Christmas 2C
John 1.1-18
January 3, 2009
We preachers put a lot of stock in words. We have this tendency to act as if the salvation history of the world was determined by our nouns, verbs and participles. The tools of our trade are dictionaries, thesauruses and commentaries, books filled with beautiful words. Our authorities are the great writers and poets of yesterday and today.
We form our lips, set our teeth, mold our tongues, exhale and out comes a sound; a word which may clarify or enlighten an idea. It may express a feeling or it may muddy the waters. Too many words can be confusing and the wrong words can divide nations or families. Words in and of themselves are mere sounds, but set free with expression and attitude they form opinions, mend wounds or cause wars. They weigh heavily on our minds and at times cause our hearts to soar. It can be difficult at times to find just the right one. Words can be both powerful tools of communications and powerful weapons of destruction.
Think of the words that have left their mark on your life. The murmurs softly whispered in your ear. The declarations of love and devotion that caused your heart to race and your spirit to soar. Remember back to that moment when you first heard “mama” or “dada” spoken to you and that rush of pride. And then there are those others; the hurtful words that were perhaps the last you ever heard from a friend, or the declaration from a love that it is over or the news of death that brought on torrents of grief. A lie. A betrayal. The world forever changed with one single exhalation.
Words can be printed on a page. They can give us knowledge. They can give us advice. And yet they can be so personal. Meaning is found in the context.
God uses words. If you will bear with me for a moment, scripture uses two distinct words to describe utterances from the mouth of God. The first you are familiar with. It’s the word used in the creation story. God uttered a sound, a divine rhema and light came into being. God’s rhema was that all of creation was good. When God utters a sound, God’s promises are found to be true and just. All is good. This is an important concept this year as we delve into the Gospel of Luke. For Luke begins with an utterance of God; the angel Gabriel goes to Mary and repeats God’s rhema, “You shall have a son.” And Mary replies “Let it be with me according to God’s rhema.”
God’s very breath causes the creation of the world and of salvation. God has uttered a promise and it comes true in the person of Jesus. God has sent salvation on a whisper to a virgin and salvation indeed enters the world. Rhema is an important concept to our friend Luke; God’s spoken word is behind every action in the Gospel. At the end of this year, the year of Luke, if nothing else, you will be certain and sure that God’s promises are true and fast and eternal.
But alas and alack, today we find ourselves in the Gospel of John. John chooses to use yet another word, logos, to describe God’s redemptive activity. Only, instead of salvation coming upon a whisper at a specific moment in time, salvation has been present since the beginning of creation. The one word that illuminates all of scripture; the one word that gives light and life to the world; that one word has been present from the beginning. That one word is all that we need to this day.
The one word is Jesus. Jesus is light. Jesus is life. Jesus is the single utterance, the single breath from God which incorporates life and salvation for all people.
According to Webster’s Dictionary the Gospel definition (yes, there is a “Gospel definition” in the dictionary) for “word” is “the expressed or manifested mind and will of God.” The expressed or manifest mind and will of God is not a sound or breath; it is not an order or command, but it is a human being. It is God himself becoming flesh and taking on our human form; taking on our joys and woes, our anxieties and desires. Jesus as balm for our wounds, healing our divisions, bringing reconciliation out of division and life out of death and despair. Every ill conceived utterance from the lips of humanity is made right and loving in the person of Jesus who is himself truth.
Jesus is God incarnate, present with God from the beginning. Before God exhaled and light separated the night and day, there was the light of salvation for all creation. Before God exhaled and water filled the oceans, our thirst for salvation was filled. Before God exhaled and creatures caused the earth to teem with new life, new life was in the Christ.
We continue the celebration of the incarnation of God into our world in the birth of Christ, the word made flesh; the ancient child who contains all of the hope and promise God holds out for the human race. In the babe in the manger is the culmination of every prophetic word ever spoken. In the child at his mother’s breast we are taken back to that timeless moment before the formation of the stars when all was possible and hopeful; when silence reigned and yet the word cried out loud and strong. In the boy playing at his father’s feet, all goodness is illuminated and darkness is eradicated.
In this boy is every word uttered in despair, every prayer ever lifted to God. This son of Mary is grace and truth for all humanity. This infant is the greatest gift ever given to humanity. Jesus is the word that heals all ills, binds all wounds. Jesus is the word that inspires all life, all compassion, all love.
Jesus is the word given for you. He is sent so that you may be called a child of God; a son or daughter of the father. He is sent to illuminate your path so that the darkness of the world does not encompass and suffocate your being. Jesus is the word sent so that you may know the truth that defies the world’s wisdom; and that truth is that you are valued and loved and needed. You have received grace upon grace because that is the nature of the God we worship, to bestow grace out of God’s generosity and love for each and every one of us. It is God’s deepest desire that Jesus be known, not in history books, but in the hearts of all of God’s people.
Mary responded to God’s word made flesh with the utterance, “let it be with me according to your word.” Joseph was failed by words. Instead he chose to blindly obey the command of the angel. The shepherds responded with unscripted praise and worship to anyone who would listen. John used a stream of words to point to the Messiah who would baptize with fire and the Spirit.
When we set aside all of our flower speech, our prose and our poetry; when we tuck away the books and put to rest the scholarly quotes; let our word for all humankind be “Jesus.” Amen
Copyright © The Rev. Aileen Robbins. All rights reserved; use requires permission
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