In the Beginning...

December 24, 2017

Helen Jacobi

Christmas Midnight     Isaiah 52:7-10     Psalm 98     Hebrews 1:1-12     John 1:1-14

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In the beginning

Word

life

light

grace

truth

flesh

These words have a timeless poetry about them.

All the more so because we listen to them in the night, amongst these stones and candles.

Just as people have listened to them now for centuries, millennia even.

In the beginning

Word

life

light

grace

truth

flesh.

The Celts talk about “thin places” where time seems to stand still and where you feel like you can reach back in time and sense the story of your ancestors. Thin places in Aotearoa tend to be marae or urupa; but also churches, or summer baches where childhood memories can come flooding back. It might just take the scent of the pohutakawa, or the taste of a barbecued sausage, or the sand between your toes to remind you of carefree summer days, when holidays meant holidays with no email or phones to keep you connected.

In the beginning

Word

life

light

grace

truth

flesh

These words at the beginning of John’s gospel also trigger memories and reflections in the lives of people of faith. This tale John is about to weave begins in the beginning of time, back in the creation stories of Genesis, back in ancient times of which no one has any memories. And so John weaves a tale of life that began in the beginning and now breaks upon the world in a new way. Now this life comes not in sea and stars and sun and moon as life did at the genesis of time, but in flesh, in human flesh, of the ordinary and the every day.

John does not tell us the tale of the baby and the shepherds and the wise men, but he tells us the essence of the tale – Jesus, the Word, became flesh and lived among us.

God was always incarnate, embodied, enfleshed in the people – but often they couldn’t see it. They kept God separated in the Holy of Holies in the Temple; or somewhere in the sky.

No matter how many times the prophets said, God is here, now, with the poor and the oppressed and the captives; people thought God was far away and remote and separate.

And so the Word became flesh and lived among us.

Jesus lived in Palestine, at a specific time and a specific place. He taught and ate and drank and prayed and healed and was killed for his teaching. Yet because he was

Word

life

light

grace

truth

within flesh

death could not be the end for him.

And so John wrote his tale of grace and truth that we might seek grace and truth within ourselves and within each other. Because God was always incarnate, embodied, enfleshed in the people and they hadn’t seen it. Perhaps now we might.

John begins his tale describing Jesus as the Word, capital W. The Greeks thought of the Word – the logos, as a philosophical idea to describe order in the universe – and it was definitely not flesh. It was separate, intellectual, the pattern of the universe. So this beautiful poem of

Word

life

light

grace

truth

flesh

is in fact quite scandalous.

That God or the philosophical Word could become flesh and become humanity is quite ridiculous and shocking. The creation story tells us God spoke the world into being – let there be light, God said, and there was light. but it is another step altogether for the Word to become flesh, human, with all our physicality. Sweat and tears, and birth and death, sex and passion, food and drink, clothes and homes; being flesh, being of the world was not what “The Word” was about; nor what God was about. And yet Jesus was born on this holy night in unholy circumstances; with real people and real animals; and real dangers all around. And so in the reality of our lives Jesus can also be born. In our sweat and tears, and birth and death, sex and passion, food and drink, clothes and homes; into all of that Jesus is born. And the Word, capital W, becomes part of our words, little w; our words that can profess love or hate; our words that can encourage or shame; what words do we long to hear? I love you; I am proud of you; I miss you; and what words do we hear instead: angry words on social media; on the news; in our homes: anger and disappointment. If this story of the Word becoming flesh is to be real then we need to allow our words to change as well, as our lives are changed.

This life of grace and truth is there for all who seek it. This Word, these words do not belong to just the Bible.

The question for us here tonight is how does this tale of

Word

life

light

grace

truth

become enfleshed in our lives.

One way is in the simple ritual of receiving the bread and wine of the eucharist – if this is the first time you have been in church for a while, or ever; you are welcome to come and receive the bread and wine, symbols of the life of Christ. In participating in this communion, we are reminded of the physicality of God. Not distant in some far away heavenly realm, but here, now in word and action: the body of Christ given for you.

And so we invite you tonight to allow God to be present with you, in you.

In the beginning was the Word; in him was life; and the life was the light of all people; and the Word became flesh and lived among us; full of grace and truth.