The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany ----- 31 January 2016

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. ²⁸And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. ²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

                                                                                                                                           

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

·        Have any of you ever heard a person “speaking in tongues”? Not a person speaking in a language you didn’t understand, but a language nobody could understand.

·        I heard what was said to be the gift of tongues a number of years ago and it scared me. One person spoke what sounded like nonsense syllables and a moment later another person gave the interpretation. During that time, I could feel the hair on my head rise up – a sensation some of you might have had in other circumstances.

·        I’ve never been present at a spontaneous healing, a prophetic utterance, or a word of special knowledge. I have heard of such things being faked, but I can’t say that for certain in all cases.

·        These things, should you encounter them, are certainly spectacular and out of the ordinary. There are people who seek them out in order to experience them or to have those gifts themselves, and for their own reasons.

·        Paul acknowledges the existence of all these gifts in the Corinthian Church. He also tells the Corinthians that these gifts are not the highest and might even be a source of a sinful pride. After all who want to be just ordinary?

·        Just before the quote we started with, Paul says something odd: But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. So there is something better? What sort of sensational thing is Paul recommending to the church at Corinth?

·        What follows is such a well-known passage that we’ve all heard it. It’s a favourite reading for wedding, although it is not specifically directed to marriage and married couples. Let’s just say it is spoken to us.

·        I hope that we all realize that we are all gifted in different ways, all of which have value. Paul is not talking about those gifts nor is he talking about the more spectacular spiritual gifts that we hear abounded in the early church and are outlined in this letter. Those gifts still exist; there are prophets and healers in our own day and there are those who speak in tongues, even if they are not here with us today. They’re not the ones Paul is concerned about.

·        Paul wants to know if there are any lovers in the room. He wants to know if any of the people he is writing to are able and willing to love. He says that is the greatest gift of all, or has he called it, a still more excellent way.

·        Now this sounds awfully ordinary and mundane. Love is something we have all experienced. Paul, however, is not talking about our experience of being loved, but our experience of loving others. He takes love to the highest place, the unselfish love that is called agape. In Paul’s language, there are a number of words we’d translate as “love” and they don’t all mean the same thing. Here he uses the word that indicates a self-less love, the sort of love God has.

·        Paul gets beyond the surface of things and calls love the greatest of gifts. We however might call it ordinary and common when compared to gifts and actions we might consider more amazing.

·        So what is more truly amazing – speaking in tongues or a parent’s love for a special-needs child with all that calls for?

·        What is more amazing – a word of knowledge (whatever that may mean anymore) or the love that leads a person to give of themselves to another through thick and thin?

·        What is more amazing – a prophetic utterance or the love that fills you and fulfills your life.

·        Those are questions you have to answer for yourselves. It seems that love is quite important to all of us. We want to be loved… and we want to love as well.

·        Love might not be the most spectacular of God’s gifts. There is truth to what Martin Luther said: Our Lord God has made His greatest gifts the commonest. However, the gift of love could well be the most necessary and the most wanted gift when we get right down to it. It is the most lasting and perhaps the most powerful. It is not tongues and miraculous power that draws people to Jesus Christ; it is love of God reflected in Jesus’ disciples. It is that love that remains and abides, as Paul would say. Paul even says: But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end… And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 

·        Love “abides” because it is the very life of God. Such love was the reason behind all that Jesus did and still does. It is the reason for creation, for redemption and salvation, and for God’s sustaining of all that exists. Because love reflects God, Paul calls it the still more excellent way.

·        On love, we can remember what is said in another letter, the first letter of John: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love… …God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.  (1 John 4:7-12, 16b)

·        Now I ask you - what could be more powerful than that? What could be a greater gift? What would mean more to the Church? What would mean more to the world?

·        But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

The Third Sunday after Epiphany ---- 24 January 2016

Luke 4:14-21

14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵ He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. ¹⁶ When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸ "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." ²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

"Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

·        Our Gospel passage today starts in Nazareth and has Jesus taking part in the Sabbath worship “as was his custom.” He reads from Isaiah and proclaims that Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. This is pretty serious stuff. I don’t know if the worshippers there that Sabbath expected to hear that the words of the prophet would be fulfilled right then and there. Would you be ready for that – here and now? "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 

·        Of course, this prophecy has to do with the coming of the Kingdom of God and the presence of the Messiah. God’s Spirit would be manifested in a particular way and the poor would hear the good news. The captives and the oppressed would be freed and those suffering from debilitating illnesses would be healed – represented here by the blind recovering their sight. It would be the year of the Lord’s favor, the Jubilee.

·        This Jubilee was a very special year when ancestral lands were returned, when debts were wiped out, when slaves and prisoners were freed, and when the mercy of God would be made most manifest.

·        There is more to this than simply a freeing of the down-trodden and healing of wounds. The ancient belief that sin leads to physical suffering, captivity, and oppression is directly challenged by the proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor. Those situations would be remedied and sin would be forgiven, alleviating the cause of those sins according to the understanding of sin at the time.

·        The surprise here is that all these things will be given to the poor, the captive, the blind, the slave, and the oppressed. The rich, the mighty, the “sinless”, and the properly religious are not even mentioned. The people who might expect to receive God’s favor and mercy because they are so good are left out of the proclamation.

·        First, the poor and down-trodden were the ones who needed to hear the good news; the religiously observant could expect God’s favor and they often let everybody know it. To have this understanding of the grace of God turned on its head would be good news to those who believed or were made to believe that they were on the outside looking in… just as they were with the whole of society.

·        Second, the wealthy and well-connected might wonder why they were not included in Isaiah’s teaching. In their own way, they may have felt that they have earned a graced reward because of their efforts to keep the Law. In their own way, they may have felt superior to the poor who were not able to keep the precepts of the Law as they did. If they were truly those blessed by God, why were they not included in this. Maybe they believed that the Scripture had already been fulfilled for them and something particular needed to be added for the less fortunate. If grace and good things were coming, wouldn’t it come to them first since they were so deserving? Or would it come to them alone and to no one else?

·        This passage, which Jesus has applied to himself, puts all that self-deception and self-righteousness to an end. The Messiah, filled with the Spirit of God will bring good news to all who are poor, whether their poverty is economic, social, or physical, for people with any of those ills await the year of the Lord’s favor.

·        What is interesting to us here today is this: Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Maybe we don’t often see it. When Jesus says that those who hear him have entered a time of Jubilee, when the good news is brought to the poor, and those held captive are set free, he means it for all who hear his words… including us.

·        We may not be the poorest of people; I know I have a lot of what is called “stuff”, but can we keep it or are we stewards, care-takers of it for a time? What is really ours? We may not be prisoners, but there are other sorts of bondage as well, some of which might apply to us: addiction, illnesses of mind or body, attitudes that cripple us and keep us unsatisfied. And as our Confession says: we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves…

·        The Spirit of God is with us and we are redeemed and free even though we carry the residue of what has gone before and the wounds of our past. It is the year of the Lord’s favor, even if we cannot see it or we refuse to see it.

·        There is a further truth. As Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit to bring good news to the poor, that same Holy Spirit is upon us, anointing each of us to bring the good news to the poor, the captive, the blind, in whatever way those terms make sense to us.

·        This passage in Luke is the specific moment when Jesus begins his ministry of bringing good news. Each of us has had a similar moment, when the waters of Baptism touched us and the Word of God filled our ears, even if we couldn’t understand it at the time. That Spirit is still with us and all of us stand within the call we received at our Baptism. With the Spirit, each of us can do it. Do what?

·        The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 

Catholics and Lutherans Reuniting for Reformation Anniversary

(quoted from America magazine, January 14, 2016, Tom Heneghan - Religion New Service)

Catholics and Lutherans have made another step toward joint commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 by issuing common liturgical guidelines for ecumenical services to mark the occasion. The guidelines, in a booklet called “Common Prayer,” provide a template for an ecumenical service, complete with suggested prayers, appropriate hymns and themes for sermons.

Catholic leaders in Luther’s home country of Germany, where interest in the anniversary is strongest, at first balked at the idea of “celebrating” what Lutherans there had already named the “Reformationsjubiläum” (Reformation Jubilee). But detailed talks between the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican produced a 93-page report titled “From Conflict to Communion” in 2013 that announced they would mark the anniversary together and presented the Reformation as the start of a shared 500-year journey rather than a single and divisive historical event. The latest guidelines say all services should stress the concepts of thanksgiving, repentance and common commitment, with the main focus on Jesus. The guidelines were presented on Jan. 11 by the Geneva-based Lutheran federation and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

The Reformation, which began with the publication of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517, divided Western Christianity as Protestants broke away from Roman Catholicism and formed their own churches. Until about 50 years ago, the two sides observed each other with suspicion across a deep theological divide. But ecumenical discussions in recent decades have reached such a reconciliation that theologians recently suggested they explore the possibility of sharing Communion, which the Catholic Church does not allow with other Christians.

When a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic asked Pope Francis about this during his visit to her church in Rome last November, he said he couldn’t decide the question but hinted strongly that he supported it. “It is a question that each person must answer for themselves … there is one baptism, one faith, one Lord, so talk to the Lord and move forward,” he told the congregation, which broke out in applause.

The “Common Prayer” booklet stresses the shared beliefs between Roman Catholicism’s 1.2 billion members and the 75 million Lutherans around the world and advises readers that its recommendations can be adjusted according to the country and language in which they are used. The section on repentance admits the post-Reformation wars of religion caused “the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people” and undermined the gospel message. “We deeply regret the evil things that Catholics and Lutherans have mutually done to each other,” it says.

“This common prayer marks a very special moment in our common journey from conflict to communion,” the Rev. Martin Junge, general secretary of LWF, and Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican’s ecumenical department, said in a joint letter accompanying the guidelines. The booklet suggests that ecumenical services have two presiders, one Catholic and one Lutheran, and several prayer readers of both faiths.

They should use hymns known to both Catholics and Protestants, such as “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” — originally written for a Lutheran church in Germany — or meditative chants such as “Veni Sancte Spiritus” from the ecumenical community of Taizé in France. Readers are told to cite passages in “From Conflict to Communion” that explain why Catholics and Lutherans should gather in prayer, and presiders are instructed to lead a prayer that laments “that even good actions of reform and renewal had often unintended negative consequences.” For a Gospel reading, it suggests John 15, in which Jesus compares himself to a vine and says his followers are its branches. The service should include recitation of two common prayers, the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.

The Second Sunday after Epiphany ----- 17 January 2016

John 2:1-11

1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." ⁴ And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." ⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." ⁶ Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. ⁹ When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom  and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee

·        Let me ask you a question: Where is God? A simple enough question, isn’t it? If God ‘is’, God ‘is’ somewhere.

·        To say “God is everywhere” is almost too simple. To say the opposite, that God is only in certain places or is not to be found at all, is too simple as well.

·        There are some people who would hold that God is far too “holy” to be found in the everyday things of life or the simple things of the created world. Their idea of holiness is more suited for a god who is unconcerned with our reality or who is constantly angry about offenses against a perceived holiness.

·        The word “holy” means “to be set apart”, apart from the ordinary, the mundane, what is normal. This could be taken to mean that God is “too holy” for parties and meals of celebration. It might also mean that God is too holy for pancakes and babies and kittens and picnics and short drives. And families. And problems.

·        If that’s how we define and understand “the holy”, we need to entirely rethink it. The answer to the question “Is God too holy for all this?” is a resounding “No.” No arguments. No variations. No exceptions. Just… no.

·        The real answer, the biggest answer to that question is seen in the great festival of the Nativity of our Lord which we celebrated not too long ago.

·        The story from John’s Gospel of the wedding feast at Cana shows Jesus in a similar light. First of all, he’s invited to the wedding and he goes; such a thing is not beneath him. He goes to celebrate this occasion and when the disaster of lack of wine comes, he does respond – after a little discussion with his mother – by turning water into wine, and not just a little bit.

·        It’s been estimated that when Jesus was done, at least 450 litres of wine were available for the feast. The best of wine, too, available to everyone. At the time, the important guests got the best wine at a wedding feast while the “less eminent” ones drank either cheap wine or a mix of wine, vinegar, and water. This time, however, everybody got the best vintage! The chief steward acknowledges this and is so surprised, he brings it to the attention of the bridegroom.

·        Such a leveling of social and economic classes is quite an example of God being not-so-holy and getting involved in people’s lives. There is more to this story, like the idea of new wine being a symbol of the Messianic kingdom in the prophets’ writings and Jesus using items specific to Jewish practice to further his message, but this idea of wine for all will do for now.

·        The action that precedes this passage has John the Baptizer preaching and baptizing people in the Jordan River. He recognizes the presence of the “Lamb of God” among the throng at the river bank. Normally this sort of epiphany would be reserved for the Temple. Now it can be anywhere! Not that it couldn’t be in the Temple; it could, but now the entire world is Temple.

·        If all the world is Temple, there is no distinction between sacred places and so-called secular places. All places are blessed since God’s presence can be found everywhere. As if it were a good cup of tea, the entire world is steeped in God’s presence.

·        It is true that there are times and places where the presence of God is remembered more and seen more. Those times and places are reminders that God is present beyond those times and places.

·        For example, God is present when the Word is preached. When we acknowledge that, we remember that God is present when the Word is shared in those conversations of support, of concern, of hope and faith, and in those conversations where we share a little bit of our lives over a cup of coffee and a cookie.

·        All time and all places belong to God and can reflect, remind, and even reveal God’s presence to those who have received the gift of faith. It can even be that Jesus would never say that we are “too close for comfort.” That’s what the stable, the wedding feast, the teachings, the healings, the cross, and the empty tomb are about.

·        Sometimes we avoid talking about the birth and incarnation of Jesus and the continuing presence of God in and around us because it is too hard to take. We’re the ones who would feel that God is “too close for comfort.” If we can keep God at arm’s length as too holy for us, we can avoid or even ignore what God is asking of us – probably something as simple as acting like people who have experience grace.

·        Yet, down deep, isn’t this what we really want? We don’t want a God at arm’s length; we just don’t know how to handle God at such close range.

·        Well, that’s for another time of preaching.

·        This week, I found a little poem that seemed to sum all this up. I suppose I could’ve used this poem all by itself and not bothered with such a long sermon, but I think these verses make more sense at the end of today’s preaching. They are the words of John Henry Newman, a rather well known English churchman.

·                    I sought to hear the voice of God

And climbed the highest steeple.

But God declared, “Go down again,

I dwell among the people.”

The Baptism of Our Lord ---- 10 January 2016

Isaiah 43:1-7

1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. ² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. ³ For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. ⁴ Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. ⁵ Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; ⁶ I will say to the north, "Give them up," and to the south, "Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth— ⁷ everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, ¹⁶ John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." ²¹ Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire

·        I was baptized a number of years ago. I was two weeks old, more or less, because that’s how it was done at that time. If my grandmother had had her way, she would have baptized me in the sink of my mother’s hospital room, but I think somebody must have talked her out of it. So I was baptized in St. Gabriel Church on Donegal Hill. I really don’t need to tell you that I don’t remember it at all.

·        What do you remember of your baptism? Many here who share the same sort of experience of baptism with me – that is, someone told you about it. There are those present who do remember their baptism and I imagine that it was a rather different experience for them.

·        Jesus was baptized, but his baptism was of a different sort all together. The baptism John the Baptizer preached and performed in the river was one that was meant to show that the person baptized was turning from sin and attempting to live a different kind of life. Times such as this are often called experiences of conversion.

·        Of course, Jesus had no need of conversion and repentance. So then why did he undergo the baptism of John?

·        It is possible that for him, baptism was a way of showing he intended to follow a way of life in tune with all that his Father wanted. This may have been the reason he went to the riverside that day. I don’t know if he expected what then happened, but what did happen was the beginning of his ministry according to Luke, Mark, and Matthew, the three Gospels that “see together.”

·        John makes it clear that what Jesus would bring would be a baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Holy Spirit is the same Spirit of God that hovered over the waters at the creation. This Holy Spirit remained within creation even though its presence might not have been evident to everyone.

·        The baptism with fire is a little harder to understand. We might say that something has had its “baptism of fire”, but that usually means that someone or something has under gone some sort of trial that tested the worth. It usually means that who or what was being tested was “thrown into the deep end” and had to “sink or swim.”

·        I don’t think that this is what John had in mind when he said the Messiah would baptize with fire. In the Bible, fire is often a symbol for God’s cleansing work or God’s guiding mercy. Fire burns off the impurities in metal and fire was the sign that God was leading God’s people after the escape from Egypt by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The baptism of fire and the unquenchable fire that burns the chaff are both cleansing and purifying fires.

·        Now, we can take it that God’s cleansing and purifying fire will burn off those who are not worthy in God’s people, and that could lead to fear that we might not measure up and we’d be burned up like the chaff at harvest.

·        There is another way to look at it. If God is purifying God’s people, God will be separating the fine metal from the dross, the kernel from the chaff. Any purification is done by the grace and mercy of God to put aside the unworthy in each of us and gather what is worthwhile.

·        Why would this be done? For that answer we have to turn to today’s first reading, where the prophet Isaiah tells the people of the lengths God will go to for the people of God.

·        What word does the prophet speak to the struggling and exiled people of God, a people who often feel that they are forgotten and oppressed? It is simply this: Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you…

·        This too can be a sort of baptism with fire, especially since it stops us from striving to be worthy of God’s love. The desire to be “worth it” is a hard one to give up. It’s ingrained in us and so often we feel we have to earn the love of God. To feel that we must earn it can lead to despair, and to feel that we have already earned it can lead us to what is called presumption and to feel that God’s love and mercy are unnecessary.

·        If Isaiah could convey his prophecy to the people at one of the lowest points in their history, we too may take those words to heart: Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you… In our own baptism, we are marked as Christ’s own and can know ourselves as God’s beloved children, and as God’s beloved children, despite our faults, as the Father was pleased with Jesus at his baptism, so the Father is pleases with Jesus in us.

·        This is the good news to us today. Do not fear, for I am with you… I have called you by name, you are mine. 

The Second Sunday of Christmas ---- 3 January 2016

John 1:(1-9), 10-18

[1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God.³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.] ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, "He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' ") ¹⁶ From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.¹⁷ The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, F6 who has made him known.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory

·        It is possible that the prologue to the Gospel of John is one of the most recognized and least understood portions of the New Testament. From a literary viewpoint, it is sublime poetry. In fact, there is a good chance at one time it was a hymn.

·        Theologically, it is an example of what is called a “high Christology”, which means that it looks at Jesus as a more divine being. I doubt you can get a much higher view of Jesus than to say that In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

·        With those words, John the Evangelist places Jesus at the creation of all reality: All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. Jesus, the Word of God, is the expression and the revelation of the Eternal Almighty, by whose power all things were made.

·        The chaotic darkness that was before the act of creation had no hold on the Word; this darkness cannot overcome the light that is the Word and that is found in the Word.

·        John switches back and forth from his descriptive praise of the Word and his telling the tale of John the Baptizer. I can’t tell you why this was done. It might be an author’s device to carry the narrative. It could be a way of building dramatic tension or even a way of weaving the events leading up to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with the eternal and creative work of God. Your opinion on this would be as good as mine.

·        John carries on to say that Jesus came to the world and to his own people… and was rejected. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.  In a particular way, John is outlining the entire story of Jesus’ work on earth, including the teaching that those who did receive him were reborn as children of God, born not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.  In this, we are all “born again” in the best sense of the phrase.

·        Then comes one of the most amazing truths of the Christian revelation: And the Word became flesh and lived among us… To hear that the creator of all that is and all we could ever know became flesh and lived with us is beyond imagining.

·        Our present language fails to convey something very interesting about this phrase. Both English and German (I looked it up) say that the Word became flesh and lived among us. First, John uses the word “flesh” which in the original language carries a sense of the unredeemed body with all its physical flaws. That being so, Jesus took on a real body with aches and pains and sweat and hunger, just like every last one of us experiences daily. Jesus was not exempt from what we deal with.

·        Second, John’s words are translated as and lived among us and that is true. Once again, the original language carries a further, even poetic meaning that invokes a reference to God’s dealings with God’s people.

·        And lived among us is rendered in the original language as “and he pitched his tent among us.” This is not just poetry, but a reference to the Exodus. God presence during the Hebrew’s  wandering in the desert was to be found in the Tent of Meeting, a tent were Moses continued to meet God face-to-face once the Hebrews left the area of Mt. Sinai. It was the place where God’s presence with the people remained – “dwelt”.

·        Going beyond that, that tent was where God’s presence remained no matter where the people traveled. Through their troubles, their doubts, their sins, their wandering, God remained among them.

·        For us as Christians, these word of John contain a promise – God in Jesus Christ remains with us despite our unworthiness and our un-readiness. Jesus remains with us in the Word, for when we hear the Gospel, we hear his voice. He remains with us in his Word made flesh, that is to say, the sacraments, where the saving Word is to be found in the very fleshy elements of the earth and of human life – water, bread, and wine.

·        His tent of meeting, the place of his abiding presence is still with us where-ever we “pitch our tents.” As Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. (Mt. 18:20) Jesus remains with us in the community of the church, “pitching his tent” among all of our tents as we continue our journeys in life.

·        John’s Gospel may remain as hard to understand as it ever was, but it certainly is filled with the Good News of salvation and new life. As difficult as it might be, it is worth reading and studying, because it was written for a church in a time of struggle. Through all that, John’s Gospel reminds us that And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory