Sermon, Sun 11 Sept, Wk3: In the beginning, the Word' - WMTRBW

1st READING: Ps 145:1-16
2nd READING: John 1:1-17

SERMON 'In the beginning, the Word'
Let’s pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations
of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

The ancient philosopher, Plato, stated that:
‘the beginning is the most important part of the work.’
And, over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been doing
the important work of exploring beginnings
as we’ve heard again the creation stories from Genesis, the book of beginnings.
Our first story was a great hymn of awe and wonder –
a story beginning with God;
God’s story of creation –
a story of imagining,
of shaping, and making,
and of bringing order out of chaos,
and life out of nothingness –
this, over a period described as ‘6 days’.
And all that was made was seen by the One who had created it,
and was called ‘good.’

Our second creation story,
following immediately from this first account,
told the story of a garden –
out of which rivers flowed,
and in which, was filled with all living things:
plants and creatures
and then, from the dust, a human being...
followed later by another –
formed by God from the rib of the first.
Both made to live in companionship with:
God,
one another,
and the whole of creation –
over which they were stewards,
and over which they had the power of naming each created thing.
And in this garden, called Eden,
we also know that there were two special trees:
the Tree of Life,
and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Now God had instructed the humans to enjoy Eden,
to prosper and flourish...
to eat of any fruit...
but one:
the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil:
for to eat of it would surely bring death.
Into this second creation story, then,
was introduced the possibility that while all was good,
that could change, depending upon human choice.

Where we left off last week, in that story,
all was still well in the garden...
and, we’ll travel back there next week.
Today, however, we have another beginning –
a third account of creation, according to the Gospel of John –
echoing our first creation story:
Genesis 1: ‘In the beginning God...’
John 1: ‘In the beginning ...was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’

Remember Plato –
‘the beginning is the most important part of the work’?
This is John’s beginning – his account,
his testimony, if you like, about the man, Jesus.
And John thinks it hugely important to tie
the beginning of his story of Jesus
to the beginning of all things.
John’s creation story introduces the whole of the story to follow,
the story of Jesus, by grounding it solidly within the creation story –
and by doing so, flagging up that there’s something
 more to Jesus than may meet the eye –
he’s human, yes...
but so much more.

This portion of John’s gospel is ordinarily heard
at Christmas Eve watchnight services, or on Christmas Day –
the great hymn of praise and wonder of God breaking into creation
and doing a new thing...
a great hymn echoing that first great hymn of creation in Genesis, chapter one.
And, at that time of year, our other gospel accounts give us
more ‘earthy’ descriptions of Jesus –
the muck and mess of a birth in a byre,
smells and animals and pain and love combined.
The other accounts of Jesus put him well and truly within a human context –
...albeit with angels singing ‘Glory!’
and a star shining over Bethlehem.
Here is God made flesh – tiny, human...
But at the beginning of John’s account of Jesus –
we see a holy, and wholly, other side to the nature of Jesus,
described here as ‘the Word’ –
in the Greek, ‘logos’ –
which Bryan McClaren refers to as:
‘a special term for the pattern of meaning God
has spoken or written into the universe.’  [WMTRBW p15]

John’s creation account, and account of Jesus,
speaks less of the human Jesus
and more of the cosmic Christ.
Trying to make sense of the extraordinary experience
he and the disciples – and others – have had, of Jesus,
trying to put down in words that which had been, in the end, utterly overwhelming,
John turns to this sense of ‘logos’ to describe Jesus -
Jesus, who is not just a man,
but God.
Jesus, who has a human nature...
but also, who has a divine nature –
and if divine, then, somehow, involved in the beginning of all things –
the Word, speaking patterns and logic
from nothing,
from formlessness,
and out of chaos.

This particular gospel reading –
often referred to as ‘the Prologue’ of John –
is like a hymn of awe and wonder and love.
A hymn of glorification –
of praise and worship;
a recognition of the holy:
God’s presence...
it is of God, in human life.
God, who, having gotten hands dirty by gathering dust and forming a human,
enters fully into human experience in Jesus.
And the writer of this gospel is astonished –
astonished by the thought that to see Jesus is to see God...
the One who brought all things into being at the beginning of all time.
‘It is through entering into our flesh that Jesus reveals to us who God actually is, 
has been, and will be.  It is through plunging deeply into the sinful, ignorant 
realities of our existence in this world that Jesus restores us to that for which he created us.’        
                                                                                                      [Cynthia L Rigby FOTW YrB Vol 1 p144]
The man, Jesus, who told stories,
shared food at table,
who touched the untouchable,
who challenged authorities
is, also the divine Word, through whom all things were made –
the light, shining in the darkness,
the true light who gives light to every human being.
This same one who, for those who believe,
gave the right to become children of God...
the Word,
who ‘became flesh and lived for a while among us.’
And, here, the basic meaning in the original text
is that in Jesus, God ‘spread his tent with ours.’  [Gk verb: ‘skenoo’]

John echoes Genesis once more, with his mention of light and dark –
into the darkness of nothingness, the light shines:
God’s creative Word bringing life,
leaving an imprint upon creation,
the patterns and logic making, for John,
sense of God’s story of beginnings,
and God’s continuing story of relationship with human beings...
making sense – showing the divine ‘logic’ –
of the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus...
making sense of the mission of Jesus,
to restore us, and to redeem us – to re-orient us as we make the road, together,
with God,
and each other,
by walking in faith
by continuing the story of faith
and continuing the tradition of relationship and community...
and re-creation and restoration.

Here, in this creation story told by John –
told in the context of a people trying to make sense of Jesus and of his story,
we’re told at the beginning of this story, of Jesus - the Word,
echoing the creation story of Genesis, which:
‘tells us that God said, 
"Let there be . . ." and there was. God spoke day and night, 
heaven and earth, land and sea, plants and animals, and humanity into being.  
Jesus is that utterance. Jesus is God’s eternal speech, which existed before 
anything else and called everything into being.’
                                                                                     [Craig Saterlee, ‘Working Preacher’]

Essentially, John telling us that:
‘In Jesus, God speaks God’s mind.’    [FOTW, YrC, Robert Redman, 140] 
That, in Jesus, God has given life,
and that God has given light.
As John prepares us to hear the rest of the story of Jesus,
the imagery of light and dark will play out throughout the entire story.
We begin in the gospel, with the true light coming into the world...
and over the course of the John’s account,
the darkness begins to overshadow the story,
until that particular darkness which covered the earth one Friday, at 3pm,
a darkness trying to blot out a man hanging upon a cross on a hill
outside the walls of Jerusalem...
but that is not the end of the story, according to John:
for ‘the beginning is the most important part of the work’
and the beginning of this creation story in John points to the true light:
a light that can never be overcome;
a light that reveals, through Jesus, what God is like;
a light that reveals, by his life, how we should live;
a light that reveals, that, in Jesus, we are God’s own beloved children
and part of a long, and great, and astonishing story –
a story worth sharing with others...
a story of hope, of life, and of God’s ongoing love –
a love present from the beginning of all time,
and love that will last throughout all eternity.
A love that calls us, as God’s people, to take the light of life
into places that don’t shine so brightly;
to places where it feels like the dark is winning.
We carry the light – that light of life,
as people who follow the true light –
for we are called by the life-giving and creative God,
to be a life-giving and creative people... this because:
‘we have seen his glory:the glory of the one and only Son, 
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’

Let’s pray:
‘In the beginning 
the Word had already spoken what had been. 
The universe understood its meaning. 
Nature recognised its tone. 
Life and energy responded to its sound. 
And so our story was birthed through 
the ecstasy of creation and the agony of love. 
In the beginning 
the Word had already declared what was to be. 
Yet blindness did not see it. 
Ignorance could not discern it. 
Hostility refused to accept it. 
And so our story was lived 
through the suffering of a Son, 
the heartbreak of a Father. 
In the beginning 
the Word spoke clear and true of what is. 
And a weeping woman heard it. 
A people failed to suppress it. 
A world is yet to receive it. 
And so our story begins 
again and again with a Word. 
Lord, may we listen. 
Lord, may we know. 
Lord, may we see a new beginning. Amen.’
                                                                   [Spill the Beans]