In Him Was Life

Second Sunday after Christmas 2021/1/3 | Sermon on John 1:[1-9] 10-18 | Paul Bieber |

John 1:[1–9] 10–18 (Revised Standard Version)

[1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God; ³ all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

            ⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸ He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.

 ⁹ The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.]

            ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. ¹¹ He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

            ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. ¹⁵ (John bore witness to him, and cried, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.’ ”) ¹⁶ And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.

also

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Psalm 147:13-21

Ephesians 1:3-14 

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

Once more before leaving the twelve days of Christmas behind this year we take a moment to ponder the prologue of John’s Gospel. We hear part of it during the candle-lighting on Christmas Eve, most of it as the Christmas Day Gospel; now here is the whole thing: The Word of God becomes the light of the world. The light comes into the world in the incarnation of the Word. The Word is the revealer, the only Son from the Father.

The Word that was with God from the beginning—and what God was, the Word was—participated in the perichoresis of creation as God spoke creation into being, then entered into the creation made through him, taking on human flesh to be the revelation of God in the human situation, to be light in our darkness.

But as it always seems to happen when God wants to give us a gift, this greatest of gifts, God’s gift of himself, was not received, not recognized or known, except to some. These are the ones destined by adoption to be children of God by the will of God, and not by any other will. To these the divine gifts keep coming, like waves rolling in to shore, grace upon grace.

These verses tell story of revelation and response, a poetic theology of the Word coming into the world. As we gather at Christmastime to hear it, it brings us joy, because we recognize ourselves as those who believe in his name, those who, at the baptismal font, have become children of God, and who, in the whole story of Jesus, of which this poetry is prologue, have come to know the unseen Father by coming to know the Word, the life, the light, the Son whom he has sent.

The Word who became flesh dwells among us in the believing community. What the human story can see of the divine story is seen there, where the story of Jesus is retold and enacted in sacrament and in sacrificial self-offering. God said that he would gather his people and turn their mourning into joy. He blesses us with spiritual blessings, he forgives us by grace, and he even makes known the mystery of his will., his plan to gather up all things in the one who was with him from the beginning.

The coming of this Word of life brought light into the human story two millennia ago, and it is still having its effect to this day. Despite the hostile reception that led to the cross and the hostile reception that continues from generation to generation, the light continues to shine in the darkness. The darkness has not overcome this light. The first hearers of this Gospel knew as well as we what befell John the Baptist, the first to bear witness to the light. They knew about the shadow the cross cast upon the glorious grace that Jesus Christ freely bestowed.

The revelation of God in the human situation, not then the result of human initiation, continues now to unfold despite our common human desire to fall back from the light and creep back into the shadows. Even we who gladly receive this Christmas gift of God himself, who believe in the name of Jesus, have a hard time seeing the glory, allowing the gladness to displace our sorrow.

But the Gospel prologue assures us that this gift has nothing to do with our will and everything to do with the will of God from before the foundation of the world. Does that make you feel powerless? The Lord has come to ransom and redeem you. A new creation is coming to be in parallel with the old creation, both spoken into being by this creative Word. And the new will displace the old.

The light God speaks into being in our lives is the spiritual illumination that dispels the darkness of our sin and unbelief. The new creation is banishing our spiritual darkness by the light shining in the Word. Instead we have a spiritual birth and a new life in the community of faith, the family of God. Our adoption is sealed by the Holy Spirit, the pledge of our inheritance.

Our adoption as God’s children is part of the divine purpose that stretches from before the foundation of the world to the consummation of all things. St. Paul calls it “a plan for the fullness of time, to gather.” St. John says that it is from the fullness of Jesus the Son that we receive the grace the Father bestows on us. This world, plérōma, means fullness in the sense of completeness. When the Holy Spirit called us by the Gospel to receive our adoption into the gathered family of the faithful, this was our participation in God’s plan that covers the complete span of all time. When we receive the gifts of grace and truth from Jesus, the giver is the whole Jesus: the pre-existent Word, the Christ Child in the crib, the teacher with authority, the crucified and abandoned one, the risen one still bearing his glorious wounds, and the one who will come again to bring us to our home when the new creation is complete.

In him was life, and that life is our light: his whole life, from beginning to cross to empty tomb to return in glory. We live our lives in the light of that life, the fullness of that life, the fullness of God’s time. In him is our life.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber

San Diego, California, USA

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net