First Sunday after Christmas
December 29, 2019

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.

If you were in church here on Christmas Eve or anywhere else on Christmas morning, you heard the prologue from the Gospel of John, verses 1-14 of it anyway. Our deacon Bob and I chanted it by candlelight. So it’s curious that the lectionary assigns it again for the First Sunday of Christmas with four more verses. Curious, but I kind of like it because there are just some places a preacher shouldn’t go in a Christmas Eve sermon in an overly full service in the sanctuary. But today, in Lindsey Chapel, we can go there. Today we can review some Biblical Greek. Not many people want to review Biblical Greek on Christmas Eve. This morning we’ve got a little elbow room and I’m going to take full advantage. 

But first I have to say something about our reading from Galatians. How many of you noticed in the citation that there are verses skipped? (You get extra credit!) The way the passage reads, without the skipped verses, it seems as though Paul is saying that religious laws and disciplines are no longer necessary if one thinks that Jesus is the Messiah or the Christ. But the skipped verses assert that “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” 

This passage is about the argument that runs throughout the Second Testament about whether people must become Jewish in order to be faithful followers of Jesus, and in order to belong to God, the Holy One of Israel. Simon Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, thought the answer was yes. Paul thought the answer was no. The compromise was to assign territory. In and around Jerusalem, Jesus followers would spread the good news of Jesus to Jews, and in the diaspora, Paul would spread the good news of Jesus to non-Jews. Paul is writing to the communities of Jesus followers in Galatia. He’s concerned that they have been bewitched by teachers who have told them that they don’t fully belong to God unless they convert to Judaism first. It’s intensely ironic that this passage about expanding the circles to be inclusive, then, has been used with deadly force to be exclusive, Christians excluding Jews, and by Protestants excluding Catholics. Paul is saying belief, which means fidelity, trust, or confidence in Jesus counts too. Those of you who trust in Jesus’ way of love are children of Abraham too. It’s not that the others aren’t, or that others should abandon the Torah, or that acts of loving kindness are not essential to being in right-relationship with the Divine and with neighbors. Paul is saying what matters is commitment to acts of loving kindness, following the teachings of the thoroughly Jewish Jesus. That’s what matters for everyone. End of rant.

Back to the beginning of the Gospel of John. I find it to be beautiful and mystical when chanted by candlelight. But in the morning, it’s a little bit like recounting a dream that doesn’t really make complete sense when you say the words out loud. Here’s what New Testament translator David Hart has to say about it: “There may…be no passage in the New Testament more resistant to simple translation into another tongue than the first eighteen verses…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.” 

The first big translation challenge is the word Word (from logos). The Greek word originally meant “to gather”[1] and later it came to mean human reason and we still use “gather” this way in English (as in, I gather you chose to come to church this morning, despite having alternatives). 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.”[2] 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. Curiously, both sides quoted these verses from John in their arguments for and against the coequality of the Christ with God.[3] (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 because we think too much when we’re saying it. Notice that we say “Amen” at the end. In Episcopal Church practice, it’s much more of a prayer than a testimony.)

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 “only Son” is monogenes – sometimes that’s translated “only begotten” (I’m glad the word begotten has been removed from our translation!) Monogenes literally means one of a kind, unique. The word has nothing to do with son or 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 or translated or articulated in the sense of Word of the Author).” I think this rough translation helps us to gather that Jesus, according to John, was as close to God as one could be, and Jesus revealed or translated or articulated God – the Greek word is “exegeysato” 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[4] Who has never been seen. John is asserting if you look at Jesus, you will see (or understand) something about the Mystery Who is God. 

For Christians, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That doesn’t mean that non-Christians don’t have a Way and a Truth and a Life in relationship with the Divine and with one another. It reminds me of a Sufi parable about four hungry travelers from different territories who are trying to decide what to purchase with the single coin that belongs to all four of them. The Persian wants to spend the coin on angur; the Turk, on uzum; the Arab, on inab; and the Greek, on stafil. Confusion turns to anger as the four travelers argue among themselves. It takes a passing linguist to explain to them that they are all, in fact, asking for the same thing: grapes.”[5]

In this last week of 2019, let’s acknowledge that we know too much about religiosity that rests on intellectual assent and pietism, 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). We will find meaning where we give meaning. So, what will you all give meaning to in the coming months? On what will you focus your energy for compassion and mercy? To what will you give your heart, your fidelity?

To give one’s heart, to place one’s trust in the mercy and compassion of God is to be born of God – to become a child of God. It is we who are born in the Christmas story of the Gospel of John of the Word of God looking for a home in which to live. It is we who are born when we see – when we trust that the light and life of the world are found in the light and life of Jesus Christ. Every Christmas, we are reminded by the Gospel of John, that the Word of God is looking for a home in us. 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. Listen to the poetry of 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.[6]

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