the following sermon manuscript is for my preaching john class. important context: preaching on the same day that seniors receive first call regional assignments.
the holy gospel according to john, the first chapter.
In
the beginning was the Word,
and
the Word was with God,
and
the Word was God.
The
Word was in the beginning with God.
All
things came into being through the Word,
without
whom not one thing came into being.
What
has come into being in the Word was life,
and
the life was the light of all people.
The
light shines in the darkness
and
the darkness did not overcome it.
There
was a human sent from God, whose name was John.
John
came as a witness to testify to the light,
so
that all might believe through him.
John
himself was not the light,
but
he came to testify to the light.
The
true light, which enlightens everyone,
was
coming into the world.
The
Word was in the world,
and
the world came to be through the Word,
yet
the world did not know the Word.
The
Word came to what was its own,
and
its own people did not accept it.
But
to all who received the Word,
who
believed in its name,
it
empowered to become children of God,
who
were born,
not
of blood
or
of the will of the flesh
or
of the will of a husband
but
of God.
And
the Word became flesh and camped with us,
and
we have seen its glory,
the
glory as of a parent’s only child,
full
with grace and truth.
John
testified about the Word, crying out,
“This
is the one of whom I said,
‘the
one who comes after me ranks ahead of me,
because ze was before me.’”
From
the Word’s fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
As
the law was given through Moses,
so
grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ.
No
one has ever seen God.
God
the Only Child,
who
is at the Parent’s bosom,
has
made God known.
the gospel of the lord.
-----
these days there are words all
around us becoming flesh:
“type in coupon code freestuff and
get a free puppy!”
google maps gives word that the bus
will arrive at 8:09am to take me to my destination and low and behold, there it
is!
at the congregation i’m serving, we
said yes to the words “free produce” and beginning in may it’ll be with us in
the flesh.
this past weekend, once again, the
word “not guilty” became flesh for a white man who killed a black boy in a
country and state where it is not illegal.
not to mention today and throughout
the rest of the semester, “by the grace of god and the wisdom of the process,
you will be going … somewhere—even if that somewhere is ‘but for the grace of
god.’”
internship assignments, cpe sites,
evaluations, cutbacks and new offers.
words become flesh as we move and change and transition.
but all these words—free stuff, not
guilty, assignment—are not the Word. stand your ground is filled not with Wisdom, but with ignorance. the
words of google maps may be full of algorithms, but they still lack the
compassion and yearning of Lady Wisdom for her dear Creation—a yearning that
brings Wisdom into the world. this Word—Wisdom—becomes flesh to camp with us.
the Word does not set up shop in
one spot and live out hir life there.
the Word comes among us and moves with us.
in the middle of institutions giving
us the words yes or no, emerson or vancouver, lincolnshire or luther memorial,
hospital chaplaincy or night ministry, region 7 or 3, 5 or 2; the Word, that
ultimate Word, says I AM with you. i’ve come to be with you, to journey with you, to camp where
you camp.
the beauty of a god who camps with
us is that whatever the next hours, weeks, months, or even years hold, the Wisdom-Word
camps with us, moves with us, waits for us wherever we’re going.
the Word that comes to camp with us
tells us each week “this is my body, given for you. this is my blood, shed for you and for all people.” the Word becomes flesh for us and then
in us. what amazes me perhaps most
of all are the ways this word is so clearly spoken and enfleshed through some
people.
at my internship congregation most
of the adults tended to come forward to receive communion quite solemnly, heads
bowed—perhaps in prayer—hands gently folded, as their general practice. when the kindergarteners and first
graders who were receiving first communion came forward, there was one child who,
throughout the year so embodied the Word becoming flesh for me. the
child came forward eagerly, eyes alight, head up, arms extended to their
fullest, barely staying with their parents and as they received “the body of
christ, given for you.” their face
was full of life—the true light, which enlightens everyone. and then, with the word camping with
him, the child danced and cheered his way back up the aisle to his seat.
that is the Word of god camping with us.
and that is the very Word that
joins us on our journeys, waiting for us wherever we may go.
in a few months, our flesh as a
community will once again become words, and part of it already has, as our
connections to each other will be through blogs, or facebook, or maybe even
good old-fashioned letters. even
so, even as our flesh becomes words, the Word remains flesh for us.
at Communion each week the Word continues
to gather us at the Table to share in the grace and truth of Word made flesh
and in so doing, the Word becomes flesh among us, so that we encounter the Word
in the child delighted at receiving their first communion, in the grumpy old
woman who nevertheless shows up faithfully to prepare the meal, light the
candles, and set up the tables, and in the stranger who becomes our sibling in
christ.
the Word continually becomes flesh
for us and with us, empowering our words also to become flesh—words like megabus, southwest,
continuing education, become flesh and the community we have nurtured here this
year, and for many of us over the past four years is renewed and remains flesh
for us. the Word empowers our
words—that “black lives matter,” and those words become flesh through us. that google maps’ prediction will bring
a bus to me to come to you, that our calls are to the whole church and so
connect us to each other.
the Word becomes flesh in community
here and
it will again—and, in fact, it is already there where we are going, waiting in
the new communities wherever we may go.
our life as followers began with the Word coming to us—joining us. the fullness of god—grace and
truth—come to us, to journey with us.
