Inbox Inspiration: December 21, 2022: November - "And the Word became flesh"

 

INBOX INSPIRATIONS

December 21, 2022

 

“And the Word became flesh”

            

Dear Friends,

“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 to be through him…And the Word became flesh.” (John 1:1-3, 14).

John’s was the last of the four gospels to be written. He does not begin with the Bethlehem story but assumes that everyone knows that. Instead, he begins with his reflection or theology of what really happened in the birth of Jesus.  

 

The sacred books that preceded the birth of Jesus, what we call the Old Testament, are filled with references to the word of God. In Genesis, God creates the world simply through his word, by speaking. The prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah often assert that they are speaking the word of God. The word also came to be seen as the wisdom of God. And then came the insight or revelation that the Word, spelled with a capital W, was distinct from but still one with God, the creator. The Word was neither a creature nor a separate deity. The Word was always there. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So, the beginning of John’s gospel expresses both continuity with and development from what went before it. John plunges us into the mystery of our God who is transcendent but now also incarnate. All of John’s statements here reach their absolute climax when he says that “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

 

I am somewhat speechless in the face of this revelation. Just think: God had spoken many words throughout all of human history. God had spoken directly to a few people, through others to many people, and even through his creation by its seer being. But now, the person named Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One of God. And he is the Word of God – the Word. He in himself contains and expresses is all the words ever uttered by and about God. So, it is to him that we turn and listen. It is from him, the One who is himself the Word, that we learn who God is, what God is like, and what we are to be like.  Our attention needs to begin and stay centered in Jesus the Christ. He is God’s Word, the Word of God to us. With and through him we will find our way in this world and our way to God in the world beyond, in heaven. This is the astonishing, amazing fact or person whom we celebrate on Christmas day.  

 

Merry Christmas!

Father Michael Schleupner