Amid the Christmas trees, lights, turkey dinners and presents, the Gospel of John engages us on a whole other level. John will not start his account of the Good News of Jesus Christ with a story of birth. John takes us back to God.
John tells us that Jesus, the Word of God, has been part of the divine life from the beginning. The Word was spoken in the process of creation. The Word has long been at the core of the creative power of God. Today, we mark a shift in the location of the creative power of God, this Word. Today, we point to a person, an historical, living, breathing, walking, talking, eating and drinking person and say the Word, the wisdom speaking embodiment of God is present in a child born into the human race.
Today, we celebrate the birth, but we wallow in the mystery of it. God came in flesh. God closed the gap between humanity and divinity. God forever bridged the chasm that separates us from God and one another.
You see, when God takes on flesh, flesh is forever changed. There is a quickening of the very life of God within it. The flesh is reforged, remade and directed towards its original purpose. The flesh is pointed and pushed in the direction of love. We are equipped once again to love the way God loves.
It is the way you love an infant. An infant can’t do anything for itself. An infant is totally dependent on those that care for it. Babies cry, stink, get sick, are messy, sleep strange inconvenient hours and only smile when they are gassy, but we love them, not for their attributes, maybe in spite of them.
This is how God loves, freely, richly, obsessively and in spite of our less charming attributes.
How do I know this? I have seen God in flesh. I sometimes feel that spark in me, that is not me. I see God, alive in the flesh in this world around us, in women and men of faith, in the kindness of a stranger,and in the selfless acts of those dedicated to service.
It all starts in the beginning with the creative love of the Word.
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