Logos

John 1:1-18 (Sermon from Christmas Eve Service)

Tonight we celebrate the coming of the Christ.   Advent is the season of waiting and preparation, and as we waited, we lit the candles of the Advent wreath representing hope, peace, joy, and love.  For us, Jesus represents all these things, and more.  And now, that season of waiting is almost over, as we light the candle in the middle of the wreath symbolizing Christ, the light of the world.

And so tonight, as we do every Christmas Eve, we tell the old, old stories, of angels appearing to old men and young women, bringing news of new life.  We remember that those to whom the angels appeared allowed their lives to be turned upside down to make room for that new life.  And we remember that there were those who resisted this new life, from the innkeeper in Bethlehem who told Mary and Joseph, “Sorry, no room in the inn for your baby”, to Herod, who by his murderous actions brutally but eloquently conveyed the message to his subjects, “Sorry, no room in my entire kingdom for this baby.”  And there were those who traveled to welcome the new life, the shepherds in the fields and the wise men from the east.  So there were those who announced new life, those who made room for new life, those who resisted new life, and those who welcomed new life.

In John’s gospel, we read that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him is life, and the life was the light of all people.…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”   What is this “Word”, that was with God in the beginning?  We usually think of the Bible as the word of God, but I don’t think John was writing about a big Bible floating in space.  Nor was it like some cosmic flashcard, such as grade school teachers use to teach vocabulary, floating out in space. What we read in English as “the Word” is the Greek word logos, which has layers of meaning.  It can mean God’s creative force, as when in Genesis, God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” In Genesis, God spoke these things into being; God’s word brought these things into being.  In Jewish thought, this creative force is closely associated with the Wisdom of God, who is given voice in Proverbs chapters 8 and 9, among other places.   From the Greek word logos is derived our English word logic, as in the logic of an argument or the logic of an essay or the logic of a computer program – the first principles that set the parameters for everything that follows.  Or for those more visually oriented, we might think of logos in terms of a blueprint that conveys to the builders what a home will look like – the number of rooms, the placement of walls and doors and so forth. 

And so John’s gospel tries to tell us something absolutely breathtaking – that the Word, the creative power of God, the Wisdom of God, the logic of life, the blueprint of the universe we call home, became…..a baby, like any other baby, who cried, needed to be fed, needed to have its diapers changed, needed to be loved and cared for.   We’re told that the Word or power or Wisdom or logic or blueprint of God which created everything became a baby who needed everything.  And it would seem that key to this power or Wisdom or logic or blueprint is love, self-emptying, self-giving love.  It was through love that God created the universe, and through love that God emptied Godself to come to us in Jesus. 

Breathtaking…and yet, we see this creative force, this wisdom, this logic, this blueprint, play out over and over again in Scripture.  When God wants to accomplish something, God sends, not armies, but babies – to Abraham and Sarah, to the mother of Moses, to Hannah who became the mother of Samuel, to Ruth and Boaz, whose son Obed became the father of Jesse who became the father of King David.  And to the aged Zechariah and Elizabeth, who in their old age gave birth to John the Baptist, and to  Mary, the mother of the Christ child.   And so, over and over again, the Word or Wisdom or logic or blueprint of God seems to say that God’s actions toward us often come, not with force, but from a place of weakness and vulnerability, the vulnerability of love.  This may be why Jesus so often was found among the poor and marginalized of his society, as we are called to stand with the poor and marginalized of our own.  Those who nurture God’s messengers who come in weakness and vulnerability and above all love are cooperating with the Word, the logic, the blueprint of God. 

The Word of God is the logos of God, the creative force, the Wisdom, the logic, the blueprint, a creative force or logic or blueprint at which love is at the center.  So often we go against the wisdom, the logic, that blueprint, substituting our own.  We prefer armies to babies, prefer force and coercion to vulnerability and weakness.  While we may not act out of hate, we often prefer distance and indifference to love.  But God who is patient constantly tries to draw us back, as when we ignore the GPS in our cars and hear that word, “Recalculating” as the GPS program tries to get us back on course.   As we wander from the path, as we all do, God is constantly recalculating how to guide us back on course.  This is the paradox we encounter in Scripture, that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and yet his actions toward us are in motion, dynamic, subject to change and “recalculating”, fresh and new every day. 

And so we are called to welcome the Christ, who was with the poor and those on the margins, accepting those his society considered unacceptable.   We are called to make room for the poor and the homeless.  We are called to make room for the rejected, whether it be refugees whose lives are threatened in their own countries, or LGBT youth kicked to the curb by their own families.  We are called to make room.  We’re told that whatsoever we do – or refuse to do – from a place of love for the least of his sisters and brothers, we do or refuse to do for him.

There were those who announced the coming of the Christ child, those who made room for his coming, those who resisted his presence, those who welcomed his arrival.  And every day we take these same roles with regard to God’s continuing action in the world, perhaps sometimes announcing, sometimes making room, sometimes resisting, sometimes welcoming.  As we allow Christ to work in us, our lives will be transformed in ways that bear the mark of the Logos, the creative force, the Wisdom, the logic, the blueprint, of God. 

May the hope, peace, joy and love of Christ be with us all, now and in the year to come. Let every heart prepare Him room.  Amen.