Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3 / Psalm 147:13 - 21 / John 1:1 – 18
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, December 26, 2021.
“BEING A PART OF THE DIVINE DRAMA”
(Homily
text: John 1: 1 – 18)
“In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without
him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the
light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it.” (John 1: 1 – 4)[1]
“In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without
form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of
God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be
light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1 – 3)
It’s
no coincidence that that the beginning of John’s Gospel account and the
beginning of the book of Genesis have such striking parallels, things like “in
the beginning”, God’s speaking things into being, and the creation of light.
Scholars have long noticed these similarities. Both accounts describe a divine
drama, God’s plan of creation of the world, and His re-creation in the sending
of the Christ, that One who takes up our flesh and “tents” among us as Jesus,
as John 1:14 tells us.
In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….
In
these first eighteen verses of the beginning of John’s Gospel account, we are
treated to a divine drama, a play which unfolds on the stage of God’s inner
life and on the stage of human affairs. We are spectators as we watch how God
interacts with His Anointed One, that is, Jesus, the Christ, as we will learn
in verse seventeen of today’s reading.
We
watch as God speaks into being the light which has come into the world, Jesus,
the Christ. We marvel as we realize that this is cosmic, not-of-this-world
stuff. We try to bend our minds around the concept of “in the beginning”,
stretching our imaginations to try to understand just how long ago that must
have been. (Answer: Far more back in time than any of us can conceive of.)
And
yet, the actors in this divine drama, God and God’s Anointed One, invite us to
come on stage and to take roles in this awesome drama. We have a part to play
as supporting actors and actresses as we assist those who are still in the
audience to understand more about the main characters in this play. Our
interaction with the main players helps to define the character, the nature and
the motives of those stars in this drama.
Our
intent must also be to suggest to those still in the audience that they, too,
can come onstage and assume supporting roles of their own.
The
theme of this wonderful piece of divine theater is that God cared enough for
the world which he created and which he sustains to intervene in the shape of
the plot of this world in order to reshape that plot into His desires and will.
That plot is, therefore, forever changed, and changed for the better.
Thanks
be to God!
AMEN.
[1] I am making use of the English Standard Version of the Bible in citing these verses. Normally, we make use of the New Revised Standard Version.
