The Word Made Flesh - WOW!

 

John 1:[1-9]10-18, the gospel lesson appointed for the 2nd Sunday of Christmas, is as rich and multivalent as any text in the Bible.  There are so many images, so many concepts worth exploring, that the preacher is hard pressed to decide on what to focus on in the sermon.  Nevertheless, decide one must and so it behooves the preacher to find a focus and stick with it. As the old adage goes:  "The preacher that is determined to exhaust a subject will only succeed in exhausting the listener."

(The following questions have been developed to explore the function of the Word in a text, a fundamental concern of Law and Gospel preachers.  These questions are best used in conjunction with other fine sets of questions that explore other concerns.  For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)

1.  How does the Word function in the text?  The opening verses (10-11) function primarily as Law, alerting us to the fact that it is possible to neither recognize nor accept the Word.  Verses 12-18 function as Gospel in that they announce what God has done and is doing in the face of the world's rejection of the Word.  In order then, God gives power to become children of God; the Word becomes flesh and lives with us full of grace and truth;  all receive grace upon grace from God's 'superabundance'; grace and truth come through Christ; God makes known the Son who is close to the Father's heart.

2.  With whom are you identifying in the text?  We are those who are addressed by both the Law and the Gospel in this text.  We are those who are capable of not knowing the Word and rejecting that same Word.  We are also those whom God desires to make children of God. We are those who have been given the gift of the Word made flesh in all of its superabundance.

3.  What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text?  We might think that verse 12, "but to all who received him who believed in his name," is a call to obedience, but it is not.  It is a call to faith.  The call to obedience is the Word functioning to invite us to live in a certain way in response to God's work in our life, (e.g. acts of love and compassion).  The Word does not function in this way here.

4.  What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text?  There is plenty of vocabulary in this text that lends itself well to couplets.  A couple of suggestions:  dead/alive; cursed/graced; deceit/truth.

5.  Exegetical work:  Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament is a treasure trove of information on just about any important word in the New Testament, but the extensive article on 'logos' is worth the price of the set itself.  Here are just a few of the insights from this extensive article:  "Logos is that which gives the event its theme and content." (TDNT, vol. IV, p. 101).  "It is obvious that the main emphasis of the term is always on saying something."  "Logos...is always a spoken word."  "Even in the Prologue to John...it always contains the living concept of a spoken word, in this case the word spoken by God in the world."  "As a genuine word, it always finds its essence and meaning in the fact that it points to Him who spoke it." (Ibid., p.102).  "One of the most serious errors...would be to make this 'logos tou theo' a concept or abstraction." (Ibid., p. 119).  "At the head of the train of thought sketched by the term logos, there stands, not a concept, but the event which has taken place, and in which God declares himself, causing his Word to be enacted." (Ibid., p. 125).  "Jesus is not just the One who brings the Word but the One who incorporates it in His person." (Ibid., p. 126).  "The new thing [in John's prologue] is that the logos is the pre-existent Christ, and that the transition from pre-existence to history is the true theme." (Ibid., p. 129).  "The sole concern [of the NT] is with what has taken place in the name of Jesus." (Ibid., p. 131).  

6.  How does the Crossings Community model work with this text?  In a recent analysis, Nathan Hall terms our lostness as alienation, and God's rescue project as connection.  We are disconnected from those around us, the truth, and ultimately from God in our lostness.  In Christ God reaches out and reconnects us to Godself, to truth, and finally to one another.  To see all the details of this insightful analysis, go to crossings.org/text-study.

Blessings on your proclamation!