He pitched his tent among us

 ‘…And the Word became flesh and lived among us....’ (John 1:14)

John 1:1-18 (Year A: Christmas Day Sunday 25^th December 2016)

The Gospel of St John is different from the ‘synoptic’ gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Where Matthew opens up a long Jewish genealogy and Luke opens with pregnancy and birth stories, John opens with a high-theology, contemplative genealogy of the Divine. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..’ – so begins this gospel. It starts with something like a hymn to the Logos – the very utterance of God-who-is-love. Eastern, Asiatic mysticism could see, here, the manifestation of the Seed which gives life to many, many other seeds.  John knows how to tap into a Jewish audience and, for that matter, a Hellenistic-Greek one too. The Logos (Word) is identified with Sophia (Wisdom) and is our life, our light and the very ground on which we are rooted. The Word is also identified with the Torah or Law given by God through Moses. However, the Word – or New Law – will be a key point in the writings of John including the Letters attributed to John which are read at the daily Eucharist in the closing days of this troublesome year of 2016.

We are because the Word is. In him we have life because the Word is not some philosophical idea or code of behaviour. The Word is deeply personal and relational in a way that is more personal and more relational than we could ever guess or imagine in our little worlds. The Word is not some mere manifestation or by-product of the Divine however me might conceive it. The Word is, as John writes, God without beginning or end.

As with the other evangelists, John has his own emphasis reflecting his community’s experiences and transmission of the living tradition of faith and first century Christian discipleship. The very opening of this majestic and contemplative gospel introduces the reader to the key themes of what will follow. Already, in the first 5 verses we hear of the ‘Word’, ‘Life’, ‘Light’ and, of course, ‘God’. The first 18 verses of John are referred to as the ‘Prologue’ and provides a key gospel reading for this Christmas Day which, also, falls on the Day of Resurrection – Sunday. The significance of the bringing together of the birth of our Saviour with the day of our liberation in the rising of the Christ from the dead once every 7 years should not be lost.

John gives a panoramic contemplation of the mystery of Christ’s coming amongst us.  John’s gospel is one long hymn to the Word or the Logos – made flesh and in whom the Glory, the life, the light and the saving of this world has appeared. It is fitting that on this very special day we hear again the good news of God’s own son made flesh and raised up in glory. Our resurrection is closer at hand every year that we recall the birth of the baby saviour. In the glory of God manifested in the ‘house of bread’ which is Bethlehem we see a homeless family about to be pursued to another country from where they will watch and wait. Today, we see thousands of people watching and waiting on street doors and in occupied buildings. A deed of kindness to one of these is done to Jesus. However, we must see the signs of our times and join with others in struggle to abolish the very structures, institutions, laws and practices that allow thousands to go homeless in one of the richest countries in the world.

And so the Prologue of John’s gospel, as the summary of the entire gospel of John, is our hymn this morning. I have a simple formula that works for me as a summary of this sublime summary and it goes like this:

In the beginning was the Word  / And the World became flesh   / And that flesh became bread /  Which has now become us / Broken for a united world /  At peace and returning to the source from which it came.