The word made flesh
At the beginning of a New Year it’s customary to look back at the old year, but also look forward to the coming year. We can think of personal, national and international events that have taken place, such as the inauguration of the first black president of the United States…
2009 like most other years, has been a good one for some and a bad year for others, but whatever has happened, it is at this time that we can start to look forward, to think of the future, not forgetting the past, but building for that future.
I don’t tend to make new year’s resolutions, but there is one thing that is of value for every one, every year - and this has been seen in the readings that we heard earlier. This one thing is knowing truly what it means to be a child of God.
The gospel reading this morning may have brought an inward groan; it did to me if I am honest. Over Christmas the reading from the beginning of St.John’s gospel is one that we hear quite a lot. It is a great reading and one that really does bring out the full mystery, awe and wonder of the birth of a child, born to save the world.
In the midst of our darkness, in the midst of the chaos of our lives, Jesus came announcing life and not death, light not darkness. It is in John's gospel that Jesus is recorded as saying, "I come that you may have life and have it abundantly."
Jesus' way is the way of life, and in and through Jesus, we are shown how we are meant to be - full of life, full of hope, full of joy – we are shown that even as God has poured upon us the new light of His incarnate Word, we are to allow this light to shine forth in our lives.
We are children of God who are born into the family of God simply by accepting his offer to be a part of that family. As part of the family, whilst we may all look different and whilst we are all actually different, we all have responsibilities.
The responsibility to be like Jesus and the responsibility to make a difference where there is despair or a lack of hope.
This sounds like an incredibly tall order, but we can do it ! I have recently been watching DVDs of one of my favourite television programmes ‘the west wing’. This series was a fictional story about the president of the United States. I have just got to the end of the last series and this series is one which sees the election campaign of, and the election of, the next President.
In the campaign there are many slogans used, many different motivational phrases and they can be similar to the sort of phrases we can use as Christians – in fact we can be more confident. Politicians trust their instincts, and believe their policies can work, but we trust something and someone far greater !
With God on our side, we can confidently bring light to places where there is darkness… We work through the power of the Word made flesh – Jesus within us.
An American priest called William McCord remembered a time when he was hospital visiting, when he got to the reception of the hospital one of the workers there said, “Can you believe that?" whilst pointing to the nativity set with a missing Baby Jesus.
She was amazed that someone had stolen the Baby Jesus. This priest realised that he needed to respond to the woman’s question and so he suggested that maybe someone was trying to take Jesus out of Christmas - the woman was not impressed with this. So he decided to try humour instead by saying that Jesus was probably going round the wards visiting and will be back when he finishes - again the woman did not like this, so he finally settled on, “Oh dear, I hope he is returned soon.”
This seemed to satisfy the woman. Later, the priest used this illustration to make the point that this lady was missing the real reason why Jesus came… In her concern about the missing baby Jesus, she had forgotten what came next. The story of Jesus didn’t end at the first Christmas as some people choose to think, or even just begin again at the first Easter. Jesus’ life was a life of commitment, service, dedication and love and to limit it to His birth, death and resurrection ignores the fact that He dwelt amongst us, and that his life and teaching on earth set a standard and an example for us.
And I think that sometimes we too can forget what comes next, what comes after Christmas - we can be so happy that the shopping is over, that the extra Church services are done and enjoyed and life is nearly back to normal that we can forget what it all means.
Jesus became flesh and lived amongst us – and we need to remember always the enormity of that one statement. What John’s gospel stresses perhaps more than any other is that God came so close to us, that he actually walked alongside, and showed us how we could know Him and also how we could bring hope to a world filled with darkness. For John there was no image of Bethlehem but instead an image of the word, an image of God appearing in the flesh, as a baby who would grow to transform the world.
We are to be Jesus in the world today, we have a responsibility to show that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us… We are the people who now have the responsibility of being the Word made flesh in our communities, in our workplaces, in our homes.
The question is though, how do we do this? We can make it happen, but how.
We do it through prayer, we do it through reading the Bible more, we do it by trying to be more like Jesus. That way God can be genuinely enfleshed in us, enfleshed in our hearts and minds and hands, in our relationships and in our care for the stranger, for the jobless, for the homeless, for those in any need or trouble, enfleshed in our struggle for justice and peace among all people.
So back to the new year. We have responsibilities to make things happen, we are a part of the family of God and it is our choice to live as followers of Jesus. It is our choice to embrace the word made flesh and to try and be more like Him. It is our choice to step out into the unknown of this year and to make a difference.
Perhaps that can be our New Years resolution… A resolution that will be of eternal benefit, a resolution that may mean a change of life, a resolution that puts Jesus at the centre, and that means that our lives will show Him to others. This is how we will bring hope in any darkness.
And so, may we this year make it our prayer, that we will make a difference, because we know that with God’s help, we can. AMEN
2009 like most other years, has been a good one for some and a bad year for others, but whatever has happened, it is at this time that we can start to look forward, to think of the future, not forgetting the past, but building for that future.
I don’t tend to make new year’s resolutions, but there is one thing that is of value for every one, every year - and this has been seen in the readings that we heard earlier. This one thing is knowing truly what it means to be a child of God.
The gospel reading this morning may have brought an inward groan; it did to me if I am honest. Over Christmas the reading from the beginning of St.John’s gospel is one that we hear quite a lot. It is a great reading and one that really does bring out the full mystery, awe and wonder of the birth of a child, born to save the world.
In the midst of our darkness, in the midst of the chaos of our lives, Jesus came announcing life and not death, light not darkness. It is in John's gospel that Jesus is recorded as saying, "I come that you may have life and have it abundantly."
Jesus' way is the way of life, and in and through Jesus, we are shown how we are meant to be - full of life, full of hope, full of joy – we are shown that even as God has poured upon us the new light of His incarnate Word, we are to allow this light to shine forth in our lives.
We are children of God who are born into the family of God simply by accepting his offer to be a part of that family. As part of the family, whilst we may all look different and whilst we are all actually different, we all have responsibilities.
The responsibility to be like Jesus and the responsibility to make a difference where there is despair or a lack of hope.
This sounds like an incredibly tall order, but we can do it ! I have recently been watching DVDs of one of my favourite television programmes ‘the west wing’. This series was a fictional story about the president of the United States. I have just got to the end of the last series and this series is one which sees the election campaign of, and the election of, the next President.
In the campaign there are many slogans used, many different motivational phrases and they can be similar to the sort of phrases we can use as Christians – in fact we can be more confident. Politicians trust their instincts, and believe their policies can work, but we trust something and someone far greater !
With God on our side, we can confidently bring light to places where there is darkness… We work through the power of the Word made flesh – Jesus within us.
An American priest called William McCord remembered a time when he was hospital visiting, when he got to the reception of the hospital one of the workers there said, “Can you believe that?" whilst pointing to the nativity set with a missing Baby Jesus.
She was amazed that someone had stolen the Baby Jesus. This priest realised that he needed to respond to the woman’s question and so he suggested that maybe someone was trying to take Jesus out of Christmas - the woman was not impressed with this. So he decided to try humour instead by saying that Jesus was probably going round the wards visiting and will be back when he finishes - again the woman did not like this, so he finally settled on, “Oh dear, I hope he is returned soon.”
This seemed to satisfy the woman. Later, the priest used this illustration to make the point that this lady was missing the real reason why Jesus came… In her concern about the missing baby Jesus, she had forgotten what came next. The story of Jesus didn’t end at the first Christmas as some people choose to think, or even just begin again at the first Easter. Jesus’ life was a life of commitment, service, dedication and love and to limit it to His birth, death and resurrection ignores the fact that He dwelt amongst us, and that his life and teaching on earth set a standard and an example for us.
And I think that sometimes we too can forget what comes next, what comes after Christmas - we can be so happy that the shopping is over, that the extra Church services are done and enjoyed and life is nearly back to normal that we can forget what it all means.
Jesus became flesh and lived amongst us – and we need to remember always the enormity of that one statement. What John’s gospel stresses perhaps more than any other is that God came so close to us, that he actually walked alongside, and showed us how we could know Him and also how we could bring hope to a world filled with darkness. For John there was no image of Bethlehem but instead an image of the word, an image of God appearing in the flesh, as a baby who would grow to transform the world.
We are to be Jesus in the world today, we have a responsibility to show that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us… We are the people who now have the responsibility of being the Word made flesh in our communities, in our workplaces, in our homes.
The question is though, how do we do this? We can make it happen, but how.
We do it through prayer, we do it through reading the Bible more, we do it by trying to be more like Jesus. That way God can be genuinely enfleshed in us, enfleshed in our hearts and minds and hands, in our relationships and in our care for the stranger, for the jobless, for the homeless, for those in any need or trouble, enfleshed in our struggle for justice and peace among all people.
So back to the new year. We have responsibilities to make things happen, we are a part of the family of God and it is our choice to live as followers of Jesus. It is our choice to embrace the word made flesh and to try and be more like Him. It is our choice to step out into the unknown of this year and to make a difference.
Perhaps that can be our New Years resolution… A resolution that will be of eternal benefit, a resolution that may mean a change of life, a resolution that puts Jesus at the centre, and that means that our lives will show Him to others. This is how we will bring hope in any darkness.
And so, may we this year make it our prayer, that we will make a difference, because we know that with God’s help, we can. AMEN
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