God's Word for the World
Preacher: Marcia C. Wilkinson

December 31, 2006

John 1:1-18

Today, in place of the nativity scene, which was our focus on Christmas Eve and morning, let’s imagine ourselves in the middle of a magnificent cyclorama- a canvas that sweeps us across a panoramic view of God’s great salvation history. John’s gospel places us right unto the stage of the birth of the cosmos and the revelation of God’s brilliant master plan for all history. 

The first line of the gospel prologue, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God,” captures this awesome and humbling act of God.  The word of God that was from before the world began, that same word, came to us.  John’s gospel is mystery, yet real.  Humans, bound by the chains of sin, could not go to God.  So, God, in a human body, in the person of Jesus, descended.  History was invaded to bring God and wayward humans close to each other (Billy Graham, Decision, p.4).

C.S. Lewis confessed that the incarnation is staggering to the mind.  “How the creator gave himself to us in his son is a thing only to be grasped as the Father gives us the power.”  That power for the apostle John, as with the other gospel writers and disciples, came from first hand experience.  John and his believing community had lived with and known Jesus.  They saw his glory, and, because of Jesus, they witnessed God’s amazing love in their own lives.

For the Jews living in the first century, the word of God had always been an expression of God with them.  In the beginning, it was God’s word that called them and all of creation into being.  It was God’s word that separated night and day with light.
 It was God’s word given to Moses in the law.  It was God’s word that spoke to their ancestors through the prophets.  God spoke and life came.  Therefore, to be connected to God was to be connected to his Word.

The Greek understanding of word or logos, then, focused on reason. When man looked at the world he saw a magnificent and dependable order.  Night and day followed on schedule, the stars and planets moved in their paths and nature had her laws.  What produced this order?  The mind of God had created the world’s order and made the human a thinking being so that man could understand what God had done.

Yet, now the gospel took the reader to an amazing new level.  The great, guiding mind of God had come to earth in a man called, Jesus.  Not only had he come to earth, he had been with God the creator right along, before time, and through all creation.  Look at Jesus and you will see the mind of God. This was radical, revolutionary, news indeed.

This news boggled the Greek mind because body and spirit were kept separate.  Only the Spirit held worth because the spirit was divine and infinite, while the body was finite.  God was divine spirit; man was mortal flesh.  So, for many Greeks, Jesus only appeared to be human.  He could not really feel sorrow, pain, weariness and hunger like a man, because he was above man.  And, here John is saying ‘God not only came in the flesh as fully human and experienced these very things… but in Jesus, the distant, unknowable, unreachable God came close to take residence with ordinary men and women.  Order and reason, God’s power of the spoken word, and human attributes all came together in their completeness in Jesus.

The entire thrust of John’s gospel is to make believers by sharing God’s awesome vision for his creation.  God sent Jesus not only to identify with us- because that would inflate human pride all the more.  He came also to reconcile us.  God participated in our pain and suffering, our conflicts and sorrows.  God was interested in the way we live, the way we believe and the way we die (Ibid).   He still is!
I mention first century history because we in the 21st century are faced with the same dilemma.  Can it be that God truly came in the flesh?  Is Jesus the only truth, the only light by which God is made known, and, our own lives can be understood?
Is Jesus God’s only way to salvation?  Christian faith makes these claims.  Our creeds say so, yet many in the church today are uncomfortable and some say that the creeds were created as a defense to substantiate our faith.  Yet, the incarnation and the death and resurrection are historical facts, recorded in the journals of historians of the day.

But that is not why we believe and hold to the faith.  In the plan of God, every action of Jesus, every teaching Jesus gave, was a window for us to see God’s truth. Jesus’ miracles were real.  Jesus changing water into wine, the blind man touched gains his sight, Jesus bringing his friend Lazarus from the dead.  In every miracle that brought healing and life, and most especially healing from the cross, God broke into human affairs with his presence, with his love, and the power of his spirit.  Jesus listened and looked inside of those who came close.  And, they were never the same.

This same gospel speaks today?  There are stories of happenings, personal experiences right here that must be attributed to the presence and spirit of God.   God is taking root in our hearts and we are witnesses to God’s healing love in people’s lives. A faithful woman experienced Christ as he prepared her for death and being with him forever.  She was not afraid of dying, but waited patiently because she knew Jesus was waiting for her.

A young man knows that he belongs to Christ.  Even though his body is compromised, he depends on God’s power and spirit every step of the way.  Yes, he must depend on the Lord every day for this confidence and strength, and courage, but he has entrusted himself to the Lamb of God who is with him.

People from foreign lands have found a secure and welcoming place of worship at All Saints’.  They are now free from persecution that haunted and threatened them elsewhere.  Communion with the Body of believers is paramount in their lives, and they are so touched by the presence of Christ, that they do not take it for granted.  It is pure gift.

God is calling you and me to choose whether Jesus is just a figure in history, a good man for his time to show the way to live rightly.  We must choose if Jesus is to be just a piece of information in our minds to rely on when the going gets tough and we no longer have our own substance to sustain us.  Or, Jesus can be just a great name to be remembered in the great religions of the world, one of many prophet teacher miracle workers.  Or, Jesus is just a name until something takes place and something happens in our lives and we are changed.  When he shows himself to us and we understand the miracle of God’s word becoming real, then faith begins. 

God wants us to know and believe that we belong together.  “Every time Jesus fed a hungry man he was saying:  ‘I am the bread of life.'  Every time he healed a suffering person He was saying, 'It hurts me to see you hurt.'  Every time He lifted a burden of sin He was saying ‘Your God is grieved when you remove yourself from His grace’” (Graham, p. 4, Decision). Jesus Christ lived in the flesh then, and he lives in the human heart today.  Christ is able and wants to live in me, in you.

The joy of this day that can hold against even the pain and suffering of life comes because God did not stay distant.  I am amazed by God’s creation and the way he created the human mind to understand science and the human condition.  But it is not enough.  I want to experience the awesomeness of what lies behind the facts.  This is God’s vision for us.  To experience Jesus, to experience the fullness and unlimited possibilities of our Creator, is to know God and to receive the grace that we need to live our lives.  To receive his grace upon grace- his forgiveness, his love- is to fall down before him in awe and worship.  And to worship God is to enter into God’s presence as his own.  As God’s own, God sees us as he sees his own Son.   Beloved forever!

Amen.