John 1:1-5, 10-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word 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 does not overtake it ....
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 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.
Today we celebrate Epiphany. Technically, yesterday was Epiphany, always January 6, but we are celebrating it here today. Liturgically speaking, Epiphany is the ending of the Christmas season and from here we move, depending on which cycle and which Gospel we are following, into Jesus’ childhood years, of which there are very few stories, and then into his first public appearances as an adult.
Epiphany itself is a multivalent feast day—we have all kinds of choice for sermonizing. We can hear again the story of the long journey of three eastern magi—wise men from the east; or we can look into their strange gifts and think about the things we have been gifted with; we can move ahead several years and hear about Jesus’ baptism where the voice of God publicly acknowledged him as his Son or we can think about Jesus’ role as “light for the world” and our call to be light as well in his image.
Or—we can, as I’ve chosen to do today—go all the way back to the beginning. As the introduction to John’s gospel in BibleGateway puts it: “This gospel begins not with Jesus’ birth or John’s baptism but with a deliberate echo of the creation story in Genesis. It takes us back before time began to the moment when the Word of God interrupts the silence and speaks the cosmos into existence.”
We are familiar with this opening paragraph, commonly known as The Prologue, for a couple of reasons. First, the beauty of its imagery easily catches and holds our attention, and then the fact that it is so very different from the opening lines of any other gospel account cements its “special” place in our thinking.
It is a reading that forces us to puzzle our way through it. “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him.” It’s a reading that leaves us a little topsy-turvy as we try to squeeze God’s sense of time into our human understanding.
And then there is the befuddling “the Word became flesh,” which can lead us down a completely different trail of thought, because the word used in the original Greek does not tell us that the Word became “human”, or even “like mankind”, it distinctly chooses the word that means “flesh”--meat, if you will—linking Jesus—the Word—with, not just humankind, but with half the living creatures of this world. This world that came into being through him. And it does so with no apparent hierarchical order.
An acquaintance of mine, Rev. Jay Johnson, rector of an Episcopal parish in Michigan, made this statement while discussing a similar point,
Now whether we are meant to follow down this strange side path or not, I can’t say (although part of me would dearly love to do so.) The writer of John has different ideas about things than the other gospel writers. The most important of which, of course, is that Jesus is the Son of God. Now the three synoptic writers get there eventually, near the end of Jesus’ human life, but for the writer of John, this is a given from the very beginning – from before always.
I wish there were room in the lectionary for more of John’s Gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each get a whole year but John is a book that requires, I think, more in depth reading and thinking. Therefore it only gets scattered “fill-in” readings. This year, we will be reading Mark primarily and since Mark is the shortest of the gospels we will be hearing more from John because Mark needs more filling in.
Hopefully we can squeeze in more from John as we journey through this new year.
Epiphany itself is a multivalent feast day—we have all kinds of choice for sermonizing. We can hear again the story of the long journey of three eastern magi—wise men from the east; or we can look into their strange gifts and think about the things we have been gifted with; we can move ahead several years and hear about Jesus’ baptism where the voice of God publicly acknowledged him as his Son or we can think about Jesus’ role as “light for the world” and our call to be light as well in his image.
Or—we can, as I’ve chosen to do today—go all the way back to the beginning. As the introduction to John’s gospel in BibleGateway puts it: “This gospel begins not with Jesus’ birth or John’s baptism but with a deliberate echo of the creation story in Genesis. It takes us back before time began to the moment when the Word of God interrupts the silence and speaks the cosmos into existence.”
We are familiar with this opening paragraph, commonly known as The Prologue, for a couple of reasons. First, the beauty of its imagery easily catches and holds our attention, and then the fact that it is so very different from the opening lines of any other gospel account cements its “special” place in our thinking.
It is a reading that forces us to puzzle our way through it. “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him.” It’s a reading that leaves us a little topsy-turvy as we try to squeeze God’s sense of time into our human understanding.
And then there is the befuddling “the Word became flesh,” which can lead us down a completely different trail of thought, because the word used in the original Greek does not tell us that the Word became “human”, or even “like mankind”, it distinctly chooses the word that means “flesh”--meat, if you will—linking Jesus—the Word—with, not just humankind, but with half the living creatures of this world. This world that came into being through him. And it does so with no apparent hierarchical order.
An acquaintance of mine, Rev. Jay Johnson, rector of an Episcopal parish in Michigan, made this statement while discussing a similar point,
- “What matters about Jesus is not that he is a man, nor even that he is human, but that he is mortal flesh, just like us—just like the very first human made from dirt and breathed into life by the Spirit; just like every other creature of God made from the stuff of Earth and animated by the breath of God; just like dogs and cats, squirrels and seagulls, dolphins and whales.”
Now whether we are meant to follow down this strange side path or not, I can’t say (although part of me would dearly love to do so.) The writer of John has different ideas about things than the other gospel writers. The most important of which, of course, is that Jesus is the Son of God. Now the three synoptic writers get there eventually, near the end of Jesus’ human life, but for the writer of John, this is a given from the very beginning – from before always.
I wish there were room in the lectionary for more of John’s Gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each get a whole year but John is a book that requires, I think, more in depth reading and thinking. Therefore it only gets scattered “fill-in” readings. This year, we will be reading Mark primarily and since Mark is the shortest of the gospels we will be hearing more from John because Mark needs more filling in.
Hopefully we can squeeze in more from John as we journey through this new year.
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