Second Sunday of Christmas: "In The Beginning"

 It’s still Christmas!  

We are nearing the end of The Season of Christmas, one of the shortest of the Church's historic liturgical seasons.  Christmas is a time to reflect on the implications of the Incarnation—God with us.  

Today, we will explore the preamble to John’s Gospel, which retells the Creation story with Christ at its center.  

"Christ isn't Jesus last name." - Richard Rohr. 

I've always been intrigued by the quote above from Fr. Richard Rohr, from his fantastic book The Universal Christ. 

A more accurate way to phrase Jesus' widely known "name" is "Jesus THE Christ."  In other words, Jesus embodies the Christ, a name for something far more mysterious and eternal.  The Scriptures refer to Jesus as the Christ, Messiah, Son of God, Emmanuel, and, as we will discover, something altogether different and new that the author of John's Gospel essentially creates new language to describe.  

As Rohr puts it: 

“For Jesus to become Christ, he must surpass the bounds of space and time, ethnicity, nationality, class, and gender. Frankly, he must rise above any religion formed in his name that remains tribal, clannish, xenophobic, or exclusionary. Otherwise, he is not the “Savior of the World” (John 4:42) at all.”

Our one big idea that we'll be holding on to today is this: 

CHRIST IS THE ONE NAME FOR EVERYTHING

John 1:1-9, 10-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. 

• “In the beginning” - The Genesis of everything starts with “The Word.” 
• Logos: Creative Expressive Word of God, Blueprint, Christ. 
• This takes a broader view than the Manger - cosmic, timeless, universal. 
• “Took on flesh” - the word speaks to a connectedness with all things.  

What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

• The light that “came into our neighborhood,” a light from before time. 

We long for the world to change, and we seek God’s presence as if it were hidden.  But the Word is all around us.  The light shines in the darkness.  God really does so love the world…  

There’s a lot to worry about in the world around us.  The news is troubling. But Christ plays in 10,000 places, and the light cannot be put out, no matter how powerful the darkness seems.  

Some Important Questions: 

• What practices can we embrace to help us experience Presence more?
• How can we reframe our fears and worries to become expressions of light?
• Will we find the courage this new year to stand against the darkness both within and without?

When we realize that Christ, the Word, the Blueprint for all things, permeates all of Creation, including us, we can never feel lonely again, even when hope leaves us, and despair threatens to overcome us.  We are not alone.  God is near. The eternal rhythms of dying and rising are still at work all around us, in us and through us.  

CHRIST IS THE ONE NAME FOR EVERYTHING