Here and Now

John 1:1-14 (NRSV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 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.

I’m not going to make it a habit of talking about my children in sermons. I really don’t think that’s fair. After all parents get to see their children at all sorts of moments - when they’re at their best and when they’re at their worst. So if I get to pick and choose the moments I’m going to tell about, well, you see where the problem is.

But…I have to tell you this story. I have to tell you because it’s just the sort of thing you need to hear to really hear what John is saying to us today.

When Joel was young, probably no more than three years old, he had a birthday. And we had family over and we celebrated with cake and ice cream and balloons. We had a piñ ata and streamers and a lot of presents. Joel was very happy with all of the arrangements and really enjoyed the party, but when it came time to open the presents, he didn’t want to. We tried several times to get him to open just one or two, but he wasn’t ready. So those presents sat there for two days until the time was right. Then he ripped into them and ended up really enjoying them. But the time had to be right.

Now by this time on Christmas morning, I’m guessing that most of you have opened at least one present. Maybe you left a living room floor strewn with wrapping paper when you came to church. Opening presents is one of the best parts of Christmas. We’ve been looking forward to it.

But what if we never opened them? What if we left those presents under the tree for two days…four days…a week…a month? If we never got around to opening the presents, what would that say? That we didn’t care about getting gifts? That we didn’t think much of the person who gave us the gifts? That we had all that we need and didn’t believe that it would be pleasurable or meaningful to open another gift?

Getting to Christmas was all about waiting for the gift to arrive. Today…now it’s up to us. We’ve been busy trying to be good gift-givers up to this point. Now we need to be good gift-receivers.

This is important because of what we read in these famous opening words of the gospel of John. Last night we read from Luke who gives us the rough and gritty details of Jesus’ birth in a manger in Bethlehem. When we read Luke we can hear the angel’s singing but we can also smell the sheep and feel Mary’s weariness and even hear the baby’s cry. Luke gives us the narrow focus.

John wants us to see something else. John wants us to know that this story that we are celebrating today doesn’t just begin with an angel visiting a young girl in Palestine to tell her that she would be giving birth to a Messiah. John knows that the story is greater than that. It is not just a baby like any other being born in that stable; it’s God. The creator of the universe has condescended to be found in human form. This Christ we know in Jesus was there at the beginning of all things. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” This Word is Christ.

John doesn’t want you to forget the big picture. It is absolutely important that you know who this Jesus is. This is not just a great man who rose from humble birth to be a leader of his people. This is not a traditional hero’s narrative. This is not just a Jewish leader or a great teacher. This is not just a prophet or even just a king. This is the one who was present at the creation - the one through whom all things have their being. Without this one not one thing was made, John wants us to know. The whole universe has its origins in this one who is not only human but divine. The God who stretched the starry heavens, sleeps beneath them on this night. Amazing!

Huston Smith, who is an author and scholar of religion, says, in his new book, The Soul of Christianity, that he has always thought of the incarnation as a painful thing. It must be very painful, he says, for God, who knows no limits of time and space, to be constrained to the form and time of a single human life. He recalls a time when he went to a Christmas Eve service after a hernia operation and heard the minister talking about God straining against the limitations of human existence, ready to burst out. Suddenly, Smith says, his hernia operation was put into a new light.

It is amazing that we should know God in this way. It is astounding that God would choose to come in this way. It didn’t have to be this way. God did not have to take human form. God could have left us to our own devices and our own sins. We could have gone astray like abandoned children. It didn’t have to be this way.

But God chose to come. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. How silently, how silently the wondrous gift was given! And because God chose to come in this way, we almost missed it. Maybe we still do. John is fascinated by this. He says, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own and his own people did not accept him.” What if you gave a gift and no one knew it? What if people had the most amazing gift they could ever dream of right in front of them and they were absolutely blind to it?

You know how fascinated I am with The Wizard of Oz. This to me is the greatest insight I have gotten from that movie. At its heart it is a movie about deluded people. The main characters are all deluded about who they are and what gifts they have been given.

Think about it. The scarecrow thinks he has no brain even though he manages to figure out the plans to save the day. The tin woodsman thinks he doesn’t have a heart even though he’s the most sentimental one of the bunch. The lion thinks he has no courage but even he musters up enough to confront the Wicked Witch of the West. And Dorothy? She thinks she can’t get home to Auntie Em and Uncle Henry even though she’s wearing the very slippers that can take her back in an instant. They are characters who deny the gifts they have and set off to see a wizard who isn’t really a wizard whose greatest gift to them is to help them see what they already have.

What if God’s gift to us is like that? What if the miracle of the incarnation was so close to us that we can’t even see it? To paraphrase St. Augustine, what if God is closer to us than we are to ourselves?

So there’s this gift that God has given to us. There is this amazing incomparable gift that promises us life and salvation. All that’s missing is someone to open it up. All that’s missing is us!
This is the easy part. God has done the hard work. God has done the painful work of taking on human form and entering our time and space though God knows no such limitations. God has done the impossible in entering the world. All that is left is for us to open the present.

You know how easy that is! You’ve been ripping the paper off of presents since you were a baby! We can get through the trappings to find the I-pod beneath the tissue paper. Can we get through the trappings to find God?

John starts out his gospel this way because he knew what the most important thing was. John didn’t want us to be content with hearing what God did - he wanted to move us to do something about it. It’s not enough for us to know the details of the story of Jesus’ birth. It’s not enough to be awed at the angels and humbled by the shepherds. It’s not enough to see the magi kneeling at Jesus’ feet. It’s not enough to feel for Mary and for Joseph and the trials they went through. It’s not even enough to know that the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king.

What John wants is for us to believe. John tells us right up front - the universe was made through this one. YOU were made through this one. Christ is the center point, the hinge on which the universe turns. And some will miss how important he is. Some will misunderstand. Some will have the gift right in front of them and not see what they have been given.
But to those who believe…to those who believe, John says…to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to be children of God. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been before or who you thought you were before. It doesn’t matter if you’re poor as a shepherd or rich as a king. It doesn’t matter if you’ve walked the straight and narrow or fallen off the wagon. Where you’ve been before doesn’t matter. If we had to earn this gift, none of us would have done it.

But if you receive this gift…if you accept that it is a gift for you…if you accept that you are accepted…then you can become what you were always meant to be - God’s own child.

There really ought to be an extra figure in the nativity sets we put up in our homes. Alongside the angels and shepherds. Right there with the magi and the donkeys. Right in there with the father and mother and baby Jesus there ought to be a figure of you. Because if you’re not part of this scene…if you don’t see a place for you in God’s family…then the Christmas story really is just a nice old legend. But it’s so much more. It’s about how God loves us in the here and now. It’s about how God loves you and me. And that’s a gift worth opening. Thanks be to God.