Theology as Wordology

1 Christmas  C     December 27, 2015

Is.61:10-62:3     Ps. 147:13-21

Gal. 3:23-25,4:4-7  John 1:1-18

Lectionary Link

 The fact that we have four different Gospels in the New Testament is an indication of the diversity of experience of persons in the early churches throughout the Roman Empire.  We perhaps ponder the diversity of Christian experience in our own time and what is amazing about our own time is not that diversity exists but that we have such quick communication about any differences.  In the time of the early churches, communication was not instant and quick.  People did not have that much contact with each other over even short distances.  And so we have four Gospels deriving from and edited by people in different communities making different applications regarding the reality of the risen Christ. 

The first chapter of the Gospel of John is a traditional Christmas Gospel even though it has nothing about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.  The Gospel of Mark, likewise does not have any account of the birth of Jesus either; it begins with the baptism of Jesus and the seeming adoption of Jesus as God's Son at his baptism.  A heavenly voice said, "this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased."

We have four Gospels in the New Testament and they all share some insights, but they also are each different because of the different circumstances within their various communities.  The writer or writers of John's Gospel wrote last and so the writing is expressive of a community that had done longer theological reflection upon the effects of how the Risen Christ had been experienced in their lives.

The first chapter of John is perhaps my favorite chapter of the Bible because it establishes perhaps the most credible truth of humanity.  "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  The Word was God.  You can appreciate the poetics of this Christian writer.  If Jesus had been called the Son of Man and the Son of God what did this mean when he existed before he actually appeared as Jesus of Nazareth?  Who was Jesus before he was conceived in Mary and born as a babe in Bethlehem?

Who was Jesus before time began?  The writer of the Gospel of John inherited a book about the beginning, the book of Genesis.  And how does the book of Genesis begin?  "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And God said, Let there be Light...and there was light.  And the Spirit of God moved over the face of the deep."   These are the elements of the story of creation.  So the question for the writer of John, how could the Risen Christ who had continuing existence after a human death event, how could the Risen Christ be shown to be before time?

The writer of the Gospel of John begins with the same three words which begin the Hebrew Scriptures, "In the beginning."  But what was in the beginning for the writer of the Gospel of John?  The Word was in the beginning, the word was with God and the Word was God.  Can we appreciate this metaphor?  When I speak, I release words and the words which I speak are me and they can make things happen.  And when they are back up with action from the energy of my life, things happen or are created in the human sense of creation.

God spoke a Word at creation and the writer of John's Gospel believes the Creative Spoken Word of God to be the Risen Christ.   And the speaking also releases breath.  Breath is the metaphorical name for Spirit.  And God's Spirit was the energy which accomplished the creative acts.

And so the writer of the Gospel of John wrote the Risen Christ into the original creation story.  And this might seem too theologically poetic to make any practical sense to us.  We might think, "Well, that's nice, but so what?"

In the beginning was the  Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  I believe this to be the most important insight of life.  Why?  because I believe all of human life as we can know it is constituted by the fact that we are possessed with language which allows speech acts, written language, organizing structures in the visual field and the body language of our moral and ethics in how we act out our language.

Is life more than words or language?  Yes indeed, but one cannot actually get to the life which is more than words or language without using and being used by language.  But you might say, "I had pre-linguistic experiences when I was an infant and toddler and when I did not fully use language.  And do not apes, chimpanzees and other animals have systems of communication?"

That may be true but one does not actually know one's experience of being an infant or a toddler from not having language.  After one has language one uses language to imagine what it was like to be an infant who did not fully possess language.  And so one only recreates with language the infant state of having not yet fully possessing language.

O, but I have intuitive experiences which are beyond language.  O, but I have meditative states of bliss which are pure silence.  O, but I have aesthetic experiences in art and music which allows me to pierce the essence of beauty.  Yes, you do but you did not become an unworded and non-linguistic person when you had those experiences.  Eventually all experience is recorded or classified in language.  And if you and I say we have an experience beyond language, we really don't because we use the words, "beyond language" to classify such an experience.

All thing come into being through the Word; there is nothing that has being without the Word.  Can we appreciate the profundity of this Gospel confession about the Word.  It is perhaps the chief truth of human life, the human life as we know it.

Sometimes we think that we can encounter and see things without language.  But everything that we see always, already has a human name and words.  What we see in the world is already pre-classified through having language.  It is like we wear inner glasses through which we see and those glasses come with the sub-titles already in place.  With education and experience we are continually changing the lenses through which we see and classify our human experience.

The Gospel of John is an invitation to each of us to the life work of Word therapy.  By Word therapy, we need to understand how each of us have been uniquely constituted by the word environments within which we have lived.  We have been taught to name and value things and ourselves in various ways.  Because we have not been raised in perfect environments by perfect people we have had our lives coded in some imperfect ways.  These imperfections become manifest in the repetition of some losing behaviors and bad habits.  It is as though we are caught in "word ruts" which only allow us to see and do things in the same way over and over again.  We can each have our own individual specific "insanities" of doing things over and over again in the same way and expecting different results.

The amazing thing about words too, is that words also have the power to evoke mood and spirit.  We can see the same thing in different ways based upon the attending mood.  And moods can make us believe that we are enslaved to seeing the cup as half empty rather than being half full.  With word therapy we can learn to shift how and what we are seeing out there, because if we can learn to see things differently then we can take creative action to get different results than has heretofore been possible.

It is one thing to say that we need a word lift in our lives to become more creative and see our world in a different light so that we can make different choices and do new things, but how does that happen?  Probably the best way for that to happen is to be "inspired."  That is to be able to project such positive desire upon a person or an insight as to gain the motivating energy to change one's life.

And that is how the Gospel writers saw Jesus.  And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.  And the Word because Body Language in the Person of Jesus and we had One onto whom we could project perfect desire and be inspired to change our lives.

Let us also know that the Gospel writer wrote in a time when the Jesus of history could no longer be seen or touched.  The Jesus of history had become the Risen Christ, and this Risen Christ partook of the same reality as the Word of God who was the very essence of the beginning of human life as we know it.

The Risen Christ as the Continuing Word and Spirit in our world continues to inspire people.  The Word continues to give in people,  writing, nature, experience and events a vision of what is more perfect for you and me.  We need to be on the look out for those people and events who can become for us the projection of our desire towards our better and perfectible selves.  Certainly, there are plenty of negative influences in this world which we do well to avoid.

Today, let us know the Risen Christ as the Word of God who has made our lives and who is continuing to make our lives.  Let us seek in the new year new paths of Word therapy toward what might be more perfectible versions of ourselves.  Let us seek out the people, the writings, and the events onto which we can project our desire for perfectibility.  In short, I invite all of us to embrace this continuous process of the "word lift" of our lives.  It is more deeply profound than any cosmetic change that we might ponder in the new year.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  And the Word was made flesh and dwelled with us.  That my friends is Christmas.  And I wish for all of us new Christmas gifts of words in the New Year, to touch us deeply and remake us toward the Risen Christ.  Amen.

Sunday School, December 27, 2015 1 Christmas C

Sunday School, December 27, 2015    1 Christmas C

Theme: Jesus the Christ long before Bethlehem

The birth of Jesus stories are only found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  They are not found in the Gospels of Mark and John.   The Gospel of Mark begins with Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist and there is a heavenly voice which proclaim about Jesus, “This is my beloved Son.”  The Gospel of Mark begins with the announcement of the Sonship of Jesus.

The Gospel of John begins with a poem about how the divinity of Jesus existed before he was born.  He was called the Word.  The Word of with God and the Word was God.  So Word is another name for Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of John begins with the same three words which are found to begin the book of Genesis:  “In the beginning.”  If Jesus Christ was God, the writer of John wants to show how Christ was present at the creation of the world.  In the creation story, God speaks and things are created.  So God the Father spoke the Word; the Creating Word that God the Father Spoke was the Christ, and the Holy Spirit moved over the face of the deep to create everything that was created.   This is how the writer of John’s Gospel showed how the Father, the Son and the Spirit were at Creation from the beginning.  This is the poetry of the writer of the Gospel of John.

The human world is created because we have words, we have language.  In the Garden of Eden Adam was different from the other animals because Adam was responsible for giving the animals names.

Naming or using words is what makes human being different.  So having words is what create our unique human experience.  So God as the Word is the perfect way to understand the creation of human experience.  We cannot know fully human experience without having words.  As babies who cannot speak words, we are more like puppy dogs.  To become developed as a human person is to learn how to use word and language and human beings learn words and language while puppies don’t.

The world is full of words and we need words organized and put into the actions and body language of a person to show us how to live good lives.  And this happened:  The Gospel of John writer wrote: “And the Word became Flesh and dwelled among us.”  And God the Word became the perfect human example in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ lived as the best example of what God would be like for human beings.

Do you see how this is a different Christmas birth story about Jesus?   And do understand why we read this different birth story about Jesus?

A children’s sermon

Text:

  Let’s pretend for just a minute.  Let us pretend that we cannot see.  Let us pretend that we cannot hear.  Let us pretend that we cannot speak.

  It is hard to pretend this.  Because if we had never learned the word pretend, we wouldn’t know what pretend.

  Maybe we should think about a little baby who is crying.  Do we know why a baby cries?  Can the baby tell us why exactly he or she is crying?  No, but we try to guess.  Do we need to change a diaper, or give the baby some milk, or give the baby some medicine?  Do we need to burp the baby?  Does the baby have a tummy ache?  Or is the baby cold?  Or is the baby too hot?  Or is the baby lonely?

  We try to guess why a baby is crying, but we cannot be sure why a baby is crying.  Why?  Because a baby does not yet know how to speak or to use language.  And when a baby begins to use language, a baby starts to become more like a grown-up.  Why?  Because the baby can now talk to mom and dad and to brothers and sisters and Grandmothers and grandfathers.  And so we always celebrate when a baby says the first words, because we know that the baby is becoming able to tell us how she feels.

  There once was little girl named Helen Keller.  When she was a baby she had a sickness and she lost her ability to see, to talk and to hear.  Because she could not see, talk or hear, she had no way to learn how to talk.  Can you imagine what her life was like?  She was not happy and she was very hard to care for, because she had no way to talk with her parents.

  Her parents hired a teacher to try to teach her.  And it is very hard to teach someone who cannot see, hear or talk.  But the teacher used her hands to make letters in her hand.  But she did not even know the letters, until one day when water was pouring over her hand, the teacher spelled “w-a-t-e-r” into the hand of Hellen Keller.  And Helen suddenly understood what words meant.  And she was so excited she wanted to know the name of everything that she could touch.  And when she could use words, her life was suddenly new, because she could now talk with her parents using her hands.  Helen Keller grew up to be a famous and well educated person, and she helped andinspired people who did have the ability to see, hear or speak.

  Jesus Christ is called the Word of God.  And from the life of Helen Keller, you and I can understand how important Words are for us.  Everything in our world is created with Word, because we don’t know what anything is if we don’t have words.

  Let us be thankful today that we have words.  With words we don’t have to live alone and be lonely, because with words we can talk with the important people in our lives.  And let us be thankful that God our creator made us special because we were made to use words.  And so today we use our words to thank God who made us to have words in our lives.  And we should be very careful about how we use the words of our lives.  Our words can create love and kindness; or our word can cause war and fighting.  Let remember when we use words; they are special gifts to us that God gave us to use. Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

December 27, 2015: The First Sunday after Christmas

Gathering Songs: Go Tell It On the Mountain; What Child Is This?; O Little Town of Bethlehem; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Go Tell It On the Mountain, (Blue Hymnal, # 99)

Chorus: Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere; go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born!

While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night, behold, throughout the heavens there shone a holy light. Chorus

The shepherds feared and trembled when lo above the earth rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth.  Chorus

Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn.  Chorus

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Galatians

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God..

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 147

Hallelujah! How good it is to sing praises to our God! * how pleasant it is to honor him with praise!

Great is our LORD and mighty in power; * there is no limit to his wisdom.

The LORD lifts up the lowly, * but casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; * make music to our God upon the harp.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

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. (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 God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

What Child Is This  (Blue Hymnal # 115)

What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?  Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?

Chorus: This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing;

   haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.

Why lies he in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding?  Good Christian fear: for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.  Chorus

So bring him incense, gold and myrrh, come, peasant, king, to own him; the King of kings salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone him.  Chorus

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

The Prayer continues with these words

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Hymn: O Little Town Of Bethlehem (Hymnal # 79)

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by; yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hope and fears of all of the years are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary; and gathered all above, while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.  O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth! And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: God Rest You Merry Gentlemen (Blue Hymnal # 105)

God rest you merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay; remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day, to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.  Chorus: O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy; O tiding of comfort and joy!

From god our heavenly Father a blessed angel came and unto certain shepherds brought tiding of the same: how that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name.  Chorus

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. 

People: Thanks be to God! 

  

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)

Constituted by the Word; A Postmodern Insight? Really?

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

Lectionary Link 

  We know that the Gospels of Mark and John do not have the Christmas story in them.

  Mark’s Gospel begins at the baptism of Jesus and in this Gospel, Jesus appears to be adopted as God’s Son at his baptism when the heavenly voice says, “You are my beloved Son.”

  The Gospel of John, the last Gospel written of the four, does not seem to care that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  The writer of John is much more philosophical. The writer understands that Jesus had an existence pre-existing his earthly life.  For the writer of John, he was the eternal Word of God who was with God from the Beginning.  When God spoke a creative word and said, “Let there be light,” the writer of John’s Gospel believes that Jesus as the Word was present at the time of creation.  And in the same paragraph the Word is called the light of humanity.   And that is a long time before Bethlehem.  Such a Word needed no star because the Word was Light.

  How does the Gospel of John summarize the Bethlehem event?  And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us.  This is where we get the notion of Incarnation.  Word becoming flesh.

  I am fascinated with this ancient notion and how it expresses an insight that is just a relevant and mysterious today as it was then.

  The human ability to use words is what creates and organizes our world.  Word ability is what separates humanity from the other animals and from plants.  To achieve word ability is to leave infancy and childhood and come into the fullness of person hood.

  We take on our word ability without knowing it.  We use the words that we are given in our cultural settings.  Our world is in a certain way created by the words that we are taught to use.

  We speak words and we learn to write words.  When we see our world, we see it through invisible grids that names and categorizes everything that we are looking at.  Our bodies move with a body language because they express the purposes that are directed by word.

  Everything that we do is someway mediated and flavored by our use of language.  Even if we say we have pre-linguistic or non-language events, we use language to say it, and that disproves any pretense to having a life without word and language.  As babies we do not have active language but we are passive recipients of all of the active coding of our existence by our parents and their society.

  I think that the biggest elephant in the room for anything that we do is Word and Language.  We assume it in everything that we do, while we ignore its presence and significance.

  Today, I would like us to consider how our Word has been made flesh in our lives?

  What are the languages or words that our bodies are speaking?  What are our moral and our ethics?  Our behavior is the language that our bodies speak…our behavior is the result of our Word having been made flesh.  And it behooves us to ask ourselves what the scripts are that are directing the behavior of our lives?

   Are any of these scripts losing scripts for us?  Do we find our selves in patterns of repetition that represent bad habits or addictive behaviors?

  If we can get at the Word of our lives, we can begin to do some serious interdiction into the behaviors of our lives that we want to change, that we want to recreate.

  The reason we recommend education and reading of uplifting books and literature is so that we can saturate the language field of our lives so that we can orient ourselves to be able to act and behave in ways that show that we have faith, and love God and our neighbors as ourselves.

  We are and we become how we have been taught to use words.  And if we have some bad patterns, then we have to re-train ourselves at the very deep level of how our word is made flesh in our lives.

  One of things that I would encourage each person to do is to get in touch with one’s own language.  What are the passive habits of mind, body and speech that you have taken on because your particular experience in your family and culture?  Since we have not be raised in completely perfect environments;  since we have not been disciplined enough to expose ourselves to the highest forms of the use of words, we have taken on some habits that are in need of reform.  We are in need of some re-creation in our lives.

  What sort of re-creation do you and I need in our lives now?  And how can we undertake such re-creation?

  First, possess your words.  Most people are merely passive users of language, they are spectators of language.  Take up journaling and learn to possess the language that you have as an active user.  When you struggle for complete expression, you will begin to discover the kinds of words that already control your mind and your behavior.  And if you can get them into text or expression, you can begin understand in a conscious way the script that is guiding your lives.

  If Christ is the eternal Word, then it is suggested that the way in which we can change the scripts and word patterns that dictate the behaviors of our lives is by choosing the very best model for our word life.  Certainly Jesus Christ as the Word of God is the highest model that we can choose and in adopting Christ as our model, we can begin to change the deep infrastructure of our word life so that it begins to show up in how we actually behave.

  If Jesus is the Word of God, we can look to him and to God’s Spirit to begin to influence the words that organize and shape our lives.   Let us be hopeful about the Word of God and how it can influence and recreate our lives.    Let us not be lazy in our devotion to the Word of God and let us not be just passive users of words; let us begin to activate our life of word and expose ourselves to ourselves so that with honesty, we can seek the areas of re-creation that we need to pursue in the quest for excellence.

  Remember the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.  And the task of our life is to let the Word of God be made flesh in our flesh and direct the behavior of our lives in the path of faith.  May the Word of God dwell richly in our lives today.  Amen.