John 1:1-14
Whatever you do this day, please do not give Christmas Day the ax! An increasingly disturbing trend among many Lutherans is to simply “not have” Christmas Day. Don’t do this. “The pastor worked so hard” isn’t an excuse and neither is “there will be only a few people.” The principal feast is Christmas day: act like it.
Just as Luke told us the nuts and bolts of what happened last night (even if details are spotty at best…), John tells us what it means. The Incarnation is a topic so big, so mind-bogglingly massive in its implications, that preachers need to walk a tightrope: between esoteric meditations on the enormity of meaning present in the Incarnation and a pedestrian explanation of the text that seems afraid of its splendor. Your job, dear preacher, is to walk the line between both of these and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
John’s text, of course, appears again in just two weeks on Christmas II, and so preachers will need to save some of their cards to put on the table at that time. You need to preach on this text twice in a very short time, so please – for your own sanity! – save some of the theological meaning for that day. Enormous (and intimidating) as this text is, you do not need to preach every sermon it contains in one shot. Save some, please, being aware of the other readings and how they make commentary on John both today and on Christmas II.
"Yes, we celebrate the Incarnation today, but we also look forward to the eschatological fulfillment of unanswered questions, particularly about human suffering."
John’s soliloquy is intended – among other meanings – to echo the opening line of Genesis: “In the beginning…”. A new creation, surpassing that of the old creation, is at hand in the dawning of God’s reign in Jesus Christ. Out of both of these creations God calls forth “life,” but the life called out of the second is superior because it is for the purposes of redemption. The medieval carol “Adam Lay Ybounden” (c. 1400) hints at this: “Blessed be the time that apple taken was; therefore, we moun singin: Deo Gratias!” Expulsion from the garden is a tragedy; yet without it, the cosmos would not experience the saving power of God's redemption in Christ. And this redemption in Christ Jesus is a superior life because it is life with God.
Preachers are well-familiar (or should be) with the Greek meanings of Logos and the philosophical categories that Hellenistic thinkers condensed into this term. It turns out that many in our congregations are not familiar with the intricacies of Greek Philosophy, so the preacher may wish to spend some time simplifying this term (simply!): the “Logos” is “that which makes everything else make sense.” Depending on the exact pastoral needs of your context, this might be exceptionally Good News for those who are sitting in despair or trying to unravel some great life challenge. How does this human life make sense, especially when it seems – for many – that it is filled with disappointment or sadness? It is not enough to say that Jesus solves this problem; if he did, why do we still experience grief? Rather, sensitive preachers will propose that it is in Jesus that this problem is being solved over time, an understanding that is itself a faithful balance between the "already" and "not yet" balance between the present moment and the eschatological fulfillment of Jesus' second coming. Yes, we celebrate the Incarnation today, but we also look forward to the final fulfillment of unanswered questions, particularly about human suffering and the mysteries of living. “Making sense” is what Jesus is doing now, not a task accomplished only in the past in a one-off theological proposition beyond human understanding. In this way, too, the “new” creation of John’s prologue is a thing unfolding. The "Word-Made-Flesh" is happening and also a thing that happened.
And this present happening is perhaps the greatest news of all. John’s monumental verses can be easily viewed as the domain of deep thinkers on the Incarnation, which it is surely is. But the purpose of all of this is what matters yet more: that God loves the world. All of this has God done out of love. It is a mystery so great it cannot be comprehended, and it gives us glimmers of itself for the purposes of loving relationship. This is between God and us (redemption!), and at the same time is a call to enter loving and forgiving relationship with one another. Being called “children of God” is no small thing, and as Christmas begins, this singular purpose (to echo Luther’s commentary on the eucharist) is of utmost importance: all of this is for you and it is the sole initiative of God.
THE REV. DR. PATRICK H. SHEBECK is the Senior Pastor at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from St. Olaf College with degrees in Liturgics and History, and received his MDiv. at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), doing additional work at Trinity Seminary, Columbus Ohio, and Cambridge University in England. Pastor Shebeck holds the Doctor of Ministry in Liturgical Theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where he studied under Ed Foley. Pr. Shebeck is a Fellow of the Collegeville Institute at St. John's University, and also a fellow of the John Templeton Foundation's project on Science and Homiletics; he also serves on the Board of Directors of the ELCA Deaconess Community and the Board of Trustees of the Seminar on Lutheran Liturgy.
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