2023-12-06
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
Sermon December 3, 2023 – First Sunday in Advent
Federated Church UCC
John 1:1-9 and Genesis 1:1-5
Rev. Betsy C Wooster
Will you pray with me: O God, who wakens the world each day with your great light, illuminate our lives that we may see them truly, as you see them. In the name of Christ, Amen.
The gospel of John is well known for the way in which the author draws on the imagery, characters, and stories of the Hebrew scriptures as a way of grounding our understanding of who Jesus is. The gospel’s author speaks from within the Hebrew tradition.
So why is this important to know? It’s important because it points to the audience for whom this gospel was intended, and context always matters. John’s first sentence is a call back to the first lines in the book of Genesis. Before we read today’s passage from John, hear these words from Genesis, Chapter 1: verses 1-5:
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness God called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
And now, today’s New Testament reading from the gospel of John, chapter 1: verses 1-9:
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The Word was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through the Word, and without the Word not one thing came into being.
What has come into being 4 in the Word was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the deepest night and the night did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 John was not the light, but came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”
The beginning of the gospel of John, like Genesis, is poetic. We might even call it a symphonic overture that sweeps us into the imagery of a shimmering light that is at the same time something fuller than light, a light that communicates with, a word that is life; the blazing, shimmering light of Jesus whose life was the light of all people. The light and life that shine in the deepest night, and the night has not overcome it.”
Poetry speaks to us because it reminds us of something we already know, but cannot—perhaps—put our fingers on.
In the beginning was the word, the gospel proclaims. In the original Greek language of the New Testament, the “word” is Logos: it says “In the beginning was the Logos.” Logos is a Greek word that has a great depth of meaning. It means wisdom and intelligence, the unifying order of reason and creativity. Logos is a creative power. So, in the beginning was this creative power.
I did not fully appreciate light until I saw the Milky Way in the dark sky of the wilderness in northern Maine, when there was no moon to distract from the brightness of the galaxy of stars. On that summer night, stretched out on the dock of a small lake under the dazzling sky, I remembered a clear night from my childhood, when my father called me out to the back porch.
I knew what this meant. It meant that I’d reach the back porch to find my dad pointing to the stars with the biggest smile on his face, so that I would look up into the universe at the stars and name them, to look at the constellation of stars and learn their names, the names that described their shapes. Orion’s belt, the big and little dipper, and so on.
The stars, and my father, were speaking to me, reminding me of the miracle of being alive, uncovering the reality of the deep goodness and sacredness that fills me with a sense of awe. The gospel is conveying to us that this is who Jesus is. And who is Jesus? Jesus is the astonishing presence of God! Jesus is all the brightest light you’ve ever seen, piercing the depths of the midnight sky. Jesus is the miracle of the first created light at the very beginning. Jesus is the light of every burning sun entering the world to live among us, as one of us.
This Jesus, is who we hope and wait for in this Advent season. This, Jesus, who comes to us as a baby, is who we expect to follow as he grows into the full measure of both his humanity and his divinity. We expect so much from this light, this word, this life, that is Jesus.
But to our hopeful expectation the gospel adds a note of sober recognition. “The light shines in the deepest night and the night did not overcome it.” What is “night” in this poetry? That which opposes the Logos: brokenness, suffering, ignorance, evil. The gospel proclaims that the light of God came first and will not be overcome.
Now here’s a question. Does that seem true to you? Put aside what you’re supposed to answer at church, and really consider:
When you think about the world, taking everything into account, do you think that the world is basically a good place or a bad place?
Is this basically a sacred world into which terrible things intrude, or is the world basically a broken and evil place in which moments of goodness are the exception?
Clearly there is both good and bad in the world.
Maybe you remember this old joke:
Two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of them says “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.” The other one says “Yeah, I know. And such small portions.” Woody Allen once said “that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.” We all live with this contradiction.
We all know that life in this world is a mix of both goodness and evil, both joy and suffering. But which is the starting place?
Deep down, is the world a sacred and holy place, or not?
How you come down on that question makes a real difference, I think, because if you believe that the world is basically a broken and evil place (and I know that you can make a strong argument for that) then the sensible response is to escape the world, to find a safe place and hunker down.
If you have this view, then you might see the sanctuary as a haven of sacredness, a place to find rest from the hardship and pain of the world – a place to be close to the God who is absent from the world outside.
But, on the other hand, if you believe that the world is basically a good and sacred place, then you come to church in order to celebrate the sacredness that surrounds you all the time. You come to thank God for being present to us everywhere. And if the week has been a hard one, then you come to remember the deep down goodness and gift of life.
The witness of the scriptures affirms this second view. In the very beginning, light is first. The creative power of God brings all of creation into existence. The light shines in the deepest night.
We come to worship in order to celebrate the sacredness of the world. That’s not to say that we never need the church to be a safe haven of escape. We often come to church with a great burden of grief about the world around us. And there are those among us every Sunday who come with the specific burdens of their lives: grief, loneliness, anger. Sometimes we come to the sanctuary with our burdens, needing a place to be at rest and at peace, and that is what this place should be.
But there is a problem with viewing the church only as a place for escaping the difficulties of life, and that is when we turn faith into just one more means of escape, alongside other ways of escaping the pain of life, from mindless entertainment to food, to cynicism, to alcohol and drug abuse. The danger is that church could become a way of shutting ourselves off from the presence of God in all of the world, when church should be the place that reaches out beyond these walls.
Some of you have told me that this is a place that helps you to see life with the right kind of eyes, to see the world as God’s gift to us, even with its hardships.
In those weeks when it seems like all of your best efforts achieve nothing, worship reminds you that your work is a holy calling. When the people closest to you are driving you crazy, worship reminds you that these are sacred bonds of family and friendship. When the news is full of senseless heartache, worship reminds you that there is an ultimate order to our lives, watched over by God. Sometimes we lose our sight, and we turn to Jesus to restore our vision. Some of my favorite stories speak of the same truth.
I think of George Bailey in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. I’m sure many of you remember the story of George, frustrated by his limited opportunities in Bedford Falls, and hounded by Mr. Potter. On Christmas Eve, a business mistake becomes a crisis and threatens to send him to jail. In his panic, he loses sight of the goodness that is all around him, until an angel shows him what the world would look like if he had never been born.
Do you remember how this vision changes George, and how he celebrates his life, even when he still thinks he’s losing his business and going to jail? He runs through the streets yelling Merry Christmas to everyone, even old man Potter, and then he goes home and grabs his children close, and he is ready to turn himself over for arrest with a smile on his face, until his wife comes home, followed by all of the love and support of the whole town. The world is a sacred place.
I know many of you have also been surprised by the amount of care and support that surrounds you when your own life was in crisis. It was always there; you simply hadn’t seen it.
One of my older brothers was in the High School play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I was thinking this week about a scene near the end of the play, in which we meet the townspeople who have died, and they are talking, and Emily, who is the most recently deceased, asks them if she can go back and relive a day from her life. Yes, you can, they tell her, but be careful, because it is so good, so wonderful, that it can be difficult.
Emily chooses her twelfth birthday. The first thing she hears is her mother calling up from the kitchen for the children to wake up for school. She hears her mother’s voice, telling her where to find her hair ribbon, chiding her to hurry, and all she can think is how beautiful is her mother’s voice, and how young she looks, and how sacred was every single day. “Oh earth,” she says “you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? – every, every minute?”
That is a holy way of seeing, and of celebrating our lives and this sacred world! And God knows I need God to help me with those kinds of eyes, to see not just the church as sacred, but also the sunshine and the snow, the mountains, and valleys, to see every regular family task as a fortunate moment to cherish each other, to see holiness in the faces of neighbors in these pews, and strangers I pass on the street.
It was Gandhi who said that “If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for God further.”
Have you ever seen an old photograph and been amazed at how lucky you were back then to be at that age, and to be in that particular place, and to be with those people. You’ve felt that, haven’t you? Remember that we will feel that way later when we look back on this day. What a gift it is to be alive on this day.
This is a sacred world. And yes, there is also evil and pain and brokenness, but healing from those things does not come from hiding out in the sanctuary. Healing comes when we find the strength from God to invest ourselves in the sacredness of the whole world; to see the world as it truly is and to give ourselves to it.
When Christ came into this world, when Christ became flesh and dwelt among us, he was not coming as a stranger from heaven to earth, he was coming home to a home that he had made himself. He did not come to save us from the world. He came to save us for the world. And this is the season, perhaps the best of all seasons, when we wait for the story of Jesus being born to come to life, to shine so brilliantly that we will never be able to miss it.
Let us pray: Oh God, light and life of the world, give us hope when we are discouraged, that we may find rest in you, and strength to give our lives in your service throughout this wonderful world. Amen.