The Light Shines in the Darkness

And the Darkness did not overcome it

Christmas Day (December 25, 2024)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church; Los Alamos, NM

John 1.1-14

1 Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.2 οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.3 πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. ὃ γέγονεν4 ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων·5 καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.6 Ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος ἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης·7 οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς μαρτυρίαν, ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός, ἵνα πάντες πιστεύσωσιν δι’ αὐτοῦ.8 οὐκ ἦν ἐκεῖνος τὸ φῶς, ἀλλ’ ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός.9 Ἦν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον.10 ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν, καὶ ὁ κόσμος δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ ὁ κόσμος αὐτὸν οὐκ ἔγνω.11 εἰς τὰ ἴδια ἦλθεν, καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸν οὐ παρέλαβον.12 ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον αὐτόν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ,13 οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκὸς οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρὸς ἀλλ’ ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν.14 Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός, πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

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+ In nomine Domini. Amen.

Light

Darkness

Word

Flesh

Glory

Grace

Truth

Can you hear how different this Christmas Story is from the one we share on Christmas Eve?

There are no angels and shepherds. There are no sheep. There is no manger, no adoring parents, no child wrapped in swaddling clothes. There are no magi standing off in the distance ready to make their way guided by a Star. There is no heavenly chorus singing about Peace on Earth. There are no candles held by singing members of the congregation.

The Story of the Christ on Christmas Day is from the Gospel According to John — and, it is completely different.

It begins with a beginning. The Gospel According to John starts the same way that the book of Genesis does — remember?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Listen again to John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

I believe it is no accident, nor coincidence that both Genesis and John start in this manner. Both accounts are not only about who God is, but what God does and is doing. In the opening verses of Genesis, God speaks and God’s voice brings all things into being. In John’s account, that spoken voice not only creates, but becomes the Christ.

I want you to listen to how it sounds in the Biblical Languages: Hebrew for Genesis, Greek for John. You don’t need to know Hebrew or Greek to do this; you just have to listen — quietly and carefully. I will read slowly.

Genesis:

בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים,
אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.

[In the beginning, or literally in Hebrew just Beginning — If we read the verse literally it goes: Beginning, created, God, the heavens and the earth.]

Now John:

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος,

[In the beginning was the Word, again literally — In, Beginning, was the Word.

What I hope you hear is the rhythm and the meter, the cadence of these verses. What I hope you hear is song — dare we say ancient hymns.

One afternoon many years ago I was sitting in a Section Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature at the University of Boulder in Colorado. This particular Section was devoted to the Gospel of John.

As the Presenter stood to deliver his paper, he had us do an experiment. He had us repeat together the first three verses of the first Chapter of the Gospel of John, what is traditionally called by Biblical Scholars: The Prologue to the Gospel of John.

But, he had us do it together in the Greek of John’s Gospel, as if we were a High School Chorus: And so we did; it sounded like this:

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος,
καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν,
καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.
πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο,
καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν.

(Following is a free translation.)

In [the] Beginning was the Word,
And the Word was [with, next to, alongside, essentially part of] God,
And God was [essentially part of ] the Word.
This [voice, creating Word] was in the beginning [with, next to, alongside, etc.] God,
and [ALL THINGS, EVERYTHING] [was made, created, came into being, existed] [because of] this [voice, creating word]
and WITHOUT this [voice, creating Word] NOTHING [was made, created, came into being, existed].

As we did this together, we all realized that what we were doing was “singing.” The Presenter¹ told us that he was absolutely convinced that these verses of John’s Gospel were not a theological prologue, but were in fact an early Christian Hymn. ‘Tho the music to this hymn has been lost.

I agree completely.

Poetry, not Prose is the Language of Faith. And Poetry set to music becomes a Hymn. And Hymns are the most direct and easy ways to remember the Story and share the Story (by which I mean this morning, the Story of the Birth of the Christ).

[Maybe by next Christmas I will have written music to the first three verses of the Gospel of John; we’ll have to check in with each other and see.]

This early Christian Hymn and the verses which follow it, forms our Traditional Gospel for the Day of Christmas. And as such when we hear it, when read it, when we study it, when we share it — the mystery of the Word Made Flesh comes alive and lives inside us. That is what we are on about today. That is what Christmas really means. Christ coming to us, inside of us.

And once here, inside us, we become the Word, we become [as Martin Luther said] “little Christs to our neighbor.” We become the Christmas Story.

[Following is an excursis, interesting but not essential to the Sermon.]

I have for so many many years, insisted and published and written that I “want to put the ‘Χ’ back into Christmas. You know that Xmas became a way of abbreviating the Nativity of our Lord. And many people objected to that abbreviation — thinking that it was irreverent.

But the practice began because the “X” is actually the Greek Letter Chi, and Chi is the first letter of the word for Christ in Greek: Χριστος. So when you see “Xmas” please know that instead of being an alienating repulsion of Christ, it is actually emphasizing that Χριστος is what this holy-day is all about.

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So how can we do that? How can we hear this Gospel this morning, and let it be our Story. How can we plunge ourselves deeply into this early Christian Song so that like a Baptism we emerge with joy and peace and hope and love not only in our hearts, but on our lips, and in our words and deeds?

It is the difference, Sisters and Brothers, between talking about Faith, and being Faith-full; it is the difference between pondering the meaning of the Church, and actively being Church. It is the difference between taking a chance of coming to worship on Christmas Day and hearing a Gospel Story that tells you and me and us that the Word has indeed become Flesh. That is, the Word became human. That is, the voice of God in all of God’s infinite God-ness decided to become human, not just like us, but one of us.

And, that means, today (especially today, and more importantly beyond today) each morning when we arise, and each evening when we fall asleep — we do so in the sure and certain knowledge that the Holy One, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, the One who rescued a people from slavery in Egypt, the One who spoke through Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Miriam, the One who shouted through the Prophets, the One who cried out for repentance through John, the One who gave courage to Joseph and Mary to have the child and love that child, the One who worked healing and love and forgiveness through that child now grown up, and the One who stood next to the child grown up as he was put on trial, condemned, and put to death, is the One who raised him to life and is that very same One who sits with us in Church, singing alongside us as we join our voices in these ancient words, is the One who follows us to the Table and meets us in Bread and Wine, is the One who leaps forth to embrace us when we are full of grief and sorrow, is the One who makes light shine in the darkness, is the One who opens the door to us so that when our journey here is finished we are lovingly placed into that One’s endless love and endless life — that is the One we celebrate this day, this Christmas morning!

Sisters and Brothers, Merry Christmas!

And to that, let us all say: AMEN.

Deo Gratias (+) The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired

1Whose name I have lost, mea culpa.