Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7 John 1:1-18 Psalm 147 or 147:13-21

Were we to turn in our Bibles to the very first page, beginning with Genesis 1:1, we would be reminded that we and all creation were created from nothing.  Genesis begins: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind of God swept over the face of the waters.  Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”  [Genesis 1:1-3]

Our traditional lesson for the first Sunday after Christmas from the first eighteen verses of John’s Gospel known as John’s prologue.  We note the comparison with these first words of the Bible.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

This Word would be the light that shines in the darkness.  In preparation for the coming of Christ, John the Baptist testified to the “true light, which enlightens everyone,” that was to come.   And confirmed by John the Evangelist, (this) “light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  

As we affirm our faith each time we worship together.  In the words of the Nicene Creed [p. 358], in concert with John, we state that our one Lord, Jesus Christ, is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.  Through him all things were made.”

God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”  God from God, Light from light, true God from true God.

In verse 14 of our Gospel lesson, we read, “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.”   What is or was this Word that was with God and wasGod at creation and, then, became flesh and lived among us?

These words from John’s prologue, which are unique to John, have been a source of great controversy from the earliest centuries of Christian theology.  Is John referring to the second person of the Trinity, the one we know as the Son?  Was this Son with God from the beginning?

Through John’s words, the meaning of this incarnation, which we celebrate with great joy each Christmas, takes on a richer, deeper meaning.   This child whose birth we celebrate is the Word become flesh to live among us.  It is through this child Jesus that God speaks to us.  God appears in and through the man Jesus.  The Word, which can be defined as God’s thinking, is conveyed to us through Jesus Christ – the Eternal Word.  And there has never been a time that the Word was not.  The Word was with God before Creation and the Word will never not be; the Word is eternal.

So, for what purpose did the Word become flesh and live among us?  

The Word came to earth in the human person of Jesus Christ because God keeps his promises.   God has promised to redeem His people for whom He wants only what is best.  God’s story of the redemption of humankind is one story. From Adam and Eve until now, we humans had made and continue to make such a mess of God’s creation, bringing sin and death into the world.  It would be necessary for a human being – one who could live and die as one of us and, ultimately, to rise again to vanquish this sin and death that we have created.  The Word came to earth in the human person of Jesus Christ to open the door into God’s presence, to be the life that was the light of all people.  As our Gospel lesson concludes: “No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” 

As faithful living members of the Body of Christ, it is we who are to make him known to this dark world.  To quote St. Francis of Assisi, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of one single candle.”   The Word brought light into the darkness at creation; and that light will never be overcome by the darkness.  

At the Incarnation, the Word became flesh and lived among us to make the Father’s grace and truth known to us, physically and tangibly, which we stubborn humans so often need.  At the Incarnation, God through Jesus Christ became what we are; he came to live and die as one of us, making us what he is.