Series A                                                    Christmas II               January 2, 2011                                                                          

John 1:1-18

“WHAT THE WORD SAYS”

Life is not always fair.  Life is not always exciting, fun, and enjoyable.  Life is not always pleasant or peaceful.  Into every life comes adversity, pain, sorrow, and tragedy.  We can not escape it.  And when we boil all this bad stuff that happens to all of us in life down to its bare essence, we will find “sin”.  The sin of greed drove executives on Wall Street, and investment bankers like Lehman Brothers, to use shady business practices to make money faster, and created this world economy that affects the poor and working class far more than the rich and affluent.  The sin of covetousness causes people to murder, steal, and commit fraud.  The sin of hatred and defiance of God leads to terrorism.

You get the idea.  Because of sin, we sin, and sin is the root cause of every evil that exists.  Even cancer, and heart disease, and every biological enemy of life, like cholera, pneumonia, and so on has its roots in the punishment of Adam and Eve’s original sin – for they cause death.

And now that we are celebrating the 9^th Day of Christmas this Sunday, we know that Christmas has not put an end to greed, hatred, covetousness, and every other sin that exists in this world.  But this event that we are celebrating has brought something else to us which can be found no where else but with God  — hope.

As we look at this Christmas Gospel from the book of John, we must ask ourselves what it is intended to do.  John speaks of the “word”.  And words are meant to do something.  They always do something when God is the speaker of that word, for his word creates.  Even when we use words, we want to convey some message to another.  We want to elicit some response from the hearer, we want to make something happen.  When a boy tells a girl he loves her, if those words don’t elicit a response, specifically a positive response, someone is going to have their heart broken.

This is God’s “word” that John is describing for us.  And God’s word is where His power is made known.  God speaks a word and there is creation.  Jeremiah compares God’s word to “fire” and to a “hammer that breaks the rock in pieces” (23:29).  Isaiah describes God’s word as rain that waters the earth, “making it sprout and bring forth” (55:10).  And through Isaiah God tells us that:

 ”it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (55:11).

So, at Christmas this powerful word became flesh and blood.  This word had earthly parents, grew up like we all do; encountered sin, sorrow, and evil to give us a permanent glimpse of God so that we can know not just His Word, but His heart.  And like every word, this Word had a purpose and that purpose came from the very heart of God.

In the very beginning, God walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and then Adam and Eve sinned and brought an end to this intimate relationship.  But God continued to reach out to His creation.  He talked with Abraham; Jacob and Joseph met Him in dreams; the prophets received his Word to spread to the Nation.  And of course Moses became the greatest of all those prophets, leading Israel from bondage and bringing them God’s Law.

God has always been full of surprises.  When people thought the world was flat – surprise!  When people thought the universe revolved around the earth – surprise!  When Israel believed their Messiah would be born in a palace and become a great military king – surprise!   Of course, in John’s Gospel we don’t encounter mangers and shepherds, angels and Wise men, for John’s intent is to declare why God did this, rather than describe the way God did it.   

We first learn that the very word, the very power of God is what the Messiah is.  This word created all things, but what is more, words communicate thoughts, ideas, knowledge.  Jesus does all that for us because he makes God known to us.  Jesus is the word of God.  In Jesus, God is speaking to us.

We also learn from John that this “word” was sent to a world that was created by God, but did not know God, but God wanted them to.  John 3:16 expresses this even more clearly:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

The third thing we learn is what is offered to all who receive him.  That word “receive is “Lambano”.  It means receive in the concept of “to accept” a gift or package.  But this gift is God’s word.  How does one receive a “word?”  You listen to it.  Listening is a passive act.  The person talking is taking the action, we are receiving it.  In other words we have to guard ourselves to not get so busy that we don’t listen to the word, not get distracted that we don’t hear the word, not let anything come between us and where the Lord has promised to be that we don’t even know it is being spoken.  God will not make us listen, as the recipients it is our choice to receive him or not.  “

“But to all those who receive him, who believe in his name, he gives the power to become the children of God.”  

For a long time a play ran on Broadway in New York City called “Green Pastures”  It had a scene in it where God and the angel Gabriel are standing on the parapets of heaven, and God is fretting over what to do with this world.  Gabriel offers to blow his horn, but God stops him because it is not yet the time for the final trumpet to sound.  So Gabriel suggest that God send another David or Moses.   Then he adds that they have some great prophets there in heaven that God could send like Isaiah or Jeremiah.  But God declines every suggestion and tells Gabriel that this time he was not going to sent anyone, for this time he was going himself

That is why we can sing “Joy to the World”, and “Rejoice, Rejoice, this Happy Morn”, and “Of The Father’s Love Begotten”, and “Good Christian Friends Rejoice”, and all the other Christmas carols that speak of this precious gift.  For this gift of God’s Word made flesh gives us something nothing else can give.  It gives us hope!  Hope because this is a flesh and blood expression of the Love of God for us.  And this word tells us that its intended accomplishment is for all to hear God speaking of the forgiveness, the salvation  and the eternal life found in this Word. 

The World may not be changed by this word for the world will refuse to listen to it.  But for all who do, for all who receive it, for all who believe it, there is eternal life and salvation, and they are changed.  And that is why this Word brings hope.  For though our circumstances here may not change, we know that this is not all there is.  This life, this world, is temporary.  One day Gabriel will sound that trumpet and this world’s existence will end.  But for all who receive the word born unto us, who believe that word, there is eternal life in the kingdom of God.  And there is our hope, in the midst of every circumstance this life throws at us.

AMEN