This is what the Gospel
of John means when he uses the word “Word” to describe Jesus Christ. When Jesus
is described as “the word,” we are seeing translation of the Greek work logos. “Logos” is more than vocabulary.
It’s not the hint in a crossword puzzle. Instead, “logos” is the very
image, the exact, real presence of the subject. in this case God’s own self who
is made present, visible, and real to us. John is saying that Jesus is the
perfect expression of the Living God.
Imagine a time before
photographs, a time before movies, television, or even newspapers. All we had
were each other’s words. The Gospels were invented in an age when the written
word was nearly magical because it had the power to actually represent the
presence of the writer. People who could write had an important job because
they had to transcribe the speaker’s words exactly, with no interpretation,
editing, or comments, not even footnotes. And the people who could read had an
equally important job… they were conveying the living presence of the writer to
people who might be far away in time or distance from the writer.
So, for example, when
Paul wrote his letters to the churches, he was in a way sending himself, his
voice, to those early churches. Even the Gospels were more than written records
of the comings, goings, and teachings of Jesus; hearing about Jesus from
Gospels was like sitting around the campfire hearing the story. This is why in
Jewish tradition the scrolls of the Hebrew Bible are so important even after
the invention of the printing press: they are the record of the first people
who told The Story, written out by hand as it was spoken the first time.
The Gospels kicked it up
a notch from the Epistles because they are meant to convey what it was like to
see, hear, and experience Jesus just as if you were there in person seeing Him
for the first time.
So when John uses the
word “Word” in the first chapter of John’s Gospel it’s much more than a clever
pun. The writer carefully chose this word to talk about Jesus. Jesus is the
perfect Logos, the perfect Word, but without transcription error.
John says the Word does
two things in Jesus Christ. First, the Word was made flesh and lives among us.
Second, the Word brings light where there was darkness.
And he says that people
who hear the word and recognize the light…who believe in Jesus…receive power
from God to become God’s children…and we continue to witness to the Light and
communicate the Word.
What does it mean to
reveal the Logos, the Word, to the world?
Christmas celebrates
the generosity of God, and entering that generosity is the key to keeping our
spirits up when times are down.
If you look at the
history of the Church, we find Christians and Christianity are at their very
best when they move heroically and confidently through difficult times.
Think about it. How was
it that Christianity grow so fast in its early years? It wasn’t because
Christians all had one set of clear doctrines—they were centuries away from
agreeing about how to talk about God, and still were working out the
implications of Jesus’ incarnation, death, and resurrection, and the Church was
centuries away from deciding what books would be included in their scriptures. Some
people think that the Emperor Constantine had enough of all the different
expressions of Church in his empire. But by the time Constantine converted… or semi-converted
in the year 313 (it’s not clear that he was ever baptized and if he was, it was
probably on his death-bed)… Christianity had become so widespread throughout
the Empire, that was he merely bowing to that fact. Still, even with official
recognition, there was a lot to be worked out... the Church had no single
creed, no unified liturgy, no agreed upon Scripture. The funny thing is that,
even with all that imprecision, the Church grew so much that the Roman Empire
effectively shrugged and said “Well, we can’t beat ‘em, so we’ll join ‘em.” How
come?
Christianity grew so
fast mostly because Christians were known for their unusual compassion for
those around them, especially toward those who were not members of their
faith. From the Book of Acts onward, we see that they raised money on one
continent to aid those on another continent, never for a moment presuming to
think that mean little thought, that charity begins at home. They knew that
charity begins when we help people that we not only don’t know but might not even
care for, just as the Good Samaritan did for the injured stranger, just as
Jesus did by leaving his heavenly home for our sake.
Around the year 250 a
plague struck Alexandria, Egypt, and killed more than half of the population.
People who could afford it, got out of Dodge as fast as they could—except the
Christians. In a time of panic and danger, they stayed in town and cared for
the sick and dying, and some of them paid for that generosity with their lives.
And what happened? People joined the church.
Throughout the empire,
Christians were known to patrol the garbage dumps, but they weren’t looking for
antiques or things to salvage and sell. Those dumps were where people placed
infants they didn’t want, and the church got a reputation for saving lives that
others had put in the trash. People joined the church.
Again, in the
Alexandrian community, those who lived on the church’s dole would often go
entirely without food one day a week so that they, too, would have something to
give others. People joined the church.
It turns out the Word is
not merely spoken. The Word is imitated. The way we encounter the Word made
flesh is to imitate the Word made flesh.
And the way we imitate the Word made flesh is to do acts of kindness,
mercy and generosity—especially when times are hard.
Throughout my ministry I
have seen that in action in parish communities just like this one. I see here
how you gather up unused or surplus food from I-don’t-know-where, and then open
the doors, put up a sign and give it away. My last parish, St. John's in Clearwater,
hosted a group called Good Neighbors who does this on a county wide scale. They
gather food that stores and restaurants would otherwise throw in the dumpster
and sends it feeding programs, community meals, and shelters in Hillsborough
and Pinellas County. I’ve seen churches where members fan out to deliver meals
on wheels, who tithe their pledges to a different community mission every month, who bring
in boxes of books to give to kids who don’t have books of their own. I’ve seen
parishioners in churches just like this take their beautiful poinsettias to their
homebound and shut in members or to nursing homes to give to people who have no
one to give them a Christmas gift or visit.
The list can go on and
on, and it will because time and again, we discover and demonstrate the Word
made flesh by imitation. Our prayer, our worship, our study, our life together
and the way we care for each is how we find Him dwelling amongst us. And the
more we imitate the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, the more we ourselves find
ourselves living in Christ’s image, becoming a reflection of God’s love who
then practically and usefully share the presence of God to others.
+ + + + + + + + +
Scripture for the First Sunday after Christmas, December 28, 2025
St. Chad's Episcopal Church, Tampa, Florida
Learn more about the Diocese of Southwest Florida here
Here is the bulletin for the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2025, St. Chad's Episcopal Church, Tampa, Florida.
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