In the Beginning: Jesus in Creation

In the Beginning…

(h/t Judy Fentress-Williams)

The Gospel of John is directed to a faith community struggling with their identity and feeling external and internal pressures.

And John’s Gospel is crafted to introduce its readers to the Jesus they all thought they already knew.

Intro: The Prologue

The first 18 verses of the first chapter of John’s gospel are often called the Prologue.

John 1:1–18 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

8 themes of the gospel of John: that are present in the Prologue and then will also appear throughout the gospel:

Jesus and Creation

origin & identity of Jesus

the Word made flesh reveals God

human & divine held together in the Incarnation, in the God revealed in Jesus “God has fully committed God’s self to everything that it means to be human, and the human Jesus reveals the full divinity of God.” Karoline Lewis

contrast between light and darkness

witness as the primary category of discipleship - You want to follow Jesus? Pay attention to him - to who He is, what He does, what He says…

children of God

abundance

Our reading for today is just the opening - and I would like to invite all of you to be the “reader” this morning. We’ll read the text together, ok? As you are able, please prepare your hearts to read God’s Word by standing.

John 1:1–5 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

This is the Word of the Lord.

THANKS BE TO GOD.

So, to review. Jesus is the Word, the Logos. The Living Word. The Idea. The Blueprint. The Conversation. Or, as scholar and translator Sarah Ruden renders it, the true account.

What we see in vs 1 and 2 of the Prologue is that Jesus, the Word, the Logos, was there with God in the beginning. And, in case we miss it, John clarifies, the Word, Jesus, is God.

In the next three verses, John goes on to Jesus’ participation at the beginning in Creation. And, of course, God didn’t just create “in the beginning” … creation is an ongoing commitment.

We hear echoes of Paul’s letter to the Colossians are heard in vs 3

John 1:3 NIV

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

All things were made through Jesus the Word. So there is no separation between the material and the spiritual. The material and the spiritual are intertwined. With one antother, and according to Colossians, with their Creator!

Colossians 1:16–17 NIV

16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

There is this sense that the Word, the Blueprint, the Idea, the Organizing Principle of the universe is… well… involved. Jesus, the Incarnate God, is before Creation, and was involved in Creation, and is in Creation.

As Gordon reminded us last week, “God’s blueprint for creation was not done on the seventh day; God didn’t set up the universe in the beginning and then let it run amok on its own. God hasn't stopped speaking into creation. As we'll read further in chapter 1, God’s conversation with God's self became God’s conversation with us, and God's Logos became flesh and blood and dwelt among us; God’s Living Word invaded our shadowed earthly reality.”

We see this invasion in a few ways - but the image that John gives us is that of LIGHT coming into darkness.

It’s important to note that this is an echo of creation too. Not just a metaphor for these long nights of December.

The first act of creation was… LIGHT!

Think about Genesis 1:1-5

Genesis 1:1–5 NIV

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

So the Word (which in a few verses will become flesh and dwell among us), is now likened to light. And we can all imagine this image - because we have experienced this.

A dark room. One match struck, one candle lit. And the darkness is pushed back.

To quote Gordon one more time from last week: “God’s plan has been there since the beginning. God’s blueprint for the universe has always been “with” God (literally “all up in God’s face”). God’s conversation with God's self is in fact identical with God's existence. God’s Logos illuminates our human existence and drives back the darkness of our primordial separation from God.”

John 1:5 NIV

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

What is the light? The Creator’s first act. “Let there be light!”

What is the darkness? Evil? Sin? What is sin? Anything that hurts us. Anything that stains us. Anything that traps us.

Have you ever been trapped? Or hurt? Or stained? By your own actions or by those of others?

What does overcome mean?

John 1:5 NASB95

5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:5 NLT

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John 1:5 NET

5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.

Overcome, comprehend, extinguish, master, …

John 1:5 NIV

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus, the Word, God from before Creation. Jesus, active in Creation - from the beginning yes, but also right up to the present moment - the One in whom all things hold together. Jesus, the Light of the World, who is the Word made flesh and who reveals who God is and what God is like.

The light shines… and the darkness, anything evil, anything that traps or hurts or stains… the darkness cannot comprehend or overcome or master or extinguish the light.

This is why Advent is such good news. It means we can sit in the darkness of our own lives, of our world. And we don’t have to be afraid. Or, rather, or fears don’t get the last word. One match struck. One candle lit. And the light shines in the darkness… and no matter how dark the dark, it does not overpower the light.

Jesus will go on to talk about Light later in John’s gospel… John 8:12

John 8:12 NIV

12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

My former boss and mentor, Darrell Johnson, talks about what difference the light of the world makes in our everyday lives:

Reveals who God is

we aren’t In the dark (pun intended) anymore about who God is and what God is like; a lifelong process of discovering

Darrell Johnson: “If we begin with the generic word “God,” we do not begin with God but with our own ideas about God, which are not God. All human ideas about God as less than adequate, some positively misleading. But begin with Jesus and we begin with God’s idea about God, we begin with God’s idea about God’s own personal self-revelation. God is just like Jesus. The Father is just like Jesus: just as compassionate as Jesus, just as available and approachable as Jesus, just as merciful and kind as Jesus, just as uncontrollable as Jesus.”

2. Reveals what it means to be human.

Jesus not only perfectly reveals what it is to be God, Jesus also reveals perfectly what it is to be Human. Truly human.

3. Exposes the truth about the human condition. Seeing what the True human is like reveals all the ways in which we fail to live up to what we were created for. Sin. Often our first thought about sin is that of separation. But it’s helpful to keep a rounder concept of sin, I think. Meredith Miller reminds us that sin hurts. Sin traps. And sin stains. And God, all the way through the story of Scripture is always coming to be with God’s people. Doesn’t matter how stained, how trapped, how hurt they are.

John 1:1–5 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The light of the world has come. The light shines and the darkness cannot overcome it, cannot comprehend it, cannot extinguish it.

God is like Jesus. Word made flesh. The One who comes and keeps coming and will always come for us.

Invites us to be who we were made to be. And promises to rescue us from whatever traps, or hurts and stains us.

Advent Communion

Prayer of Preparation

God of light and hope, of stars and surprises: open our eyes to your glory and our hearts to your presence, that we may respond with joy to the angel song; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Invitation

God’s Banquet is coming.

The time we await when all will gather from North, East, West and South.

A banquet where the rich and powerful will sit with the weak and poverty-stricken.

A table where young and old will learn from each other.

A time when all will sit together in peace, “and the wolf will lie down with the lamb”.

Here at this table we get a foretaste of God’s banquet.

This is indeed God’s table, not the church’s, and so all who seek to follow The Way are welcome to eat and drink from it.

Come and taste the grace eternal, come and see that God is good.

The Great Thanksgiving

God is with us

We are not alone

Christ is present here

The Spirit moves within us

Let us give thanks to God

In memory and in hope

Blessings be to you, Creator God, Who in the beginning brought light and life to the world and who continues to bring it love and light everlasting.

Your song of wisdom echoes through the ages, your ancient promise still brings us hope.

Over the ages you have called people to embrace your hope and share your love.

But even when they have closed their ears to the song you did not stop singing.

You sent prophets and messengers to your people, reminding them of the promised time of peace and justice that would surround the world.

They came in the midst of our despair and filled us with hope.

And then you came to a young woman named Mary and laid out the promise in a new way

Promising her a son, who would be called Jesus

Promising her that in her son the world would be changed

And now as we prepare for that child to be born, we echo the ancient cry: O come, O come Emmanuel

The Story Remembered

Yet even now, as we prepare to celebrate his birth, we remember the life that this baby will live.

We remember how he broke the bonds of human tradition to show all what the Banquet of Hope could be as he ate openly with the despised and the outcast of his world.

And we remember one special meal, foretaste of the banquet that is to come, that he ate with his closest friends.

Gathering them together in an upper room to share the story of liberation, he prepared them for liberation.

And at the end of the meal he took bread, blessed and broke it, then passed it to them saying:

Take and eat. This bread is the body of Life, given for us. Eat it in remembrance and in hope.

After that he took the cup, blessed it, and passed it to them saying: This cup is the sign of the New Covenant. Whenever you drink it remember me, for I shall not eat or drink again until the time of the heavenly banquet. Remembering the birth of the child in the stable, we remember also his life, his death and his resurrection. We remember how he poured his love out all he met and look forward to his return and the coming reign of peace, love and justice.

The Spirit Transforms

God, you poured your Spirit on Mary and she sang words of defiance and hope.

Pour out your Spirit upon us gathered here. As we eat and drink may we know your presence.

As we eat and drink may we be opened to the possibilities of your hope and power And may we be strengthened in our time of waiting for peace and justice so that we will have the courage to make the Christmas promise a reality.

The Pouring and Breaking and Serving

The Bread we break is the Bread of Life

The Cup we Share is the Cup of Promise

These are the gifts of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Come and eat, the banquet awaits.

Prayer Following Communion

God of pregnant expectations, God of Christmas promise, God of child-like hope, we have eaten and drunk from your table.

May the eating and the drinking fill us with hope in a world of despair.

May we be beacons of hope as we wait for the day when the world will be changed.

Grant that this taste of your banquet which is to come would give us the hunger for peace and justice in our community and around the world.

Jesus, you truly are Immanuel “God with us”.

In this season of hope, may the meal we’ve shared together nourish us to be your body in the world, your kingdom come, your will done on earth as it is in heaven.

With the angels in heaven we join in singing your praises, Glory to God in the highest.

Song: Glory (Let There Be Peace)