The Word
Christmas 1
December 31, 2023
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
It has been said by many that these first 18 verses of John’s gospel are so weighty that it’s as though they are his gospel and the rest it is commentary, more like an appendix. We still need the passion and resurrection, but this does tell us who Jesus is. In order to grasp the cosmic importance of these first 18 verses of John’s Gospel, it will be helpful to consider them in their context.
We don’t have a date stamp for John’s Gospel, but most scholars affirm it was written in the late first century, around 90 AD. The historic and textual evidence points strongly to it having been written by the Apostle John – who, with Peter and James, was one of the three closest to Jesus.
Unlike the rest of the 12 Disciples, John did not die an untimely death. He lived to a ripe old age, long enough to reflect on all he heard Jesus say and do, and how it shaped everything over 60 years or so. Surely John was aware of the other three Gospels and wrote his to fill in some important stories and perspectives missing from Matthew, Mark and Luke.
John was writing to a growing church. Jesus commanded his disciples to make disciples of all nations – which means all peoples, all ethnicities. By the time John wrote these words, the church had spread all around the Mediterranean world, west to Spain and Portugal, into the British Isles, south to Ethiopia and as far east as India. The temple in Jerusalem had fallen in 70AD, Judaism had formally rejected the Apostles’ testimony to Christ and ejected them from the synagogues. By this time, the church is spreading almost entirely by converting Gentiles – Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, pagans and so forth wherever and however they could reach them. The Gospel has to go to anyone and everyone.
And so, to these different sorts of people, John knew it would be helpful to introduce Jesus as he’d come to realize him, as the unifying principle of all things, a philosophical pursuit that anyone can approach. The Jewishness of the story cannot and will not be avoided, indeed it will emerge starting with verse 19, but these first 18 verses are setting the stage for a universal audience.
Perhaps this is why inquirers are often encouraged to start with John’s Gospel. It speaks to the broadest audience. Any human being can start with the beginning. Although this is an obvious nod to the Genesis account, it still works if you have no idea about the book of Genesis. Anyone, everyone, has a sense of a beginning.
A man who was an admitted skeptic wanted to know about my faith and my reasoning for it. To test me, he asked if I believed in the Big Bang Theory. I said, of course, we’ve watched every episode. Then I said, of course I believe in the Big Bang.
I believe in the unitive nature of truth. Science tells us what things are, how things work, not why, not what it means. If something is true, it’s true and it is of God. The pursuit of God may be fairly described as the pursuit of truth. I don’t see much difference between “Let there be light” and a “big bang.”
Historically, science grew out of and remains the intellectual pursuit of God, whether or not the individuals doing the science get that. I fondly look forward to the day when finding truth is again recognized as a shared, not competing, pursuit. Science needs that because it is focused on the realm of fact. Truth also involves meaning, direction and purpose. We gain knowledge and we need to make sense of it. Science can split an atom. It cannot decide whether to use that for energy or medicine or a bomb or when to not use it at all.
And much of science does indeed point to God. One of the things we like about the Big Bang Theory is they actually insert real physics into the show. They have actual scientists work with them on the scripts and one of the cast, Mayim Bialik, (who also played “Blossom”) actually has a PhD in neuroscience.
One of the scientific theories that has come up on the show and which I’ve read and heard a bit about elsewhere is called string theory. Among its ideas is that our 3D existence- our universe - is actually a hologram being projected from beyond the far reaches of our universe.
That sounds an awful lot like someone speaking us into existence – like the Word of God – to me. Everything was made through the Word of God. Everything. Can you see how John’s prologue can successfully introduce the Gospel to someone rooted in a rational pursuit like science?
And the propositions continue to unfold in remarkable relevance to, well, everything.
John notes that the Word has been the life and the life has been light in the hearts of all people. All people. We certainly have a wide range of beliefs and cultural norms, but the beating heart of “love thy neighbor” is this core principle that every human being on this planet is made in the image of God and has rights. Every human being has dignity and potential. Every human being is precious. Every. One.
And now comes the radical claim.
John says this light has a personality and, he was coming into the world for everyone. And to all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gives power to become children of God. That is every bit as radical as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy and angelic heralds.
In the meantime, our resolution for the New Year is clear. We will continue our pursuit to receive him, to grow as children of God, and to recognize it isn’t just about our salvation, but the redemption of the whole creation. And we will grow in our witness to life and love in the person of Jesus Christ, reflecting on all he has meant to us. Just as John did.
We have beheld his glory, as that of an only Son. We must share the story. For all people.
AMEN