Holy and wonderful God, we’re surprised to find ourselves
here. Get us ready for the coming of
your Word into our lives once again.
We’re waiting and most of us don’t do waiting very well. Give us holy patience and a renewed sense of
your sacred purpose in our lives. Amen
I see Advent
hiding behind the big Christmas tree in the mall, looking through the branches
taunting us, saying “ready or not, here I come!” I’m still making the decision as whether or
not to buy a Halloween costume. So, like
it or not, we find ourselves right at the beginning of Advent. Perhaps the lighting of the Advent Candle
helped ground you firmly in the season.
Of the four
Gospels, Mark is the only one who makes no mention of the birth of Christ. He simply begins with John the Baptizer and
introduces Jesus in the context of John’s ministry. Matthew is very matter of fact. After listing Jesus’ family tree back so many
generations that the tree would have reached the clouds, he lists the “facts”
of the story. In his so doing, he
focuses on Joseph’s experiences and introduces us to the wise men, astrologers,
or scholars who visit Jesus. Although
our Christmas pageants of old have everyone arriving at the manger at the same
time; in truth, it is likely that these wise men came on the scene when Jesus
was about two. Luke’s story is the one
we are most familiar with—he brings us angels singing, shepherds leaving their
flocks and rushing to see the baby, and the lovely story of the animals keeping
the holy family warm through the night.
That’s the story most often read and depicted in all the nativity sets
sold all over the world.
But John, ah,
John is a poet and a mystic; and, his version of Christ’s birth is pure
poetry—poetry so sophisticated and full of layers of connotation that the exact
meaning continues to baffle the finest New Testament scholars. I am not, I will admit, a New Testament
scholar, but I think that we can look at a couple of ways these verses can be
interpreted over these next four weeks as they relate to other marvelous things
we have been discovering about God along the way this past year.
Almost all
of you, if I said, “In the beginning…”, would complete the sentence in one of
two ways: either “God created the
heavens and the earth”, or “was the Word and the Word was God”. These two prologues to much longer books claim
two things in common: one, that there
was a beginning; and, two, that God—that Divine Source f all there is—was the
primary (maybe only) character on stage at the beginning of the story. God, creator, was present in some wonderful
way in the beginning of all others things that were to come. Now, you, of course, know that these creation
stories match very closely the creation stories of every major world religion
so it comes as no surprise that the Judeo-Christian creation story begins in
the same way. John, more than likely,
began his Gospel with the same three words as the Torah began for the purpose
of linking the God of the Word, and ultimately, Jesus with the same God as the
God of creation. We must remember that
this insistence on one God arose in the context of a multi-god culture. Even the Jews, at times in their centuries
long history, have strayed into places where they found themselves worshipping
other gods. We have a bad habit of
taking that insistence and applying it to contemporary religions. This was not the meaning at all. It was the many, many lesser gods that were
distracting the Hebrews from sticking with the one supreme being. But, I fear, I digress.
Immediately
after John’s introductory three words, he says to us, “was the Word”. Now there is a lot of debate about that Greek
word logos. Translating it simply as “word” is actually
limiting and belittling of the actual meaning.
Logos actually means more like “discourse” or “treatise”. Logos is more like a concept rather than one
word. However, lots of words have been
derived from the same root word—words like, Lectio, lexicon, lyrics, etc. This asks us to broaden our concept of what
is traditionally presented as the meaning of “In the beginning was the
Word.”
There is a
relatively contemporary version of the Bible called, “The Voice”. Those translators and authors argue for a
translation of the word logos as
“voice”. While those authors
acknowledge that no single word can accurately be used to translate, logos,
voice has some distinct advantages.
First, ‘voice’ puts humanity into the act of speaking. It is one of the primary tools of
communication; indeed, it is true that both sides of the conversation must use
the voice or something that substitutes for it.
John, then, is telling us that God is not only speaking, the nature of
God is being revealed to the world. In
the second place, we can distinguish one voice from another. Before caller ID took over the job for us,
many of us could identify our callers by the sound of their voice alone. The voice of God, and, later, the voice of
Jesus is distinct from all others. Jesus
confirms this later in the story when he talks about his sheep recognizing his
voice. They know no other voice and so,
they will not follow anyone else. This
is one of the many times Jesus talks about a personal relationship with the
Source of all Being, God.
Finally,
‘voice’ denotes the dynamic quality of this relationship with a robust and
powerfully acting God. And, it forces us
to deal with the questions that arise when the ongoing nature of speaking is
acknowledged. Jesus spoke the word of
God in ways people had never experienced.
God has used many others in our lives to speak the Divine Truth. If this Sacred Voice continues to speak, we
must accept the dynamism in the relationship and be willing to continue
learning more and more about this active and transforming and transformative
experience with God. The translation
this version of the Bible uses is beautiful:
“Before time itself was measured, the Voice was
speaking. The Voice was and is God. This celestial Word remained ever
present with the Creator…”
As
we think about the impact of this voice on our very lives, we know that we
would need God to speak something that we could understand or at least begin to
understand. Words are powerful, whether
written or spoken, words have the ability to changes lives for good or
bad. Let’s start with a rather simple,
though for some of us, quite painful, example.
There are words that we say to each other or that have or have not been
said to us that can radically impact lives for the better. I suspect that most of you either saw the
movie or read the book, The Help.
And you probably remember what the maid said to the little white girl as
often as she could, “You is kind. You is smart. You is
important.” Somehow, Abilene knew that
these were some of the most important words, this little girl could learn. We use similar words when we say, “You are
special. God loves you unconditionally. Come home to yourself.” What a difference in most of our lives if we
had heard these words spoken over and over again as we were growing up and
trying to figure out who in the world we were.
And, I don’t just mean those of you who are gay or lesbian or bi. I mean all of us—because many of us received
the message that we were anything but special, that God did not and could not
love us and that we had no self to come home to. Is it not possible that these are the words
we all long to hear, even now, even here.
We long for, even yearn for community and unity in almost every aspect of
our lives.
We long to
feel at home—to hear someone say, “You are very special to me”. And, I don’t just mean as lovers. We long for friends for people to truly and
deeply know us. We long for
encouragement and to be believed in.
When these conditions are met in our community, we unlock the human
potential in all those who come in contact with us. We discover for ourselves and introduce to
others the beautiful and true that we wish to have in our lives.
This is the
concept that lies at the heart of the coming of Jesus into the world as God
incarnate—that, although we had been shown the truth for centuries, God loved
us enough to come walk on this earth to show us the way. The Divine Logos—this first word—is that
which lies at the heart of all God’s actions in the universe. It speaks to that which is true and
beautiful—that which is completely good.
The Divine Logos wraps all that we know about God in the arms of love
and gives it to us each morning as we rise and greet the sun. This Divine Word is waiting for us here,
today, to open us up to the possibilities that God has in mind for each and
everyone of us.
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