The Word Made Flesh
Christmas 1
December 29, 2024
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.
The Gospels address Jesus’s birth in three ways: Matthew and Luke give accounts of his birth and genealogy which are distinct but together form the picture we have of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds and the wise men. Mark doesn’t touch on it at all. John puts it in context with everything.
When I say everything, I mean everything. We have a rather unfortunate false narrative in our culture that tries to cast an impassable divide with faith on one side and reason on the other, or faith and spirituality on one side and science on the other. Some religious people deny science. Many scientists deny the existence of God.
Nothing could be further from the truth. And when I say, “Nothing could be further from the Truth”, I do not mean that in the colloquial sense that people often use it and you automatically think “No, a lot of things are further from the truth.” I mean it literally. Nothing could be further from the Truth.
John starts his Gospel with, “In the beginning was the Word.” As a matter of faith, “the beginning” carries us back to the opening verses of Genesis, when God began to create everything. (Scripture does not look before the beginning of our universe.) We join God as he starts to create. This is the easiest passage of the Bible to find, so please turn to page one.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “’Let there be light,” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-4)
It is a matter of faith to ascribe the existence of everything to a being, even to call it creation, and to assert that order came into being through God’s speech, through God’s Word. It says nothing about how it happened, just that God said it and it happened. It is important to note that this description of the Earth as “initially without form” is remarkably accurate given that it was written over 3,000 years ago.
The Greek word for word is logos. When John talks about The Word, he is referring to God’s’ speech. That holds several radical claims. 1. There is a God, a power behind everything. 2. God has a mind and personality. 3. God has a will and purpose which he brings into being through speech. All of that is bound up in the word logos.
On the other hand, science has made great progress in learning how our word and the universe came into being. Scientists develop a theory and test its hypotheses. Everything we learn brings a new set of questions, which carry us further and further in our knowledge and understanding, which adds more questions and on we go.
Beckoning that work forward is the presumption that our universe is discoverable by observation in conjunction with our capacity to reason. That necessarily requires a presumption of order, which inevitably comes down to the math, which describes the logic of existence. Do you want to guess what the root word for logic is? Logos!
Christianity has always been driven toward the unitive nature of Truth, which gave rise to universities to study the universe, which gave room and resources for science to develop. Even the word theory shares its root with theology, theou, which means God.
Alchemy became chemistry, astrology became astronomy, biology the study of life and physics the structure of the physical universe. Theology is known as “the mother of the sciences,” and it is a fairly recent error to divide faith and science. Nothing could be further from the Truth. The Truth is faith and reason, belief and science, why and how together.
This was beautifully illustrated when Meg and I went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey, a church which is at the very heart of the United Kingdom, where they have crowned English kings and queens since 1066. We walked in and there on our left was the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton. Under our feet was the grave of Charles Darwin. These great men of science are interred in God’s house.
Back to John’s Gospel: Now that we’ve reflected a bit on the first six words, we’ll pick up the pace. “The Word was with God and the Word was God,” from the beginning and created everything. It has been the life and light of all people.
All of this preamble helps us see Jesus for who he is. The Word, the true light of the world, came into the world. The Word became flesh. The creative power of God, his mind and personality, his will and purpose for humanity and his creation became embodied in Jesus, a real person in history, a real person in time and space, known and loved and followed.
John says that all who received him, who believed in his name, have power to also become children of God. This is God’s invitation and blessing to us all.
This morning, we will close out 2024 in the church with two baptisms. I think that will make 11 this year, which is joyful! I love baptisms, whether it’s a baby or an adult. Lettie Keir Keever and Garrity Robert Jahna are cousins. They are growing fast and learning all about the world around them. They’ll pick up a lot by watching their parents and others around them. They’ll learn more in school and in sports or the arts or other interests they may pursue. They will endeavor to prosper in whatever they do. That is all good and as it should be.
How will they make sense of it all? How will they shape it into a good life? It’s one thing to know good from evil. How will they know the good, better and best? The world, nature, will constantly urge them to be all they can be, to strive, to succeed, to provide and protect.
God wants all of that for them, too. But there is more that God wants. He wants their lives, with all their gifts, skills and strengths, all of their weaknesses and struggles, all of their joys and sorrows to have the highest meaning and highest purpose. He wants them to know him and put him first. He wants them to follow him and find their very best selves in him. What does it mean to be your best and love your neighbor as yourself; to love your enemies, to take up your cross and follow Jesus; to be a living, breathing, active part of the Body of Christ?
Today, we join them in taking a stand to receive Jesus and have power to become children of God, to have the Word become flesh in them, to have their lives shaped by the constant becoming of the God who spoke them into existence and who loves them absolutely. I hope and pray they will come to know him through the Son who has made him known.
AMEN