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John 1:1-14 (The Message) 

Rev. Marlaena Cochran 

I invite us all to say together the Prayer for Illumination. So let us pray. Living God, help us so to hear your holy word that we may truly understand, that understanding we may believe, and believing we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking your honor and glory in all that we do through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Scripture reading this morning comes from John chapter one. And this may be a familiar passage to some of you. And so to receive these words fresh today, I want to invite us to read them from the message paraphrase, which is included in your bulletin. So you can follow along in your bulletin if you like, or if you would like to follow along in your few Bibles as well, that is perfectly fine. But as we come to these words, I invite us all to see if there's a word or a phrase or something that just stands out differently to us this morning. 

So let us receive these words from John 1:1-14.

The word was first, the word present to God, God present to the word. The word was God and readiness for God from day one.  Everything was created through him. Nothing, not one thing came into being without him. What came into existence was Life and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness. The darkness couldn't put it out. There once was a man, his name, John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life- Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light. He was there to show the way to the Light. The Life-Light was the real thing. Every person entering Life, he brings into Light. He was in the world. The world was there through him and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, he made to be their true selves, their child of God selves. These are the God begotten, not blood begotten, not flesh begotten, not sex begotten. The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one of a kind glory, like father, like son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish. Amen.

This is the last day of the Christmas season. And on this last day of Christmas, I'm going to invite us to pause for a moment and to reflect. To maybe take a few deep breaths and be reminded, to be reminded of the wonder, the mystery, the awesomeness of Christmas. God has come in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus has become flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood, moved into our neighborhood. 

 And I think so often it's the busyness of the season that we can miss or forget how wonderful and mysterious and awesome this is. So how have you experienced the coming of Jesus this Christmas season? Where have you seen God? Glimpses of God. In what words would you use to describe these last 12 days? In our scripture passage that we just read; Jesus is described as a Life-Light. The Son of God became the son of man and moved into the neighborhood so that we might receive life. And we pray that God would come and be born in us, that God's favor would rest on us, and that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell within us. And we also pray that we will grow, that we would be changed, that we would be transformed from the inside out. 

 Because of Jesus' coming, we become sons and daughters of God, our true selves, the beloved. So how have you experienced life this Christmas season? I've been thinking about this question this past week as I did in my year in review on Facebook. This is a practice that some people do. They go through their pictures from the previous year, and often, as it is on Facebook, we put the highlights of our year. Maybe those situations or circumstances where it's pretty easy to say, this was life-giving for me. Whether it be trips, or time with family and friends, or special things that happened this past year, and we can say, this was life. And yet, I also think we can find life that makes the lowlights of our year. Times when we struggled, times that were hard, times when we thought, I don't know if I'm going to make it through this. And yet God was there, and we received life. 

 So whether our highlights or our lowlights, how have we experienced life this Christmas season? And Jesus comes, and Jesus brings life, and Jesus brings light. A light that breaks into the darkness. I'm going to invite you for a moment to use your imagination, and you can close your eyes if you want, but imagine for a moment that you are far from the city, far from the hustle and bustle.  

Maybe you're visiting friends in the country, or maybe you're camping in the woods. You decide to take a walk. To clear your mind, to spend some time in prayer, to enjoy God's creation, or just be alone for a while. You are so in this moment that you lose track of time, and the darkness settles in. Everything seems to go black, and you can't focus on anything, and so you stand and wait and look around. And then, light. Light, sunbursts of light. A light that blazes out of the darkness and reveals the road, reveals the way. How do you feel in the light? Jesus breaks into our darkness and reveals the way, the truth, and the life. And this image of Jesus as the Life-Light is in fulfillment of the words that are spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Again, from the message, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. 

 For those who lived in a land of deep shadows, light, sunbursts of light. For a child has been born for us, the gift of a son for us. And the people who walked in darkness, whether it be physical darkness as our imaginary exercise, or maybe the darknesses that we prayed about in the season of Advent, when we prayed into our darkness come, come into the uncertainty and the unknowing, into the brokenness and the loneliness, into the busyness and distraction, into our restlessness and our weariness, come. 

 Whatever darkness we may be in, we say, come Lord Jesus. And Jesus has come. The people see a great light, a light that makes vision possible, a light that helps us see what we previously were unable to see. For light reveals. So how have you experienced light this Christmas season? What has God revealed to you amidst the darkness?

For Jesus not only reveals the way and the truth and the life, but Jesus reveals God, the Father. Later on in John 1, we read, John pointed him out, referring to Jesus, and called, this is the one, the one I told you was coming after me, but in fact was ahead of me. 

He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word. We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift. We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, this endless knowing and understanding, all this came through Jesus, the Messiah. 

 No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one of a kind God expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made God plain as day. Jesus reveals, and Jesus reveals God, and has made God plain as day.  

If we want to see God and see God's heart, then look at Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus, and as the Life-Light, Jesus breaks into the darkness and moves into the neighborhood, but Jesus also moves into our neighborhood, our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength, and Jesus shines his light inside of us, and Jesus reveals our belovedness and our brokenness, our gloriousness, and our sinfulness, and when God begins to shine his light on us, we have a choice. We can run and try to hide, or we can move towards the light. 

 This Christmas season, I've been reflecting on this poem by Anne Weems, and it's titled, Toward the Light, and she writes, too often our answer to the darkness is not running toward Bethlehem but running away. We ought to know by now that we can't see where we're going in the dark. Running away is rampant. 

 Separation is stylish. Separations from mates, from friends, from self. Run and tranquilize. Don't talk about it. Avoid. Run away and join the army of those who have already run away. 

 When are we going to learn that Christmas peace comes only when we turn and face the darkness? Only then will we be able to see the light of the world. What tends to be your response? To run around in the darkness or run towards Bethlehem? I know for me, I've run around in the darkness. This is my first impulse, and I understand why from years of reflection, and so I need to challenge myself at times to know that's who I am, and then to say, okay, where am I now? You feel that and now let's make the choice to run towards Bethlehem. 

 So where is God shining light in your life? What darkness do you need to face? Maybe it's some fears, some doubts, some questions. Maybe it's some aspects of our character in the proverbial, why do I do the things that I don't want to do? Maybe it's a relationship. What would it look like for you to run towards Bethlehem amidst that darkness? And God shines his light on us and in us so that we too can be light in the darkness. 

 As Jesus was the Life-Light breaking into and shining in the darkness, we as his followers are called to do the same. Later on in his ministry, as recorded in Matthew, Jesus will say, you are here to be light, to bring out the God colors in our world, and I think we need to take to heart the children's song that we sing so often, or at least I did growing up in the church. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. We don't hide it under a bushel. No, I'm going to let it shine. We are here to be light, and God calls us to go out into the world and to shine our light, reflecting the light and life of Jesus. 

 So where is God calling you to be light in our world? And sisters and brothers, I really believe that our world needs light. So we are at the end of the Christmas season, but this theme of light will continue as we move from Christmas into Epiphany. Epiphany, that season that is marked by the star. The light shining in the heavens, the light leading and directing. That light leads the wise men to the Christ child, reminding us that the good news that is being proclaimed at Christmas is for all people, and that light reminds us that God is making God self-known. So as we move from this season of Christmas into this season of Epiphany, what does God want to show us, to reveal to us, to enlighten us? This is my prayer for all of us as we move into this new season. 

 So these seasons of Advent, Christmas, and the upcoming season of Epiphany, these are seasons of light where we celebrate the light of God coming into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. And this is wonderful, and mysterious, and awesome. And may we continue to reflect on this as we go from this place today. 

 Okay, let us pray. God, as we are in these seasons of light, and as we mark the end of this Christmas season, God, we pray that we would indeed see the light of the world, that we would see Jesus in the many ways that Jesus has come, and is coming, and will come in our lives, in our church's life, in our neighborhoods, and in our country, and in our world. God, may we see your light, and may we bear your light, and reflect your light to others. 

 And we pray this in your holy name, Amen.