“The Word”

John 1:10-18

The Word: What is it, or more aptly who is it? The Word, more specifically the Word made flesh in the person of Jesus, is the living, breathing expression of God’s personality, authority, action, and glory. The Word is the One in whom there is life and re-creation. The Word, the Living Word, is the God who came in the person of his Son Jesus Christ to dwell with us. The Word is the mind, power, and will of the resurrected Lord Jesus that dwells within us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The mystery that we call the Incarnation is fairly well summed up in the opening words of the 14^th verse of today’s text: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” The Word… became flesh… and dwelt… among us. The word most often translated as “to dwell” literally means “to pitch a tent.” The Living and Eternal Word – God himself - came to live among us. He pitched his tent in our camp and stayed a while. Or to use the words of Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase The Message: “The Word was made flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood.” However we might translate or paraphrase it the Gospel truth is that the Living Word of God became one of us and lived among us.

As one commentator put it the irony of John’s Gospel is that Jesus, the Living Word of God, came to his own people, who neither recognized nor received him. In fact most of the world did not perceive who he was: the Creator went unrecognized by much of his own creation. God’s very light had shined into the dark chaos of a fallen world, and most of that world chose to remain in darkness.

Most of the world, much of creation, even his own people were oblivious to his presence. Some of those who did recognize him for who he was responded with hatred and hostility. They didn’t really want to see God revealed. Nor did they want to see what true humanity looked like. They were threatened by an intimate God who challenged them to be the people he had created them to be.

But there were a few who got it, a few whose hearts and minds were open to the reality that was Jesus. They were able and willing to look at him through the eyes of faith. They heard his words and knew that they were hearing the words of God. They saw his power to heal and perceived that such power could only come from God. They saw how he lived in the world and interacted with people and understood that they were to live the same kind of lives.

And what was the result of their openness, perception, understanding, and faith? Let’s let Scripture tell us as we listen to verses 12 and 13 from William Barclay’s translation: “But to all who did receive him he gave the privilege of becoming God’s children. That privilege was given to those who do believe that he really is what he is. They were born, not by the common process of physical birth, not as the consequence of some moment of sexual passion, not as a result of any [human-being’s] desire. Their birth came from God.”

Susan Hedahl addressed this in her theological perspective on the text: “Verse 12 describes how recognition unfolds: first, those who receive the Word affirm that through belief they receive the power of kinship and become ‘the children of God’.” This is a dramatic description of the consequences of belief in Christ the Word of God. A new set of relationships is established, revolutionary in that it has nothing to do with kinship, human choice, or physical birth. God becomes the parent in response to those who believe. Belief in Jesus Christ serves as the catalyst for a new birth for each of us!”

Belief in Jesus Christ serves as a catalyst – an event that precipitates a change. What is this event? What is this change? It is nothing less than a new birth. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Most folks were oblivious. A few got it; a few believed. And by way of their belief were born again into the family of God.

That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Where have we heard or seen the concept of spiritual rebirth before? The third chapter of the Gospel of John, the source of today’s preaching text. Niocodemus came to Jesus at night to talk about the obvious relationship between Jesus and his Father. Jesus, as so often happens in John’s Gospel, responds to the words of Nicodemus by going off on a seemingly unrelated tangent: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above [or born again].” In other words, the rebirth required to enter the Kingdom is strictly a spiritual experience, having nothing to do with human reproduction. And that experience begins when we believe Jesus Christ truly is the Living Word of God.

Jesus, the Living Word of God, was in the world, and for the most part the world knew him not. In due time those who were most threatened by him conspired to have him put to death on a cross. What happened next is nowhere described any better than in the last two verses of the hymn “Lord of the Dance.” I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black… It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back… They buried my body and they thought I’d gone… But I am the Dance and I still go on… They cut me down and I leapt up high… I am the Life that’ll never, never die… I’ll live in you if you’ll live in Me – I am the Lord of the Dance said He!”

The Living Word of God took on death and hell, and after a seeming defeat, rose again in victory over them. The Living Word of God – the Lord of the Dance, as it were – destroyed sin, death, and evil. For the Living Word of God is the Lord of life and re-creation. He who had created the world has made it possible for the world to experience re-creation. Those of us who are dead in our sins, if we will but claim him as Lord and Savior, will be born again by the power of the Spirit and be given the privilege of being children of God – all because we trust the Word of God.

By the power of the Holy Spirit the Living Word of God still lives among and in us. He hasn’t left the neighborhood. He is with us even now, communicating God’s will and God’s way. He speaks to us through the reading and preaching of scripture. He speaks to us as we gather at his table, reminding us by way of broken bread and poured out wine just how much he loves us.

And his invitation is still the same: “I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me…” As we live in the Living Word and as the Living Word lives in us we become agents of the Word. We live it, tell it, model it, and share it. We invite others to believe in Jesus and receive the gift of the privilege of being one of God’s very own.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. By the power of the Spirit he still lives in our neighborhood - and within us. Don’t you think it’s time for us to tell more of our neighbors about him? Amen.