I am a week late posting this sermon.
“The Gospel” SAPC, Denton; January 2, 2022
John 1: 1-18 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. What has come into being 4 in him was life,[a] and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome 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.[b]
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own,[c] and his own people did not accept him. 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 the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,[d] full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,[e] who is close to the Father’s heart,[f] who has made him known.
Introduction: Paul tells the Ephesians that when they heard the truth about Christ, “the gospel of your [their] salvation.”
Gospel, a word we often hear.
We describe the first four books of the New Testament as Gospels - Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of John.
Gospel is from the Greek word “Evangelio,” from which comes the word “evangelism.”
Gospel - do you know what it means literally?
Good news!
As we begin 2022, let’s reflect for a few minutes on the gospel, on the good news we have, the good news we share.
Nothing particularly brilliant this morning - just a reminder of the basic truth, the gospel truth, if you will.
Move 1: Hear the Good news - God has acted by coming in Christ Jesus.
a. The opening verses of the Gospel of John have a certain feel to them, unlike anything found in the other three gospels.
1. John may not tell the birth story of Christ, at least not in the listing of the earthly nuts and bolts as Matthew and Luke do, but John has an important point to make about what God has done in Christ Jesus.
2. “in the beginning….”
3. John begins his gospel sounding like the opening verses of Genesis.
4. As if Genesis is Good news, Part 1 - in the beginning, God created out of love
and now, in the coming of Christ, we have Good News, the Sequel - God sends Christ out of love.
b. The coming of Christ is good news, is gospel because God chooses to join with us in our humanity.
1. the Gospel of John describes it as “the word became flesh and lived among us…” (1:14)
2. The Greek literally says, “God pitched God’s tent.”
3. I like Eugene Peterson’s way of translating it found in The Message:
1: 14 The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood. (Feasting the Word, Year 1, Volume 1, 191, Frank A. Thomas
4. God moved into our neighborhood
think of that as our world, God taking on humanity;
or, think of that as God moving into your neighborhood - literally, the block on which you live, there God arrives.
in the particularity of your life.
In the things that matter.
think of it, as God arriving in lots of people’s neighborhoods -
Very broad,
yet, for each person, particularity.
Good news
Move 2: Good news that God has intervened in human history through Jesus.
a. In his discussion of Jurgen Moltmann’s Theology of Hope, Miroslav Volf reminds us of the difference between optimism and hope:
1. “Optimism is based on the possibilities of things as they have come to be;”
We can look around and be optimistic because of things we see, things we can accomplish;
2. Hope, however, “is based on the possibilities of God irrespective of how things are ….
Hope is grounded in the faithfulness of God and therefore on the effectiveness of God’s promise.” (Miroslav Wolf, “Not Optimistic” Christian Century, December 28, 2004, 31 as found in Feasting the Word, Year B, Vol 1, Andrew Nagy-Benson, 148)
b. Our hope for the future is not in what we can attain or accomplish or discover
1. Our hope for the future is in God, who interrupted the trajectory of the world by coming in Christ.
2. Our hope for the future is in God, who redefines what power is by sending Christ to die on the cross.
3. Our hope for the future is in God, whose power to resurrect overwhelms and overcomes the power of sin and death.
4. We are not “cockeyed optimists,” to use a Rodgers and Hammerstein phrase, but people who hope in the God who transforms our world in the coming of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Move 3: hear the good news - God empowers us to become disciples of Christ.
a. Biblical scholars like to dig at texts, try to figure out what we might learn from how a text is written.
1. Treat the first 18 verses of this chapter, which we know as the prologue, as a connected series of statements.
2. Concentric pattern - with four parallel statements around a central point.
3. for instance - vs 1-5 begin by discussing the relationship of the Word to God, creation, and humanity;
vs. 16-18 then finish with a comment on the relationship of the Word to God, creation, and humanity.
4. the center of this concentric structure are vss. 12, 13.
5. 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 the will of man, but of God.
b. Being God’s children is not about who we are in the eyes of the world;
1. Not about who you know that is connected to the power structure.
2. not about what wealth or earthly riches you have.
3. not about who has the most talent.
4. What matters is not the values of the world, but God’s desire to empower us in our calling as disciple of Christ.
5. Discipleship waits for any and all who choose to follow Christ.
conclusion: Barbara Brown Taylor: “in an age of information overload…the last thing any of us needs is more information about God. We need the practice of incarnation, by which God saves the lives of those whose intellectual assent has turned them dry as dust….” (An Altar in the Word, New York: HarperOne, 2009, 45 as quoted in Searching for Sunday, Rachel Held Evans, prologue, 77 of electronic book)
As you begin 2022, hear the good news, the gospel truth, God has come to live with you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment