“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.” (John 1:1-5)
The writer of the Gospel of John begins his story with some of the most powerful words ever written. The words were intended to catch the attention of the hearers. Faithful Jews in what we have come to know as the first century A.D. or the Common Era, would have stopped, looked and listened because they would have immediately heard in their minds the beginning of the first book of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis, and known what they were about to hear would be vitally important, would change their lives forever.
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” (Genesis 1:1-5)
The similarities are astounding and not accidental: the Presence of God, wind, word, spirit; the contrast between light and darkness and the fact that the light would always win, would always overcome the darkness, no matter what.
Throughout history, the Prophets of God had proclaimed that light would always conquer darkness, that life would always overcome death and that God’s people would always be the light of the world.
John was proclaiming to anyone who would listen, that the promise given to the Jews in Genesis six hundred to one thousand years before the birth of Jesus were just as true in their day as they were then. Every year at the Nativity of our Lord when we hear and remember these words, we are reminded that they are also as true for us today as they were when Jesus came into the world as fully human as we are. His life was the light of God, and John tells us, the light of the people as well, the light of human beings like us. That light shines from God through us, and the darkness of the world has not and will not overcome it.
As I write this on January 1, 2021, we have just come through a year that brought sickness and death, war and destruction, loneliness and isolation, anger and fear and hatred between nations and political parties and within families. I need to hear, I must hear this message again. Many of us have lost friends and family members to Covid-19. Many of us are estranged from friends and family due to disagreements over who should lead our nation and how we should be led. We are frustrated because we still cannot attend worship in person due to fear of being infected or of infecting others. At times like these it is much easier to see the darkness than the light. It is even possible to believe or fear, no matter how strong our faith. that the darkness may, in fact overcome the light.
And just in time, the annual cycles and patterns of our faith call us to stop, look and listen. We are called by God and our community to slow down, to breath, and to hear, as I learned in Sunday School, “the old, old story of Jesus and his love.”
“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.” (John 1:1-5)
John Continues:
“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.”(John 1:18)
As I like to
begin my Sermons: “God give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts that can
be touched.” May God guide us to join Jesus in being the light of the World.
