John 1:1-5, 9-14
December 24, 2023
Emmanuel Baptist Church; Rev. Kathy Donley
Note: A recording of the worship service in which this sermon was preached may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pv5w2u9tYQ
John does not start with the birth of Jesus. There are no angels visiting or singing, no shepherds, no Bethlehem Inn with no vacancy, no baby in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. John begins long, long before that.
“In the beginning,” John writes, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
In the beginning, John says, referring to that time when God said “let there be light” and there was light. And when God proclaimed “let the dry land appear” and it was so. God speaks and things happen. The Word goes out and light emerges from the darkness, waters move and dry land forms, plants and animals inhabit the land.
John is telling the story of the Word of God. That Word is Jesus. The Word of God is that generative power, that wisdom, that divine reason at the heart of everything. The Word of God is the mystery that was long before Christmas and is also at the very center of Christmas. John’s gospel begins not with Jesus’ conception or his birth, but at the birth of the cosmos.
The first century philosophers reading along would be nodding their heads in vigorous agreement. God is pure spirit – sound and light, powerful from the beginning. They would have approved, until they got to verse 14, which says “The Word became flesh” This word flesh would have been jarring for John’s first readers. Flesh is impure, weak, and vulnerable. The extreme opposite of the perfect, spiritual essence of God. This is the scandal of incarnation, that the immensity of God should be revealed in the smallness of a human being.
For 36 years, Dean Smith was the head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. He was well-loved by his players. One of those players was Makhtar N’Diaye. Mak had a lot of talent and potential, but near the start, he had a tough time in practice. All of his coaches were unhappy with him. They kept telling him changes to make and he didn’t seem to be listening. So eventually, the assistant coach, Bill Guthridge, threw him out of practice.
Afterwards, Dean Smith, the head coach finds him and asked “Mak, is everything all right? Are you homesick?”
Mak says “No coach. I’m fine.” But he isn’t looking at the coach.
Smith says “Mal, look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Mak again says, ‘I’m just not feeling . .
Smith interrupts “Mak, look at me as I talk to you.”
They do this a couple more times and then Mak says “Coach, in my culture to look an adult in the eye is not right. It is a sign of disrespect.”
So Coach Smith says “Oh OK.” And he walks out.
The next day in practice, there’s no Coach Guthridge. The man who kicked Makhtar out of practice is just gone. He doesn’t show up the next day or the day after that. Coach Guthridge is absent day after day without any explanation. Then Mak gets a call from his Mom. Mak is from Senegal. His mother says “Mak, there’s a man here in my house. He says he is your coach, your assistant coach. I know Coach Smith. I don’t know this man. He says he’s been here in Senegal for a week learning our culture.”
Dean Smith sent Coach Guthridge to Senegal to learn his player’s culture so that he would understand him and know how to relate to him and coach him. [1]
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word came to our homeland to learn our culture.
Many Decembers ago, a man was in his study at home when his kids came into the room.
"Dad, we have a play to put on? Do you want to see it?"
He didn't really want to, but he knew he needed to, so he followed them into the living room and became a one-man audience. At the foot of the piano stool was a lighted flashlight wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a shoe box. Joseph came in wearing his father’s bathrobe and carrying a mop handle staff. Mary wore a sheet draped over her head. The 4-year-old was an angel with who ran in with pillowcases over her arms which she spread as wings. Finally, the last child arrived, obviously one of the magi. She moved like she was riding a camel, probably from trying to walk in her mother’s high heels. She was wearing all the wearing all the jewelry she could find and on a pillow she carried three items. She clip-clopped across the room, bowed to the flashlight, and announced, “I’m all three wise men. I bring precious gifts: gold, circumstance and mud.”
That was all. The play was over. The father applauded, but he didn’t laugh. He didn’t correct the wise man. That child got to the heart of the story: God loves us for who we are; gold –when we are at our best, circumstance – in the particulars of time, place and custom, and mud – in the messiest parts of our lives. [2]
The scandal of Christmas is that God comes into the world as it is to demonstrate how much we are loved. If you want to know how God feels about human beings, look at Jesus. Jesus came that we might become children of God, John says. People who are not dominated by the circumstances in which we find ourselves, not defined by how much gold or mud is in our lives, but who understand our worth and power as God’s beloved ones.
Every person is born out of the love of God, expresses this love in their unique personal form, and has the capacity to be united with God.[3] This is the truth that can change the world. God became like us so that we might become like God.
A final story for tonight. It comes from a column by Ed Williams, a journalist for 60 years who is now retired. Ed says “I grew up with the certainties of the fundamentalist Baptist faith. In my younger days I focused on the uncertainties. As I age, I find myself more comfortable with the mystery, and I find in myself an inclination simply to trust.”
Many years ago, in the weeks before Christmas, Ed was attending a meeting in Miami. It was hotter than he expected and he had packed only long-sleeved shirts. So he went to the mall to buy some cooler clothes. A young man emerged from the crowd. Ed thought he was coming to ask for something and he braced himself for the pitch.
But the question came as a surprise.
The thin young man said “Do you believe in Jesus?”
Ed looked him over. In his mid-30s, he had on a rumpled shirt, jeans and loafers with no socks. Visible on his arms and neck were large sores. Ed recognized them as Kaposi’s sarcoma, signs of the disease AIDS.
“Why do you ask?” Ed said
The young man shared his story. He had come to Miami years ago. When he was diagnosed with HIV, his family told him not to come home. Over time, his condition had developed into AIDS.
A few days earlier, he said, his family had called. They had had a change of heart and invited him home for Christmas.
He said that he couldn’t tell them that he was broke. He needed money for bus fare. Ten dollars would get him home for Christmas.
Ed was in a Bible study class at his home church. Not long before this trip, they had discussed the passage where Jesus speaks to those who are to inherit the kingdom and reminds them of how they had helped him when he was down and out. In the scripture, they ask, “When did we do this?” Jesus answers “Whenever you did it for one of my siblings, you did it to me.”
Ed said the problem with knowing the Bible stories is that you need to act on them. In his pocket, he had a $20 bill that he had intended to spend on a shirt. He didn’t know whether to believe the young man or not. But he decided it didn’t matter, he obviously needed the money.
Ed handed him the twenty.
“Here,” he said, “Merry Christmas.”
The young man was surprised. He took the money and looked straight into Ed’s eyes.
"Thank you," he said, and it was as heartfelt a thanks as Ed has ever received.
Then he put the money in his pocket and walked away. Just before he melted into the crowd, the young man turned and raised his hand in a farewell salute. And he said, "I think you are Jesus."
Before Ed could respond, he vanished into the crowd of shoppers. What Ed wanted to say to him was, "I thought you were Jesus."[4]
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. And God said “Let there be light.” And there was light. And the Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood to share our gold, circumstance and mud. And God said “Let there be peace.”
And there was peace.
God said “Let there be joy.”
And there was joy.
God said “Let there be love.”
And there was love.
The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, full of grace and truth.
[1] https://youtu.be/l8b52JwLojM?si=PlnU2AZGDyyupCw3
[2] Rex Knowles, “Gifts of the Wise Children; or Gold, Circumstance, and Mud.” The Guideposts Christmas Treasury (Carmel, NY: Guideposts Associates, 1972), pp. 197–98]
[3] Ilia Delio, Mini-Incarnation of Christ, https://cac.org/daily-meditations/mini-incarnations-of-christ/
[4] Ed Williams FB post December 21, 2022 https://www.facebook.com/profile/100001444266449/search/?q=Christmas