12-22-16 - A Child For Us

Abstract or concrete? Philosophy or story? How do you take your theology? Straight up or with a twist? The gospels are flexible enough to incorporate many learning styles.

On Christmas Eve, we will be steeped in story, personal and intimate, sweeping and glorious, each element a rich vein of symbol and language to speak of how much God loves us. But the way the Gospel of John tells the story, and the way the prophets foretell it can be more abstract.

John begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” 

Right off the bat, we are invited to suspend our literal mindedness (“how can something be with God and be God?”) and enter a swirl of words that convey a truth. What does “Word” mean? Most likely “logos,” translated as “word,” means something closer to the “mind” or the “primal thought” of God. Does that make it more or less confusing?

That first paragraph tells the whole story – of what was before we were, of creation, of life and light, and light overcoming darkness. That is what is promised in the prophecy from Isaiah often read on Christmas: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined." 

This great light, the prophet says, will shake up the nations and put an end to war –"For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire." 

And who will bring about this world transformation? A child. An infant with the weight of the world on his shoulders: 

"For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders..."

And from John again: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

This Son of God is a son given to us. Entrusted to humanity. Imagine.

The story of God, so far away, so holy, so “other,” moving into our neighborhood and settling down so that we can draw near – that’s a story that never gets old. It is hard to convey it as Good News to a people for whom it has become hum-drum, and to others for whom “God” is entirely irrelevant, but I believe it is the heart of the gift Christians have for the world. I will continue to try to get inside that mystery and discover the “Word made flesh” who wants to know me and be known by me.

However it is that you best comprehend the story of God’s amazing love and desire to be close to you, I hope you are both shaken and stirred.