John 1:1-18
Today’s Gospel reading is a creation story, one of divine
origins and explanation. It is a birth narrative, but instead of a manger and
donkeys and shepherd it is simply a light in the dark. It is a theological
treatise telling us about God and how we are connected to God. It is a
revelation, the beginning of a story about God incarnate through Jesus. It is a
Christological statement about the power and position of Jesus Christ. It is a
beautiful poem about humans and God.
It is all of these things and yet, what strikes me most
about it isn’t the bold proclamations, grandiose statements, eternal time frame
or creation-sized wideness of it, but rather what strikes me most is the
smallness of it. The closeness. The
distance between God and the Word is so small that it doesn’t actually
exist. What strikes me most is the
intimacy. This is how we came to be, this is how the Word came into the world,
this is how God chose to be in the world … through intimacy … closeness.
As secular Christmas traditions come to a close, perhaps
you like so many others are relieved to be done with it, relieved to set aside
the consumerism and forced sentimentality. But for all of the negative
associations and eye rolling that comes with some secular Christmas traditions,
at their heart I do believe they are a kind of reaching out for intimacy.
Twinkle lights strung along the frame of a home to say “we want to celebrate
with our neighbors and even the strangers walking by, we want to add light and
beauty to your darkness.” Gifts are exchanged in an effort to show
appreciation, connection, thought and relationship. Pre made holiday cards with
happy faces and corrected addresses to say “I still think of you.” Sugar and
flour mixed together and baked into reindeer shapes to say “I want to be the
source of something that brings you a little bit of happiness.” Old songs sung
out of tune to connect us with our past traditions and unite our voices. Maybe it all falls short, maybe it all just
looks like consumerism, maybe it all becomes things that overwhelm us … but I
would like to think that at the root of it all is an extended hand, reaching
out for closeness … for intimacy. The
intimacy that brought us all into being.
“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 into
being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” Not one
thing … this was how we came to be. You
can’t tell the Christmas story without intimacy. Whether it is a mother and her
baby, the Word and God, or the Holy Spirit like a dove coming upon Jesus.
Perhaps then this is what we look for at Christmas. When we
are pushing our cart down aisles of scarves or earrings or coffee mugs, what we
are searching for is that way to reach out to someone, to connect. When we
remember with sometimes painful longing Christmases of our past, perhaps what
we are craving is the closeness we felt in those moments with people we can no
longer get close to.
Many of you know that I ran for political office and it was
a wild experience that stretched me and challenged me in ways I never
expected. I learned a lot in a
relatively short period of time. But I can say that what I treasure the most
about that experience is the intimacy I got to experience. Like from the woman
who stood in her driveway in her bathrobe and told me all about the struggles
of raising her two special needs children and the ups and downs of their journey.
Or the man who let the tears fall as he told me about his struggles with
depression and his son’s battle with addiction.
Maybe even the guy who made me so angry I was shaking because as we
stood there talking, eye to eye with only the frame of his front door between
us we were actually daring to come close enough to a world completely unlike
our own that we could hear it … just a little.
I definitely experienced intimacy with the people who walked that
journey with me, the ones who built me up when I deflated and laughed with me
when the only other option was crying. I appreciate those experiences of closeness
so much, perhaps even more than I would have in 2019 before we ever knew how
isolated we could be.
When I read about covid cases rising and vaccine
effectiveness decreasing there is something in me that aches. It felt so good
to make crafts together again at Advent Lessons and Carols, to see the kids
dressed as shepherds and cows, to hug family, to meet up with friends, to sing
together, to be in this space. To be physically present with each other, to be
close … to be intimate. We know now that we can’t take it for granted.
One of the reasons I enjoy working with teens so much is
because they are good at connecting.
They haven’t yet learned to build up walls and take sides and put up
defenses and pretend that they don’t need anyone. So they are genuine, they ask questions, they
laugh together, they share experiences, they cry without apologizing, they tell
you when you say the wrong thing and they open up their heart. It is a reaching
out for relationship that we learn to hide, to pretend isn’t there or to take
for granted. It is that craving for connection that is part of who we are since
creation.
The Gospel tells us about that creation, that the world
came into being through the Word. The
Word is the light that shines in the darkness, the light that the darkness cannot
overcome. The light that enlightens everyone. This means that we have that
light, that intimacy, that unextinguishable light, we have it within us. It is
how the world came into being and it is a light that enlightens us all. It can’t
be taken away. The intimacy that we crave is always with us, in us, shining on
and through us. This is our creation story, our birth story, our history and
future.
In the beginning was the Word. A Word means revelation, a word means
something is said, something is communicated.
The purpose of a word is to say something. And on this day after Christmas we have heard
the Word. It is Jesus. It is light and love in our world. It is a light that the darkness cannot
overcome. It is God drawing us into that
relationship that has existed since the beginning and will exist long after our
end. It is an invitation into intimacy.
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t know if we
will find ourselves in quarantine or isolation either physically, mentally or
spiritually. But we know that God has spoken.
The Word has come into being and brought us into being. It enlightens
us, calls us and compels us to reach out to others. And no matter what happens,
that light will never be overcome by darkness. So even as we take down the
twinkle lights, put the presents on the shelf, recycle the cards and regret
eating too many of the cookies- let us embrace the intimacy. The connection we all have through the Light
of the World. The light that we share, the light that is big enough to
encompass creation and small enough to fit inside our hearts.
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