John 1:1-14, Col 1:15-20 and Proverbs 8: 1, 22-31.In a recent poll, American’s voted Herman Melvilles book “Moby Dick” as having the best opening line of all time. Now whilst I agree that his opening line “Call me Ishmael.” does have a fairly distinctive ring to it, I can’t say it really sets my heart racing…
My vote for a best opening line would go to the United States Declaration of Independence. It begins…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Now that’s an opening….. These words are so powerful, so full of promise, they send shivers down my spine.
We have as our Gospel reading today the prologue to John’s gospel. This too has a spine tingling opening; we hear again those amazing opening words
“In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.”
Like the Declaration of independence they are words powerfully laden with promise…The promise of what is to come…
The first thing we hear in this passage from John is that all things came into being through God (John v3). Our Old Testament reading from Proverbs echoes this theme. In it we heard of a creation that was ancient and planned and, most wonderfully, a creation that was a delight to God. (prov v22)
John, of course, in this opening focus on creation is echoing the account of creation in Genesis 1. The creation that John is writing about is God’s powerful creative goodness, which once breathed across the earth, to form life out of a formless void. But we are not just being re-told the story of the birth of this world, John is telling us of a new kind of life, a fresh and creative goodness brought by Jesus, to breath new life into the world’s darkness and to stir humanity to new birth. Creation is being re-made from within.. powerful stuff indeed!
John is himself in the midst of this creation, he is the witness to it, The witness to a creation which is incarnational and intimate for it is the presence of Jesus amongst us – The word became flesh, In Jesus we have that which is so beautifully summed up in the Colossians reading
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.”
Here on earth was God incarnate and John was called to be witness to it.
But he was not called to be a mere passive viewer of these events, his witness was to be much more involved then that, for he was called “to be a witness to testify to the light so that all may believe through him.” Having seen Jesus, John’s calling was to enable others to see that self same light so that they also could be transformed by it. He had work to do.
That calling continues to echo down the centuries. John was the first witness, but thankfully not the last. Each new generation becomes the new witnesses to God’s light in creation. That is his legacy, we are his legacy…for here and now, for this generation in this place we are the witnesses who will testify to the light. We are the ones that can make visible the image of the invisible God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Now I am well aware that such a thing is much easier to say then to do. The rhetoric of the pulpit is all well and good but what are the practicalities of being such a witness? What exactly are we suppose to do as witnesses and where are we supposed to do it?
I will start with the where because that is straightforward – where are we to witness?…. Out there in the world is where. You see – God is visible in here, in this church… We see his presence through the sacraments, We see his presence in the spoken and sung worship, We see his presence in the faces of the people sitting next to us –God is visibly present here…. Its out there in the world that he created where he is not known…As the Gospel passage goes on to say ”The earth the word had made, made him a stranger…” (John 1:10)
So just as God came to us in the form of Jesus rather than staying put in heaven and expecting us to come to him – so we need to be the witnesses out where the people are. We need to go to them rather than waiting and hoping they will come to us.
Now we will have a chance to explore this idea further during our Lent sermon series that picks up this theme of God among us. We will have a chance to hear from people who are being just such witnesses in schools, universities, workplaces and professions. People, who, I am sure, will have valuable insights to share…
And so I will move to the what, the place where many of us come unstuck…
we may well know and believe that we should be witnesses for God in the world, but what exactly does that look like and what exactly are we supposed to do? Sadly there is no formula, no ten step program that we can follow that makes all this easy, because each of our callings in this regard is unique, we each have different giftings and each of us has different lives and so different opportunities to witness.
But don’t give up in despair the clues are there that can give us a start.
For example If we look to the Colossians reading we see various descriptions of God that can we can use in our witness. We see a God who “created all things in heaven and earth” Talking of God the creator can be a powerful witness in a world were environmental issues are becoming increasingly important in peoples lives and we heard only last week from Nigel Cooper of his work on environmental issues in this diocese, a powerful witness indeed.
The Colossians passage goes on to describe God as the one “in whom all things hold together” (Col 1:17) what a powerful testimony to a world falling apart! Our economy is in free fall and for many people this means that the things which gave them their security such as jobs, property, and share portfolios are looking increasingly fragile. They are trying frantically to hold together by themselves, we can offer them the opportunity to trust in the one who can take that burden from them… the one who holds it together even when they can’t.
Why not offer to pray for people you know who are troubled in these troubling times – or better still offer to pray with someone. Prayer is so powerful and interestingly very rarely refused even by those that have little or no faith. Prayer can be transformative, because prayer, by its very nature, brings people into the presence of God.
But most of all don’t forget that the “word became flesh and dwelt among us”….sometime we can get hung up on words, get tongue tied, don’t know what to say and we fear saying the wrong thing…but there are times when it is not about the words, its about the dwelling. It’s about sitting with someone, holding their hand, saying nothing but sharing quietly in their grief and pain.
As we conclude let us return to where we began..
The writers of the United States declaration of independence were so convinced of the power of what it contained that they ended it with these stirring words:-
“for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred Honour.”
And my challenge to us today is this – are we prepared to make such a pledge in support of the power of the Gospel? The final words of our gospel passage for today tell us-
“that 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. “
Our indwelling in the world should be that of
a life lived in grace and truth,
a life that reflects the glory of God,
a life that is a witness to God.
We need not fear living that life, for as the light shines in the darkness, the darkness shall not overcome it.
Many years ago my vicar at the time encouraged us to take something up for Lent as a change to the usual giving something up… It was one of those sermons that struck a chord with me and ever since I have tried to use Lent as a time for picking something up as well as putting something down.
