This sermon starts the preaching series that will continue until Lent. This year, Lent comes very late, so this series will be eight weeks long. It was the middle of December in the midst of lots of things when I chose the sermon series based on seeing "all people" or "everyone" in a lectionary text from each week. not sure how the series will hold up, but the first two weeks have been interesting to prepare (I'm posting this a week late!). the ongoing theme is the expansive nature of God's claim and call. This sermon is a good place to start with a reflection on God as the creator of all things. It also has a Trinitarian aspect to it as well.
“All Things” January 5, 2024; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; John 1: 1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, 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.’”) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
Introduction: The preaching series from January until Lent explores the expansive nature of God’s actions as we focus on words in the lectionary texts such as “all” Or everyone,” which remind us of the expansive nature of God’s claim and call.
We begin our series in the opening verses of the Gospel of John.
poetic words;
thought provoking ideas;
perhaps challenging concepts.
The Gospel of John, as we know, does not tell the birth story of Christ
no pregnant Mary
no trip to Bethlehem
no shepherds in the fields
or wise men from afar
But a poetic introduction about the God who comes to us as the Christ-child,
the God who chooses to step into our world and our lives.
A couple of thoughts this morning about how we see God’s expansive nature in this passage.
move 1: God is the creator of all things.
a. The Gospel of John begins with these words: “in the beginning was the Word”
and goes on to add, 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 came into being 4in him was life, and life was the light of all people.
1. You don’t get much more expansive than that!
3. this takes us back to Genesis, which also starts wiht these words: “In the beginning….”
4. John affirms the truth of Genesis, that God is the creator of all things,
and clarifies that the God who created is the Trinitarian God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
or we might call Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
b. Theologically, we say that God created “Ex nihilo,” which is Latin for “out of nothing.”
1. t Recently, One of our young disciples asked me a similar question: who created God?
2. N.T. Wright tells the story about he great church thinker Augustine was once asked what God was doing before creation,
Augustine replied that God was making hell for people who ask silly questions. Simply Jesus, N. T. wright (3)
3. I assume Augustine was speaking to an older disciple, not a young disciple.
4. Not sure my answer was any better - we do not know!
I tried to say, probably not very well
But we do believe this - God acted to create.
all that is
all that we see
everything we can imagine and beyond
God created.
5. Any discussion of the expansive of God begins with God created all things.
c. Think about the Implications of that truth we profess.
1. Everything and everyone is under God’s purview.
2. From a personal perspective, it means that God cares about everyone
including you.
3. God is invested in each of us because God created us.
If you ever wonder if you matter,
or if anyone cares about you,
or if you have any value
Remember that God created you and cares about you, which makes you very valuable.
d. From a discipleship perspective, it means we have responsibility to all of God’s people and all of God’s creation.
1. We may create divisions between us and them
or see the world as things that matter to us and things that do not,
But all that is before us is God’s creation
2. Our calling is to go into all the world,
to all people,
to serve God’s creation.
God created all things, which makes an expansive claim in us.
Move 2: the gospel of John also reminds us that all things have been engaged by God in Christ.
a. the one who created all things comes in Christ to engage that which has been created.
1. God does not create out of nothing and then become a disinterested creator.
2. God knows us,
God is known to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
the philosophical and theoretical become concrete as God arrives in flesh.
3. The English translation of vs. 5 hat we hear as “the Word became flesh and lived among us,”
or we remember hearing as God dwelt among us
literally means “the Word became flesh and “pitched his tent” among us.
perhaps a reference to the Israelites who always seemed to be on the go;
4. but, also a powerful image for us - the God who chooses to put up God’s tent next to us;
which tells us that in this moment, God is next to us
and if and when we pack up and move to a new place,
or a new challenge,
God will be there with us also.n
The God who created all things will be found in all places.
b. The Gospel of John uses the image of The light in the darkness, a powerful image.
1. A story is told about Robert Louis Stevenson was intrigued by the work of the old lamplighter who went about with a ladder and a torch, setting the street lights ablaze for the night.
He might have been interested in this because his father and no,es were engineers who designed and built lighthouses.
One evening in Edinburgh, Scotland, as young Robert stood watching with childish fascination, his parents heard him exclaim, "Look, look! There is a man out there punching holes in the darkness.”
2. Christ comes in flesh to bring light to the darkness, to punch holes in the darkness of our lives, if you will, so that we can find our way out of the darkness.
The God who creates all things,
cares about all things,
and invites us out of the darkness in our lives into the light.
Conclusion: Pat Conroy, wrote the great Santini, the story of a conflicted family whose father is a marine corps fighter pilot with the nickname the great santini is a very harsh, difficult father and husband.
The son of the great santini, Ben Meecham, describes trying to pray to God despite the hatred he has for his father after his father's death. In his mind, he has put himself out of God’s concern.
He decides that he has to re-think God in what he knows because he cannot imagine God hearing the prayer of a son who hates his father,
He begins to think about God, he imagines God as having “the sweetness of Lillian [his mother], the dark, honest eyes of Arrabelle (Negro house cleaner], the soft virility of Mr. Dacus [principal], the birthmark of Pinkie [friend] on his throat, and Ogden Loring's upcountry drawl. Ben would give him the shoulders of Virgil Hedgepath [his father's best friend], the innocence of Karen [younger sister], the spoon and tears of Mary Ann [sensitive sister], the high-pitched laugh of Sammy [his best friend], Matt's [his younger brother] intensity, and the loyalty of Gray [Toomer's dog].
And Ben would put this God on a “street like River Street and he would have this God lift his voice in the holy song of Toomer. The hands of God would be bright with flowers that would never die and this God would sing and stutter and limp along an alleyway and pass judgment in the land beside the river. God would hold mercy in a bouquet of azaleas and he would listen to Ben.” (Pat Conroy, The Great santini, 429)
I love the image Ben has of God who encompasses all he knows, the God he can find in the particularity of his own life, who will hear his prayers.
John does not invite us to create the God of our imagination,
but to know the God who created all things,
to know the God who chooses to come in Christ and pitch a tent next to us,
the God whose expansive love claims even us. Amen.
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