“And the Word Became Flesh and Made His Dwelling Among Us”

Listening to the Spirit

Lord, in this holy season of prayer and song and laughter, we praise you for the great wonders you have sent us: for shining star and angel's song, for infant's cry in lowly manger. We praise you for the Word made flesh in a little Child. We behold his glory, and are bathed in its radiance.

Be with us as we sing the ironies of Christmas, the incomprehensible comprehended, the poetry made hard fact, the helpless Babe who cracks the world asunder. We kneel before you shepherds, innkeepers, wisemen. Help us to rise bigger than we are. Amen.

Listening to the Word

John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.

Reflection

Merry Christmas to All. Today’s gospel reading represents John’s version of the Christmas story. It may sound strange to hear it put this way. This reading fails to mention the more familiar parts of the Christmas stories found in Matthew and Luke. There’s no star, no manger, no angel, and no shepherds.

Instead, John takes us back to the beginning of time and he uses language that many people have a hard time relating to. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Furthermore, it seems to portray a transcendent, mysterious God who exists far beyond us, a God who existed before recorded time.

Let us focus on one particular verse of today’s gospel reading. “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory the glory as one of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”

“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us”: begins to be a Christmas story. Jesus, the One who existed before creation with God, the One who shares the same “substance” as God, has come to us. Jesus, who at the introduction to John’s gospel seems so far away, so unreachable, so unknowable, has become flesh. He has come to dwell among us to experience human life.

It is mandatory because it speaks of a God who is no longer beyond us, outside of us, or above us. He came to us so that humanity may come to understand that God is not remote; he is near, He is with us. It helps us with the question of, what is God like?

God became human so that people could understand God better, and so that people could know that God understands us. In whatever situation humanity finds itself, in good times or bad, God understands. Jesus, the “true light”, understands the darkness that we experience because he experienced it himself. He does not ignore the darkness but shines right in the very midst of it.

So, John does indeed give us a Christmas story by speaking of Jesus becoming flesh and dwelling among us, experiencing all that we experience. John tells us about a God that has come to us in the flesh. He comes to us in grace and truth demonstrating his full reality. God is not an outsider; he comes to us announcing that he is near and that he loves us. God has come to us, God is coming to us, and God will continue to come to us in every aspect of our human lives.