‘…And the Word became
flesh and lived among us....’ (John
1:14)
picture: Mary Du Charme
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We know many things about
babies – among other things they are noisy, sometimes smelly and always cuddly.
At the centre of the Christmas scene somewhere behind all the glitter, noise
and fuss is the image of a little baby. On the basis of hard historical facts
we know that the baby depicted in the postcard cribs was not a chubby,
over-sized, pale-skinned smiley baby of clearly European image. But, we do know
that the story of what happened over two thousand years ago in Bethlehem would
change the world in a dramatic way.
What is this
Christmas thing? Is it a marriage of mid-winter pagan lights festival with a
new religion of God made flesh in a small baby? Is it more an over-rated
commercial season or something that marks out a belief and practice that sounds
crazy, viz. the idea that God could become a vulnerable, crying and dependent
baby in some sort of make-shift temporary dwelling? Think about it. It is crazy
in the sense that it overturns the values and notions of a society grounded on
wealth, power and traditional religious order. This story gets even more crazy
– the God become baby grows into an adult who heals and preaches and meets with
a terrible death. Yes, God is crucified on the cross – the very person who was
a defenceless baby in the womb of blessed Mary. And to cap this ‘crazy’ story
the crucified one rose from the dead and now lives among us and is in some
mysterious way joined to every living human being regardless of who or what they
are.
I reckon that such
a ‘crazy’ God is so mad with love because that is what God is – love. God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son …. (John 3:16). Love was born in a marginal family, in a
marginal place to a marginal people crushed by the Roman Empire. Love showed
itself in the deeds of many today who carry the message and the truth of
God-who-is-love.
Today, if we are
fortunate enough, we will receive gifts – tokens of appreciation and kindness
on top of the good things most of us already enjoy such as health, shelter,
food and safety from harm. However, the greatest gift we can receive this Day
is the gift of the one who saves – Jeshua – Jesus the Christ. This is especially
so in the sacrament of the Eucharist. It is after all Christ-Mass and we are spiritually present at Bethlehem - literally the house of bread. Are we ‘crazy’
enough to believe and to live out the message of a self-emptying God who has
suffered and died and lives now in our broken and still-to-be-healed world?
A short note on the ‘Prologue of St John’
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 and every calendar
year.
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 we might conceive it. The
Word is, as John writes, God without beginning or end.
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