Pastor Detweiler’s sermon for Sunday, Jan. 4:

“God’s essence is communicated in the embodiment of his Word: Jesus”

John 1:1-18

It seems there is at least one of those misleading e-mails every day in my inbox. “We are shipping your Dell XPS immediately” but I know I haven’t ordered one. “Work from home - earn $60,000.” Somehow, I know there is more to it and do not even open the e-mail. The words do not quite mean what they seem to say - I’m sure their meaning changes if you read the whole offer carefully.

God’s communication with us is not like that. The first Christmas Day in Bethlehem of Judea, God spoke his final, decisive word to humankind. That’s the point of today's gospel, which is the closest we come to a nativity story in John’s gospel. John is not interested in the events of Jesus’ birth, but in their meaning, their point.

In the Bible, speaking matters. Words - especially God’s - matter. There is a parallel here to the creation story where creation occurs as a response to God's speaking. God does not do anything by way of creating the world: he speaks and it happens. It says in Genesis “God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.” Gen 1:9 (NRSV) “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so.”

Gen 1:24 (NRSV) “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so.”

God only has to speak because speaking is God’s self-communication. God’s essence is communicated in his word. When God speaks, what he says happens. God is his word.

This is not true for us. In our culture, words seem to be largely ineffective and often seem empty of meaning. “Get it in writing” we are told, and even then we can’t be sure that what it seems to say will prove to be true.

In another place we lived we had a service contract on our home heater/AC. It was a repair/replace contract. I discovered one summer when one of our children turned down the thermostat while we were away and the heat exchanger froze up that this contract did not cover most of the things, like the condensate pan or heat exchanger, that are most likely to force us to replace it. I had never read the fine print but took what it said at face value.

Fortunately God’s use of words is not like our’s. He does not use his word to limit himself, but instead to give himself fully to us. The Greek word behind W-o-r-d is “Logos.” In Greek it means “reckoning or accounting,” “statement or discourse,” or even “explanation or reason,” and in Greek philosophy it meant “the rational principle of the universe.” In John’s gospel, wherever the English has “Word” with a capital “W” it is a translation of the Greek word “logos.” It refers to the essence of God, a mediating presence between God and the creation. Word (with a capital “W”) is used throughout the New Testament to refer to the preaching of the word or the word of God.

But here in John’s gospel it is used not for Jesus’ preaching but for Jesus himself. John is saying by his choice of language in this beautiful, poetic prologue that Jesus is the embodiment of God's word; that in him all the fullness of God has come to live among us; that Jesus is God's self-communication.

For Greeks this idea that the Logos took on human flesh in Jesus was unthinkable - it was like saying that in Jesus purity became filth and lived among us. But John transformed this Greek philosophical idea for Christians.

For John, Jesus is what God is doing in the world; he is God's activity, God-become-flesh living among us - he is the rational principle of the universe living among us.

Jesus in himself reveals God’s will for humanity:

• that all should return to God,
• that all should know and adhere to his word.

To accomplish this, God sent his essence - his word embodied in Jesus.

The logos or Word suffered, died, and was raised to reconcile us to the Father, to reconcile all who believe the word.

Here we come to the meaning of Christmas: how far God will go to call us back to himself, to rescue us from self-destruction. He sends his essence to share our life and bring us back by dying and rising, showing us that in the living Word of God there is life and light, and that life in him is eternal.

That is God’s final, decisive word that we are privileged to celebrate today. It is the Word made flesh that we share in communion today - the living Word of God revealed first to shepherds in Bethlehem, then to the crowds in Galilee, and now - through John and the other evangelists and witnesses - to us here in Appleton today.

The first Christmas Day in Bethlehem of Judea, God spoke his final, decisive word to humankind. In the Bible, speaking matters. Words - especially God's - matter. God only has to speak because speaking is God’s self-communication. God’s essence is communicated in his word. When God speaks what he says happens. God is his word. He does not use his Word to limit himself, but instead to give himself fully to us.

And that is what he does today - God gives himself to us in his Son, Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, as we gather to share his Word, to baptize into his death and resurrection and to share the meal he gave us.