John 1 (selected verses)

William F. Schnell

January 3, 2010

Wow, can you believe it?  Another decade has come and gone.  Was it really 10 years ago that we were wondering what to do about the Y2K bug?  The fear was that computer programs might crash in unison because they had evolved from earlier precedents which did not recognize dates beyond 1999.  By then computer chips were embedded in everything from hospital respirators to automobiles, and running everything from the nation’s electric grid to its stock exchanges.  Organizations were spending billions of dollars on programs and consultants who could insure that they would remain "Y2K compliant" and operational on January 1, 2000.

The Schnell family took precautionary steps to insure our survival.  Actually, I should say "step" (singular) because the only precaution we took was to buy a new plastic trash barrel at Wal-Mart.  This we filled up with water in case an electrical blackout rendered our well inoperable.  By George at least we were going to have water to drink!  But our plans proved unnecessary because we ended up driving our non-Y2K compliant car to my parents’ house in Columbus for a New Year’s Eve party.

While at that party I was sorely tempted to slip into the basement as the ball on Times Square was falling.  The idea was to trip the main circuit breaker on the electric service panel just as the clock struck midnight and cut everything to black—an attempt at humor which Nancy vetoed.  In the final analysis, nothing dramatic happened and we returned home to find that our trash can full of water had turned to ice.  This we dragged out on the lawn and turned upside down.  Lifting off the plastic barrel left a large ice sculpture vaguely reminiscent of something you might find in a Roman ruin, which turned out to be quite a hit with the neighbors (I think).

Anyway, it is hard to believe that was 10 years ago.  Isn’t it interesting how a new year, and especially a new decade, causes us to look back?  This can be a helpful exercise if we learn from the past.  President Harry Truman was often fond of saying, "The only thing new is the history you haven’t learned."  Most every present reality has an historical precedent.  For example, we might not have a Y2K bug this year but we do have an H1N1 bug.  Did the cancellation of the Schnell Garden Party avert a worldwide pandemic?  I am not saying it did and I am not saying it didn’t.  I’m just saying.

Today is the first Sunday in 2010, as well as the Sunday before Epiphany (which always falls on January 6).  Epiphany means "a revelatory manifestation" and usually focuses upon the story of the Magi, the account of the transfiguration or any biblical text where the glory of Jesus Christ is revealed to somebody.  Somebody sees Jesus for who he really is—the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah and the Savior of the world.  In our text for today Jesus is revealed as the Incarnate Word of God--hence the title of our message.

Our text is a look back, way back, which makes it appropriate not only for the beginning of a new year but a new decade.  Our first clue that it is a look back comes from the opening words: In the beginning… (Verse 1).  If that doesn’t sound familiar, I have included the very first words of the Bible as a quote at the top of our bulletin.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).  Now if you count yourself among the literal creationists that is fine, and if you count yourself among the Darwinian evolutionists that is also fine because the Bible is not a science book about "how."  It is a spiritual book about "who" and the testimony of this text is that God created everything.  Regardless of how he did it, God is the Creator.

The only thing the Bible says about "how" is that God spoke the Word and things began to happen.  And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light (Genesis 1:3).  The opening words of John’s Gospel, which comprise our text, not only share the same exact opening words of the book of Genesis, they connect God’s Word with creation in general and light in particular.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (Verses 1-5).

John is writing about Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the preexistent Christ.  In other words, before Jesus was born into our world as a human being, he existed with God. Indeed in the beginning he was not only with the Creator, he was the Creator.  The reason John calls Jesus the Word is because Jesus is an expression of God.  Just as I express my thoughts, emotions and personality through the words I speak, so God expresses himself through his Word, Jesus.  As Paul puts it in our Call to Worship, The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3).  Or as we often put it in modern parlance, "Like Father, like Son."

There is a movie out right now that Rev. Horak has referred to my favorable attention, so I plan on seeing it soon.  It is called, "Avatar."  I have no idea what the movie is about, but the word Avatar is a Sanskrit word that means: "The incarnation of a deity."  Incarnation means "Embodied in human form, personified."  Jesus is God embodied in human form.  Jesus is God personified as a human being.  As John puts it in our text, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (Verse 14).

Now we should be clear about something.  God is not a "he."  God is not confined to any human form.  The human form is uniquely suited for living on the surface of planet earth.  Under water, our eyes and ears do not work so well, not to mention our lungs.  God has no such limitations.  God is limitless and therefore much bigger than our puny ability to comprehend.  But God, in his infinite wisdom, has chosen to make himself known to us in ways that we can comprehend.  One of the Words God uses to communicate with us is his Incarnate Word, Jesus.  Another is his Written Word, the Bible.  There are others.  With these Words God expresses himself to us in ways that we can understand.

There is no such thing as human perfection.  But if there was it would look like the portrait of Jesus painted for us in the Bible.  There may be lots of different ideas about the historical Jesus, what he looked like and so forth.  There may be lots of opinions about what is to be taken literally about him and what is figuratively intended.  There may be lots of theologies, doctrines and denominations (not to mention political persuasions) which have sprung up presuming to speak for him on one social issue or another.

But there can be no mistaking the spiritual portrait of him preserved for us in the Bible.  He was loving, he was kind, he was caring, he was humble—on such things noone disagrees.  We may never be as perfect as he, but because perfection has been incarnate in him we have an ideal toward which we may strive.  And where we fall short we can rely upon his forgiveness, mercy and redeeming love which are also a part of his spiritual portrait.  This answers the "who" question for us.  Who is Jesus?  Jesus is the Incarnate Word of God.

The question that remains is "what."  What are we to do with God’s Word to us?  John continues: He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him (Verses 10-11).  The worldly powers-that-be--a Roman Governor named Pilate and a puppet King named Herod--did not recognize Jesus for who he was.  The religious leaders among his own people—the Pharisees and Sadducees, the priests, scribes and teachers of the law—who ostensibly longed for the Messiah, did not receive Jesus when he came in ways they did not expect.

Looking back it is easy to judge and condemn, just as it is easy to look back and poke fun at the Y2K bug as if we were somehow above the fear and nonsense.  But in the moment, I remember discussions at our Church Board meetings about not only protecting the church computers from the bug but also protecting the community from the ensuing mayhem.  Hindsight is always 50/50.  Can we, who are in this moment, really claim to be spiritually superior to those of the past who failed to recognize and receive God’s Word?

Thanks to the religious freedom we have in this land, and coupled with the continuing refinement of information technology, there is probably a Bible or two or three in every single home.  There is certainly access to a plethora of translations and commentaries online.  God’s Written Word has never been more accessible to us than it is today.  But how many of us actually read it or study it or struggle with it or memorize it or meditate over it?  There are people in the world today who are literally risking their lives to possess a Bible—that is how precious it is to them—while our Bibles collect dust on the shelf.

If that is how we relate to God’s Written Word, what makes us think that we would relate any different to his Incarnate Word?  If Christ was incarnate in our time and place would we react any differently than those who refused to recognize and receive him back in the day?  What if he was a Democrat for crying out loud?  What if he wanted our money for some harebrained redistribution of wealth plan?  What if he was a "she?"  What if "she" was a person of color or disabled or different (if you know what I mean)?  What if this Incarnate Word challenged our sense of privilege and entitlement à la King Herod and the Chief Priests?  Would we react any different than they?

I will tell you the answer to that question myself.  The answer is: "some of us," and I offer the next portion of our text as a biblical foundation.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (Verses 12-13).  Some of us will actually brave temperatures in the teens, gusts over 40 miles per hour and who knows how many inches of snow on the ground to come to this two hundred year old house of worship to read in the Written Word about the Incarnate Word.  Congratulations!  You are among the faithful few!

Or maybe not exactly, because the real answer to the question is… that there is a little of both in all of us.  There is a little false Pharisee in all of us and there is a little true believer in all of us.  None of us is beyond hope and none of us is perfect.  But to the extent we embrace God’s Word to us we live in the light of understanding and wisdom, and to the extent we do not we stumble over snares and bumble into unseen obstructions and tumble into pitfalls and generally get our lives battered and bruised.

That is why we need to be faithful to our pews--and I know that attending church regularly is one of your New Year’s Resolutions—so that we may continue our engagement with God’s Word to us.  And that is why we need to come to this table where we can confess the false Pharisee in us and find forgiveness to make a brand new start as a true believer striving toward perfection—striving to follow in the footsteps of God incarnate in human form.

Paul calls us to come to this table recognizing the body of Christ.  By that he means recognizing that we are the body of Christ whenever we gather as a family of faith.  Not just the perfect ones among us, for there are none of those, but every imperfect one of us.  Each of us is a needful part of Christ’s body continuing his physical presence in the world and continuing his ministry in the world.  We should never fail to recognize that lest we fail to recognize the Incarnate Word of God.