Read us a Christmas story

 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And RUACH, the Spirit, Wind, Breath of God moved over the waters. 

And God SAID יְהִ֣י ye-HI, “BE” “Let there BE” and it was SO.

Tying it to that Genesis creation story, we might consider this morning’s gospel as much a Nativity story as Luke 2 that we read every Christmas Eve. But it is Κατά Ιωάννην, According to John and, where Luke tells a bedtime story for and about children - - the shepherds were children, the angels a children’s choir, and of course the Babe in the Manager of Bethlehem, the story According to John is for theologians. And it is no Nativity, it’s a proclamation that Christ the WORD is from all eternity: never began, never ends, forever IS. That the One we know on earth as Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the incarnation, someone said "the enfleshment", of the Sound, Voice, Word of God that In The Beginning SAID and WAS, “Let there BE”, and it was so. 

For Christians, John proclaims the God Man we call Christ as the same figure who, in ancient Greek philosophy, is the Logos, the stirring, prime moving, creating energy that brought the universe into being and sustains our ongoing existence as the universe expands infinitely and ever faster. Logos: the igniting burst, the force itself, and the energy or matter that holds it all together. To Gospel John in his philosophic genius, Logos, Word - - Jesus the Christ is the Power, the Energy that became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

It is too much for me. A universe of some 200,000,000,000 (200 billion) galaxies like our Milky Way Galaxy, each of 200 billion galaxies centering around a mysterious Black Hole. Each Black Hole, some astronomers are seriously contemplating, may conceivably be a portal into another universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies, and every galaxy black hole in that next universe a portal into another universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies, and so on and on. 

Divine imagination: to get the gist of it, I have to read in C S Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew of the Chronicles of Narnia, the pools in the wood, each pool goes into a totally 'nother creation, a different world. You cannot get there from here, and if you manage to get there anyway, you can never get back to where you started. 

Your God is Too Small*, the Creator’s imagination so boggles the mind that only modern fantasy fiction can stir the vision.

The Gospel according to John: a fantastical story.

When my children were little, I loved reading them bedtime stories at night - 

    The Moose Child 

    We Were Tired Of Living In A House 

    The Tale of Peter Rabbit 

Robert Louis Stevenson, dozens or hundreds of poems and stories over the years. As children do, they learned and knew every story by heart, every page, every line, every word, every inflection - - and when I teased them by changing a line or saying a wrong word, they shouted me down and corrected me. They knew how the story was supposed to go, and they would not have it changed.

Stories become part of us, cherished and beloved. Through the years, Heilsgeschichte, sacred myths, our holy stories about God become part of our hearts, part of our souls. We hold them dear, word for word, 

and when modern revisionists sell us a new and better, modern English translation of the Bible, they’ve changed our sacred stories, and even seem to desecrate Christmas!

So, listen:

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Qurenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:1-20 KJV)

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* J B Phillips

Homily with Christmas Story. Rev Tom Weller. Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida. Sunday, December 27, 2020. Xmas1B

Gospel. The Prologue of John's Gospel.

John 1 (KJTWV)

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The Word was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through the Word, and without the Word was not anything made that was made. 4 In the Word was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. ...

9 The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. 11 He came to his own, and his own received him not. 12 But to all who receive him, who believe on his name, he gives power to become children of God; 13 born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father. ...

16 And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.