Every year, during Advent, and Christmas we celebrate the same gospel message, the coming of Jesus Christ, our Lord, the waiting and then the arrival of the Christ Child, born in a stable in Bethlehem all that time ago, and thereafter born each year in our hearts. The sermon may change but the message does not.
Once again, we to a favourite reading taken from the Gospel of John 1:14
The word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father full of grace and truth.
We can read these words and obtain the idea that this is poetry and indeed it is, we can read this text and sense that these words convey a profound truth and indeed they do. William Barclay commented that the Gospel of Mark deals with the story of Jesus, ‘plainly, bluntly and literally,’ but the Gospel of John, on the other hand sees things ‘subtly, profoundly, and spiritually.'
When you go inside a traditional Church building, as you face the chancel you will see the reading desk or the lectern to your left and the raised pulpit to your right. The kind of reading desk, this lectern I am particularly referring to often has a wooden carving of an eagle or a solid brass eagle integrated quite beautifully into it. This is not simply for decoration but rather it’s because the eagle is the symbol of St John and it’s on this reading desk, this lectern that you will find the church’s Bible and from there of course, the lessons are read out.
The eagle, I suppose, can represent many things, the soaring eagle which can reach heights of up to ten thousand feet and cannot be blinded when flying into the face of the sun. And so, the Gospel of John is simply not just an account of the life of Christ as recounted by the other gospels. But rather, the Gospel of John, like the soaring eagle transcends limiting boundaries reaching out to God in the spiritual realm. This is the word of God. We cannot really see God except through the manifestation of his creation, but we know that his creation is the manifestation of love of creative intelligence and of wisdom, God’s action in the world is also known as the Word. So, when John tells us that ‘the Word became flesh’ it means that Jesus was the Word, that God was met in Jesus. ‘Those who have seen me have seen the Father,’ said Jesus.
The word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father full of grace and truth.
We know that in this earthly life that it’s not given to us to know God entirely, it’s not given to us to come face to face with God, but through the scriptures we can read his word and we can hear his Word and know that we are his creation because we all bear the image of God. Jesus did refer to God as Father or Abba, that intimate expression between father and child and in doing so he was giving us a sense of our proximity to God. It's known as a filial relationship. That’s the relationship we should seek with God. And That relationship is supremely and simply a relationship of love and that love, the love of God is the ultimate reality. In the end, we can say that love is all there is. John in his first letter said that those who know love, love God and those who don’t know love don’t know God. Everything else is secondary, everything else is temporary, everything else impermanent. As St Paul put it:
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (Cor 13)
In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus said to everyone ‘You are the light of the world’ he said. ‘Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’ What Jesus wanted for himself he wanted for us too.
The word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father full of grace and truth.
Let the Word become flesh and make his dwelling amongst us. Let the living Christ that indwells each one of us become the light that shines before others so that we too may glorify our God, our Father in heaven. Amen.
Photo: By NotFromUtrecht - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12684188
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