First Sunday after Christmas, Proper 1B, December 31, 2017; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

O God of our story, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

First, a poem by Padraig O Tuama, called “Narrative Theology”.  [1]

And I said to him

Are there questions to all of this?

And he said

The answer is in a story

and the story is being told.

 

And I said

But there is so much pain

And she answered, plainly,

Pain will happen.

 

Then I said

Will I ever find meaning?

And they said

You will find meaning

Where you give meaning.

 

The answer is in the story

And the story isn’t finished.

If you were in church here on Christmas Eve or anywhere else on Christmas morning, you probably heard the prologue from the Gospel of John, verses 1-14 of it anyway. So you might be wondering why we hear it again for the First Sunday of Christmas with four more verses. I don’t know, but I’m glad we do, because there are just some places a preacher shouldn’t go in a Christmas Eve sermon in an overly full service. Today we’re going to go there. Today I’m going to teach you some Biblical Greek. No one wants to learn Greek on Christmas Eve. But is not New Year’s Eve and this morning we’ve got some elbow room and I’m going to take full advantage. “The answer is in the story and the story isn’t finished.”

David Bentley Hart has just published a fresh translation of the Second or New Testament of our Bible. It’s rough, halting prose, unpolished and provocative in its disregard for the Church doctrines that developed in the long, long wake of the life and love of Jesus Christ. In other words, this is my kind of translation! Don’t get me wrong: I find the prologue to the Gospel of John to be beautiful and mystical when chanted by candlelight. But in the daytime, it’s like recounting a dream that doesn’t really make complete sense when you say the words out loud. Here’s what David Hart has to say about the beginning of the Gospel of John: “There may…be no passage in the New Testament more resistant to simple translation into another tongue than the first eighteen verses – the prologue – of the Gospel of John…it very elegantly proposes a theology of the person of Christ that seems to subtend the entire book…but it also, intentionally in all likelihood, leaves certain aspects of that theology open to question, almost as if inviting the reader to venture ever deeper into the text in order to find the proper answers.” In other words, “The answer is in the story and the story isn’t finished.”

The first big translation challenge is the word Word (from logos). The Greek word originally meant “to gather” [2] and later it came to mean human reason and we still use “gather” this way in English (as in, I gather that you decided to come to church this morning, despite the cold). By the end of the first century of the Common Era, logos had a metaphysical meaning and in Hellenistic Jewish writing, “it referred to a kind of ‘secondary divinity,’ a mediating principle standing between God the Most High and creation.” [3] This seems to be how the Gospel of John is describing Jesus. Later, Trinitarians would look back and say, “aha! the second person of the Trinity,” but that took several centuries, considerable military power, and a certain amount of mob violence to hammer out, and curiously, all sides quoted these verses from John in their arguments for and against the coequality of the Christ with God. [4] (It’s not lost on me that following my sermon, I’m going to recite the words of the Nicene Creed and ask you to join me. As with the Prologue to the Gospel of John, I love the language of the creed more when we chant it than when we say it.)

Here’s another thing. In chapter 1, verses 14 and 18 of John, we hear the familiar description of only Son, and of course we know that this means Jesus. The problem is that the word that gets translated as only Son is monogenes; sometimes that’s translated only begotten (I’m glad the word begotten has gotten out of there). Monogenes literally means one of a kind, unique. The word has nothing to do with son, begotten, or born. It is often used to describe especially beloved daughters and sons in the Bible (for example, Isaac was described as monogenes, but Abraham certainly had other sons). Listen to this rougher, literal translation of the end of our Gospel portion for today: ”No one has seen God at any time. Only-one god, the one being in the bosom of the father that one has revealed (or made known, translated, or articulated).” I think this rough translation helps us to gather that Jesus was as close to God as one could be, and he revealed, translated, or articulated God; the Greek word is exegeysato, which  has to do with exegesis or interpretation. According to John, gospel is not a static thing, but something that is being shown and carried out by Jesus, who is both the Word of God and the interpretive manifestation of God, Who has never been seen. .[5]  John is asserting that if you look at Jesus, you will see God. “The answer is in the story and the story isn’t finished.”

Our readings from Galatians and from the Gospel of John set up a contest between Jesus and the Law, which I have to acknowledge as either wrong or misinterpreted and misused. I think it’s the latter, but I don’t know for sure. However, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest.” If the Law is referring to a legalism corrupted by collusion with the Roman Empire, devoid of the spirit of grace, lovingkindness, and truth (ḥesed v’emet), then that is not what Moses delivered at all. That is, not The Law;  that is, not Torah, which is precisely what Rabbi Hillel taught before Jesus, and what the Apostle Paul taught after Jesus. Jesus and Paul were mostly likely both teaching in the Pharisaic tradition begun by Rabbi Hillel around the time Jesus was born. It was Rabbi Hillel who said, “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And being for my own self, what am ‘I’? And if not now, when?” Rabbi Hillel also said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary; go and learn.” In other words, Rabbi Hillel was saying, “The answer is in the story, and the story isn’t finished.”

On this last day of 2017, let’s acknowledge that we know too much about religiosity that rests on intellectual assent, pietism, and legalism, but does little to ease suffering for people in prison, in poverty, or in other kinds of peril. We know a little, but not enough about what a parish like Emmanuel can do in the coming year to provide spiritual sustenance to people who are hungering and thirsting for thoughtful, coherent direction and refreshed access to the deep well of wisdom that can be found in our Christian teachings. Together we can continue to learn; together we can continue to encourage and inspire one another to take the next steps on our spiritual journeys (wherever we are). Pain will happen, of course. We will find meaning where we give meaning. So, to what will you all give meaning in the coming year? On what will you focus your energy? To what will you give your heart; in what will you put your trust?

I urge you to take the next step in your spiritual journey, from wherever you are. Turn toward the One who loves you, who is Love, and take the next step so the light of love shines in your life. Go deeper into the heart of that Holy One by taking the next step – seeking and welcoming grace and truth, come when it may and cost what it will.

Are there questions to all of this?

The answer is in a story

and the story is being told.

But there is so much pain

And she answered, plainly,

Pain will happen.

 

Then I said

Will I ever find meaning?

And they said

You will find meaning

Where you give meaning.

 

The answer is in the story

And the story isn’t finished. [6]

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