Welcome on this first Sunday of the New Year. I won’t ask you to raise your hand if you are still keeping the resolutions you made 2 days ago.
Andy Simmons, the Senior Editor for Readers Digest says that he keeps all of his New Year’s resolutions, every single one. How does he do it? Quite simple, really. After years of introspection he says he has developed a healthy understanding of what he can and cannot do. Therefore, he keeps his resolutions realistic. For example, a few years ago he resolved to gain five pounds. And he did. Last year he decided that he didn’t know enough curse words. Today, he says, his vocabulary is much richer. And as for this coming year? He says, “This will be the year I don’t clean up my garage.” (1)
Comedian Jay Leno notes that now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. “So overweight people are now average,” says Leno. “Which means you’ve met your New Year’s resolution.”
I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season. The juxtaposition of Christmas and New Year’s reminds me of a Sunday school teacher who had just finished telling her class the Christmas story, how Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem and how Jesus was born there. So the teacher asked, “Who do you think the most important woman in the Bible is?”
Naturally the teacher was expecting some of the children to say, “Mary.” But instead, a little boy raised his hand and said, “Eve.” So the teacher asked him why he thought Eve was the most important. And the little boy said, “Well, they named two days in the year after Eve. You know, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.” (2)
For some of us the dawning of the New Year is a reminder that time is passing very, very quickly. When you are six years old a year is one-sixth of your life and time passes so slowly. However, when you are sixty, a year is one-sixtieth of your life. It is practically nothing at all. Our boys and girls think next Christmas is a long, long way off. Those of us who are older, know better.
A cover on the magazine The New Yorker a few years ago says it best. The cover showed Father Time and the New Year Baby sledding together down a steep hill at great speed. Father Time, with his long beard flowing backwards behind his head, has an expression of panic, dread, terror and fright on his face. The New Year Baby, with hands raised high in the air like a teenager on a roller coaster has a face showing exhilaration, enjoyment, and elation. (3) I guess your perception of time, depends on where you stand in the aging continuum.
As we begin this New Year, I want to ask you to focus on some of the most beautiful, dramatic and powerful words in all the Bible. They are found in the prologue to the Gospel of John:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it . . . The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth . . .”
“In the beginning was the Word . . .” Here’s the first thing that strikes me in this passage: the power of the Word.
John makes interesting use of language in this prologue to his Gospel. Remember that the first words of the Bible are, “In the beginning . . .” John begins his Gospel with the same words, “In the beginning . . .”
Notice also that in Genesis 1, God speaks and the world is created, “Let there be light and behold there was light . . .” In the same way John doesn’t say God spoke the world into existence, but he does write, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men . . .” The Word is powerful, John tells us. Everything that exists came about because of the Word.
In our everyday world words are powerful, aren’t they? Wilfred Peterson once put it this way: “Soft words sung in a lullaby will put a baby to sleep. Excited words will stir a mob to violence. Eloquent words will send armies marching into the face of death. Encouraging words will fan to flame the genius of a Rembrandt or a Lincoln. Powerful words will mold the public mind as the sculptor molds his clay. Words, spoken or written, are a dynamic force . . . Words are the swords we use in our battle for success and happiness. How others react toward us depends, in a large measure, upon the words we speak to them. Life is a great whispering gallery that sends back echoes of the words we send out! Our words are immortal, too. They go marching through the years in the lives of all those with whom we come in contact.”
Warren Wiersbe put it like this: “A judge says a few words, and a man’s life is saved or condemned. A doctor speaks a few words, and a patient either rejoices ecstatically or gives up in despair. Whether the communication is oral or written, there is great power in words. I am told that for every word in Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, 125 persons lost their lives in World War II.” (4)
Writing of Napoleon and his Italian campaign, Emil Ludwig said: “Half of what he achieves is achieved by the power of words.”
The words we use each day are powerful. Think of the power of the words, “I love you,” or “I hate you.” They can be life-changing. If our simple words can carry so much power, think of the Word of God. Everything that exists came into being through God’s Word. That’s the first thing that strikes me in this passage. Here is the second:
Jesus is the Word of God. We often use the phrase “the word of God” to denote the Bible. That’s quite natural. After all, we believe that the Bible is inspired by God. But technically, Jesus is the true word of God.
This distinction can be very helpful as you attempt to interpret scripture. If you come to a passage of scripture that disturbs you, perhaps even offends you, ask yourself whether this passage is in keeping with the character of Christ. If it is, then it is to be followed wholeheartedly. If it is not, then maybe you need to do more study to see what God is trying to say to you through that verse of scripture.
Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus the Christ was not an afterthought. Neither was he merely human. He was in the mind of God at the beginning of time. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . .”
Years ago the matchless Bible scholar William Barclay, in his book Good Tidings of Great Joy, gave a wonderful exposition of this passage.
He tells about a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus who lived about 560 B. C. Heraclitus believed that everything is in a state of flux everything is changing from day to day and from moment to moment.
His famous example was that it is impossible to step twice into the same river. You step into a river; you step out; you step in again; but you do not step into the same river, for the water has flowed on and it is a different river.
To Heraclitus everything is like that; everything is in a constantly changing state of flux. However, it that’s true, why is life not complete chaos? How can there be any sense or purpose in a world where there is constant flux and change? The answer of Heraclitus was that all this change and flux is not haphazard; it is controlled and ordered; and that which controls the pattern for the world is the Logos, or Word, the reason of God.
To Heraclitus, the Logos, or Word, is the principle of order by which the universe exists. He also held that not only is there a pattern in the physical world; there is a pattern in the world of events.
For example, if Heraclitus were here today, he might say that the fall of the Berlin Wall was not a random event. He might say that the communists had offended God. Nothing in this world is random according to Heraclitus. Everything is ordered by the Word. He held that nothing moves with aimless feet; in all life and in all the events of life there is a purpose, a plan, a design. And what is it that controls events? Once again, the answer is the Logos or Word.
Heraclitus went even further. What is it in us individually that helps us choose right over wrong? What makes us able to think and to reason? What enables us to recognize truth when we see it? The Logos of God dwelling within us. Heraclitus believed that in the world of nature and events “all things happen according to the Logos,” and that in the individual person “the Logos is the judge of truth. The Logos is nothing less than the mind of God controlling the world and every [person] in it.” (5)
You will remember when Paul was in Athens he saw a statue to an unknown god, much like our tomb of an unknown soldier. He used this statue to an unknown god as an opportunity to introduce the citizens of Athens to the one true God, the God revealed in Jesus Christ. He began his address like this: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you . . .” (Acts 17:22-23) Paul then gave them a name for their unknown god. He introduced them to Jesus.
In the same way, the writer of John was evidently familiar with the philosophy of Heraclitus. And thus he says to his Greek readers, as well as to us, “Look, Jesus is that Logos that you have believed in all along.” Jesus existed before the world was created. Through him God spoke the world into existence. Through him, God still speaks to individual hearts today.
That may be a little deep to most of us, but it is a wonderful truth that leads us to this conclusion: Christ has come into the world that God’s Word might be accessible to all.
Anytime we get into subjects like the pre-existent Word, many of us may sit there with a glazed expression on our face. And I know I run the risk of sounding like a theology professor I once heard about. This professor was a man who simply could not express the truth of God in simple English. He did not mean to come across as stuffy and obscure. He just couldn’t help it.
This deeply intellectual theology professor had a student . . . from Africa. This African student came to the United States to get a Masters degree at an American seminary. While here, he came to love this theology professor even though the professor was hopeless in how he communicated the truths of the Christian faith.
Later, when the young man returned home to Africa as a pastor, he found himself in a bind. The professor wanted to come to visit him. This pastor knew what would happen when the theology professor came. His congregation would want to hear this great theologian preach. Even worse, the theology professor would want to preach. It would be a nightmare in this young pastor’s mind.
However, there was no way for the young man to graciously refuse hosting the professor. The professor came to Africa and while there he preached at the young man’s church. The Sunday he preached, the professor took to the pulpit and his former student stood nearby to translate the sermon into his native Swahili. The professor began like this: “There are two great epistemological theories in the world today,” he said ponderously. The young African pastor paused just a beat and translated with these words, “Let me tell you about my friend, Jesus.” And so the sermon went. The professor expounded his views on epistemology in deep and ponderous language and the African pastor told the congregation more about his friend Jesus. All present agreed it was an amazing sermon. (6)
Sometimes, I know, when I am in this pulpit trying to preach the word, all you may be hearing is, “There are two great epistemological views in the world today.” Thankfully, sometimes, when I am preaching, God handles the translation and the Holy Spirit whispers in your ear, “Let me tell you about my friend, Jesus.”
You see, Jesus is the translation of God’s love into human flesh. John writes in verse 14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . .” Then he adds in verse 16-18: “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” And then these magnificent words: “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”
That is awkward wording. Some manuscripts say “the only (or only begotten) Son has made him known.” The point is that the Word was made flesh that we might see God, that we might experience God, that we might hear and feel God. Christ came that we might know God.
In 1991, Mark Wellman, a paraplegic, paralyzed from the waist down, climbed Half Dome Mountain in Yosemite National Park. It took two weeks of grueling, dangerous tedious work for Wellman to inch his way up that mountain and into the history books. How in the world did a paraplegic man accomplish such a stunning physical feat? He had a little help. Mark Corbett, “Yosemite’s most experienced rock climber,” took the climb with Mark Wellman. He went before Wellman, placing their pitons and finding the best crevices for climbing. He would climb up and scout the best path for Wellman to take, then climb back down the mountain so the two men could make the climb together. (7)
Christ is our Mark Corbett. Christ came to make God accessible to us. Christ is the one who whispers in our ear, “Let me introduce you to my Father.” Christ translated God’s love into human flesh. When you have seen Christ, the Word of God, you have seen God.
1. martysjotd@hotmail.com. Cited by Leslie Schultz, http://www.lesandhelga.com/sermons/2007/123106.htm.
2. Cited by Stephen Palmer, http://www.2preslex.org/S021229.HTM.
3. C. Edward Bowen, Emphasis, Nov/Dec. 1999, p. 60.
4. Be Complete (IL: Victor Books, 1981), p. 135.
5. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999).
6. The Rev. Frank Logue, http://kingofpeace.org/sermons2004-2005/sermon-041705.htm.
7. Pine, Barbara Roberts, Life with a Capital “L” (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994), 90.