Which is why, if you ever find yourself among the Amish of Central Pennsylvania or Southeast Ohio. they tell tourists not to take snap shots or videos of the locals.
Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know that when one sees a portrait of a person that is done well you’ll see that the artist has somehow captured in pigment and paint something of their personality, something of the essence of the subject.
So when the Gospel of uses the word “Word” or “Logos” in describing Jesus, it is much more than simply a phrase. Nope. John’s Gospel is saying that Jesus is the very image, the perfect expression of the Living God, in human form. Not a disguise, not a ghost, nor a projection… Jesus is the living fullness of God and the fullness of humanity in a single person, undiluted.
Jesus is the fullness of God and the fullness of humanity in a single person, undiluted.
John’s Gospel says that since before Creation, Jesus is the perfect expression of the living God and in his distinct identity co-equal and of the same substance as the Father and the Holy Spirit,. That’s why the Gospel of John deliberately echoes the opening line of the Book of Genesis in what Deacon David just read for us.
Whew!
But wait! There’s more! John’s Gospel came from an age where the written word was seen as having such power as to actually represent the presence of the writer, so John chose his words carefully. Jesus is the perfect Logos, the perfect Word, but without transcription error. And the Light that Jesus brings into the world did not stop with Jesus.
When John says that the Word was made flesh and lives among us, that the Word brings light to where there was darkness, he is talking about not only the person of Jesus but the work of the Holy Spirit through the continuing witness of the people who believe and follow Jesus. Like you and me and everyone else who is a follower of Jesus.
Yup. You and me and all Christians everywhere reveal the Logos… the Word… of God!
What does it mean to reveal the Logos, the Word, to the world? What does it take for people to come to belief and know the life that Christ brings? How is the Gospel communicated especially in hard times?
It turns out that we Christians are at our very best when we move heroically and confidently through difficult times. The season of Christmas celebrates the generosity of God, and entering that generosity is the key to keeping our spirits up when times are down.
Have you ever asked yourself why it was that Christianity grew so fast in its early years? It wasn’t because the emperor Constantine semi-converted in the year 313—Christian numerical growth had already happened, and he merely counted heads and bowed to that fact. It certainly wasn’t because Christians all had one set of clear doctrines—those first Christians were centuries away from agreeing about how to talk about God, and what books were in their scriptures. Yet in the midst of incredible religious imprecision, the Church grew like wildfire. How come?
The reason that Christianity grew so fast was mostly because Christians were known for their unusual compassion for those around them, especially toward those who were not members of their faith communities. The Book of Acts shows us how 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 does not begin at home. It begins with helping the people you don’t know and might not even care for, just as the Good Samaritan did, just as Jesus did by leaving his heavenly home for our sake.
The first Christians let the gospel train them, as St. Paul said in Titus 2:14 (which we read on Christmas Eve), to be a people zealous for good deeds. That’s a religious way of saying that they were really and truly into serving the world, the whole world. They knew that God’s taking flesh in Jesus for the sake of the whole world wasn’t an event in the past. It was the pattern for their own lives every day.
What does that look like? Cast your mind back to about the year 250 when a plague struck Alexandria, Egypt, and actually killed more than half of the population. The people who had resources 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. People joined the church.
Throughout the empire, Christians were known to patrol the garbage dumps, but they weren’t looking for antiques. 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 best spoken when it is imitated. If you want to encounter the Word made flesh then we must 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!
I know a parish… can you guess which one?... that routinely takes over a laundromat in a less than fashionable neighborhood of our city, to wash the clothes of people who don’t have even the small change to do that for themselves. You know who you are.
Once a month, another group of Christians, Episcopalians and other flavors of Jesus’ people, gather in parking lot across of the Clearwater City Hall at Peace Presbyterian Church, to provide a free breakfast and a boxed meal to the homeless and anyone else who shows up… no questions asked.
Sometimes this parish turns your sanctuary into a Carpenter’s workshop (get it?) so that church and community volunteers can build, assemble and deliver beds so that children in the Tampa Bay area who are currently sleeping on the floor can have a cozy, comfy bed of their very own, along with the bedding, mattresses, and even teddy bears to go with them.
Nearly every parish in this county, and many across the Diocese, have adopted a local school, as you have adopted Sandy Lane Elementary School, a local Title I school. The backpacks, school supplies, coats, uniforms, and classroom supplies and the messages of gratitude that you provide to the teachers and staff, along with the staff luncheon you put on, are a tangible support and “thank you” to the teachers, educational professionals, and staff at that school.
The list can go on and on, (just look at the website!) and it will. In a parish known for generosity and caring, we discover that in our prayer, our worship, our study, our life together, that the way we know the Word made flesh to be dwelling amongst us is when we imitate the Word made flesh in great and small ways, every day. And the more we imitate the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, the more we discover a life full of grace and truth and light.
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Scripture for The First Sunday after Christmas, Year C, December 29, 2024.
Website for Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Clearwater, Florida
Here is the livestream of the December 29, 2024 10 a.m. liturgy at Holy Trinity, Clearwater, Florida.
Here is a reflection on the Gospel for 1 Christmas C, John 1:1-18 by Bishop Nicholas Knisely of Rhode Island.
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