Faith In Real Life Blog
“And the Word Became Flesh”
Rev. Vernon Gramling
December 1, 2022
Decatur Presbyterian Church
JOHN 1:1–18
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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 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 or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 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. 15 (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.’ ”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
This passage is most commonly read as the crowning reading of Advent. I’m glad it was placed earlier this year. I love the poetry and the imagery. It evokes awe and promise. But as powerfully familiar the reading is, we don’t often spend much time absorbing the actual scripture. It is much like reciting the Apostles creed. It says a lot but we rarely examine the various faith claims contained in it. I am going to pick out a handful of phrases in this passage and see if I place John’s lofty claims in more ordinary real life settings.
In the beginning was the Word
The four gospel writers vary in how they tell the story of Jesus. Mark starts with Jesus as a young man, Matthew and Luke begin with genealogies and Jesus’ birth. John places Jesus at the beginning of time. John’s focus in the first paragraph is a transcendent Jesus who was and is present in all of creation. God’s presence in the world did not begin with the man Jesus. The nature of God’s presence in the world was made clear in the man Jesus. Grace, love, caring, and community did not begin with Jesus but those attributes were revealed as the very nature of God in him. Human history has many adjectives for God and some of them are quite violent. Separating human projections placed upon God from the true nature of God is the task of Jesus. Though the Word was and is present in all creation, that concept is simply too large to grasp. Jesus literally brings God down to earth so that we can grasp who God is.
What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
This is critically important for us in real life. In plain language, we believe that if you want a meaningful life, if you want to know who God is, if you want to center your life around loving, LOOK TO JESUS. John is acutely aware of two conflicting forces in our world—the self centeredness that is required for our evolutionary development (survival of the fittest) and the mindfulness and connectedness required for caring and community. The way of the world is biologically hardwired into us. This is the natural world. But our Christian faith claim is that such a life is not sufficient. Alone, it leads to adversarial relationships, ranking of people, constant vigilance and ultimately death. It is literally a dog eat dog world. Jesus reveals that winning is not a sufficient driver for life. Living a life of humility and gratitude. Living a life seeking caring and community are. These are the attributes of the supernatural world. In biblical language these are the attributes of the Heavenly Kingdom. In more ordinary language, these are the values that overlay our natural self serving instincts.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
John views the world in constant tension between the forces of dark and the forces of the light and Jonn makes this radical faith claim—”The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.” In world in which genocide, warfare, discrimination, misogyny and much more are common place, we believe that the light, Jesus, shows us a better way and a way which will prevail. Whether it is in the middle of a concentration camp or the middle of despairing grief, the light shows us a better way—a life that gives life.
Every parent knows that raising children requires inconvenience and self sacrifice. This has been true from the beginning of time. And every parent knows the struggle to find and claim time for yourself in the face of the never ending demands of parenting. How do we preserve ourselves and care for our children? Without such struggle, our species would die. Read the news. Just this week a mother set fire to her home to hide the death of her child. Her example is extreme but balancing our personal needs with the needs of others is a constant struggle. Though it is tempting to view this struggle dualistically—either/or, in real life it is always both. The light keeps that struggle visible.
His own people did not accept him….yet, he gave power to become children of God.
We spent a lot of time on this one in our FIRL groups. We do not like interference with our self centeredness. Most of us have versions of life we would rather have—perhaps as trivial as a life without mosquitos or much more poignantly, a life without cancer. When hardships and suffering are part of our lives, we want it to go away. The idea of a God who shares a predicament rather than fixes it is not very satisfying when you are in chronic pain or when someone you love is lost in life. Jesus was killed by such disappointment. We want what we want and we feel betrayed when it doesn’t happen. But that is not real life and we do not like it. Facing what we cannot change is the never ending challenge of the Christian believer. And harder still is the task of discerning what we can change. The world is complex and broken. Our anger and indignation will not change that.
However, when we can see the light, we have a new direction for life. I was with my parent’s this weekend and was talking with my father about his fatigue and my mother’s increasing dementia. It is hard. It is very hard. My father commented that there are many days that he wished he could just die and be done with it. The conversation took a different turn when we reflected upon two things. First we don’t get choices about how we die. Second, literally billions of people before us have faced these same dilemmas. That may not sound comforting but it relieved some of the personal despair surrounding “Why me? Why this particular suffering.?” Those questions may need to be asked but they are above our pay grade. We will exhaust our remaining energy by staying focused upon them. When we accept that suffering is part of life, we have the power to become children of God rather than children of our self interest. The paradox is that we are already children of God but we need to see the light in order to realize it.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us.
This is where grand theology meets real life. Think about how a child learns what the words “I love you.” means. If we use the words while we are yelling or hitting, that is what the child will learn. If we guide and support. If we help the child learn that her mistakes and even her tantrums do not separate her from the love of her parents, that is what she will learn. We make so many mistakes when we seek to understand love, we need a heavenly parent to show us. It is not sufficient for love to be a grand, even transcendent concept. We must experience it. The same is true of God.
As John concludes: “ No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” God shared life’s harshest darkness. He faced death. He was dead and buried. But that was not the end of him. There was nothing about divinity that protected him. His divinity allowed him to endure and to love. There is nothing about our faith that will protect us. Our faith will allow us to see the light, to endure and to live the life that gives life—no matter what happens to us. It is a concept that needs a concrete example. It was a concept that we would avoid. We would insist upon a God of our own making whose primary job was to keep the faithful comfortable. What we got was a God who has and will join us in every part of our lives. It is an amazing promise and an amazing faith. To borrow a quote from Richard Rohr: Jesus did not come into the world to prove that he was God. He came into the world to show us how to be human.
Seek the light. Follow the light to the life that gives life. It is worth the effort. Let it be so.
