Sunday, November 27th, 2022 – First Sunday of Advent
Philip’s Reflection: “The Word Became Flesh” (John 1:14)
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the
glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
As you probably know, “Advent” is from the Latin word that means “Coming” and the
earliest understanding of Advent was as the season of preparation for the baptism of
new Christians at the January feast of Epiphany. By the 6th century its meaning had
changed to the “coming” of Christ – not his coming as the Christ child in a manger in
Bethlehem – but the second coming of Christ, to judge the world. And it was only in the
Middle Ages that Advent was linked to Christ’s first coming at Christmas. For us now,
Advent is the season when we both look back, and celebrate the first coming of Jesus
into the world, at that first Christmas in Bethlehem; and when we also look forward, as
Jesus taught us to do, that “thy kingdom come”, towards the second coming in the
future. And we see this looking forward, and looking back, in the great Advent hymn that
we have just sung – “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel” – we
pray for God to come again to free us from the bondage of a sinful world; but we also
sing “Rejoice! Rejoice!” because we know that Immanuel has already come to us in the
form of the infant Christ child.
I like to think of Advent as the season of waiting – waiting to celebrate the miraculous
birth of Jesus to a young woman living in poverty; and waiting for a second coming to
usher in a new world, the kingdom of god. And as we know, waiting isn’t easy – whether
as children on a long car journey – you remember the questions from the back seat,
soon after you’ve left home, “Mom/Dad, when are we going to get there? Are we nearly
there?”; or as adults, when we’re in line at the gas station or ferry, or for the check out at
Save-on and we hop into the other line that seems to be moving faster, and of course,
as soon as we’ve made the move, it slows right down, for a price check, or the person’s
VISA card in front of you has been rejected, or someone wants to redeem points, and
sure enough the people behind you in the first line are loading their groceries into the
car while you’re still standing in line!
The Good News is that Advent waiting is a bit different from waiting in line at the check
out! It ends on the same day for most of us and we receive a gift of inestimable value;
and unlike Israel in exile in the Old Testament, waiting for a Messiah (the “promised
one”) to deliver them from exile, we have the witness of the New Testament to tell us
that the Messiah, Emmanuel (literally “God is with us”) has already come into the world
in Jesus; and it is his birth that we and Christians all across the world will celebrate this
Christmas, even as we wait for the second coming that we have been promised.
If Advent has a number of meanings, so of course does Christmas – since, as we shall
be reading in the weeks ahead, each of the four Gospels presents a dramatically
different understanding of the birth and infancy stories of Jesus. In Mark, likely the firs
of the Gospels, there is no description at all of the events leading to the birth of Jesus,
or of his birth in Bethlehem; Mark’s gospel begins with John the Baptist wandering in the
desert and the baptism of Jesus, as an adult, in the river Jordan. There are major
differences in the accounts by Matthew and Luke. Luke’s account includes the angel’s
visit to Mary, the birth in the manger in Bethlehem and the visit of the shepherds;
Matthew’s account tells of an angel visiting Joseph in a dream, no details of the birth in
Bethlehem. The visit of the wise men and the presentation of their gifts, and the flight of
the Holy Family to Egypt, are found only in Mathew’s Gospel.
And then we come to John’s Gospel, probably the last of the Gospels, and again we
find no reference at all to the birth of Jesus. We’ve just read the opening verses of
John’s gospel, the Prologue, and we didn’t hear of any angels, no Bethlehem, no
census, no shepherds or Magi, no flight to Egypt. It’s as if the angels, and the manger
and the shepherds are almost a distraction. What matters to John is where did Jesus
come from, what was his relationship with God, and what is his identity; and to answer
these questions he tells us in words that ring down through the ages – that “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” – in
John’s understanding, Jesus is the Word of God, he was there when God created the
cosmos; he was with God, and thus in some way separate from the Creator; and that
the Word was God – Jesus is not only God’s self-expression, God’s Word spoken
aloud, but the Word really was God, his origins lie uniquely in the very being of God.
Well, you might say, does it matter where Jesus came from; does it matter that “the light
shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it” (1:5); or that “the world did
not know him” (1:10); or even that “his own people did not accept him” (1:11). And of
course it does matter because John’s poetic description of the origins and purpose of
Jesus is absolutely central to our understanding of Jesus both as the representative of
God but also as the representation of God – Jesus reveals God; and Jesus embodies
God. And here’s the reason why this passage is so important for the meaning of
Christmas, and it is, as we heard, that “The Word became flesh and lived among us”
(1:14) – this infinite, pre-existent Word of God became human; it’s not just a concept, or
even a spiritual being, but flesh, real skin and bones – God chose to live a human life in
a human body. In Jesus, God therefore says to the world “I love you so much that I am
sending my only child to live among you so that all of you may become my children” -
and “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” (3:16).
So it really does matter; it matters that the world was created through the Word of God;
that the Word was God; and above all, it matters that God became incarnate in Jesus,
that the Word became flesh, that Jesus lived among us to reveal God’s grace and truth;
so that all of us might become God’s children. In fact could there be anything more
important to celebrate this Christmas? John doesn’t give us the details of the birth. No
worries. The meaning of Christmas for John is simply this - God became human in
Jesus; the Word became flesh, to bring us all into God’s family. And it’s this coming that
we celebrate this Advent and Christmas. Yes, waiting isn’t easy: but we’re happy to wait
in line knowing that God’s gift of life in Jesus is the greatest Christmas gift of all. It’s the
gift that keeps on giving.
Amen.