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The Word Became Flesh

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“The Word Became Flesh”

John 1:1-14 – December 25, 2025

            Words, words, words, words!! Words of every kind, of every description. Words that tell, words that show, words that praise, words that criticize. Words separate and draw together. Words fill people with joy and peace as well as with suspicion and animosity. Words have power. Whether insightful words or divisive words, encouraging words or capitulating words, words have the ability to shake emotions and to inflame passions for good or for evil.

            How do people use words and language, anyway? People speaking a common language need to agree upon the sense of what they say. It helps to be bound together by social convention as well as language rules of practice and use. In fact, language provides the structure of our common experience, understanding and perspectives. But I don’t want to get all high-falutin’ and theoretical. I want to bring this home to where we live.

            We all use language. Every day. In conversation at home, or on the telephone, or at work. Reading a newspaper or writing e-mail. All of these uses of language use words. Words communicate meaning, ideas, stories. Each one of us has a personal story, of what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now. Our stories are communicated using words and language, and each individual has a creative, unique way to tell his or her story.

            The story of an individual’s own personal life makes sense because it is part of a larger story, the Story that has the story of Jesus Christ at its center. It is a story of God’s initiative which calls for my gratitude and response, a Story some theologians have called ‘the history of salvation.’ It is the Story of Jesus, the Story set forth in the Word of God that attracts, crossing boundaries and transcending lines of race, class, culture and age.

            Our gospel text for today, the first 14 verses of the Gospel of John, is a restatement of an old theme. Remember Genesis 1:1? “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Most scholars today believe the apostle John was thinking of that introduction to the Greatest Story ever told when he wrote his own portion of it. John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word.” John reframed that Story, and gave it a new look from a different perspective.

            In John, Chapter 1, we have God, the creative God who made heaven and earth. The almighty God wanted to communicate with us puny, limited human beings. But how was God supposed to communicate His Story?

            I can remember when my children were younger, in first and second grades. Sometimes they would need help with their homework at night. Years before, I had taken several courses of math in college . . . college algebra, trigonometry, analytical geometry. But, after considering more advanced mathematical ideas, how was I supposed to explain simple addition and subtraction to my young children in language they would understand?

            That’s the way I look at God’s problem sometimes. It’s sort of like God, able to do the most advanced mathematics possible–in God’s head!!–and God needed to be able to explain the simplest addition and subtraction problems to us ordinary, simple-minded human beings.

            There was another problem, as if the simple-mindedness of humanity wasn’t enough. That problem was (and is!!)  sin. Funny thing, how sin keeps cropping up in our lives and getting in the way. Sin divides people from one another as well as from God. Sin isolates and forces apart. Sin happens on a horizontal plane with other people as well as on a vertical plane with God. And sin causes humanity to walk in darkness and to run from God’s presence.

            So here we have a loving God, a God of light, a God who wants so much to communicate with us fallen, sinful human beings. But how was God supposed to communicate God’s Story?

            The Gospel of John tells us how. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God. The Word is God. Jesus is the Word. John 1:14 says that the Word, Jesus, became flesh,  and . . . the Word dwelt among us.

            Think about it: the whole idea of God becoming a helpless baby, a human being, able to feel cold and heat, able to be hungry and thirsty, with blood and bones and a nervous system and a digestive system. So staggering was this idea that some of the people in John’s day could not believe it. God? the creative God who made heaven and earth? Coming to earth as a helpless, human baby? No way!!

            And, that’s not all!! Not only did this Creator God appear in creation so that our eyes could see Him, this almighty God, after making Himself flesh and blood, has the crazy idea of dwelling among people. Becoming one of us limited human beings, sharing our food and living in our midst. Jesus became fully man. He didn’t just seem to be a man, and pretend to be human. He really and truly became human, living with us as one of us.

            What a way for the almighty, eternal, creative God to communicate to us in a way that we limited human beings might possibly understand. God wanted humanity to understand His Story of good news, the Bible, but God also wanted humanity to understand God’s Word made flesh, the one called Jesus of Nazareth.

            Jesus (the Word incarnate) is the central principle of Scripture as well as the central character of the Greatest Story ever told. Reformed believers have throughout the centuries been finding new ways to confess their faith, using the fallible, limited resources of language that have been handed down to humanity throughout the generations. God helps us understand His Story, and there is nothing God wants more than for us to want to understand God’s Story better and better.

            A good many years ago, a bible translator went to a remote, mountainous region in the interior of Africa. He worked hard at turning an obscure oral language into a written language, which involved decoding the language, writing a grammar, learning extensive vocabulary, and finally translating a portion of the Bible into the heart language of that particular people-group.

            After several years of intense work and language preparation, when he felt he was ready, the missionary made his first presentation of the Story of Jesus to a group of headmen from the tribe. He was surprised at their response, which was unlike any he had ever had before in all his years of being a missionary and telling people the Story of Jesus. The group of men just sat there in silence, and then the chief came forward.

            The chief grasped the missionary’s hands and, with tears in his eyes, thanked him for coming to tell them the Story of Jesus. “This Story of good news is the one my people have waited for, all their lives long!!” And then came the clincher: the chief asked, “Your tribe has had this Story for many, many years. What took you so long to tell us?”

            Communicating the Story of Jesus has power! Awesome power! This is a Story that can change people’s lives for eternity. Telling the Story in someone’s heart language is one of the best ways to communicate how much God loves us.

            When Jesus came to this earth, He spoke the language of the people of His region, and He communicated ideas in ways people could understand. Yes, He was the Word become flesh, and yes, He showed us how to live this life that we have to live. Jesus, ‘the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.’

            Praise God that God sent the Son Jesus into this world, the Word incarnate, the Word that became a helpless baby in Bethlehem. Praise God that God has given us the right to repair that broken relationship with us, and to be called the children of God. And praise God that God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son on our behalf, to reconcile us to God for eternity.

            Gloria in excelsis Deo.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

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God Created

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“God Created”

Genesis 1:1-6, 26-28 – June 11, 2023

            With June, everything is blooming! All kinds of trees, plants, flowers and leaves are growing and blossoming, and it’s just like that song from the great American songbook, “June is Busting Out All Over!” We can easily see how much joy God took in creating the heavens and the earth, with how green and verdant all of nature appears, outside.

            And, God not only created the plants and growing things. The Lord created a whole lot more! As Genesis 1 tells us, God created all living things on the earth, sea and sky, and all the heavenly bodies in the universe, too. A mighty act of creation, for our mighty God! 

            This act of creation comes at the very beginning of things, in the very beginning of the Bible. Genesis chapter 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.”

            We are starting our summer sermon series today, Re-imaging God. This series will highlight different ways of thinking about and naming attributes of our God. In this series, we will work on stretching ourselves! We will try to enlarge our image of our God.

            The words we use are important – not only the words we say, but the words we read on the printed page. The words of Scripture are all important, too. Let us take a closer look at how verses 1 and 2 describe our God. Verse 1 (the summary statement for this chapter) says that “God created.” God created the heavens up above and the earth beneath. Verse 2 describes the Spirit of God as “hovering over the waters.”

            This lean, spare description is marvelous! Can you see it? The dark heavens and the earth, formless, empty, just waiting for something to happen.

I don’t know whether you are aware, but different languages use different articles for nouns. In English, we all say “the cat” and “the dog,” and by the article “the,” they could be either male or female animals. However, many languages are structured differently.

In German or Italian, Spanish or Greek, different nouns are gendered. It’s a “male dog,” or a “female cat.” The article “the” in front of the noun changes with the word. Plus, the gender of the verbs must agree with the gender of the nouns! Any native English speaker who learns one of these languages in school struggles with the gender of the nouns and matching the proper articles and proper gender of verbs with the nouns!

It’s the same way with the Spirit of God. In the original language of the Hebrew Scriptures, “Spirit” is feminine. What’s more, the Spirit of God hovering or brooding over the waters is – according to the Hebrew language – a feminine Spirit. This verb “hovering” is also mentioned in Deuteronomy 32, where the mother eagle is protective towards her young in the nest. The “hovering” of the Spirit is a mothering activity! Here in Genesis, the Spirit of God, the Ruach ha Kodesh, is a protective, nurturing presence over the still formless waters. [1]

            Just so we do not get lost in the weeds of different languages, here’s the highlight I want us all to focus on. Whether Scripture is in Hebrew or Greek, “both masculine and feminine verbs are used for God, masculine for God, feminine for the Spirit. [And as we will see,] God’s human creation will reflect their creator as female and male.” [2]

               Seeing the nurturing, mothering nature of mammals, of dogs, cats, and humans – these mental images of puppies, kittens and babies can bring to mind gentle caring, loving encouragement, and supportive love. These are exactly the kinds of things that describe the activities of the Spirit of God! Plus, God the Father is caring, loving and supportive, too!

And what about the Good Shepherd? That’s Jesus, I want everyone to know. Remember how Jesus cares for His sheep, and how in several places in the Gospels Jesus is described as a loving, supportive Good Shepherd who guards, guides and protects His sheep.

            Isn’t it wonderful to see God as a mothering, nurturing God? Not only mighty and strong – a just, even stern, protector. Yes, God is all of those things. And, mothering and nurturing, caring and loving, too! Both/and – not either/or.

            Let us continue with verse 26: “Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” God has created humans male and female. We, as humans, are created in the image of God! And, this whole chapter of Genesis 1 follows the same pattern, using pronouns of both genders.

            “We forget that Genesis 1 is a chapter brimming with goodness and blessing. In fact, God pronounces blessing on the created order three times. [God] calls creation “good” and “very good” seven times.” [3]

            We can see how the earth – the world – the universe was lovingly, joyfully created by God. And, whether we think of the feminine Spirit of God or the almighty Lord, or the Word that was in the beginning (from the Gospel of John), the preincarnate Son of God – however we consider the Triune God – all we can do is lift our hands in worship, thanksgiving and praise.

 What will you and I do with this fresh understanding of God? This understanding that transcends gender? “The creation story insists that God’s mark is imprinted on my very being. I might ignore or distort it, but the mark is always there. Whether I acknowledge it or not, I reflect something of God’s joy, God’s intentions, God’s love, and God’s beauty just by virtue of existing on the earth. I am His, and so He is mine.” [4]

            We can go out into the world, knowing that the Creator God made each of us, all of us, in the image of God. Male and female we are made, and each is in the image of God. Just as Psalm 139 tells us, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

            Our loving, caring, nurturing Creator God created the heavens and the earth; God created all humanity, and that includes you and me, too. Praise God! Alleluia, amen. 

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] van Wijk-Bos, Johanna, W.H., “Reimagining God” (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, KY, 1995), 72.73.

[2] Gafney, Wilda, “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church” (Church Publishing, New York, NY, 2021), 142.

[3] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20140609JJ.shtml

[4] Ibid.

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The Word Became Flesh

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“The Word Became Flesh”

John 1:14 – December 27, 2020

            We all use language. Every day. In conversation at home, on the cellphone, or at work. Reading a news site or writing e-mail. Words communicate meaning, ideas, stories. Each one of us has a personal story. Each story is individual and unique. Our stories are communicated using words and language, and each individual has a creative, unique way to tell his or her story.

The story of a personal life makes sense because it is part of a larger story, the Story that has the story of Jesus Christ at its center. This story of God’s initiative calls for my gratitude and response, a Story some theologians have called ‘the history of salvation.’ It is the Story set forth in the Word of God that crosses boundaries and transcends lines of race, class, culture and age.

Our Scripture text for tonight, the first 14 verses of John’s Gospel, is a restatement of an old theme. Remember Genesis 1:1? “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Scholars believe the apostle John was thinking of that introduction to the Greatest Story ever told. John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word.” John reframed that Story, and gave it a new look from a different perspective.

            The almighty God wanted to communicate with us puny, limited human beings. But how was God supposed to communicate God’s Story? What with the stress, anxiety, isolation and depression running rampant, all across our country? For that matter, what about communicating God’s Story in the time of COVID?

            The Gospel of John tells us how, no matter what the earthly situation holds. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God. The Word is God. Jesus is the Word. John 1:14 says that the Word, Jesus, became flesh,  and . . . the Word dwelt among us.

            Think about it: the whole idea of God becoming a helpless baby, able to feel cold and heat, to be hungry and thirsty, with blood and bones, a nervous system and a digestive system. So staggering was this idea that some of the people in John’s day could not believe it. God? the creative God who made heaven and earth? Coming to earth as a helpless, human baby? No way!!

            And, not only did this Creator God appear in creation so that our eyes could see Him, this almighty God has the crazy idea of dwelling among people. Becoming one of us limited human beings, sharing our food and living in our midst. Jesus became fully man. He didn’t just seem to be a man, and pretend to be human. He really and truly became man, living with us as one of us.

            What a way for the almighty, eternal, creative God to communicate to us in a way that we limited human beings might possibly understand. God also wanted humanity to understand His Word made flesh, the one called Jesus of Nazareth.

            A good many years ago, a bible translator went to a remote, mountainous region in the interior of Africa. He worked hard at turning an obscure oral language into a written language, which involved decoding the language, writing a grammar, learning extensive vocabulary, and finally translating a portion of the Bible into the heart language of that particular people-group.

            After years of intense work and language preparation, when he felt he was ready, the missionary made his presentation of the Story of Jesus to a group of headmen from the tribe. He was surprised at their response, which was unlike any he had ever had before in all his years of telling people the Story of Jesus. The men just sat there in silence. Then, the chief came forward.

            The chief grasped the missionary’s hands and, with tears in his eyes, thanked him for coming to tell them the Story of Jesus. “This Story of good news is the one my people have waited for, all their lives long!!” And then came the clincher: the chief asked, “Your tribe has had this Story for many, many years. What took you so long to tell us?”

            This is a Story that can change people’s lives for eternity. Telling the God’s story in someone’s heart language is one of the best ways to communicate how much God loves us.

            Praise the Lord that God sent Jesus into this world, the Word incarnate, the Word that became a helpless baby in Bethlehem. Praise God that God has repaired that broken relationship with us, and to be called the children of God. The Lord loved us so much that God gave His only begotten Son on our behalf, to reconcile us to God for eternity.

            Gloria in excelsis Deo.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my regular blog for 2020: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and my other blog,  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!