[Propertalk] 1 Christmas b - part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

We're using John 1:1-18 as the Gospel for this Sunday, one of two when
The Episcopal Church may diverge from the standard RCL texts. So this
may not speak to what you're preparing.
Happy thoughts, and blessings on the new year.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST ALBAN, ALBANY   1 CHRISTMAS b

	ISAIAH 61:10 – 62:3       31st DECEMBER, 2017

	GALATIANS 3:23-25; 4:4-7  PSALM 147

	JOHN 1:1-18

	 I may have quoted this before. I know I’ve referred to the poet
and mystic, John O’Donohue. He wrote, “It would be infinitely
lonely to live in a world without blessing. The word ‘blessing’
evokes a sense of warmth and protection; it suggests that no life is
alone or unreachable.” 1

	 “No life is alone or unreachable.” What a blessing! What a
promise!

	 There are as many reasons why God came in Jesus as there are stars
in the sky, but way at the top is that God never wants not one single
one of us to be alone or unreachable.

	 What would have happened if the first hominids had behaved with
compassion, with concern, with love – even in their rudimentary
forms? That’s a question that can never be answered, at least on
this side of the veil. But it’s worth considering. And we don’t
need to go that far back. What if our great grandparents or even our
grandparents had recognised that to be truly human, to be truly
reflective images of God ? Of course, they have the benefit, as we do,
of living after the birth, and life, and death, and resurrection of
Jesus, just as we do. Still, the principle is the same.

	 “What if…” games CAN be counterproductive. They can actually
make one give up, whether or not one is starting down a new path or
trying to repave a current one. BUT, if folk had not drifted more and
more into a self-centred, self-absorbed existence; if folk had,
instead, remembered, constantly, the needs and the prayers of those
who live in every-growing circles around us, and stopped worrying
about themselves, I’d bet that most of the problems on this earth
might not have occurred.

	 But this wasn’t so. I can decide for myself, regardless of how it
affects my neighbours, even my family; I can go wherever and whenever
I want; I’m the greatest and brightest thing since sliced fruit –
and we’re not even finished thinking outside the garden of Eden.
“Me first” must not only be the worst possible thing for
ourselves, it must be incredibly distressing to God. And so God,
remembering how little attention was paid to all those who’d brought
prophecies and guidance in the past; God came to earth in the visible,
touchable, listenable Person of Jesus, Son of Mary.

	  This is what the Gospel of John is about. As we all know, I’m
sure, John’s Gospel doesn’t paint a picture of sheep and cattle;
nor of burdened donkeys traipsing along trails; nor of inns, nor
shepherds. It may seem that this Gospel’s opening chapter is dry and
academic, rather than the personal nature of, say, Luke’s words of
last weekend. But the Fourth Gospel is intent on widening our
horizons, in bringing us to take in the totality of the universe and
not focus on simply one insignificant village and a few people. This
Gospel whose opening we heard once again this morning is intent in
making sure that we understand just who Jesus is.

	 Right at the end of this Gospel we hear the words, “Now Jesus did
many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue
to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through
believing you may have life in his name.” 2

	 In other words, you believe in Jesus already. You know who He is, or
have a fair idea of that, but this Gospel is written not simply to
reinforce that but to help you to try to take in the enormity of what
happened.

	 It’s this Fourth Gospel which talks about the entirety of creation
and how Jesus is to be understood, without question, as Divine. The
writer of this Gospel wants those who live in the various communities
of the followers of Jesus to have no doubt about the authority of
Jesus, and what He’s reported to have said and done, and what those
who lived with Him heard and saw done.

	 When I began thinking about this sermon, based on such a famous
Gospel passage, my initial question was, “Is it too late to think
about surprises?” Although it’s only been seven days – and let
THAT time frame sink in, with all its associations; it’s only been
seven days and the wrapping paper and ribbons and bows have all but
disappeared. It’s even possible that one of the gifts has been
broken or lost already, who knows.

	 But surprises? Do they ever stop? Surely not. And it’s probably
even more practical, certainly more noticeable, when something
arrives, something awakens in us when we thought the gift-giving was
over.

	 This is what came to my mind. Seven days after the Feast of last
weekend, here we stand at the completion of one week and the beginning
of the next. Creation, as the poetry of Genesis put it; creation was
assembled and developed within such a time frame and then it was given
to those who lived on the various parts of it, for them to treasure,
to safeguard, and to keep productive.

	 Setting aside the fact that we now know that creation occurred
billions of years ago and took an unbelievably long time to reach
where we are now, the whole idea of us coming here this morning to
listen to the story of how the Creator became human should make us
tingle. This must be one of the greatest surprises of all time, a
surprise that occurs for every generation; yet a surprise which says
the same thing. God wishes absolutely no one and no thing to be alone
or unreachable.

	 Maybe we should be grateful that this introduction to the Gospel is
written in such philosophical and metaphysical terms. If they were
direct – say in words no more than three syllables long; if these
terms were reduced in any way, then we might be tempted to think
locally instead of universally. Today’s author is pointing farther
and farther away from ourselves, far past the point at which any
current telescope can provide pictures. Otherwise, we might be
persuaded to think far too narrowly about God. It’s only when we
re-admit the utterly indescribable nature of God that we can begin to
appreciate the spectacular surprise which is and always will be before
us. It is this God who has come to earth, the God who trails within
and behind the sparkling particles of creation. Jesus IS God, no
question about that, wrote the Gospel writer. 


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20171229/1c2fca59/attachment.htm>