Genesis 1; John 1:1-14, 3:16-17
The beginning of John’s Gospel is derived from the first verses of
Scripture. Listen to these verses from The Inclusive Bible:
[From Genesis] In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But
the earth became chaos and emptiness, and darkness came over the face of the
Deep — yet the Spirit of God was brooding over the surface of the waters.
[From John] In the beginning there was the Word; the Word was in God’s
presence, and the Word was God. The Word
was present to God from the beginning. Through the Word all things came into
being, and apart from the Word nothing came into being that has come into
being.
[From Genesis] Then God said, “Light: Be!” and light was. God saw that
light was good, and God separated light from darkness.
[From John] In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light — a
Light that shines in the darkness, a Light that the darkness has never
overtaken.
… The
author of John intends for us to make these connections between the Gospel and
Genesis. It is clear from the first verse of John that Jesus is from God, of
God, from the very beginning. It is also clear that Jesus shines divine light
on the world’s darkness, driving it out, conquering it, overtaking it.
There
is power in the Word of God. God/the Word speaks and stuff happens: there is
light, and earth and sky, and animals, and people. God/the Word speaks and
there is time broken into days and months and years.
The
Good News for us, 2,000 years after the Incarnation of God into Jesus’ human
body, is that the Word of God continues to speak. The Word continues to shed
light into dark places, even, or especially, into those places where the Word
is not welcome.
Today,
we rejoice in the Good News that the Word is present for us. Listen to this verse
from the Inclusive Bible. “And the Word became flesh and stayed for a little
while among us; we saw the Word’s glory—the favor and position a parent gives
an only child—filled with grace, filled with truth.”
In Jesus, God says to the world, “I have so
loved you that I am sending my unique child to live among you so that all of
you may become my children.” Those who listen, who recognize and welcome God in
Christ, become God’s children not by any ordinary biological process, but
solely by God’s gift of rebirth.
We are reborn daily, hourly at times, when
we remember that we are children of the Word of God and God’s light shines
within us and through us and all around us. Shine on, Beloveds, shine on! Amen
