Christmas 2: Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18.
I was on time, but soon I’d be cutting it close. Because I was listening to a radio interview that I just couldn’t tear myself away from, after parking my car at the top of the Cathedral parking garage.
It was an interview of Brené Brown, entitled: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone.[1] The website description of the interview is this: “in this age of increased polarization, maybe our ideas of belonging need to be re-examined.”[2]
Parked on that top floor of the garage, facing west, I looked out over the Cathedral campus and upon the broader Houston skyline and listened… “We are inextricably connected to each other by something greater than us…while that link is unbreakable, it is forgettable. … [so, it is important for us to lean into the] collective moments of joy and pain with people. Whether it is a concert, a play, a funeral… [we need] instances of real connection [with others and] with strangers to continually remind us of that inextricable connection.”
While I had arrived in plenty of time to preside at the Christmas Day service, now I was running behind for sitting in my parked car listening to the radio.
But as I hurried across the street to quickly vest, my heart was full of gratitude for having heard what is indeed a Christmas message!
My heart was full of gratitude then. And my heart is full of gratitude now. To remember and to celebrate that in the Incarnation we are inextricably connected to one another by something so much greater than ourselves…
Our gospel passage today is the same as Christmas Day — John’s soaring prologue! Unmistakably evoking the first creation story of Genesis. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Scholars note: the “Hebrew tradition considered the spoken word to be a dynamic entity, with its reality and power rooted in the personality of the one who utters it. Ultimately, this word confers the reality it signifies. As the Word, Jesus is the most complete expression and revelation of God.”[3]
And the Word was made flesh and lived among us. In the Word, in God choosing to become one of us in the person of Jesus the Christ, humanity is restored. The fall in the Garden (in Genesis) is healed with Christ’s birth. Therefore, we are inextricably connected to God and to one another in the mystery of the Incarnation.
And because God took on human flesh, no one can ever say that human flesh doesn’t matter. Or what happens to bodies is irrelevant. No one can ever say that a human being has no value or is less than any other human being. Because God hallowed human flesh by becoming one of us in Jesus.
This has significance for us locally in Austin and Texas more broadly, because of red-lining and other types of discrimination here, and then plantations not that far from here. Where human beings were enslaved.
As painful as that is to think about, we now can clearly see the sinfulness of it all. How far that fell short of the Christian faith we profess. How it did not reveal humanity restored in love coming down to us at Christmas and new life in Jesus. And this clearer vision can help us live more faithfully now and into the future.
Because the Incarnation is an eternal truth, an on-going reality — one in which God eagerly waits for our acceptance and willingness to live into. And because of the Incarnation, human flesh matters like never before! Yet this is something that we continue to struggle with as a local and global society.
Just as the Word made flesh makes all human flesh matter; the words we use about one another, and the words we use to speak to one another also matter. And matter deeply.
Remember the defensive come-back: “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? Yeah, I never believed that. And rightly so! First, because it’s not Christian. And second, because it’s just not true! I remember how much unkind words or mean-spirited name-calling hurt me as a child. I saw others hurt by words too.
I remember watching an exchange on the grade-school playground during which a child’s defensive “sticks and stones” mantra lost power each time it was chanted. The interaction ended with that child running away in tears.
So, this is not only the wisdom of the experience of children, but the findings of scientists who study the human brain and human behavior who tell us that words can hurt, and do hurt when they dehumanize another person[4]…
“and the systematic dehumanization of people always begin with words”[5] … they are the prelude to picking up the sticks and the stones which break bones…
Again, this resonates with special significance for us, for some of our ancestors in the faith were martyred —murdered — by fellow human beings who used stones to commit their violent act. For example, St. Stephen, whose feast day is Dec. 26th (the 2nd Day of Christmas).
But we are the children of God, and we have received grace upon grace by the Word becoming flesh. The Word that heals is Christ who asks in the Gospel of John: do you wantto be made well?[6]
He heals us existentially in restoring humanity. Heals us individually and communally in binding up our wounds, forgiving our sins, and giving us new and abundant life. This reality is made visible when, through Christ and in Christ, everyone belongs.
We are all children of God. We are inextricably linked to Christ and to one another. This is core to who we are, and our every-day ministry flows out of this understanding. Unbreakable, yet forgettable. Christmas reminds us.
While this is the 7th day of Christmas and we still have 5 more days of Christmas merry making ahead of us, it is also time to pause.
To take time out — and maybe ever run late for the next thing — to ponder the words of Howard Thurman, an African American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. He points to our sacred calling borne out of the mystery of the Incarnation. He calls us into faithful living of the faith we profess:
“When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.”
All Saints’, begin the work of Christmas!
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[1] A re-broadcast of WAMU 1A September 12, 2017 show.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Synthesis: “Jesus the Word.” Christmas 1, Year B. December 31, 2017.
[4] “This is Your Brain on Metaphors: our brains are wired to confuse the real and the symbolic. And the implications can be as serious as war and peace.” By Robert Sapolsky. The New York Times, November 14, 2010.
[5] Brené Brown. 1A interview.
[6] John 5:6.
Holy Family stained glass window in Warsaw, with Holy spirit, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55243 [retrieved January 1, 2024]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasz_tuszko/68776812/.
Seeking & Finding 