From the Beginning… – sermon on January 3, 2016
Scripture Lesson: John 1:1-14 (adapted) / Genesis 1
In the beginning God
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
God created the heavens and the earth.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
In him was life, and that life was the light of humankind.
God saw that the light was good, and separated the light from the darkness.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
God called the light “day,” and the darkness God called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
In the beginning God
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of God’s one and only Son. From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to God’s heart. He has revealed God
Sermon: From the Beginning… by Rev. Doreen Oughton
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John has such an interesting way of introducing us to Jesus. Jesus is “the Word of God.” No baby in a manger in this gospel, no moving tableau of the humble and the powerful all mixing together. Just the Word becoming flesh. The “Word.” Very interesting. Usually when I hear someone talk about the Word of God, I assume they are referring to the bible, the things that were revealed by God to the prophets and leaders of Israel that were repeated through the generations, then recorded. Or the stories about Jesus from the gospels that became the foundation of a new religion. I don’t usually think of Jesus himself as the Word.
I came across the reading that Deacon Carol and I did that weaves together this prologue to the Gospel of John with the Hebrew scripture creation story from Genesis 1, the very beginning of the bible and it really called to me. Both start “in the beginning.” In Genesis, it begins with a formless void and darkness covering the face of the deep, a wind, and God’s intention to create the heavens and the earth. In John, the Word is there, in the beginning, from the beginning. In Genesis, how does God create? God speaks things into creation. “And God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light,.. and it was good.’” Is this what John means when he says that the Word was there, in the beginning, that all things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being? What came into being was all life and light, all through the Words, or Word, of God. Jesus is the creative force of God’s words. Jesus is God speaking. Jesus is the voice of God calling out the creation of the sky and land, the sea and vegetation and animals and creepy crawlies and people. Let there be… life. Wow.
When we think of Jesus as the Word of God, it gives me insight into the oneness of God and Jesus. Aren’t my words, my speaking, intimately and deeply me? My words are an expression of who I am. And yet aren’t my words only part of me? They can’t be separated from me, nor I from them, but there is something bigger. The whole is more than the sum of the parts.
And so John tells us that this Word of God, this aspect of God that can’t really be separated from the being-ness of God, this source of all life, became flesh and lived among us. This spark that separated the light from the darkness, the formless void from intentional life, comes to put skin on the love of God, the creative force for light and life. The Word came and lived among us.
And, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, this was God’s plan all along, in the beginning, from the beginning. Even before the force of God’s love spilled over or exploded out to create new life, the plan was to bring us back to that from which we were created. The plan, as Paul says, was for us to become holy. Paul spells it h-o-l-y, but I think it would also work as w-h-o-l-l-y. We are destined to be united with the whole of Creation, connected completely once again with our Creator. I love how Paul explains that all this gives God pleasure. When thought of in this big-picture way, it is hard to imagine how we could disappoint God. It is hard for me to think about sin as something that could keep God from us, or ultimately keep us from . I think of rain. Water is gathered in a cloud, then it separates, the cloud disbursing droplets all over. It is part of the plan that the water separates. It is then, in time, gathered back up into more clouds, and the process repeats. It doesn’t matter where the rain falls, whether it is a gentle mist, a lashing rain, hailstones the size of golf balls. It doesn’t matter if it bursts damns and floods cities, or whether it brings needed moisture to crops, it will still be gathered up. It is not judged for the separation from the cloud and from other droplets, it is not punished for the effects of the falling. I imagine God took pleasure in designing this system of water rising and falling, filling oceans and rivers.
And I like to think of God likewise taking pleasure in the creation of humanity, allowing us to separate and life in the illusion of individuality. The separation is part of God’s delighted planning. If you think of sin as separation from God, then sin was part of God’s planning – from the beginning. Separation was not a punishment for eating fruit from the tree of knowledge. It was not a test to see if we could earn our way back to God. The water can’t avoid being drawn back up into clouds forever, and we can’t avoid being reunited with God forever. It’s just not part of the plan, and we don’t have the power to thwart God’s plan. We can avoid it for awhile. We can, for a time, cut ourselves off and remain ignorant of our true natures. We may live this whole life believing we are separate. But at some point, our souls will remember the truth and it will be, not the end, but a new beginning.
I believe that Jesus was God’s soul embodied, a soul that remembered that the separation was an illusion. He knew he was of God, knew that we all were, and that we all would ultimately be united with God. But he believed we might experience the separation with more joy and hope and wholeness if we knew that it was temporary, and if we could experience moments of that oneness even during the separation. He could do it, and he wanted to teach us that we could too. So he told us how – do not be afraid, do not worry about what you will eat or what you will wear, share what you have, love your neighbor. This is how you will remember. This is how you will know the kindom, this is how you will live in the kindom, the kindom that was planned for us in the beginning, from the beginning. We have the chance to participate in the pleasure and the glory of God.
