We have reached the end
of the big rush of the season. That, at least in part, explains why we
are an intimate group this Christmas morning. It’s probably just as
well. The sermon idea that I had for this morning was a bit, I thought, .
. . esoteric. But now that I see our small group, maybe it really was
from God. By that, I mean, I can promise you all that none of you have
thought of the Gospel of John in this way, as it is something that popped into
my head over the last week as I was doing Greek with Joshua and Brian.
But each of you has turned out for your third service of Thanksgiving in the
last twenty-four hours. You have braved Nashville traffic in the rain,
dodged the flock of turkeys who keep crossing Lakemont, and girded yourselves
for a normal “boring” Christmas message, right? Be careful about patting
yourself on the back too hard. Nathan can tell you shoulder surgery rehab
is neither fun nor pleasant! But this odd sermon that was coursing
through my head since last Wednesday is likely only to land with those who both
take their faith seriously and need a bit of reassurance, given the testimony
of the world out there.
Now that I have your attentions,
I’ll explain. I am certain all of you noticed that I read the Prologue of
John in lieu of the Nativity story of Luke. Part of that decision arose
from the fact that I focused on Luke last night at both Nativity services,
focusing on imagination at the early service and on the focus on “you” at the
late service. Both of those followed a discussion about transformations
in the Advent 4 services. Each of you heard two of those four sermons
and, I trust, still remember them. Good. Unlike the other synoptic
Gospels, John has a different perspective. In particular, as we read the
Prologue last night after the late Eucharist and again this morning, John is
focused on the idea that Jesus, the Word of God, is the beginning of the
re-creation promised by God. In some ways, we might say that John’s
prologue serves as a Genesis of the New Testament. With me so far?
Good.
There is a progression about God
that is unfolded during the Advent season, and we reminded ourselves of it
yesterday and this morning. The progression, as John reminds us this
morning, begins with logos. Logos is a Greek word that is full of all
kinds of understanding, pun intended, and almost as much nuance. The
quick definition would be something along the lines of divine reason or
ordering of chaos or understanding. There are a number of Christian
theologians who argue that the imago dei, the image of God, that is in us is the
logos. Our ability to think and understand and solve is that part of God
that separates us from the animals of the world, or, for those of us feeling
creative this morning, the spark that jumps from God to Adam in Michelangelo’s
ceiling on the Sistine Chapel.
To speak particularly
anthropomorphically this morning, logos is the thinking or idea in God’s
mind. With me so far? Good.
I say we are speaking particularly
anthropomorphically because we understand what is revealed through our own processes.
Logos is kind of like an idea or understanding that you and I have in our
heads. But something changes when that idea or understanding is
expressed. Generally, for us, we begin to make or describe or to solve
something. There seems to be a bit of change in the nature of things, at
least so far as the authors of Scripture are concerned, between what is in
what’s God’s head and what happens in the cosmos around Him.
Think back to yesterday morning and
the angel’s emphasis to Mary that what God has spoken cannot NOT happen.
Our translation rendered it poorly as “nothing is impossible with God.”
As Brian and Joshua will tell you, that translation captures the basic meaning
of what is behind the grammar, but there is still more to meaning we
lose. Specifically, we lose the emphasis of the double negative in the
Greek and on the reminder about what God has spoken must occur. Luke
could have chosen all kinds of way to express “nothing is impossible for God,”
but, and we assume inspired by the Holy Spirit, Luke chose HIs words to reflect
something being revealed by God.
Specifically, think of the role of
the prophet among God’s people. The prophet was elected to instruct the
king when the king went astray because the king’s primary responsibility as a
steward of God was to lead the people of God into right relationship with
Him. As a consequence, there were usually prophets among the people of
Israel for most of the Old Testament. The prophet spoke the logos of God
hoping for a return to God’s instructions. More often than not, though,
the people and kings ignored the voice of the prophet, that which was
spoken. Some might say that Israel did not fully understand how dependent
they were on God’s voice in their midst until it disappeared in the time
between Malachi and John the Baptizer.
For our part, such an understanding
source of hope in the promises of God. If God has spoken something
through the prophets or Scripture or even in His communications with us, then
we know it will happen, or, as Gabriel told Mary, it cannot NOT happen.
To the extent that things do not happen, we understand the fault is with
us. Either we have misunderstood or misapplied what God has spoken.
Because He has spoken and because what He has spoken cannot NOT happen, we know
the problem lies with us and not Him. We are not attended to Him
correctly. Just to be clear, we are no worse than those who claimed to
preach or teach or instruct in His voice throughout history. One of the
ways that God’s people were to judge prophets was by whether what the prophet
said happened. If it did, then the people knew the prophet was of
God. If not, the false prophet was to be stoned. Imagine how
carefully we should claim to be prophets of God if the consequence of our
misunderstanding, assuming good intentions, was a stoning! Yet how many
“false prophets” are among us in the Church today!
For his part, John the Apostle
captures this understanding well. John instructs us about the
Logos. Specifically, John instructs us about the Word of God that dwells
with the Father in the beginning, the Word who is with God and is God. He
even instructs us about the silence and our need for God’s voice in our life as
we live and work in the darkness. He reminds us that there was another
John who proclaimed that the Word, the Logos of verse 1, outranked him because
He was before Him. Yes, John’s Prologue helps us understand the Trinity
better, not completely, but there is another teaching going on. John the
Baptizer comes after 270 years of God’s silence to proclaim that the Logos was
coming into the world, the Logos that was with God and is God in the beginning!
Now for the fun part for us.
Again, speaking anthropomorphically about God, if there is a double negative
emphasis on the fact that what God has spoken cannot NOT happen, what do we
make of what we celebrated last night and this morning and for the next twelve
days? John tells us in verse 14. This Logos that was with God and
is God, which has been spoken through the prophets until this point in
salvation history, became flesh and lived among us. Better still, in this
Word made flesh, we are able to see the glory of Him whose glory before this
moment in salvation history would blind and even destroy us were we to see Him
in His glory unmediated.
I see some pondering faces.
Now you know why I said this was not for those who do not steep themselves in
their attunement to God in worship and study and prayer. There is a
progression in God’s revelation that ought to reassure us or comfort us or be a
source of hope that cannot be quashed. If what God has spoken cannot NOT
happen, how much more meaning is attached to His enfleshment and dwelling among
us? Put in simple English, rather than Johannine language or Greek, as
much emphasis as the angel places on the “cannot NOT happen” about God’s spoken
words, how much more emphasis must there be upon His enfleshed Word?
We know the answer, of
course. This Babe whose birth we celebrated last night and this morning
comes to restore the intimacy we lost in the Garden and through our sins.
This Light that has entered the darkness of the world will be scorned,
rejected, tortured, and eventually killed. But even then, when it looks
like the world has won, the Father acts and raises His Son from the dead and
speaks, reminding each one of us who proclaim His Son the Lord of our lives
will share in HIs Resurrection. And as much assurance as we find in God’s
spoken words through the prophets, how much more so are we reassured by His
Incarnation, Resurrection, and Ascension!
My friends, we are sent back out
into a crazy dark world. Our politicians rule for their own
aggrandizement and not those whom they serve or the One who grants them
authority. Nature itself seems chaotic with floods and tornados and
volcanos and earthquakes far too common. And, lest we forget, the
microbes of nature are working a triple whammy on us even as we gather a God’s
people remembering the awe and mystery of the Incarnation this morning.
Economically speaking, there is a shift happening before our eyes, a shift
whose outcome none of us can accurately forecast. For two years we have
gathered as God’s people when wars, rather than rumors of war, have reared
their heads. Some of us who understand human nature and the willingness
of human beings to treat other human beings as less than, recognize both the
tragedies unfolding in real time before our eyes and the dangerous
possibilities of escalation. And I have not yet even drawn your attention
to the discord and suffering on our individual lives. How many of us face
challenges of family dynamics during this joyful season, dynamics that were
stoked by events of Thanksgiving? How many of us are pouring the deaths
of loved ones? How many of us are struggling with our own aches and pains
and sufferings or those of loved ones in our lives? The list of darkness
goes on and on. And what of the unaddressed evils in the world.
Misogyny was not fixed by #metoo; racism was not cured by Black Lives
Matter. Oh, and lest we forget, we get the wonderful privilege and
experience of living through another presidential election next year, and all
the positive, nation-building advertisements that will stream on our devices or
be heard on radio or seen on television as commercials.
Yes, the darkness is real.
The world is oppressive. But because God’s Logos has become enfleshed and
lived among us, you and I have a source of hope that reminds us, encourages us,
exhorts us, that God will not fail us! The rest of the world might reject
our work, might mock us for our faith, but we know both God’s purpose and power
in this event we call the Incarnation. And because we know how He promises
this story will end, we know we can work in any darkness, minister in the midst
of any oppression, confident that, if God has called us to such work, we, and
He, cannot fail. Even if such work takes our life and we appear defeated
to the world around us, we know One glorious day He will return and finish what
He began in earnest with the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Best of
all, we who trusted, who proclaimed Him Lord, worked to accomplish His will in
the world around us, and who repented when we failed, have been proclaimed
heirs by His Apostle and promised a share in the Resurrection begun in His Son
Jesus Christ our Lord. And armed with that understanding and comfort, we
are sent back out into the world with those candles we lit last night, trust that
God will use our flickering flames to draw others in our lives to His saving
embrace. God has spoken; God has
enfleshed Himself and dwelt among us. He
cannot and will not fail!
In His Peace,
Brian†
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