In the Anglican tradition, on the first Sunday after Christmas we always hear the words of John Chapter One as our Gospel reading. In other churches the focus this Sunday may be on the wise men, or on Jesus and his family in the temple meeting Simeon and Anna, but for us it’s always John Chapter One.
I’ve often been mystified by this. Why, after the joy and light and festivities of Christmas, are we immediately brought face to face with such a dark reality: the reality that the Light of Life came to earth and was rejected by his own?
In fact – to add to that darkness – yesterday, the Fourth Day of Christmas, was the Feast of the Holy Innocents, when we remember the events Matthew describes in his gospel. Matthew writes: “when [King] Herod saw that he had been made a fool of by the wise men, he was exceedingly angry, and he sent and put to death all the children two years old or younger in Bethlehem and the entire surrounding area.” (Matt 2:16, my translation)
Such darkness and deep grief coming on the heels of Christmas!
The prophet Isaiah writes: “the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.” (Is. 9:2)
It seems like darkness is the default setting on our planet. And as for Christmas: in spite of what advertisers would have you believe, Christmas is not the most important day in the year. Easter is. Easter is the victory of Light over darkness and Life over death.
Christmas is where the story begins. Christmas is about holding on to the light of Hope in the middle of the darkness.
John, in his gospel, gives us reasons for hope, and Isaiah describes that hope in colorful detail. So today I’d like to talk about both these readings, and look at how they work together to bring us the full meaning of Christmas.
John begins at the beginning – the very beginning. He writes:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
“In the beginning” – en arche in the Greek – means as far back as you can go. Back to the source. Back to where everything began. John says everything in the universe came through this Word. Without Him, not one thing was made that was made.
For many centuries of human history, these words made sense. It seemed obvious that everything we see around us started with God. How else could the world have come into being? We certainly didn’t make all this! And a creation presupposes a Creator, does it not? But in the past couple hundred years people have gotten too sophisticated for that kind of thinking and have started to believe that everything we see around us is just the result of a cosmic accident – and our lives are merely coincidence.
In our time in history most people can’t hear John Chapter One as truth. His words sound more like a myth or a story. With that in mind I wanted to share something I read recently: a little book called God’s Universe by Owen Gingerich. Gingerich is a retired Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University and at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and he’s also a Mennonite. And while I can’t describe exactly what he said (what he writes is a bit beyond my grasp) the thought process runs something like this: he says in terms of describing the origins of the universe, the Big Bang is essentially true. He and his fellow physicists then ask the question: How did the Big Bang happen? What exactly was it? How did it unfold? The answers to these questions need to be very specific, because if the bang unfolded too quickly the energy would burn out anything around it; but if it unfolded too slowly then life as we know it wouldn’t be able to evolve because the universe would be too cold.
The Big Bang had to be an extremely controlled burst of some kind of energy. And Gingerich and his fellow scientists came to the conclusion that what the Big Bang was essentially made of was light.
The apostle John says that in the beginning, “the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Coincidence? I don’t think so.
John says, “In him” – that is, in the Light – “In him was life, and the life was the light of humankind.”
When John says, “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it,” the word “overcome” could be translated “grasp” or “comprehend” or “surround” or “defeat” – all of the above. Personally I like the word “comprehend” because it’s, well, comprehensive. Where light shines, darkness loses its power and dissolves into nothingness.
That’s the good news of Christmas. The light has come, and the darkness can’t comprehend it.
But darkness isn’t gone yet. John says: “The true light that enlightens everyone… was in the world – and the world came into being through him – and the world didn’t recognize him.” He came to his own people and they didn’t accept him.
That first Christmas night, the light shone and the angels sang and a handful of shepherds found their way to the manger, but on the whole the world had no clue. People carried on with everyday life just like they always had. Jesus was born into a nation that was watching and waiting for the Messiah, and even those who were watching and waiting didn’t recognize him.
Haven’t you ever wondered – when the wise men came from the east to Herod’s court asking about a star, and saying a great king that had been born, and King Herod called together all the chief priests and scribes and asked “where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” – how they knew to look at Bethlehem? They knew and they still missed it. If you had been there, witnessing the scene in Herod’s court, hearing the words of the prophecies being read, and seeing the magi with all their riches determined to find out who this baby king was – wouldn’t you want to go and see for yourself? And even 30 years later, when Jesus appeared on the scene publicly, wouldn’t you remember that night, and say, ‘oh yeah – this must be that baby, he’s all grown up now’? The people who were there in the court that night witnessed the fulfillment of prophecy and they still missed it!
Jesus came to his own and his own didn’t even know him. I can’t imagine any sadder words than that.
“BUT!” John says, “To all who did receive him, who believed in him, he gave power to become children of God.”
To become a new family, born of God’s Spirit and not of human flesh or of worldly power. The Word became flesh and “moved into the neighborhood” (as Peterson puts it) “full of grace and truth”.
If we were to stop reading right there, we would already know all we need to know about Jesus. If we believe John’s words, we believe all we need to believe in order to be children of God. We live in a dark and dangerous world, but we have the power of God protecting us and keeping us. Christmas is, above all things, about hope in the darkness.
It’s a hope that looks forward to a victory: the victory of the King who was born that night. It also looks forward to his coronation; and at this point we turn to Isaiah for a few more thoughts.
Our passage in Isaiah opens with the words:
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my whole being will exult in my God.”
Now this is not the beginning of the chapter. The chapter begins with the familiar words:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…”
These are the words Jesus read in the synagogue at the beginning of his public ministry; and after he read the scroll he sat down and said, “today these words are fulfilled in your hearing.”
This is where the good news of Christmas begins to become reality! Not with a competition for how much stuff we can put under the tree, but with good news and justice and healing and freedom and a proclaiming that ‘this is God’s year’!
“My whole being will exult in my God!” Isaiah says. “He has clothed me with garments of salvation… a robe of righteousness…”
And isn’t this what we need the most? Because someday each one of us will stand before the throne of God, and we won’t be able to do that, imperfect creatures as we are, unless He covers us with garments of salvation.
In case we have any doubts that God wants to do this, in Isaiah’s vision the Lord replies:
“for Zion’s sake I will not keep silent… I will not rest until her vindication shines… you shall be a crown of beauty… a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”
This is God’s plan for us, and has been from the beginning. If we ever doubt that God wants us to be his people, Isaiah’s words lay those doubts to rest.
In Isaiah’s vision, the King says to his Bride (that’s us): “You shall no longer be called Forsaken… you shall no longer be called Desolate…” God’s people will no longer be objects of prejudice, ridicule, or attack. Just yesterday we received news that eleven Christians in Nigeria have been murdered for their faith. And today we heard the sad news of Jewish people being knifed to death in New York. On that glorious day, Isaiah says, these things will never happen again.
Isaiah says the land of God and the people of God have been called Forsaken and Desolate – but they’ve been called this by others. The literal translation is “It will no longer be said of you” that you are desolate and forsaken.
But God says: “you shall be called ‘my delight is in her.’” The Hebrew word for ‘called’ here is different than in the previous verse. In the past ‘it was said of you’ but now you are called by God. You are called to be a delight to God and to be married. Our ultimate reality will be determined, not by what others say of us, but by what God calls us to be.
The word for ‘married’ in the Hebrew means both ‘to be married’ AND ‘to have a Lord’. So the good news of Christmas is: This baby born in Bethlehem has been born to be Lord and King… and husband! We will be his bride. “For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.” “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
The bells that ring out at Christmas day are wedding bells, heard from a distance. The light has come into the world; the darkness cannot comprehend it; but the vision and the victory are sure.
It’s a King who’s been born in Bethlehem. And his destiny will be our destiny, if we believe and follow. AMEN.
~
Preached at Incarnation Church, Strip District, Pittsburgh, 12/28/19
Old Testament and Gospel readings for the week are:
Isaiah 61:10-62:5
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
~
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her vindication shines out like the dawn,
and her salvation like a burning torch.
2 The nations shall see your vindication,
and all the kings your glory;
and you shall be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will give.
3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken (Azubah),
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate (Semamah);
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her (Hephizbah),
and your land Married; (Beulah)
for the Lord delights in you,
and your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your builder marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.
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 the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome 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,[d] 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 God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
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