Offered by Amy Russell on the 1st Sunday after Christmas on December, 29, 2024

St. Mark’s Church, Hood River, Oregon

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I speak to you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Good morning! I’m delighted to be with you. And it’s a special treat to have Kelly Carlson with us. Kelly is an ordained Episcopal priest who came to Hood River to be the Chaplain at Providence Hospital. And she is finding a home here among us at St. Mark’s. Welcome!

Today, I’ll reflect on our Gospel reading from John. I won’t try to unpack the whole thing. But I hope you will find a meaningful connection between something in John and your own lives. Here we go….

John’s Gospel begins…..: 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”

In these opening words, John sets the stage and invites us into his mysterious, poetic, mind-bending way of speaking, cutting across time and space. I leave it to others wiser than I to debate exactly who John is, where he came from, and when he lived. But in these opening verses, we begin to catch John’s sense of intimacy between God and Jesus. We know he’s focused on Jesus from verse 14: “the word made flesh.”

Three points here:

First, why does John use the word “WORD”. “Jesus was the WORD? Huh? In Greek, “WORD” refers to LOGOS which has a long history in Greek philosophy meaning “wisdom.”  More important for John is the way LOGOS is used in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

In what we call the Old Testament we’re familiar with language like “The word of the Lord God came to so and so. Think of Moses, Abraham, Isaiah for instance. The “word of the Lord God” comes to humans. “God’s word” is language that describes a way of mediating between the invisible Lord and humans.  For John, he is using language of the WORD is a way that would be familiar. 

Second, John uses the word “with” (as in the WORD was with God) has a special meaning for John. In this context, “with” is from the Greek “pross” which means “face to face.” So Jesus is “face to face” with God. But the intimacy here is not like sitting across from God at the dinner table. Jesus the Word who is “with God” is more like baby and mother intertwined in the womb.

Third, John opens with the words “In the beginning….” intentionally. He is pointing to Genesis…. “In the beginning…. God created.” John’s point is to proclaim that Jesus the Word made flesh was with God, engaged in the process of creating all that is, at the beginning of time.

Whoa! If you begin to feel a little dizzy, you’re not alone. John is zipping through space and time and, more than the other Gospel writers, is putting the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus — Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh — at the center. It’s a lot to take in. This is mind-bending stuff!

Having set the stage, Johns now shifts, to say something about the purpose of this intimacy between God and the Word made flesh. “What has come into being in him was Life, and the Life was the Light of all people.” And it’s here where I hope we can connect in with John, not so much with our rational minds, as with our hearts, with our faith and our experience of being in the flesh.

Here, John tells us that this is the Word who comes to give Life, and give it fully to all, including each of us. John tells us that not everyone will accept this Word made flesh. True then. True now. But the truth remains: we — the people then, and all of us here, are created for life, to live life, fully alive!  Jesus who brings this aliveness out from within us. We will know darkness. John says: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

The holiday season is one of lights, music, family, and Church celebrations. To celebrate the birth of the infant Jesus is wondrous. But joy of the holidays for many are marked by very real darkness. I suspect that is true for many of you sitting here. I know what it’s like when the darkness feels overwhelming, even more so during the Holiday season. 

Sometimes the darkness in our lives may be a gradual numbing out. A loss of vitality with changes in aging, for instance. But other times the darkness comes roaring in through illness, injury, death of a loved one, or death of a dream or career or sense of identity. Or we may be especially grieved over the suffering of others in war, or natural disasters, or politics.

We may feel overwhelmed. We may feel that the darkness is winning. This is where John’s message is so powerful. No matter how overwhelming the situation, Jesus the Word is the Light that the darkness cannot overcome. Living in to that truth may be the most challenging parts of our faith. We may fail at times. Jesus’ hand is steady. And as we engage with Him in this journey of faith, he draws us continually toward new Life, and we come to know ourselves more and more as children of God. 

Each year during Advent Kelly offers the Blue Christmas service. It’s a quiet place; one that opens the door to human suffering in the presence of Jesus. The Blue Christmas service honors what John says here. Jesus brings the Light that the darkness cannot overwhelm. 

SOME QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:

Reflect on times of darkness in your own life. May be something pressing on your now or something from the past. Have you witnessed God’s light shining through? Or not? Did you feel the darkness overwhelmed God’s presence?

Are you willing to ask Him/Her to infuse this situation with Light?

Why? Because this is what Jesus the Christ, the Word made flesh, does. He brings Light into the darkness, to heal broken hearts, bind up wounds, and comfort those who mourn.**  No matter how dark the darkness, He calls us to new life, no matter our age. As Isaiah proclaims: ““The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Isaiah 61:1-3) In this healing process we come to know ourselves as His children.

In closing, I offer this prayer that may be familiar, often given at the close of a Eucharist Service: 

May the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard our hearts and our minds in the knowledge and love of Christ Jesus. AMEN  (Adapted from Philippians 4:7)

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John 1:1-18 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 

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. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 

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. (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.'”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.