson promises us that “to all who” receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, “to those who” believe in “his name, he” gives “the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
We can become God’s children by saying “Yes” to God’s Word!!!
We live in a world filled with such darkness.
Misery and despair surround us and threaten to pull us under.
But to all of us living in darkness, God has offered us the free gift to become God’s children—to live in the light—to live lives of joy rather than despair, hope rather than meaninglessness and salvation rather than fear, hell and destruction!!!
A wise preacher once said, “Proverbial wisdom says that you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
And yet we know that this is our true nature.
But Christ comes to us…
…He puts His hand on our shoulders and says, ‘You do not belong with the pigs…
…you belong with Me!’
He stoops down and lifts us up from the dirt and tells us that He loves us enough to forsake the courts of heaven; that He did not despise the virgin’s womb, but He came to us as a babe and lived this life in order to show us how it could be done, then He stretched Himself on the wood at the last and died to redeem us!”
We are important enough for God to be born!!!
We are dear enough for God to die!!!
Let no one tell you that you are worthless…that you are just a creature of someone’s impulse, the fruit of your parent’s passion, and nothing more!
The Christmas story is true and nothing else matters!!!
The Father has stepped out of the picture!
There is a Light for all those who live in darkness!!!
God’s grace abounds.
Jesus has come to save and forgive!
God knows what it is like to live in rough and common circumstances…
…God knows what it is like to live like one of us.
God speaks His Word and New Life is created.
God is speaking His Word to everyone of us this morning!!!
Have we allowed His Word to live in us?
