Occasional Sermons

“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” These words are well known to us. Indeed, we have heard them repeated since our childhood. Yes, these words are well known to us, but their meaning may not be. Some words we hear repeated so often, we never even think to question what they may mean. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” What then do these words mean? One thing that may provide at least a clue as to their meaning is that the words “In the beginning” start not only the gospel of John, they start the book of Genesis also. Surely the gospel of John then is hearkening us back to the book of Genesis to the word through which God spoke creation into being. This clue as to their meaning , however, only compounds the difficulty. The matter remains: What is this word that was with God and was God ? What is this word through which God created the cosmos? This surely is, now that we begin to unpack the meaning of these words, a theological riddle. But quite frankly, who cares? Who cares about theological riddles? We all have problems, not problems that are abstract like this one, but problems that are real -- Problems that we cannot solve. Problems that hold us back. Problems that are destroying us. Be whatever they may – problems that result from dysfunctional families or relationships, financial problems, problems that stem from diseases that have attacked us or our loved ones, problems around addictions, problems that arise from some wrong we’ve done and can’t undo, problems with some fault in our character that we can’t resolve, problems issuing from some injustice or violation we’ve suffered. That’s one thing that we all here have in common. We all have problems, and so who cares about theological riddles? We may, however, find it useful to recall that we are not the first generation of people to have problems. Every generation of people has had problems. Nostalgia is nothing more than a romantic sentiment. There has never been a time in all of history that that people have been free of problems. Problems, then, it is safe to conclude, are a permanent and perennial fixture of human existence. Our biblical forbears certainly give witness to this. Consider any of them. Consider Saul for instance. There was some lacking in his personality. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it was -- some incapacity for leadership, some incapacity to command respect, some incapacity for integrity. It doesn’t matter exactly what it was, only that it existed. Saul himself never had any insight into it, but others did. Those closest to him noticed it first and began to withdraw their allegiance to him. Saul may not have had any insight into the lacking in his personality, but he sensed these defections very keenly. He became defensive and untrusting, and then, downright paranoid and suspicious. A vicious cycle took hold – the more he descended, the more those around him withdrew, the more he descended, the more those around him withdrew, until he was eventually driven insane. In a glimpse of lucidity, he realized the only end to it all was death, and so he took his life. Or consider Saul’s successor David. David was man of a different stripe. As the Bible states it, he was a man after God’s own heart. And what a man he was. He singlehandedly forged the nation of Israel, made it into the greatest nation it has ever been and was the greatest king ever to sit on its throne. Jerusalem, which he founded, was rightly called, “The City of David.” But even David grew corrupt. He was so exceptional that he came to believe that the rules of life that apply to everyone else didn’t apply to him. He impregnated the wife of one of his most valiant soldiers then arranged for his murder to conceal his misdeed. That was a stain that could never be removed, and David lived out the rest of his years far east of Eden. Or what about the apostle Peter, who posited himself Jesus’ right hand man? But on the strength of what? On the strength of swagger, nothing more; swagger that may have worked well for him on the fishing boats or in the marketplace, but that showed itself as mere swagger when the going got rough. Peter then revealed himself a coward and a weakling; worse, a betrayer. The one who posited himself Jesus’ right-hand man then proved he was no better than Jesus’ worst enemy. Yes, our biblical forbears certainly had problems. To a man and to a woman, they all did. The Bible is about people just like us, people with problems -- real problems, problems that held them back, problems they couldn’t solve, problems that destroyed them. The Bible in fact was written to address itself to the problems of the human existence, and so its theological riddles must be solved. They are nothing less than the Bible’s answer to our problems. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” The gospel of John is indeed hearkening us back to the book of Genesis and recalling to us that in the beginning God spoke a word of life and creation came into being -- creation in all its manifest and mysterious abundance, creation in all of its light and all of its darkness, and creation over which we have been given dominion. But as much as it was, creation was not enough. Creation was not the fullness of God’s word of life. In order for us to know a higher meaning, a higher purpose, a higher hope, a higher destiny; in order for us not to succumb to the struggles that would be inevitable in any created order, there had to be more. And so, as the prologue to the gospel of John continues, God spoke a second word of life, a word of life unto life, as it were. This second word of life took flesh and lived among us in the man Jesus Christ. This word of life transfused the created order with the divine order, so that we would indeed know a higher meaning, a higher purpose, a higher hope, a higher destiny; and so that we that we would not succumb to our struggles, because those struggles would be transfigured, as were his, by divine love . This theological conundrum then is not really so much of a conundrum at all. It is simply the Bible’s good news to us that though we have problems God’s word to us is a word of life; not just created life, but his life, here, now, real, present -- as was the coming of his son into our world. Amen.