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"Emmanuel: Glimpses of God Incarnate," Christmas Day
Christmas Day
John 1:1-14
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“The Word”
IN JOHN’S GOSPEL, the text for this Christmas Day does not speak of mangers and angels and shepherds and stables. There is no mother and child, no donkeys or camels, or wise men bringing exotic gifts. Instead, the story is more abstract. It begins “in the beginning”—before time, before music or candles or organs or choirs. Before stained glass or soaring churches or Santas or vestments or fonts or tables or Christmas trees.
“In the beginning,” there is a cosmic quiet, a deep darkness. Perhaps if we could hop a ride onto a SpaceX rocket, we would be able to experience the scene that John begins painting in this text. It is a picture of time bathed in darkness. There are no lights, no people, no words. In our time, of course, there are indeed words. The words of the news on the radio, the words we launch like weapons, the words we use to build up or to destroy, the words with which we lie or tell the truth. But in “the beginning” that John is talking about, before there are words—an infinity of words, words, words—there is nothing.
Except the Word. The Word with a capital “W.” To be clear, it’s not just any word. It is a particular Word, one that “became flesh and lived among us”—one that is true because from God and through God and to God, this Word reveals God in the very act of beginning and remaining in relationship with God.
The Word, of course, is Jesus. We know this Word, because, as John puts it, “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory. ” John Philip Newell, a Canadian contemplative, has said that “at the birth of every child, the holy is born … The gospel of Christ reveals … the dearest and most hidden of all truths: we are what Christ is, born of God…At the heart of every human being and every creature is the light that was in the beginning and through whom all things have come into being.”
So on this day, and on every day left for us, we show this light and thus show the world that the Word lives among us, and we have seen his glory!
– Rev. Dr. Theodore J. Wardlaw, President and Professor of Homiletics
