Sermon 01-03-2010 snow day                         Preached on 01-10-2010

Isaiah 60:1-6                                                                              John1:1-14

“Jesus the Light of the World”

“As we read from Isaiah, in the context of the celebration of Epiphany, the coming of God into the world is often understood as the coming of a brilliant light. That light, the gift of God, carries with it the power to transform Israel so that Israel is restored and also those outside Israel are inevitably drawn to the light seen in Israel. The Magi outsiders drawn by the light that marks the infant king’s birth, mark the beginning of the procession of those outsiders (like us) who see in the gospel the mystery of salvation.”  

   (“Texts for Preaching.” Brueggemann, Year B, pg. 87)

PRAYER

Have you noticed who the gospel of John is so different from the other three gospels?

 “John as the writer is trying to present the Jewish message of Christianity to the Gentile Greek world. He needed to find a common language between the two cultures. To tell the story of a Jewish Messiah to the Greek culture made no sense. That is why he talked about the Word. The Jews had a clear understanding of the Word. The word was the word of God speaking, “creative, active and dynamic.”

How can John explain this Jewish message to the Greeks?

He needs to play with words that were familiar in meaning and context. For the Greeks the Word translates to Logos which means Reason, and they were very familiar with the thought of reason, the mind of God. If the mind of God, is responsible for the majestic order of the world, then, the mind of God dwells within the person making him/her a thinking rational being.” John explains for them that: “The mind of God has come to earth in the man Jesus…Jesus is presented as nothing less than God acting in the form of man… To the Greek the unseen world was the real world; the seen world was only a shadowy unreality.” With that, John presents Jesus as the reality of the unseen world, coming to the seen world, as one of us. “Jesus is the real light; Jesus is the real bread; Jesus is the real vine…”  “So John went out to Jews and Greeks to tell them that in Jesus Christ this creating, illuminating, controlling, sustaining mind of God had come to earth.”

          (Barclay, John, vol.1, pg. 7-9 & 36)

“In the beginning John is saying three things about the word, which is to say three things about Jesus. First, the word was eternal, meaning that the word already was there at the very beginning of things, the word was there before creation.

Second, the word was with God, meaning that already there has been the closest connection between the word and God...no one can tell us what God is like, what God’s will is for us, what God’s love and heart and mind are like, as Jesus can.

Third, when John said the word was God he was not saying that Jesus was identical with God; he was saying that Jesus was so perfectly the same as God in mind, in heart, in being that in him we perfectly see what God is like.” (idem, pg. 37-39)

Jesus said: “I am the light of the world! You people come and follow me!

If you follow and love, you’ll learn the mystery of what you were meant to do and be.” (Words and song by Jim Strathdee in response to a Christmas poem).                        (“Songs and Creations.” Compiled by: YoHann Anderson, pg. 1)

It says it all! In Christ we have life and life abundant because he is the light of the world. We only find the mystery of that eternal life by receiving and believing in Jesus as the Son of God.

“We read that the life found in the Word illuminates human experience, that the light continually shines in the darkness, and that the darkness has neither understood nor succeeded in extinguishing the light.” of Christ.

                                                                     (Brueggemann, Year B, pg.84)

 “In John, we learn that in Jesus Christ we meet nothing less than the revelation of God. We discover that in Jesus Christ the word identified with God from the very beginning, has taken human form, and Christmas is the story of the birth of God’s self-communication to the world.

We learn that God’s revelation in Jesus Christ is not altogether obvious. The

Word came to a world that should have known him. After all, he had created the world… he came to a special people chosen from all the nations to be his own and to a land that was his heritage, but he was rejected. (He still is rejected by many in the world today.) Jesus was not universally acclaimed as the revelation of God, nor worshipped as the one in whom we touch ultimate reality… John’s gospel relates story after story of how prominent religious people not only did not recognize Jesus but found him offensive… There are also those who received Jesus, who trusted him, who found themselves by a creative act of God reborn, empowered to be children of God. They become the community called into being and nurtured by the revelation of God in Jesus. But that in itself tells us something about the character of God and God’s intentions in Jesus.

We learn that there is continuity between God’s works of creation and

revelation… the Word enfleshed at Bethlehem is the agent in creation, the

one by whom all things are made.”                 (Brueggemann, Year B, pg. 66-67)

This is a lot to think about, but let me say it differently by telling a story.

On “Three Kings Day,” last Wednesday night, January 06^th, Kevin and I visited a Hispanic Church in New Bedford. During the service the Magi processed down the center aisle following a star. They took a sit at the front of the church and they were interviewed by the worship leader, the children and the congregation. As they were answering the questions about their journey, they were also sharing their story. How the followed the star, how they knew through their studies of the movement of the stars and of the prophecies that something extraordinary was going to happen, pointing out to the birth of a king.

Why did you go to King Herod?, was one question. In their human logic, Herod as the King of Judea should know best where the child was to be born. If you would have known the humble birth of Jesus, would you have brought a different kind of gifts?, that was another question. Their answer?, positively no! no! no! They were still gifts fit for a king!

What do we do then with God’s gift for us?

In the Epiphany story, the magi followed the light of the star…to find the light of the world? At their arrival they came prepared and seem to know what to do, worshipping the infant Jesus, and by giving gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh – suitable for royalty, makes the scene complete and the prophecy fulfilled. The arrival of the non-Jews to Bethlehem turns out to be a part of the divine plan, an accomplishment of the promises made long ago. The account of the Magi’s visit to Bethlehem and their worship of the King of the Jews becomes a critical episode in the larger story of God’s redemptive plan for humankind. Salvation comes through Jesus the Jew, the fulfillment of the prophetic dreams, but it reaches far beyond to strangers from the East, to a Roman centurion, and to a Canaanite woman. At the end of the story it is no longer a matter of non-Jews coming to Bethlehem, but of Jewish disciples going out to all the nations.”                         (idem, pg.94-95)

“Jesus became flesh so as to show forth the love of God among us… Christ is the human expression of God to us, and we must try to understand what God means in Christ… the link between divine and human…” Amen!

         (“The Word and You.” Nan Duerling, vol.3, pg. 85)

As we enter this New Year:

Let us look outward upon the world face to face with God who made it.

Let us look upwards to see God. Let us look inwards, to find “the god within.”

Let us look backwards…” (Barclay, pg. 57-58)

…only to remember the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World!           

And by that guiding light may we move forward! Amen!