This week we light the last candle of our wreath, the candle of Love.
The Scripture Reading this week is John 1:1-18
The Sermon title is Word-Made-Flesh, Love Enfleshed
Early Thoughts: In the beginning there was the Word....
I am often struck by good openings. I often wish I could create good openings. Some of the ones that stick in my mind are "Call me Ishmael" (which sticks even though I have never read the book), or "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" (what is this thing called a hobbit? why does it live in a hole?) or "Space. The final frontier...", or those opening notes of Beethoven's 5th. These are opening that stick with you, that draw you in. I count the opening of John's Gospel as one of those good openings.
It may not look like it but this is John's Christmas story. I know there is no bright shining star, there are no angelic messengers, no shepherds, no Magi, not even a baby but still it is a Christmas story. It is John's statement about who Jesus is and where Jesus came from. For John Jesus is the Word that was with (and part of) God from the beginning. Jesus is that Word which was essential for creation: "All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being" and indeed for life itself put into flesh: "And the Word became flesh and lived among us".
Still there is a part of me that always wonders, what was that word? If a word is a piece of language what was it? In one of her songs Linnea Good suggests that the word was laughter, a word the song suggest echoes through the faith story. I can see some logic in that suggestion. And maybe laughter is indeed a part of that original word. But I have another candidate, one I prefer.
Any guesses what it might be? It has 4 letters....
In chapter 4 of the Epistle of 1 John (probably not written by the same person who wrote the Gospel but almost certainly written by someone from the same theological/church community) we read: "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.". For God is Love. Johannine theology constantly reminds us of the importance of love as we follow The Way of Jesus. WE love because God loves us, "for God so loved the world". People will know we are followers of Jesus because of our love. Not our words or our good deeds, not by the prayers we share or the hymns we sing, not by the way we dress -- by our LOVE.
Is it too much to suggest that the primeval, creative word that was with God and was God in the beginning is in fact LOVE?
The priestly hymn to creation found in Genesis 1 tells us that God speaks creation into existence. Despite the old lie many of us were told as children [Sticks and stones can break my bones but...] words have real power. They can create or they can destroy, build up or tear down.
In the beginning was the Word...
How might it change our view if we read that opening paragraph saying something like this:
In the beginning was Love and Love was with God and Love was God...All things came into being through Love and without Love not one thing came into being What has come into being in Love was life and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
John is clear that Jesus, who Matthew calls Emmanuel -- God-With-Us, is the Word-Made-Flesh. John the Gospel writer and John the Epistle writer are both clear that love is a key part of God's identity, that love is a key part of the Jesus story, that God loves the world. Jesus comes to show that love.
It is a Christmas story. It is about love coming to wear skin and walk among us. It is about love abiding (John's Gospel likes the word 'abide'). In Jesus the primeval creative Word becomes visible. And I think that Word is LOVE.
--Gord
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