Sermon for Christmas 1A
9:00 Baptism and 11:15
Lessons and Carols
St. Philip’s In The
Hills Parish, Tucson, AZ
The Rev. Vicki K.
Hesse, December 29, 2013
Gospel text John
1:1-18
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable to you,
O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen
O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen
In
the beginning
Well,
those are powerful words.
In
every beginning, like the beginning of 2014,
we
humans tend to mark beginnings in special ways.
We
set New Year’s resolution, post our “year in review” on Facebook,
eat and drink ritual foods that only emerge
eat and drink ritual foods that only emerge
this
time of year. In the beginning…
Our
Gospel today, opens with these profound words,
In
the beginning was the Word and
the
Word was with god and the Word was God,”
implying
that all creation – ever since the beginning –
perceives
and witnesses this primordial, sense-making Word.
Meaning
that God’s will and Christ are revealed as eternal,
ever
since the very cosmic beginning.
Does
that give you an idea about the length and breadth
and
depth of God’s love and existence?
“In
the beginning, not our wishes, hopes, dreams and plans,
but
God and God’s Word, and God’s love for the world
that
God chooses to create.”[1]
These
verses echo Genesis 1:1,
“In
the beginning, God created…”
and
God creates by speaking.
God
said, “Let there be light; and there
was light.”
The
Word was not a heavenly being but
a
role of God in creation.[2]
The
Psalmist attests it in Psalm 33:6,
“…by
the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and
all their host by the breath of [God’s] mouth.
for
[God] spoke, and it came to be;
[God]
commanded and it stood firm.”
These
texts and others remind us that
amid
life’s chaos, amid our uncertain times,
amid
our petty squabbles, amid our societal struggles,
ever
since the beginning,
the
world belongs to God and Christ always was.
That
is to say, God’s intention for humanity
was
to love the world right from the start.
God
loved us first, so we love in return.
And
in God’s love we are all lit up by Christ,
which is why K. and C. have brought
S. to be baptized today.
Through God’s love, they were each
baptized.
Through God’s love, they were brought together
to form a family.
Through God’s love, S. came into their life.
And in the beginning,
even before she made it to their new home,
K. and C. brought S. to the church,
their faith community, for a blessing.
In the beginning…
So with an eye and an ear for God’s Love in
this family,
we take a special interest today in the middle
verses,
“…to all who received him, to all who believed
in his name,
he gave power to become children of God (to be
adopted),
who were born, not of blood or of the will of
the flesh or
of the will of [human] but of God.”
In the beginning…
Today, through the sacrament of baptism,
God adopts S. as God’s child.
God makes her a member of the Body of Christ,
and an inheritor of the kingdom of God.
K. and C., your gift to S.
gives her citizenship in the body of Christ
and redemption by God.
She becomes our sister in Christ. How cool is
that?!
“And
the Word became flesh and lived among us,
and
we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,
full
of grace and truth.”
Eugene
Peterson, in his interpretation of the bible,
“The
Message,” offers this reading,
“The
Word was made flesh and blood
and
moved into the neighborhood.
We
saw the glory with our own eyes,
the
one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son,
generous
inside and out, true from start to finish.”[3]
I
love this reading because of the word “neighborhood.”[4]
“Neighborhood”
reminds me of the place I grew up
and
the people with whom I grew up.
I
remember the open field behind our house
where
my family and neighbor friends played kickball.
I
remember the public riding ring down the hill
where
my horsey-friends would gather on Saturdays,
share
equine remedies, laugh and dream.
I
remember the backyards and canyons behind our house, into which we rode
bareback and built forts in the bamboo caves.
I
remember the neighbors who raised a voracious goat
that
seemed to get loose too often.
That’s
what I think of when I hear,
“the
Word was made flesh
and
moved into the neighborhood.”
The
Word was made flesh and moved into
my
hillside, zoo-like neighborhood
My
neighborhood of laughing kids, secret forts, loose goats
and
afternoons on horseback;
my
neighborhood, not fit for the cosmic Word of God,
but
one in which Jesus moved, anyway.
And
in the beginning, Jesus moved into every neighborhood
–
from
Barrio Viejo to Dove Mountain,
–
from
Armory Park to Pusch Ridge,
–
from
war-torn Sudan to
extravagance of Dubai.
The
Word, Jesus, dwells with us all, in all our neighborhoods.
And
when he moved in, Peterson says,
his
“one-of-a-kind” glory was like Father, like Son,
generous from the inside and
out, true from start to finish.
Jesus,
like the Father, lived God’s character two ways:
First,
he was generous inside and out.
In other words, generous from the center,
from his inner heart to his outer skin.
giving away everything that God gave him,
showing us there can be
no difference between inside and out.
Second,
he was true from start to finish.
In other words, true throughout his life and
ministry,
with an integrity, honesty, and wholeness.
Showing us how to live a whole and undivided
life.
The
Word is a great neighbor. And from our
neighbor
we
learn about God’s character, God’s DNA, infused with love, generosity and truth
- from which we receive
grace
upon grace in our baptism.
From
our neighbor we learn about God’s neighborhood:
to
share bread and to pray together,
to
resist temptations that keep us from knowing God’s love,
to
see the good in others and to ask about their hopes and dreams,
to
get to know our neighbors in need and to help them,
to
make the world a better place for all our neighbors,
not just the ones we like (but the ones with loose goats, too!).
not just the ones we like (but the ones with loose goats, too!).
That’s
what it means that Jesus, the Word,
moved
into our neighborhood.
Some
people are awed by God’s power
to
create something out of nothing.
Some
people are awed by the “omniscience” of God,
the
fact that God has infinite knowledge
of
all things at the same time.
For
me, I am moved by God’s love
that
brings Jesus to the neighborhood.
Love
and compassion bring God next door.
Love and compassion bring K. and C. here,
with S., for her
baptism.
Love
and compassion call us out into the neighborhood
to
greet a stranger, to visit someone who is sick,
to
help a co-worker who is struggling,
to
say thanks to someone important with the words,
“You
are God’s gift and I see God’s light in you.”
In
the beginning,
the
Word was made flesh and blood
and
moved into the neighborhood.
And
so, this day, may we recognize God’s glory
in S.’s face and
in
the face of every neighbor we meet in the ‘hood,
in
every beginning!
Amen.
[1] Informed by Aaron Klink, “Pastoral
Perspective:John 1:1-14,” in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on
the World, Year A, Vol. 1, (Louisville,
JohnKnox Press, 2010) p. 140
[2] Inspired by Douglas R. A. Hare,
“Exegetical Perspective: John 1:1-14” in in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown
Taylor, Feasting
on the World, Year A, Vol. 1, (Louisville,
JohnKnox Press, 2010) p. 141
[4] Portions inspired by Frank A. Thomas,
“Pastoral Perspective:John 1: (1-9) 10-18,” in David L. Bartlett and Barbara
Brown Taylor, Feasting on the World, Year
A, Vol. 1, (Louisville,
JohnKnox Press, 2010) p. 188, 190, 192
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