A sermon by the Rev. John B. McCall
January 2, 2011
John 1:1-18
This week, January 6, Christians mark the Festival of the Epiphany. It’s from the Greek word that means “appearance” and refers to three particular times when God appeared in Jesus’ life:
• First was the appearance of the wise men or Magi from a distant land. They weren’t Jews waiting for Messiah but they recognized that God was present in the amazing child.
• Second was the appearance of the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism when he was maybe 30 years old. The heavens opened and the dove descended and God’s voice said “this is my child, my beloved. Listen to him.”
• Third, we remember the first public miracle when at a wedding at Cana in Galilee Jesus turned water into wine.
January 6th is the twelfth day of Christmas, reminding us that Christmas is a season and not just a day – a time of moving deeply into the mystery and wonder of God’s love.
It’s no coincident that the Solstice – the time of transition from autumn to winter and the longest night of the year – comes at just about the same time.
Our reading from the Gospel today is: John 1:1-18
Have you ever found yourself whistling in the dark? It’s an interesting turn of phrase that suggests how we try to handle our fear when we feel in danger. I shared the idea with a friend this past week who spoke of “whistling past the cemetery” as a familiar idea from his childhood.
My family says I whistle all the time: they’ll never lose me in a store because I whistle without thinking about it. Anything from Mozart to Emmy Lou Harris… nothing fancy or beautiful, just a song in my heart.
But I can remember a time when I was a little boy in Oregon – maybe 4 or 5, and I really whistled in the dark. It was the 4th of July and our family went to the home of some friends up into the hills. Our hosts had told us we’d be able to go out after dark to see the fireworks. Well, I’d seen fireworks before and always loved them. But this time, they said, they’d be more wonderful than ever because we’d be way up on the hillside looking down to watch the beautiful colored explosions. So I tagged along with the older kids and followed them to a clearing where they intended to wait for the fireworks to begin.
So we waited and we waited as the darkness settled. And I got really bored. And I really needed to go to the bathroom. As I remember the story I couldn’t wait any longer and begged for one of the older kids to walk with me back to the house. No luck. And then I begged for a flashlight so I could find my way. Still no luck. And so after whining a little more I set out towards where I thought the house should be.
As I walked through the woods you can bet I was whistling in the dark, warning the lions and tigers and bears to stay away. But then, in the dark, I got turned around and confused. For a while I was really scared ’cause I didn’t know where the house and the grownups were.
So I stopped and looked this way, then that way, then that way. And finally, I saw a light and could just hear some voices and felt hopeful again. I didn’t know for sure that was where my parents were, but I started toward the light – still whistling in the dark – and just kept going one step at a time until I reached safety… and the bathroom.
I missed the fireworks, but I think I’ve learned the lesson of whistling in the dark and walking toward to light.
The author of the Gospel of John speaks in poetic tones of the amazing birth of Jesus Christ. No shepherds or Angels or young maiden not-yet-married. Instead, John gives us a simple but profound truth:
• God has made the world,
• God has loved the world,
• God has seen the darkness of the world, and
• God has become one of us in the birth and life of Jesus Christ.
This birth is what we call the incarnation, from the same root as “carnivore” and “carnal.” God became flesh; spirit entered the human world in a child.
That’s wonderful; that’s amazing, but there’s more: Jesus, in whom God came among us, showed us and taught us that we are an incarnation too. As Andrea’s mother apparently said: “God made me and God doesn’t make junk.”
You and I are God’s holy place as surely as Jesus was. That may be hard to grasp. We still may imagine the creation as multiple layers with God on top and us in the dark basement. But John says it right here: {12} “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, {13} who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of human will, but of God.”
Friends, not only did the light shine in the darkness one time, long ago and far away. The power of Christmas is the assurance that God continues to be born into the world by faith, by hope, by witness, as we live the way Jesus taught us to live. Today, and always, God’s light shines in us and through us.
The renowned theologian Karl Barth wrote: “The mystery (of Christmas) reveals to us that for God it is just as natural to be lowly as it is to be high, to be near as to be far, to be little as to be great, to be abroad as to be home…” {Church Dogmatics, Vol. 4, pg. 1}
So how will you live so as to claim this truth? If you were to believe passionately that God is at work in you – not only for your own sake but for the sake of the world – what would you do? What will you attempt? What will you offer?
Remember, the world is still in darkness. But God loves this world and loves you.
And God’s spirit can do wonderful things through your life when you whistle in the darkness and sing in the light.