In the Beginning
John 1: 1-18 (NIV)
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 him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave 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. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Friends, between now and Tuesday we're still technically in the season of Christmas, even though we have the option to observe Epiphany today. With no shortage of love for the passage where the three wise men meet the baby Jesus and give him their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, I'm choosing to take us in a slightly different direction this morning, and look at the other option our Lectionary gives me for a Gospel reading this morning: the beginning of Jesus' story as related to us by another of the evangelists, John.
Around this time of the year we hear Matthew and Luke's stories about the baby Jesus so much that we might lose sight of this fact that only Matthew and Luke actually choose to introduce Jesus to us that way, as a baby. That was the choice Matthew and Luke made as authors, to try to tell us something about the early days and years of this very important man, and to try to tell us where exactly he came from. John takes a pretty different approach. He still attempts to tell us about where Jesus came from, but he's not interested in Jesus' infancy. He's more interested in a realm beyond our own planet that Jesus dwelt in before he became a man. John would rather tell us about the parts of God that came to us from heaven and became God incarnate.
John tells us about the most important pieces of the very essence that is God that became the most important parts of Jesus. So what are those pieces? What are the most important parts of a Savior? According to John, Jesus is Word, Light, and Life.
John tells us that before Jesus became anything more, he was the Word. Actually, he tells us that before there was anything at all, there was the Word. God's Word. He was the spoken and written truth about God. Before there was anybody else on earth to talk about their love for God, and long, long before there was anybody writing down the stories of God and God's people, there was Jesus, just holding onto that truth of God's greatness, God's sovereignty over our whole world, and God's love for our whole creation. Before there even was a creation, before there even were people on earth to love, Jesus was the presence of that love. One of the most important things Jesus came here and lived among us to do was to bring us the Word, and to use the Word to teach his followers about God, the ways of God, and God's desire for us, so that those followers could spread the Word. The Word of God became our Good News. We were all made out of that Word, that truth of God, that Good News. It's at our very core. It's at our very core to know and love God.
John tells us that Jesus was light, and that that light is what gave life to all people. We live because of the Light of Christ. Jesus is like the air we breathe.
But, much more than all of that, the Light Jesus brings us is what keeps us going. Jesus brings us hope. And if you ever forget that, if you ever need a reminder of that, then turn to one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible: John 1:5:
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus didn't just come to live this human life among us because it was God's plan. Jesus came to live among people because we needed him. Jesus came to live among a community of people who had worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for thousands of years, and yet they didn't get it. They didn't really know their God. They didn't know God's plans for them, they didn't know about the way God intended them to live, they didn't understand about God's love for the world, and they lived without Good News.
A world without Jesus in it is a world without hope. And hope is something that you just can't live without. What Jesus gives us in that inextinguishable light is hope. What Jesus gives us is the Good News that God loved us enough to save us. Jesus gives us the promise of a prosperous future for the people of God. A Light no one can put out.
And that Light sustains us. That Light is what keeps us going, and makes us live. That Light illumines God's path for us, and gives us direction, that Light sets our hearts on fire and allows us to live with passion, and purpose. That Light keeps us alive, and gives us a Life worth living.
Jesus carried God's Word to us. Jesus brought us the Light of God's love for us. And Jesus sustains us, so we may have Life.
The Good News of the Christmas season is that Jesus brings us those gifts, and he brings them with great abundance, and without limit. He does that for us.
But that's only the first half of this ongoing story between God and his people. It's not enough for us to just rejoice in the gifts of Word, Light, and Life that we receive from our Savior. The truth is that all those gifts mean nothing if we don't share them.
If we don't pass them on. Jesus has found us in moments of silence, and filled that a silence with God's Word. Jesus has found us in the darkness and cold, and brought us Light. He's found us failing to thrive, and living for nothing, and brought us everlasting Life.
Now we have to re gift those things.
Now we have to take the Good News and share it with people who have never heard it. Now we have to share the Light of Jesus with people stuck in the cold and darkness. Now we have to find the person living without hope and bring them to the infinite fount of hope in Jesus. Now we have to find the person living without passion, living without purpose, living without a plan, living for nothing, and introduce them to the Life Jesus brings us all.
Jesus came to live among us so that he could bring us Word, Light, and Life, so that we could spread his Word, Light, and Life, and keep passing those things on until the whole world was touched by Jesus' love. That sounds like a big responsibility, and it is. But a bit of good news in this is that we don't have to do that alone, we have lots of help. We have a whole Christian family around the world to help.
And because we have so much help, what we have to do on our own to spread the Good News of Christ really isn't that hard, and a lot of us in this community already do some of what it takes to introduce Jesus to someone who doesn't know him.
In fact, there's pretty simple things we all can do to spread Jesus' love around the world. Invite someone to church. Volunteer. And take care of the people Jesus specifically told us to: visit the sick, visit the prisoner, feed the hungry and thirsty, and clothe the unclothed.
And maybe 2015 will be a year where more of the world has seen God's love than ever before.
Amen.
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