January 5, 2025

Christmas 2 Year C

John 1:1-18

Epiphany, Winnipeg

“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.”

There’s a Greek word, so repeat it after me: logos. It’s a Greek word that means “word.” So when we hear “In the beginning was the word,” what it says in Greek is “In the beginning was the logos.”

Isn’t that terrific? Everything makes sense now?

At this point, I and many other preachers have attempted at one time or another to enter into miniature lectures about this little word logos, this Greek word for “word,” and to expound with brilliant brevity about Greek philosophy, because that will make everyone understand John’s gospel and the whole Christmas thing a little more clearly. And we imagine that it might make us sound smart.

The trouble is that most preachers, including me, are not much good at pulling off a lecture on Greek philosophy. I can think of two who might be able to do it well. And in any given congregation there are probably at least two or three people who would be much better at it than any preacher.

So if you’re ever at a service during the Christmas season and the preacher starts in to a long talk about logos or Greek philosophy or something like that, it’s OK to lean over to whoever’s sitting next to you and say, “I don’t think they know what they’re talking about.” And even that’s OK, because the Word became flesh for people who don’t really know what they’re talking about.

So no Greek philosophy today (even though philosophy is a good thing.).

Instead, we begin at the beginning.

Do you remember how the beginning began? What are the very first three words in the Bible? …In the beginning… In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, there was just water and confusion and chaos and unformed nothing all over the place. And how did God start to make something out of all that? God spoke and earth and land and sky and stars and little single-celled creatures and gooey things and insects and then dinosaurs and mammoths and then bison and chickadees and walleye and ticks and pines and aspen and prairie grasses and frost on the windshield came to be. Now there are different ways of understanding the story. Some believe that God spoke and in seven twenty-four hour days six thousand years ago everything we know appeared. Some, probably more, believe that there was this big explosion and over the course of 13.7 or 13.8 billion years everything shifted and changed and appeared and disappeared and evolved to this point now, and some of us will say that God spoke as all that happened, and God has been speaking it to life all along the way. The important thing in both ways of hearing the story is that God spoke, because God wanted to, and everything began.

That’s how the beginning began. In the beginning was? The word.

Do you remember how we began? How our beginning began? On the sixth day in that Genesis story? God spoke, and God’s word was “Let’s make people.” And however we people came to be who we are now over the eons and eons, God look and saw and said “those people I made are good,” and God said we’re made in God’s image. God spoke and people came along, and we are a beautiful and rich and diverse and complex gift to each other and we’re always learning more about our beauty and diversity and complexity and wonder. We’ve created languages and poetry and great stories; over all the years music took shape and we’ve made hymns and symphonies and praise choruses and jazz and Scandinavian heavy metal and rap, and yes it’s all beautiful…creative. The humans that God spoke into being have invented wheels and printing presses and bikes and computers and Christmas trees and vaccines and antibiotics and same day hip surgery. Lego and rumballs and airplanes and pizza. So creative, what we do. Knitting and crocheting and quilting and wood carving and painting and sculpting… We’re such creative creatures. In the beginning, God’s word was “Let’s make people.” And we people said “Let's make stuff too.” And we did. And aren’t people a wonder?

We’ve created so much chaos too. Remember now all the trouble began? God said, “Let’s make people, in our image. That’s good!”, and it wasn’t long until we started to turn against each other in all kinds of ways with empires and isms and jealousy and suspicion. God said, “Let’s make people,” and it wasn’t long until we started to turn against ourselves and believe the stories that say “I’m no good” or “I’m not worthy of love.” God said “Let’s make people in our image,” and somewhere along the way we started to forget that there is a God who loves us, who loves the world, and who calls us to love.

We don’t really know how the troubles began, and we don’t seem to know how to fix it.

Do you remember how this gospel reading today began? In the beginning…was the word. Not the word, as in the Bible, and not the word, as in letters and sentences and grammar and doctrines…but in the beginning was the word that God spoke, to bring everything into being. And then God spoke, and instead of creating something new God’s creative word became flesh and blood, a person named Jesus, on this earth in this corner of creation: “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.”

It's this simple, yet this deep: God chose to live in this world that God loves so much; in this messed up, confused, broken, dearly beloved world. God’s way of loving and healing the world is to speak, and to become a human named Jesus; to become a living person, just like any of us. And in some way we can’t explain, the Word becomes flesh on a cross, in a tomb, and living again in a garden on a Sunday morning. That’s where the beginning begins. Again.

The Word becomes flesh, and lives here, where we might expect and where we would least expect: In a world where millions and millions flee from war and where the ones who wage the wars think they’re doing God’s will; among those who bring greetings of Merry Christmas, or Season’s Greetings, or Happy Holidays or Have a Good Weekend, and among those who are too hurt to utter a simple blessing like that. The word becomes flesh and lives in countries and communities where people are forgetting how to speak a civil word to each other. And the word becomes flesh in places where people celebrate and party and love being together. The word becomes flesh for people whose hearts are broken and for people whose hearts are singing for joy.

So I've got no Greek philosophy to wrap up the day. For now, just some last muddled Canadian Christmasy thoughts, from a journal entry I blurted out a little while ago:

“Just a few more days of tree. Christmas and its peace and stillness have settled in now that gifts and meals and plans are mostly behind us.

I tend to want something more than Christmas sometimes seems able to give. I want quiet contemplation, the stillness of Nordic beauty, a deep sense, a being-at-home, with the fleshy incarnateness of it all. But even if Christmas offers that in abundance, I still worry...and plan...and anxietate…and flit from this to that…and expect all over myself that this time it will be perfect and right and fully appreciated. But usually, there’s just a lot of stuff to do. And it’s not a perfect season after all.

I’ve got this idea, you see; and I have these plans, you understand; and I have such expectations of myself and others. But the Word doesn’t become flesh because I created a perfect experience. The Word doesn’t become flesh in a church that has its act together or a world that has solved all its problems. Instead, the Word becomes flesh in muddled places, where acts are not together, thoughts are not always focussed, the way has not been paved, and the way is not always clear. And among all of us who haven’t gotten it all set just right or who don’t know what we’re talking about…the God who began is pleased to dwell, and to begin the beginning again.”

When God speaks, the world happens, just like in the beginning. When God speaks, that word becomes a baby named Jesus – Merry Christmas! - a baby born to an unremarkable family. A baby-become-teacher happens, a healer happens, a surprising maker of wine happens. When God speaks, a crucified one, a risen one, a new world begins.