Sunday, January 3, 2016
\nSecond Sunday After Christmas
\nOld Testament \u00a0Jeremiah 31:7-14
\nPsalm \u00a0147:12-20
\nNew Testament \u00a0Ephesians 1:3-14
\nGospel \u00a0John 1:1-18<\/p>\n
JOHN 1:1\u201318 3\u00a0<\/sup>All things came into existence through him; (Therefore, His life, brings all life into being from the\u00a0beginning\u00a0of creation and into the future always.)<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0nothing that exists came into existence without him. 4\u00a0<\/sup>Life was in him, and this life was the light of the human race. 5\u00a0<\/sup>The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness didn\u2019t overcome it.<\/p>\n 6\u00a0<\/sup>There was a man called John, who was sent\u00a0 from God. 7\u00a0<\/sup>He came as evidence, to give evidence about the light, so that everyone might believe through him. 8\u00a0<\/sup>He was not himself the light, but he came to give evidence about the light.<\/p>\n 9\u00a0<\/sup>The true light, which gives light to every human being, was coming into the world. 10\u00a0<\/sup>He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn\u2019t know him. 11\u00a0<\/sup>He came to what was his own, and his own people didn\u2019t accept him. 12\u00a0<\/sup>But to anyone who did accept him, he gave the right to become God\u2019s children; yes, to anyone who believed in his name. 13\u00a0<\/sup>They were not born from blood, or from physical desire, or from the intention of a man, but from God.<\/p>\n 14\u00a0<\/sup>And the Word became flesh, and lived among us. We gazed upon his glory, glory like that of the father\u2019s only son, full of grace and truth.<\/p>\n 15\u00a0<\/sup>John gave evidence about him, loud and clear.<\/p>\n \u2018This is the one\u2019, he said, \u2018that I was speaking about when I told you, \u201cThe one who comes after me ranks ahead of me, because he was before me.\u201d\u00a0\u2019<\/p>\n 16\u00a0<\/sup>Yes; it\u2019s out of his fullness that we have all received, grace indeed on top of grace. 17\u00a0<\/sup>The law, you see, was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus the Messiah. 18\u00a0<\/sup>Nobody has ever seen God. The only-begotten God, who is intimately close to the father\u2014he has brought him to light.[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another new year.\u00a0 Life that came into being in the beginning comes into life yet still today, today in a new year.\u00a0 Life comes from one solitary place.\u00a0 It would be nice to think that we can create life, and in a small sense we can through birth but even that birth of life is life from another source.\u00a0 Our text points to a single source in which all is all and nothing is anything, without the Word.<\/p>\n The book of John is written in such a way that those who know nothing about the Father, Son and Spirit, can use the book as a road map to understand the faith put inside of each person by the Spirit.\u00a0 It is also a book that the long in faith, those who faith is old, tested, true, assured, can still read the book and learn even more about the Father, Son and Spirit.<\/p>\n It is like a wading pool for the novice with a deeper end for the experienced but there is safety in leading you out to the deeper water so that you will not drown.\u00a0 If you had only one book to read of all the books of the Bible, I would take John.\u00a0 If you were only able to give one book of the Bible for someone to hear the gospel, new in faith, non-existence in faith or strong in faith, John is the book to give.<\/p>\n In seminary, I took Biblical Greek and following the Greek course I was required to take Exegetical Greek.\u00a0 Which is nothing more than a fancy name for a critical, detailed, understanding.\u00a0 For our Exegetical Greek, students would translate the book of John, starting at Chapter 1 and progressing deeper into the book and deeper into the water with greater understanding as we went along.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s reading of the text from N.T. Wright is an example of his translation and interpretation of the text and its variances to the NRSV translation and interpretation.\u00a0 N.T. Wright\u2019s purpose in his translation was to appeal to a large range of audiences who might hear his translation.\u00a0 All translations attempt to appeal to a particular audience in a particular context and are influenced by the translators own background and purpose of translating the text.<\/p>\n Now that you have that background, which is a gloss over at best, let me walk with you in just in a few pieces of the text that we heard today.\u00a0 We will look deeper into the following important verses, 3, 4a, 6 and 14.\u00a0 These verses speak to the life and light of the Word, AKA the Son, Christ.\u00a0 They also speak to John the Baptist\u2019s role not only in his day when he walked earth, but today and in the future as well.\u00a0 Then we will explore the reason for the Word taking flesh.\u00a0 I invite you to open the pew bibles to John or follow along with the bulletin print out.\u00a0 If you use the bulletin, you will be able to take notes, if you desire.<\/p>\n We hear in verse 3, that all things came into being through him.\u00a0 Him should be capitalized because it speaks to one person of the Trinue God, specifically in this case, the Word.\u00a0 The Word is also the Son of God, which is another name for one the persons of the Triune God, who is the Word or the Son.\u00a0 This is NOT to be confused with Jesus.\u00a0 We will come to that later.\u00a0\u00a0 Now, a little more interesting is where the text says \u201chas come\u201d, the word \u201ccome\u201d in the Greek, is written in the perfect tense.\u00a0 What that means is that although in our English we hear it as past tense, it is past tense but has effectiveness in the past, present and into the future, indefinitely.<\/p>\n The second half of verse 3 along with verse 4a, dovetails off the first half of verse 3 and takes what was said to another level.\u00a0 If the effectiveness of the \u201chas come\u201d is effective in the past, present and future, then all of life, has come into and will come into being through the Son.\u00a0 In other words, no life exists outside of the Son, the Word of God.\u00a0 Therefore N.T. Wright, correctly translates his more expansive, robust, translation as, \u201c\u2026nothing that exists came into existence without him.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Now, moving on to verse 6, we hear of John the Baptist, who is the one who testifies to the Light, another name for the Son, the Word of God.\u00a0 John the Baptists main calling from God was to testify, provide evidence of the Son, so others might believe.\u00a0 This was not, however, just during the time that John walked the earth.<\/p>\n This calling is still today, in us hearing the words of John the Baptist.\u00a0 At the beginning of verse 6, it says \u201cThere was a man sent\u201d.\u00a0 The word \u201csent\u201d, just like the word \u201ccome\u201d in verse 3, is written in the perfect tense.\u00a0 Therefore, it too references something that has effectiveness in the past, present and future.\u00a0 The sending of John to testify, continues even today and tomorrow for his testimony and evidence is presented, so that we might believe.<\/p>\n Finally, we make it to verse 14, which is what wraps this whole thing up into a perfect package for us and for our generations to come.\u00a0 The love of God for us is revealed.\u00a0 The verse starts with \u201cAnd the Word became flesh\u2026\u201d\u00a0 The Word, the Son of God, a person of the Triune God, known as the Word and Son, God, God\u2019s self, comes down to earth and takes upon human flesh.\u00a0 We know this time as the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 He lived and walked among humans upon the earth.<\/p>\n This is significant because now God has appeared to humans where, no one had ever seen God before.\u00a0 Through this act, of incarnation, the fullness of God, God\u2019s love is revealed and we all, not some, not the elect, the faithful and unfaithful, the sinners and saints alike, received grace upon grace.\u00a0 This is also significant because it is in John the Baptist\u2019s testimony in providing evidence to who Jesus is, so we might believe.<\/p>\n To wrap this up, you might summarize, although the words of John 1:1-18 say it well, you might summarize it this way.\u00a0 The person of God, the Word has always been and nothing at all came or comes into being expect through the Son, who comes down and takes upon human flesh to walk among us.\u00a0 John the Baptist testifies to this even today, so that we might believe and when we believe, we are given the right to be called sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, in who God showers us in grace upon grace, no matter who you are.<\/p>\n This is the good news, the Gospel of our Lord, our Light, our Life and existence in the world. \u00a0Jesus Christ the one and only Son of God who came to us human beings for us human beings, in all of God\u2019s fullness and love, for us and for our generations to come.\u00a0 We are brothers and sisters with Christ.\u00a0 We are the son\u2019s and daughters of the Father.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here is a song to listen to. \u00a0I played this following the sermon instead of a traditional hymn.<\/p>\n
\nThe bolded text is this author’s additional explanation to the reading as translated by N.T. Wright.
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>In the beginning was the Word. The Word was close beside God, and the Word was God. 2\u00a0<\/sup>In the beginning, he was close beside God.<\/p>\n