Isaiah 9:2 (NRSV Updated Edition)
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
John 1:1-18 (NRSV Updated Edition)
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 overtake 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. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
~
"The beginning of John's Gospel, even though in one sense it seems the furthest removed from what we're used to at Nativity, which is focusing down on the very practical issues of baby, manger, beasts, swaddling clothes, stars, shepherds - all those very particular human and animal things which attend a birth - and what we get in John's Gospel, if you like, seems so extra-planetary that we pass it off with something like dismay. [...] These 18 verses are some of the most remarkable words ever to have been written in any human language, it would be foolish to try and expatiate too wildly on them. What I would like to do is to say how much closer I think they are to more concrete, more human, more historical sense of a little baby in precarious situation in Bethlehem then perhaps we might give credit for.
[...]
"The beginning was the Criterion, was the Word, the beginning for us of creation. [...] In creation, you remember the Genesis narrative, “And God said.” The creative Word, the Word that creates. So the Word was at the very beginning of all things, [the] Word was with God, and the Word was God. [It's saying] the creative thing is not simply an extra thing that God happens to do, it is God's criteria for God. We are actually learning something about who God is, when God makes God's Criterion available to us, in, and as, and through creation.
"We pair that off with the very end [of the passage], [...] “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” So the Criterion that was with God, and the Criterion was God, was in the beginning with God. So it turns out that the Criterion for everything being is a Son. That's in a sense the most extraordinary claim that's for us to understand and from which to get a glimpse of what's going on in the Christmas story. [...] [T]he criteria for bringing everything into being is that of a father's love for a son. The underpinning reality of everything that is, is this sort of affection. The very structure of reality is made available to us through this sort of love.
[...]
"“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” Here's the suggestion that the very structuring force of reality, which is a loving structure, finally came into our midst as something that can enlighten us, light us up from within - was the light, was the source of our seeing - has come in and for those who receive him who believe in his name I believe that his name is the same as of the name he gives power to become children of God. [...] He's talking about people being brought into being so that we may actually participate on the inside of creation and discover what really is [...]
"The way that this was made available to us started - of course John doesn't say this, we only get this in Matthew and Luke - started with the bizarre, the bizarrely powerless-seeming sign of the babe born in Bethlehem. This was a wholly, fully human sign. It's us learning to detect the love of the only begotten son.
[...]
"With grace and truth, and through Jesus Christ, the sense of the tenderness and 'not out to get us' - the friendly quality, the backdrop to everything that there is, that this is a friendly gentle adventure - strangely it's that, if you like, the background colours to the Nativity picture, that are some of the most difficult things to get, the background colours which are of the whole of creation actually being vastly more friendly to us if only we could learn to find our way into being sons and daughters of God, those who are actually on the inside of creation. [...]
"So as you come to Christmas celebration this year, think not only of the 3D figures in the creche, what they say about God's power being shown forth in being disposed to be absolutely weak, in the middle of precarious situation, in the middle of people who are going to make his life difficult and ultimately kill him; but also the vast backdrop of the sheer friendliness of creation, that which we're becoming used to learning about and seeing ourselves as sons and daughters. This is, if you're like, not a moral thing but us being shown who God really is.
"He said, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” Everything that we learn about God is going to be learned through following the human life of Jesus, and it's going to show us that there is an extraordinary power in weakness, an extraordinary joy in our discovering our likeness with apparent others, and that all these actually tend to show a vastly richer project, adventure - a friendly adventure - which is creation. And that this is the constant backdrop to everything that is. Curiously it's the difficulty of receiving and living from that backdrop which is one of the real challenges of our lives and one of the real joys of Christmas."
- James Alison, from video "Homily for The Solemnity of the Nativity 2022 A" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jx9ElzPlWo)
~
"Christmas is the gift that keeps on giving. The Word made flesh in Jesus Christ comes to be born in all people - through the Gospel of grace and truth - the gift of a common identity in a divided world - the gift of peace. This is the present we receive today. This is the gift that we receive in order to give away all year long - the Word made flesh - Jesus Christ - God’s peace to us."
- David Froemming, from sermon, “Christmas: God’s Peace.” (http://www.christlutheranlancaster.com/site/file.asp?sec_id=180019502&file_id=180425357&cpage=180096537&table=file_downloads)
~
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe"
- Bruce Cockburn, from song "Cry of a Tiny Babe"
[Source of link to David Froemming sermon, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/xmas/]
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