the Word empowers our words to become flesh

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.

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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.