A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, December 28, 2008
Isaiah 61: 10 – 62: 3; Psalm 147: 13 – 21; Galatians 3: 23 – 25, 4: 4 – 7; John 1: 1 – 18
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God!”
Cosmic words, aren’t they? “In the beginning,” we hear this morning….
In other words, “as far back as the human mind can imagine, and then, even further than that.”
This morning, we hear John’s words, as he attempts to describe the coming of Jesus Christ in his own limited vocabulary: “In the beginning was the Word….”
John – as we’ve noted in the past few days – isn’t the least bit interested in the birth stories of Jesus, as are Matthew and Luke. No, like Mark, he omits all those details entirely. But, in similar fashion to Mark, he launches right into the beginning of the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But unlike Mark, John does something else: He appends a Prologue[1]to his gospel account before beginning the account of John the Baptist’s witness. In these first 18 verses, he outlines some (but not all) of the themes he will pick up on as his gospel account unfolds. Among these themes that we hear are the following:
- The divine nature of Jesus Christ (high Christology),
- Jesus Christ as the creator (and bearer) of all things, especially life and light,
- John the Baptist’s witness to Jesus Christ’s identity,
- The gift of eternal life for all who believe and accept Him.
So now, as we turn to the text itself, let’s pick up on some of these themes: [2]
The divine nature of Jesus Christ: First, we begin with Jesus Christ’s identity: John uses the term “Word” to describe this being with was “in the beginning”, who was “with God”, and who “is God.” (Note the progression of language: “in the beginning” – “was with God” – who “is God”.) Essentially, John is emphasizing the divine identity [3] of the Word, who became flesh, who took the name of Jesus, the Christ. “Jesus” would refer to His humanity, while “Christ” refers to His everlasting, divine nature. So, the Word, the Christ, the Son (as John and the Nicene Creed both state it) existed from before all time, from everlasting, from “the beginning” (John’s words, but also found in the Nicene Creed). Then, in the fullness of time (as St. Paul states it in our reading from Galatians today, “But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman,”) the Word became flesh, Jesus.[4]
Jesus Christ as the creator (and bearer) of all things: Next, we ought to consider the idea that Jesus Christ is the creator of all that is. John puts it this way, “All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” John is saying, essentially, that Jesus Christ is the maker of all things (the Nicene Creed puts it this way, “By whom all things were made”).
But John goes on to outline exactly what it is that the Word created: It is life and light. Remarkably similar – this passage is - in some respects to the outline of creation in Genesis 1: 1 – 5, where we read that God said, “Let there be light.” [5]
Relying on our knowledge of the created order we live in and are a part of, we know that no life would be possible without the presence of light. So, John’s statement makes sense as we consider the nature of the world around us.
John the Baptist’s witness to Jesus Christ’s identity: But having begun by outlining the nature of the Word, Jesus Christ, then moving on to the creative powers of that Word, John now begins to narrow his focus more and more, pulling together the threads that will connect this eternal Word with the person of Jesus Christ. He does so by interjecting John the Baptist’s witness to this person, Jesus Christ.[6]
John (the gospel writer) wants us to know that this cosmic Word is one and the same with the person of Jesus Christ, to whom John the Baptist bore witness.
The gift of eternal life for all who receive and accept Him: Our fourth point is to affirm that the focus of all of this creative power, the purpose of the coming of the eternal Word to us as one of us, fully human and yet fully divine, is to create with us, a new relationship with God, one that will last throughout all eternity.
This last point is well worth repeating: The purpose of the coming of the Word is to create within us a new relationship with God, one that will last throughout all eternity.
Here are John’s own words, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” [7]
So God, acting through the Word, is the giver and creator of life, in this case, new life as children of God. God is the active agent, and we are the responders to God’s action… “As many as received him,” John says, become children of God.
St. Paul puts it this way: “But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.”
Paul describes the familiarity of this new relationship that we have with God the Father through the work of the Son, using the Aramaic word for “daddy”, “Abba.”
So, how about us?
What is the state of our “new creation” in God through Christ?
After all, God seeks after us, seeking our acceptance (John’s word, “received”) of Him through the work of Jesus Christ.
God seeks our receiving of Him not only in mind, in our thoughts and ideas, but also in our hearts, in the very core of our being.
God seeks to create a new heart and a new mind for us by His presence within us.
God seeks to renew the creation He has already begun with us, just as He upholds and renews the created order we see around us in the world He has created for our life and wellbeing.
Today’s text calls us to reflect, “Am I a new creation in God?” “Am I a child of God by having received Him?” “Am I in need of some spiritual ‘recreation’?”
AMEN.
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[1] That is what Bible scholars have come to call these first 18 verses of the Fourth Gospel.
[2] These first 18 verses are complex, and have prompted biblical scholars to pour out page after page of commentary about them. In the space of time available for a sermon, we can only hope to scratch the surface of their meaning and importance.
[3] The technical, theological term for the emphasis on the divine nature of Jesus Christ is high Christology. By contrast, low Christology would refer to an emphasis on Jesus Christ’s human nature.
[4] The Church would wrestle with this concept of the Divine Son taking on our humanity. Eventually, by the Fifth Century, at the Council of Chalcedon, (451 AD), the concept was stated in these terms: “the one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons….” (See the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, p. 864, for the entire statement.)
[5] Biblical scholars have also long noted the similarities of the Genesis 1 text and the John 1 text, both of which begin with the words, “In the beginning”.
[6] Notice the overall shape of these first 18 verses: 1. Verses 1 – 5 have to do with the divine Word and the creative powers of that Word; verses 6 – 8 have to do with John the Baptist’s witness; Verses 9 – 14 have to do with the Word coming into the world, and the purpose for which He came; and finally, verse 15 reverts back to a reference to John the Baptist, while verses 16 – 18 come back again to the purposes of the Word’s coming, identifying Jesus Christ (verse 17) with that Word.
[7] Verses 12 - 13
