The Word Made Flesh
John's Christmas may not involve an infant, but it is infinitely important.
Happy New Year! Thank you for joining me on this journey through the gospels. Before we get to today’s first entry - always reflecting simply on John 1 - just a few words about where we’re headed.
We will begin with the gospel of Mark and take it rather quickly, in just 47 days, coupling it with the book of James. On Ash Wednesday, we’ll begin Luke. During the Lenten season, we’ll also go through the book of Hebrews. The Easter season will see us finish Luke before beginning Matthew after Pentecost. During the summer and into the fall Matthew will lead us even as we dig deeply into the Sermon on the Mount. And we’ll wrap the year up with the gospel of John, likely paired with his epistles before doing something different during Advent again next year.
Let’s get going, beginning where we always have.
Beginning the year with these verses from John’s gospel feels right for multiple reasons. Today is the eighth day of Christmas. Not too long ago, we remember lighting a candle each Sunday during Advent. A little light at first, then more, and more, until it all burst forth on Christmas Eve in celebration of Christ’s birth.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.
January 1 is, of course, just another day in the universe. God is not bound by calendars. While the rhythms of creation we see in the turning of planets, the waxing and waning of the light of the moon and sun all are thanks to a divine ordering of the world, the naming of days and years is a human practice. Still, that doesn’t make it meaningless. Marking time can help us pay attention. And any day is a good day to do the right thing. It might as well be this one.
Any day is a good day to notice light, to receive grace, to live in truth. What might that look like today or this week or this year?
John’s gospel famously has no birth story. There is no journey to Bethlehem, no angels singing to shepherds, no magi arriving late with gifts. Instead, John in one moment begins both far earlier and 30 years later. Before mangers or messengers, before beginnings we can mark or measure, there is the Word. And the Word is life. And that life is light for all people. While the Word of God is everything, don’t make too much of it. It simply means the message of God - who God is and what God desires.
This is John’s theological foundation, not just for who Jesus was, but for who Jesus is. Christ is not a correction. What he offers is not a contingency plan. The Word is God’s message from the beginning. Other things like Israel, Scripture, and the Church are gifts, responses, and adaptations within the unfolding story of creation. But the Word stands at the center.
And the Word is Christ.
John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.
The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
Prayer
God,
I am beginning this year with much gratitude for your steadfast love that shelters and your abundant grace that sustains. You are the source of life and all that is good, worthy, and true. Thank you for the Word, Christ who became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
As I step into this new day and year, help me to embody the same - your Word. May Christ shape who I am and what I do. Make me to embrace the light that shines in the darkness, in particular.
I pray for those who are joining me daily on this journey of reading the gospels to center life around Jesus Christ. Help us together to know him, which is to better know ourselves. We see your loving justice in Jesus. Make us more like him.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.