Christmas Day – 2023
St Peter’s Lutheran Church, Port Macquarie
John 1:1-5, 10-14
Do any of you remember the British sit-com The Vicar of Dible? In the first season Christmas special the vicar is preaching her second Christmas service in the parish. Not only did she use up what she thought was her only good idea for a Christmas sermon the year before, but her congregational chairperson has informed her that last year’s Christmas sermon was a real ‘stinker’ and she needs to lift her game. Well, it is not only my second Christmas here at Port Macquarie, but unlike the Vicar of Dibley, who just had one Christmas service, we have just had three services yesterday on Christmas Eve. So I can identify with her dilemma. And you may well be wondering, ‘Does the pastor have any left to say about Christmas?’
I have been told that if you cannot expand a topic by broadening it out, then the other option is to delve into more deeply. And that is exactly what we want to do this morning by taking a look at that other Christmas story. Not the one with the shepherds and angels in Luke. Not the one with the star, wise men and gifts of gold, frankincense and myrr in Matthew. But the one is John with, well with the Word, and Light and Darkness and glory.
If the Christmas story had been released on DVD the Gospel of John would not have featured, but would have been included as bonus material. These are the clips of information added at the end especially for those who are really keen to know all the background information. Let’s be honest, the Christmas story action is all in Matthew and Luke. In John’s Gospel we have the backstory. Matthew and Luke tell us what was happening here on Earth, from a human perspective. John tells us the story from the viewpoint of God, from above. Matthew and Luke have angels, shepherds, wise men, gifts, a stable, a manger and a star. And, of course, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. John has the eternal Word, the Light, darkness, glory and grace. For exciting Christmas action, read Matthew and Luke. But if you want to go deeper, if you are wondering why God would be born as a human baby and just what this means – beyond peace on earth and goodwill to all – then John is the Christmas story for you.
By the time John wrote his Gospel the other three Gospels had been circulating for at least two decades. And the traditional Christmas story as we know it was already well known. Also, by the time John writes, the overwhelming majority of Christians were of Greek-speaking background, and not Jewish. So John does not only not need to rehash the Christmas story of Matthew and Luke, but he also needs to address his Christmas story to a Greek audience.
John begins with words that are meant to remind his readers, both Jewish and Greek, of the opening words of the Hebrew Bible: ‘In the beginning God …’ But John puts it this way: ‘in the beginning the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’
For Jewish background Christians the use of the Word to refer to God had become a custom in some circles in order to avoid unnecessary direct references to God, out of respect. So, for instance, in the Targums, the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew text used in synagogues in the first century, instead of Moses going out of the camp to meet God (Exodus 19:17) he goes out of the camp to meet the Word of God. And in Deuteronomy 9:3 it is not God who is a consuming fire, but the Word of God. So for Jewish Christians understanding the Word as being God made sense.
For Greek Christians, that is, the non-Jewish Christians of various ethnic groups who would have spoken Greek as either as a first or second language, the term John uses for Word, ‘Logos’, would also have been familiar. The Word, or logos, was a strong philosophical concept and well know to educated readers. The Word has a power of its own, to act and even to create. It was the logos, or the word or reason of God, that gave order and meaning to reality.
So John’s audience would not have found his opening sentences difficult to understand.
The next bit, about creation coming through the Word, would have also made sense to both Jewish and Greek background readers. But again, for slightly different reasons. For those familiar with the Hebrew Bible the creation statements affirm the strong echoes of the language of Genesis one. When John talks about the beginning, he really means the beginning. In Matthew and Luke, the story begins with the announcement to Mary (Luke) and in Matthew with Mary finding she is pregnant. Or perhaps, if we include the genealogy of Matthew in this account, then with the claim of Davidic ancestry for Jesus. Which was important to show that he was the promised Messiah.
But John really goes back to the beginning, to a time before there was anything at all. Just the Word. And John makes the point that the Word, who will soon be revealed to be something or someone other than what his readers might expect, to be the creator. This would have resonated with Jewish readers.
Greek readers would also have been familiar with the idea of a creator god of some sort from some of their philosophers. And this word creates all things out of nothing. No pre-existing material outside of the Word was needed. ‘Not a single thing that exists,’ John writes, ‘came into being without him.’
Even though John is clearly going deep here both philosophically and theologically, his readers are still with him. It is good and profound writing. But nothing that is really new has been said.
John goes on to add that the Word was the light of the world. A light shinning into darkness for all people. Again, there is strong creation imagery. There is a play between light and darkness that the Greeks would have also well understood. And there is also a strong allusion to Isaiah chapter 9, a messianic text that those with a Jewish background would not have missed. ‘The people who wandered in darkness have seen a great light, and a light has shown upon those living in the a darkened land. … for to us a child is born, to us a son is given … and he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’ (9:2,6). This is the first indication of where John is going with this language that is both strongly philosophical, and strongly grounded in the Genesis creation narrative.
Then comes the big twit. And this is where readers not already thoroughly grounded in the teachings about Jesus, would have had trouble following John. This is where the message of the Gospel diverges from that of both Greek philosophy and Hebrew religious thought.
John tells us that, ‘The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory …’ (v. 14)
John makes much in his gospel about witness and testimony. And the word used here for see is the literally world for having physically seen something with one’s own eyes. The Gospel writer is here putting himself forward as any eyewitness to this world-changing event. The shocking thing for the readers is not that John claims to have seen something, but it is what he says he has seen.
The Word was made flesh. God became a human being. And lived among us.
For the Jews, this was unheard of. God could not be seen face to face. John alludes to this is verse 18, ‘no one has ever seen God.’ When Moses wanted to see God he was allowed only a glimpse of his back as he passed by, as his glory would have been too much for him to take in. God is so holy and so far transcends our human existence. How could God possibly become a human being and live among us? So just what is John saying? Surely he is not saying that God became flesh and lived among us. Surely he is not saying that God was the carpenter next door! But that is precisely what John is saying.
The Greeks would have had an entirely different problem with what John says here. They believed spirit is good and flesh is bad. The physical is something to be overcome, to be freed from. Pure spiritual being is ultimate attainment. So how and why would a pure spiritual being – the pure spiritual being – the creating Word, become human flesh? This prejudice against the physical was so strong in fact, that in the early years of the church a heresy arose called ‘gnosticism’ that took over much of the imagery, language and stories of the Christian faith, but denied that God actually took on human flesh, or actually physically lived among us, and certainly did not die on a cross. At best, these were tricks, or simple appearances. And John, in his later years, is said by tradition to have strongly opposed to rising new heresy. Many think this opposition to the gnostics can already be seen in this and other texts in his Gospel.
So John has now laid down the gauntlet, so to speak. He has made clear the major claim of Christianity. That Jesus is not just the Messiah, but God in human flesh. In the traditional theological language of the church we call this the doctrine of the Incarnation. In comes from Latin and means to become flesh.
Many think that John 3:16 is the key, pivotal verse in John’s Gospel. It is actually this verse, John 1:14. This is how God showed his love for the world. This is how God brought us eternal life. By taking on human flesh and living among us. This is the core teaching of the Christian faith, and the core teaching that the rest of John’s Gospel builds upon and explores.
God in flesh …. for us. This is the core message of Christmas. When we strip away all the lights, presents and parties. When we look behind and beyond the shepherds, angels, wise men and stable, we find the eternal creator God. Living among us. Bringing light to our darkness. Bringing his peace to us. By becoming one of us and living among us.
May God made flesh bless you and bring you his light and his peace this Christmas.
Amen.
Pastor Mark Worthing.
St Peters Lutheran Church Port Macquarie 