Youth Sermon: Yo, Yo, "In the Beginning was the WORD." Yo. Yo.

1 Christmas    C   December 30, 2012

Is.61:10-62:3     Ps. 147:13-21

Gal. 3:23-25,4:4-7  John 1:1-18

Youth Sermon

Lectionary Link

James: In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  You may be seated.

James:  (Doing rap, adding voice mimic of turn table swishes)

Yo, yo...“In the beginning was the WORD!  (make the rap gesture..one that is not obscene)

“And the WORD (make the rap gesture) was with GOD. (make the rap gesture..)

“And the WORD (make the rap gesture..) was GOD.  (make the rap gesture..)

Rachel: So why do rappers always say the word WORD?  (make the rap gesture..)

James(using an affected British accent): Excuse me, did you say rappers?  In my circles we call it classical urban poetry.  After all it has been around as an art form since the 1970’s with roots much deeper perhaps even in the 1950’s.  And in classical urban poetry, WORD (make the rap gesture..)  is a very important word.

Kalum: Did you compose that classical urban poetry?

James:  No, of course not.  I borrowed it from the Bible.

Rachel: Where in the Bible?

James:  It comes from the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

Kalum:  Rappers use the expression “WORD”  (make the rap gesture..) as a sort of contraction, meaning, “That’s the word or I approve or I am in agreement.”

Rachel: But in the Gospel of John it is not used like the rapper’s use of the word, WORD.  (make the rap gesture..)

James: That’s right.  In the Gospel of John, Word is perhaps the most important insight in the entire book.

Kalum:  It’s like the writer tries to begin the Bible all over again.

Rachel:  Why do you say that?

Kalum:  The book of Genesis, the book of creation begins with these three words, “In the beginning.”  And what are the first three words of the Gospel of John?

James: “In the beginning.”  But how do you think the writer of John was trying to make a connection with the creation story?

Rachel:  How did the original creation story explain creation?

Kalum:  God spoke.  God said, “Let there be light.”  And there was light.

James: And how does that connect with In the beginning was the Word.

Rachel: Bingo!  God spoke.  What does God speak?  God speaks words.  So when creation happened, God spoke words, and then the Spirit moved and completed the creation.

James:  Wow, the writer of the Gospel was trying to show how God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were present at creation.  If God the Father is the speaker then the Word that he spoke was Christ the Word.  And then the Spirit completes the act of creation.

Kalum:  I guess this means that the writer of the Gospel tried to explain the meaning of the life of Jesus using the only Bible that he had which was the Hebrew Bible.

James:  Yes, and in the Gospel of John, Word is very important.  Jesus said that his words were Spirit and that his words were life.  Jesus spoke lots of words and those words recreated the lives of his listeners.  And the writer of John said that if people would read the words of the Gospel they could come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

Rachel:  Having words is what makes us human beings different from animals.

Kalum: Before a baby can speak the adults organize the baby’s world with words and as the baby gets older a baby learns all of the names for everything in the world.

James:  So, it is the use of words that in some way creates or makes our world.  Before we have words our lives are more just instinctual.  As soon as we have words we do not have to cry as much because we can tell our parents where we hurt and what we need.  So, it is the word that creates or organizes all of our human experience.  Without words we can be lost in our own pain and in our tears.

Rachel:  But is the Gospel of John just about saying that human life is different because we have language?  Why didn’t the writer say, “In the beginning was the language and the language was with God and the language was God.”

James: I think that Christ exemplified Word life in a different way.  It is not just that human being have a language.  Language is a particular version of our basic Word ability.  A person has word ability but a person can speak more than one language.  Why do you think that WORD was a metaphor or name for Christ?

Rachel:  I think it could have to do with the phases of how people come to know God.

Kalum: How so?

Rachel:  Well, even if we don’t know about God, we can know that our lives are structured.  And so WORD is this invisible structure within everything.  We can appreciate this structure because we depend upon consistency and predictability in how things behave.

James: But the structure of the world does not seem like a personal way to know a creator who has done the structuring of the world.

Kalum: I’m reminded of the question of Albert Einstein, “Can we believe that the universe is a friendly place?”

James:  Now, I get it.  The writer of John wrote, “The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us.”

Rachel:  So this is the answer to Einstein’s question.  Yes, the universe is a friendly place; the one who created and structured the universe is the Word.  And this Word is revealed as the greatest person in our world, Jesus Christ.

James:  The best way to see and understand the structure of our created world is in the life of Jesus Christ.  So he is the Word made flesh.

Kalum:  And now Jesus of Nazareth is invisible to us.  We can no longer see him.  He has disappeared to be the Risen Christ and re-assume his role as WORD OF GOD.

Rachel:  So now we can know that the Word is present everywhere because the Word continues to structure and reveal created order everywhere.

James:  Yes and since Word became a person in Jesus Christ, we know that there is a loving, friendly, sacrificing, presence behind the order of all things.  That’s pretty exciting don’t you think?

Kalum: Amen.

Rachel:  Well, I think that a synonym for Amen would be the favorite expression of classical urban poetry.

James:  And what would that be?

Rachel: WORD!  (makes the rap gesture)

Kalum: Do you think that we could get this mature group of people to say, WORD! (makes the rap gesture) rather than Amen?

Rachel: It’s worth a try.

James:  Here we go.

    “In the beginning was the Word. (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel and everyone:  Word! (rap gesture)

James:  And the word (rap gesture) was with God. (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel and everyone: Word!  (rap gesture)

James:  And the word (rap gesture) was God.  (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel and everyone:  Word!  (rap gesture)

James: All things were created through the WORD.  (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel, and everyone:  WORD! (rap gesture)

James: And the Word (rap gesture) was made flesh.  (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel and everyone: WORD! (rap gesture)

James: And the Word (rap gesture) dwelled among us.  (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel and everyone:  Word!  (rap gesture)

James:  And believing in the Word (rap gesture) we become children of God.  (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel, and everyone: Word! (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel, and everyone: Word! (rap gesture)

Kalum, Rachel, and everyone: Word! (rap gesture)

James(once again in his best British accent): I say, I think we’ve taught this mature group classical urban poetry!  Bravo. (James politely claps)