Reflections on "In the beginning..." John 1: 1-18

This was the final gospel of the series on how the gospels present the birth narratives.  The Gospel of John does not have a birth story, but it has what is known as the Prologue that begins the gospel and puts the story of Jesus in a theological context.   Biblical scholars often focus on the language of John and the audience to whom he was writing, but I did not spend time doing that.  Instead, I focused on what the Gospel of John tells us about who Jesus was, rather than how the gospel presents who Jesus is. 

“In the beginning”; John 1: 1-18; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; December 21, 2025

John 1: 10-18

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.[e] 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who[f] is close to the Father’s heart,[g] who has made him known.

Introduction:  We continue our Advent journey through the birth stories in the four gospels.

this morning, the Gospel of John. 

Like Mark, the Gospel of John does not contain birth stories.

Unlike Mark, the Gospel of John begins with a focus on the the birth of Christ.

In the Gospel of John,  Jesus’ cousin John will  arrive unannounced

no parents mentioned,

no place of birth shared,

No acknowledgment that he is Jesus’ cousin,

Just a man named John 

who comes to announce Jesus.

  John’s role is less about calling people to repent and be baptized, 

and more about being a witness to who Jesus is.

SonWho is this Jesus to whom John witnesses in the Gospel of John?

Move 1:  Jesus is the one who exists as part of the Triune God, before creation 

and the God whose actions begin by speaking the world into creation.

a.  Martin Luther, the great Reformer, points to this truth when he preaches on this opening passage of John.

1.  Luther points out that before anything was created, “God has a Word”

and by that Word, God creates.

2. Indeed, this is an eternal word, before and beyond creation.

3.  This not only separates God from all created things, but points to the truth that God is God of all things.(Sermon for the Principal Christmas Service; John 1:1-14 Christ's Titles of Honor; His Coming: His Incarnation;  and the Revelation of His Glory. A Sermon by Martin Luther; taken from his Church Postil, 1521-1522. [The following sermon is taken from volume I:171-223 of The Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand Rapids, MI). It was originally published in 1906 in English by Lutherans in All Lands Press (Minneapolis, MN), as The Precious and Sacred Writings of Martin Luther, vol. 11. 

b.  The Gospel of John may not give us birth stories, but it gives us a glimpse of God’s intentions and desires.

1. God creates the world and desires to be in relationship with us, the created beings.

2.  The coming of Christ reveals God’s long-held desire to be in relationship with us

and the lengths to which God will go to be in relationship with us.

3. Many of us have Advent calendars at home that count down the days until Christmas.

at church, our advent calendar counts down the days from the first Sunday of advent, so the number of days varies, depending in the year.

at home, the advent calendars typically begin in December 1st, so we have about 24-25 days until Christmas, depending in how you count the days.

if we were to have an Advent calendar based on the Gospel of John, I suppose it would go all the way back to one day before God created (that’s a lot of Advent calendar trinkets)

because that is when God set the world into motion and started the countdown to coming in Christ.

4. We know that love cannot be measured solely by length of time, but God’s love for us has been around since before the beginning of time 

and God has shown forth that love again and again,

and now the Gospel of John reveals that love comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ,

who is God’s very own self,

indeed, God’s Word.

the Gospel of John makes it clear that God’s desire to love us and be in relationship with us knows no bounds. 

move 2: The Gospel of John also makes it clear that Jesus is God, who has come in flesh to live among us.

a.  “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.” 

1.  While the NRSV translates the verse, “and lived among us,

” the Greek verb is skenoo, which literally means “to tent” or “to tabernacle.” 

The verb can also be translated as, “took up residence” 

in fact, in Eugene Peterson’s translation The Message, he translates it as “moved into the neighborhood.”… ( https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-christmas-2/commentary-on-john-11-9-10-18-5, Karoline Lewis)

2.  I like that:  and the Word became flesh and “moved into the neighborhood!”

like your neighbor next door.

b.  The God who is eternal and beyond creation, chooses to move into our neighborhood and become part of creation as one of the created humans.

1.  Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about grand-parenting and how engage my granddaughters

and Ikve been thinking about parenting as I watch my daughters and son-in-laws parent their kids.

I probably should have thought more about it when I had young kids.

2.  one style is to be present, sort of overseeing all the action.

Imagine sitting in the main room, watching the grandkids, 

while still taking a peek or two at the football game on TV, 

or the book I’ve been reading.

I confess this might be my default style. 

3. But, sometimes, either because the grandchild demands it,

or, because the grandparent is somehow moved to do it,

the grandparent gets down on the floor,

plays with the toys,

crawls around engaging the grandchild in whatever game or imaginary world the grandchild desires.

It’s a lot more work, but there something about being on the ground, eye-level with the grandkid, that makes it a special moment.

4.  The gospel of John wants us to know that the God who creates and stays engaged with us does not just settle for being the somewhat distant God, who is accessible, but still far away.

No, God comes in flesh and gets down on “hands and knees,” if you will, to live among us

as one of us.

The God who is the Word that speaks creation into being joins in flesh.

Move 3:  Finally, in the Gospel of John Jesus gives us a challenge - 

follow the light

or follow the darkness.

a.  John begins with the description of Jesus as the light:

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

This contrast between light and darkness continues throughout the Gospel of John.

if you were to read through the entire gospel, you might notice that in the dark of night the disciples are often confused or afraid or just don’t get it

but in the light of day, they discover their answers and follow Christ.

much like the darkness on the night of Christ’s betrayal is followed by the breaking light in dawn and resurrection on the third day.

2. the light comes to shine into the darkness,

into the darkness of sin

into the darkness of life outside of God,

and God promises that the darkness cannot overtake the light.

b. That comes to us as a challenge - do we live in and accept the darkness of our sin,

the darkness of our world,

the darkness of injustice,

the darkness of violence and bloodshed,

the darkness of our prejudices,

the darkness of our fear,

or do we follow the light

and work to bring the light of justice, and mercy and grace and love and hope into our world?

1.  The beauty, excitement, and joy of the birth stories in Matthew and Luke matter little if they  do not compel us to follow Christ.

2.  The Gospel of John begins with that choice - light or darkness;

follow Jesus, 

or not.

Conclusion: Your choice!

John 1: A 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 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.[b]

Reflections on “Called into Relationship”; Matthew 1: 1-2; 17-23; Matthew 2: 1-12

This week, we looked at the birth narratives in the Gospel of Matthew.  There are lots of themes the sermon could have focused on:  Joseph agreeing to stand by Mary after the angel's visit; King Herod being afraid;  the wise men changing directions as they head home; etc.  I started out with the idea to tie the story to Abraham's call, but drifted a bit and spent more time on the what Matthew's focus on the genealogy tells us.

I had another story for the conclusion, but at the last minute switched to the story that ha developed that day.  it worked fairly well.

“Called into Relationship”; Matthew 1: 1-2; 17-23; Matthew 2: 1-12; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; December 14, 2025

 Matthew 1: An account^[a] of the genealogy^[b] of Jesus the Messiah,^[c] the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah,[i] fourteen generations.

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah[j] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 

“Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,
    and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” 

Introduction: We continue looking at the four gospels and how they talk about, 

or in the case of the Gospel of Mark do not talk about ,

the birth stories of Jesus.

AS you know, Luke tells the birth of John the Baptist alongside the birth of Jesus and has shepherds and angels in the skies announcing the birth of Jesus.

The Gospel of Matthew is perhaps best known for the first story we read this morning:  the wise men or magi traveling to see the Christ-child.

did you note that the text does not comment on how many magi or wise men there were,

although we have immortalized the number as three in the song “We Three Kings of Orient are” that’s not supported biblically,

but that’s another story.

Matthew also lifts up the role of Joseph by having the angel visit him in the night to tell him to stay with Mary.

when you see the pageant here on Wednesday night, 

you will now know which parts of the story are from the Gospel of Matthew

and which parts are from the Gospel of Luke.

This morning, I want to point out a couple of things about how the Gospel of Matthew tells the story of Christ’s birth.

Move 1:  First of all, the Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of the Jesus.

(the Gospel of Luke waits to share the genealogy of Jesus until Chapter 3:

after the stories of Jesus’ birth have been told,

after John the Baptist has announced Jesus was on his way to begin ministry

after Jesus himself has been baptized)

a. But not Matthew

“the first words of the gospel of Matthew are “an account of the genealogy”

which suggests that the genealogy really matters.

1.  the genealogy really matters because it goes back to Abraham.

2. the Gospel of Luke, the genealogy traces back to Adam, the first human, 

but Matthew traces the genealogy back to Abraham.

3. And did you notice that the genealogy starts with Abraham

As I’ve said before, I’m not much of a genealogist, but anytime I have helped my kids do genealogy projects for school, we started with the most recent relatives and worked our way back as far as we could go.

But not the Gospel of Matthew.  

the gospel of Matthew begins by  mentioning King David and then starting the genealogy with Abraham.

b.  Why Abraham?

1. Because Abraham is the one whom God promises a son will be born to his very old wife Sarah.

Abraham is the one to whom God promises descendants as numerous as the stars.

And perhaps most importantly, Abraham is the one whom God first calls into covenant relationship.

the particular relationship God has with Israel begins with Abraham.

2. This means that the coming of Christ is connected to the covenant God made with Abraham.

the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants continues through the child born to Mary.

The God who called Abraham is the same God who comes in flesh in the Christ-child.

the relationship God had with Abraham continues in the relationship Christ will have with his followers and his believers.

The Gospel of Matthew begins by making clear that the God who called Abraham,

the God who is on covenant relationship with Israel,

is the God who comes in flesh as the child born to Mary.

move 2:  the gospel of Matthew also reminds us that in the Christ -child, God engages us in real relationships that are lived out in the real world.

a.  If we were to take the genealogy name by name,  we would discover the lives of real people,

some of whom did things well

and others who made mistakes along the way.

1.  Abraham had his moments of not trusting God, but also packed up and left his homeland when God called him.

2.  King David was perhaps Israel’s greatest warrior and leader,

he is described by the biblical text as having a “heart for God,”

but his sinfulness is fully exposed in his relationship with Bathsheba and his arranging for the death of her husband Uriah.

3. And as we have pointed out before, 

the genealogy in the gospel of Matthew lists five women (tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary) among the 42 or so names, 

and none of them led fairy-tale perfect lives:

one, is full of trickery; 

another, a prostitute;

another, a stranger from a foreign land;

another, a beauty who betrays her husband

and then there is Mary, a young virgin, who is somehow pregnant when she shouldn’t be,

but who carries  God’s child.

4.  The genealogy of Jesus is full of real people, 

none of whom are perfect,

some of whom are even a bit more suspect than we might want from any relative of ours (but, of course, probably no more suspect than the relatives we do have)

But, they are the ones by whom the Gospel of Matthew traces the path from Abraham to Jesus.

c.  What does that mean for us?

1. It means that the birth of Christ is not some great story that is beyond our reach,

or a great story  about some other people

or a great story just for the people who deserve it or have earned it.

2. the birth of Christ is for all the Abrahams,

and Tamars

and Ruths

and Davids

and Marys

and Jims

and Margaret’s

and plug in your name and any other name that comes to mind.

3. Sometimes the Christmas season seems to demand everything be shiny,

and glittery,

and joyous

almost as if people who are feeling sad,

or not at a great place in their lives

or are mired in a dark time in their lives 

ought to be embarrassed to be a part of Christmas 

or excluded from the Christmas season.

4. But the Gospel of Matthew reminds us, as David Lose notes:   that in the birth story, “God worked through real people with real challenges. He didn’t choose a fairy-tale princess to bear the savior, but rather an unwed peasant girl. He didn’t choose a political or business success story to name and care for Jesus, but rather a man with his own doubts and questions who wanted to do the right thing but needed angelic guidance to accomplish it. ( https://www.davidlose.net/2016/12/advent-4-a-god-really-with-us/  David Lose)

5. The God who comes in flesh as a child born to Mary to be raised by Mary and her soon to be husband Joseph,

this child comes into the reality of our lives and our world,

this child comes into a world where magi visiting the Christ-child have to return home by another way because King Herod is using his power to try to find and kill the new born king,

and when that does not work will order that all 2-yr old male babies be killed.

this child comes into a world where a shooter in Australia opens fire on a synagogue where people gathered to celebrate Hannakuh

and where a shooter opened fire on a Saturday at small, college campus in New England.

That is way more reality than we might like,

but that is where the Christ-child arrives to live among us as we are

in all our brokenness.

d.  I suppose that is why the Gospel of Matthew makes the point that the child born to Mary,

the Son of God,

will be called “Emmanuel.

1.  “God with us”

2.  God choosing to join with us, 

whoever we are

wherever we are

whether we are ready for God or not.

3.  We do not choose for Emmanuel to join us as if we have invited him to this year’s Christmas party.

4. God chooses to come in Christ to be with us because God chooses again and again to be in relationship with us,

to redeem us

and to save us.

 

Conclusion:  I got a text early this morning from my newly ordained Presbyterian minister daughter who is going through Advent for the first time.  

oh by the way, she is also a new mother.

Today is a big day at church when they do the Christmas pageant as the worship service.

her 6 month old daughter Charlie Grace is going to be the live baby Jesus in the manger for the pageant.

Minister and mother of baby Jesus all in on morning!

But, then came an inch of snow, some sleet,

and blowing winds to bring the wind chill down way below freezing.

She and the church leadership made the call to have worship by Zoom.

No live pageant.

Charlie Grace makes her debut as baby Jesus sitting on a couch on Zoom.

Not quite the glorious Christmas pageant as designed.

But a reminder that God comes as Emmanuel to join with us wherever we are

because God chooses again and again to be relationship with us.

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east[b] and have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah[c] was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 

‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,
for from you shall come a ruler
    who is to shepherd[d] my people Israel.’ ”

7 Then Herod secretly called for the magi[e] and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east,[f] until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped,[g] they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.