The Shepherd’s Voice

And The Word Became Flesh

Readings for Sunday, January 3^rd
Jer 31:7-14
Eph 1:3-14
Jn 1:1-18

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In the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God! For some of us, perhaps even many of us this statement means little or nothing because for most folks it doesn’t seem to get to connect. After all there’s lunch to be prepared and shared, there are babies to be cleaned and weaned, there’s money to be made and spent. Life goes on….

Jesus talked about this a bit in Luke 14 where he told the parable of the great dinner. Someone comments to Jesus about eating bread in God’s kingdom. Jesus responds come for everything is now ready, the invitation goes out, but people say I just bought some land, I just bought a car & must test drive it, I just got married. Life goes on, but are we missing something?

Ok, your busy. Everyone is busy, but God is giving us some wisdom, some insight here about himself and God wants us to hear it, to perceive it, to understand it. What Jesus spoke about are maintenance issues, not life, God wants us to stop and partake in the banquet of his kingdom.

So I say take time to listen to what God is telling us this morning. Sit, get comfortable as we reason together about God’s message to us.

The text started with ‘in the beginning.’ That’s a very good place to start. The Word was with God –and the Word was God – these are NOT some sort of philosophical babble! These words tell us about God. If we just take the time to dissect them and ponder them. Everything is spiritual.

This gospel text today from John is profound. Not everyone will recognize that, not everyone wants to. There are times in life when we don’t recognize significant stories.

Not all novels or books in life get immediate acclaim. Richard Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H, only to have it rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It became a runaway bestseller, spawned a blockbuster movie and a highly successful television series.

What was it about this story that attracted readers, movie goers, and couch potatoes? Well, it was about relationships within the story. Relationships, can we see that idea in our text today?

The Word was with God – and the Word was God is indeed a story about relationships, our relationship with God and our relationship with one another.

If we look at God’s Word, the logos (Greek term), it’s a message about the essence of life, maybe boring to some, but for many of us, it’s all about God being with us.

Going back to my original statement ‘in the beginning,’ this statement gives us a benchmark, a starting place.

This statement is NOT here to deal with the idea of creation. There are many voices on the topic of creation today. Do you believe in intelligent design or evolution?
A little girl asked her father, “How did the human race appear or how did it get started?”
The father said, ‘God made Adam and Eve, they had children, and that’s how it all started.’
Two days later the little girl asked her mother the same question. The mother answered, ‘Well millions of years ago there were monkeys that evolved into humans.’
Now the little girl is a little confused so she goes back to her father and asks “How is it possible you told me the human race was created by God and mom says we evolved from monkeys?”
The father answered, “Well young lady, it’s very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your mother told you about hers.”

What we believe about the beginning is a matter of faith and all the science I could talk about around intelligent design or evolution would not matter. You, as a Christian, a believer have to start somewhere and faith is part of the assumption when we refer to God.

I’m not here to argue about the fossil record or the lack thereof, but you must decide what makes sense to you relative to all the claims and counterclaims of evolution versus creation science. As a past engineer who has studied a great amount of science, physics, and math the more I learn about life, DNA, and all the complexities the more I realize we can’t create life ourselves from scratch. There was a beginning and it didn’t include or involve me.

In the beginning something, someone, a higher power than us, brought order out of chaos. In this church, in this place we call that higher power God. This God, this Spirit came to man as recorded in scripture and has given us insight about life.

Our record of understanding started with the people of Israel, and developed over time into a cogent, and well defined path toward a relationship with the Father, the higher power, the Christian God of the universe. Could it be that our lack of desire to understand the phrase ‘the Word was with God and the Word was God’ comes from our lack of a developed relationship with the father? Many of us are smart, we have degrees, we are educated, but maybe we lack that relationship so our spiritual growth has been stunted.

Does our intellect or educational prowess limit our ability to think outside the box? From history we know Sir Isaac Newton did very poorly in school. Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked on 15th out of 22 in chemistry. Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything.

I would be careful in trying to intellectualize my way to a relationship with the Father. I’m not talking down intellect, but I want you to realize that raw intellect or significant education has little to do with being able to develop a relationship with God. Building a relationship with God comes from spiritual disciplines like prayer, Bible study, going to worship, and giving to God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

This phrase from John is not only a historical statement of belief, it’s also a statement of truth, and it’s a promise. The Word, the message of God has come to us and if we choose to embrace it, accept it, we will be changed in the process.

In studying physics especially Newton’s Second Law of Motion (F=ma) and his Third Law “To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” we know that everything that occurs in nature is affected in some way by everything else.
Being called by God, hearing God’s message, recognizing God’s Word that was in the beginning, is now, and forever shall be, will influence on your life. Maybe not today or even tomorrow, but God has called you to be part of his kingdom.

Perhaps, you are saying right now, what do you mean God has called me? Well, are you here? Are you hearing God’s message today? If you are, you are being called by God to a response. How you react, whether you reject it or embrace God’s Word will make a difference in your life.

Our gospel text says, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” This is the promise that God has for us. There’s no magic, no hocus pocus, it’s all about God reaching through the message, the logos, the good news of life.

The light shines into the darkness and the darkness is not able to overcome it. John the Baptist came into the world to be a witness to the light, but he was NOT the light.

Who was the light? “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.”

The manifestation of Christ in this world is like a mustard seed planted in soil in which it will sit for a time, sprout and take root. It may become a significant plant in God’s kingdom, but that depends on the water and nutrients (God’s Word, love, grace, worship) given it to grow into maturity. For some this seed will not sprout because nourishment will be kept from it.

Not all plants grow up strong and healthy, but some that start even in very modest soil have a way of flowering into God’s perfection. Mother Teresa an Albanian by birth; received her spiritual training in Dublin, Ireland and Darjeeling, India and then she became a nun in 1937, and finally a citizen of India in 1948.

After teaching for twenty years at a high school in Calcutta, India, Mother Teresa said she received another call from God to serve the poorest of the poor who lived in the streets. This call came because she said she could see Jesus in the faces of the suffering, the lonely, the outcasts. God’s Word became flesh to her and the result is history. The Missionaries of Charity feeds 500,000 families a year in Calcutta alone, treats 90,000 leprosy patients annually, and educates 20,000 children every year.

That small seed of the incarnation of Christ grew in modest soil into a magnificent plant with many branches and flowers in God’s kingdom. As you take stock, as you look at the coming year remember what the angel Gabriel told Mary (Luke 1:37-38) once she heard of Elizabeth’s conception and her own impending pregnancy. “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Can we embrace that idea together this coming year?

Can we live out the promises of God moving forward as the Word become flesh in our lives?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God …. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.”

The law was given through Moses – but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Amen

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