Light Incarnate 7-8-12

The Reading—1 John 1: 3-7
This, then, is the message we heard from Jesus and declare to you: God is light, and in God there is no darkness at all. If we say we have intimacy with God while still living in darkness, we are liars and do not live in truth. But is we live in the light, as God is in the light, we are one with each other, and the blood of Jesus, the Only Begotten, purifies us from all sin.

The Gospel Reading: John 1: 1-18
In the beginning there was the Word; the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God. The Word was present to God from the beginning. Through the Word all things came into being, and apart from the Word nothing came into being that has come into being. In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light—a Light that shines in the darkness, a Light that the Darkness has never overtaken.
Then came one named John, sent as an envoy from God, who came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through his testimony everyone might believe. He himself wasn’t the Light, he only came to testify about the Light—the true Light that illumines all humankind.
The Word was coming into the world—was in the world—and though the world was made through the Word, the world didn’t recognize it. Though the Word came to its own realm, the Word’s own people didn’t accept it. Yet any who did accept the Word, who believed in that Name, were empowered to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor urge of flesh, nor human will—but born of God. And the Word became flesh and stayed for a little while among us; we say the Word’s glory—the favor and position a parent gives an only child—filled with grace, filled with truth.
John testified by proclaiming, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘The one who comes after me ranks ahead of me, for this One existed before I did.’”
Of this One’s fullness we’ve all had a share—gift on top of gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, the Gift—and the Truth—came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; it is the Only Begotten, ever
at Abba's side, who has revealed God to us.
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Light Incarnate 7-8-12
God, the same God who said “let there be light”, we hear you now when you call us to the Light—that Light Incarnate who came to us in the person of Jesus. Help us to understand what seems beyond understanding and to listen with new hearts to your word. May all that I say, and all that we reflect upon bring you honor and glory. Amen
Welcome to the Gospel of John! We’re going to spend the remaining weeks of summer, taking a very close look at what John has to say to us. Why, this Gospel? I think John is a very summertime kind of writer—he writes in poetry and sacred prose. He emphasizes Light more than any other Gospel writer. We experience more light, as in daylight, during the summer than any other season and so I chose John as our summer journey. So, walk in the light as we study this beautiful record of the life of Jesus.
There are many in the world who choose to talk about God in a conceptual basis rather than a personal one. Some of those same folks find Christianity or the belief in Jesus Christ as Savior and Messiah as incongruent with the notion of a universal concept of love or spirit or energy. These folks need to read the first chapter of the Gospel of John. John’s concepts of Jesus as Word, and incarnation and light would be at home in any conversation about the nature of the divine. And so I welcome you to this journey, this summer of light and learning about John’s experience of Jesus and our response.
A very long time ago, let me emphasize a very long time ago, I went regularly to a gym. And I may again some day, but that doesn’t have anything to do with my story. Anyway, I went religiously to an aerobics dance class that was held outside on a big slab of concrete next to the pool. Next to—not in the pool. Anyway, it was hot, and the class had reached a level of fairly rapid movement. I was, it will not surprise you, dying in the heat. I suddenly realized that the teacher who was red in the face, too, was no longer actually doing the movements, she was just shouting at us what the next moves were. Seeing this, I lost a great deal of my motivation to continue on. The next time, she asked the group if we were having fun, I had a not very Christian answer for her. And by the time she shouted, “come on folks, bring your best self, only two more minutes of jumping jacks”, I was in the pool.
I discovered something important that day—it’s not enough for a leader to simply shout the instructions. A leader, at least if they are going to lead this rather stubborn person, is going to have to be out there in the heat “doing it” right along with me. Others didn’t seem to care or notice that the leader stopped working out with us when the first drop of sweat appeared underneath the cute little headband that accentuated the cute little outfit she was wearing. I noticed and I cared—and I think most of us do. Enough about exercise, I’m getting queasy just thinking about it.
John, in his poetic and subtle way, is telling us that God is not just giving instructions anymore. Prior to the incarnation of Jesus, God spoke to people only through others. Moses was used by God to bring the Law to the Hebrew people. Prophet after prophet spoke on behalf on God—desperately trying to lead the Israelites back to their God. But, all of a sudden, God is present in this world in the person of Jesus Christ—actually present. Jesus is not a representative of God; Jesus is the coming of God into the world. John gives us some information that can be confusing. He writes of Jesus, the Word, as present with God long before he came to earth as a tiny baby. It’s important to John that we get to the bottom of this. What makes Jesus the incarnation of the Word is, simply, being with God before the world began. Jesus was not an idea that occurred to God when things weren’t going quite right—Jesus was present with God as human history unfolded and throughout all time. Jesus was the incarnation of an eternal God come to earth to bring freedom and release.
The very beginning of the Gospel of John is often called the Proluge—like a summary before the book begins. God, here, is revealed as the God who will not leave us alone trying to figure out the law to the best of our abilities. God does not just shout from afar our next steps; no, God is present among us as the light of the world. The rest of John’s Gospel spells out all the ways that God was present in Jesus—as healer and teacher, as shepherd and guide. He is present among us—he speaks to us and, in the end, he lays down his life for all his friends. The Incarnation calls us to be a similar kind of presence in the world—to be used by God in all the ways that Jesus allowed God to use him.
The next person who appears rather quickly is John whom we call John the Baptizer. John plays a completely unique role in the unfolding of the story. Perhaps it would make more sense if we referred to John as John the Witness or Announcer, for John was sent by God with a specific purpose. Unlike the other Gospels, John, the author of this Gospel never refers to this John as John the Baptist. The Gospel of John calls us to the primary purpose—that of announcing, or preparing the way and of witnessing to the light that Jesus brought into the world.
The prologue, the portion of the Gospel of John that we have read today, closes with the statement that no one has ever seen God, that Jesus, the incarnate One, reveals God to us. John the Witness demonstrates how the Incarnate one is introduced to the rest of the world—by pronouncement and proclamation—and this is where we fit in. The Gospel does not go forward except by witnesses such as John and followers such as us. John’s purpose and our purpose as well is to witness or testify to the Light. In other words, John needed only point to Jesus as the Incarnation of God. Jesus would do the rest.
This pointing to Jesus is the call to witness the Christ story in the world. Now, I want to be honest with you. I know and you know that we live in a larger community of LGBTQ people all over the world. Their struggle is ours and ours is theirs. But, there is a problem. For many reasons, and we might explore those some day—our community is a “tough sell” on Jesus. Some Christian folk talk about two experiences of coming out—once when they came out as a gay, lesbian, bi, trans person and a second time when they came out to their new community as Christian. Some choose, after their first coming out, to never come out a second time. I know that everyone of you has friends, family or, at least, neighbors who can’t figure out why you identify as Christian. When people, after finding out the nature of the mission of MCC, ask me—is that, are you, a Christian church?, I understand their confusion. Public consensus is that being LGBTQ and Christian is not a match, shall we say, “made in heaven”.
But we are, indeed called to point the way to Jesus along with John the Witness and all the disciples. So how do we make sense of it all and still hold on to our witness?
In seminary, I ran across Fr. Henri Nouwen—A Catholic Priest, a scholar and writer who lived a very troubled life at times. However, he is the one who showed me that we are witnesses in every aspect of our lives. His writings called me to a larger vision of telling the story—not to just good times, but to acknowledge that we are all wounded and those very wounds speak of the glory of God. So I learned that witnessing in not memorizing a tract (if you don’t know what a tract is, you weren’t an evangelical in the 70’s); witnessing is living your life for all to see the miracle of you and to see what God is doing in your life now.
And, so, we end here for today. But we will return time and again, to stories of this Jesus, the Light of the world. As we study the Gospel of John, I trust that we will find new ways to be the witness in the world to God’s unconditional love and radical acceptance. Live in the light and walk with others until they see the light that is in us reflecting the Incarnate Word in the world. Amen and amen.