John 1:1-5
The Word Became Flesh
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. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that this same Word who existed with and as God, who called every existing thing into being, comes to us as a helpless infant in a Bethlehem livestock feeding trough. John locates this Word in time (in the beginning, although ‘was’ indicates existence before time); as a personal presence (was God) in relationship (with God) and place (where God is). Matthew locates Jesus in time (the year of His birth); as a personal presence (the infant) in in personal relationship (son of Mary) and place (the Bethlehem manger). And identifies him as Son of Man; Son of God.
Every thing-including every living thing-exists because this eternal Word called it into being-existed it. Every thing has, as Richard Rohr likes to say, the Divine DNA (think for a second about the ecological ramifications of this!). In Him was life which cannot be overcome. Or contained. One source of ever-evolving life for all living things. One life to bind us .
This life was and continues to be the light by which we see and understand what it means to be fully human. Don’t miss this. Jesus isn’t just God made man to die for our sins. By being fully human the Word shows us all what our lives can and should look like. We are here to receive, reflect and return God’s love. All this, funneled into an infant in a cave. Advent. And so it begins.
Shalom
JRG
