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| My friend Robbie (he likes "Robert") I met Robert first at our drop-in centre now he's part of our mob. |
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| Early setting up night for our Christmas celebration. |
John
1:6-18
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
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Darkness
In our work through
Space2B and drop-in centre we sometimes come across people hooked on drugs.
Sometimes it feels like no matter how many people help them they just do not
want to get off the slippery downward slope they are on. Why? We hear every day
of people driving fast when they are drunk and killing themselves or others.
Why? My brother is involved in enviro-schools and sustainability action. He
recently had a tent up at the great Central Otago Thyme Festival, a marvellous
community event. He had his tent burnt and wrecked by vandals. This is the
second year this has happened! Why? Our suicide rate is higher than our
relatively high road-toll? Why? We
could continue to list off many
signs of darkness in our world. I believe much of it has to do with the state
of flux and change that the world is in at this time of our history. I think
people in the West, in spite of their technological advances are struggling to
cope. Mother Teresa looking at western societies said that the major poverty of
the west was a deep spiritual poverty.
In the middle of last century Victor Frankl reports a feeling “of which
so many patients complain today, namely the feeling of the total and ultimate
meaninglessness of their lives. They lack awareness of a meaning worth living
for. They are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within
themselves; they are caught in that situation which I have called the
‘existential vacuum’. The existential vacuum is a widespread phenomenon of the
twentieth century.” The reasons he gives for this vacuum have only deepened in
the time since he wrote these words. I heard a speaker telling of a wide
variety of cultures he had studied and lived amongst. He spent time in Tibet,
India, Polynesia and South America. He said that many of these cultures do not
necessarily envy our technology, but rather feel sorry for us because of our
lack of deep spiritual connectedness.
It is for this reason that I
celebrate, and continue to promote the life of Jesus. I think he has the potential to bring “life”
amidst our death, light in our darkness and connection in our isolation and
“lostness”. I share with you a reflection on three phrases in this reading from
John’s gospel. As we read the gospels we need to hear not so much exact
history, but the writers sharing their faith. They share their faith using a
literature style, words and metaphors from their culture and their time. To understand we have to get the feel
of these to be able to grasp the experience behind them. It is this experience,
this testimony that can inform us today. In this is something of the eternal.
“Generous inside and out”
As John encountered
Jesus he experienced a deeper understanding of God. He said of Jesus, “The Word
(of God) became flesh and lived among us”. I have come to a deeper
understanding of this. We often see this as “love came down at Christmas.” We
see it that somehow Jesus revealed to us the mind of a God up in “heaven”
wherever heaven is. I like to see it, however, as Jesus exposing the nature of
the God among us. There was a varnished table at the church, which had heaps of
scratches, marks from hot pots and other accumulated defacing. My wife
convinced me to take it home and sand it. I worked on this table, in the end scraping
the surface of it. In due course a beautiful mahogany grain emerged, was
exposed and drawn out. It was always there but my sanding and finally
revarnishing highlighted and brought out the grain.
That’s how I see Jesus. He
does not so much show us a God at a distance, but exposes and highlights the
nature of the God, the movement of love, the Great Spirit who is in life all
around us. And John says the
highlighted picture is that we live amongst “Grace” or “Grace upon grace.” - piles
of Grace. In “The Message” such
phrases are paraphrased as “generous inside and out”, “generous bounty”, “gift
after gift” and “exuberant giving and receiving”. Jesus shows us that we live
amongst a generous, overflowing movement of unconditional love. That is God. As
a workplace chaplain I see the impact of overbearing, judgemental leaders. In
that atmosphere people do not take risks, they close down, are frightened to be
themselves and are stifled as people. Jesus shows us God as being the opposite;
we live with a God who is for us. We are free to be all we can be. Dr Elizabeth
Kubler Ross in her book “On life after death” writes, “Most important of all, we must learn to love and be loved
unconditionally. Most of us have
been raised as prostitutes. I will love you ‘if’. And this word ‘if’ has ruined
and destroyed more lives than anything else on this planet earth. It
prostitutes us, it makes us feel that we can buy love with good behaviour, or
good grades.” In spite of the
fact that often distorted religion says “you must believe the right things’ or
“do the right things” Jesus shows a God of grace and love. His picture of God
is of the prodigal son’s father waiting for his son's return, rushing to embrace his son and throwing him a party. In this love I am freed to “be”. God is in the dreams I have to better
my world and myself. God is in the affirmations of friends. God is in the
forgiveness that people extend to us. This love means we can forgive ourselves
and move on after failure. I celebrate
Jesus because he shows us God’s “grace upon grace”.
“The true light which enlightens everyone…”
John the writer shares
his testimony about Jesus by referring to him as “the true light” or “the
light”. In the “Message” paraphrase this is translated “the life-light”. It is
life–giving light. I celebrate Jesus because he gives me light for the path of
life. We live in a world where there have been dramatic changes. My parents,
and to some extent myself lived in a world where the roles of women and men
were relatively clearly defined and that was endorsed by society at large. Now,
thank God, it has been changed and the roles have changed. But it is new
territory and teenagers today are like trampers cutting new tracks. There are
changes in how we live. We have broken away from clearly defined society
endorsed “right” and “wrong” way of living, and now we are free to make our own
choices. This is good and freeing, but it makes it a harder world to grow up
in. We need guiding principles. I was introduced to “geo caching” recently. A
friend and I were walking and on her iphone she discovered a cache was nearby.
The application told us we were near it, but we needed to know where “north”
was. There was a lively discussion
with a difference of opinion. In due course the compass on the iphone settled
it and we could proceed to finding the cache. We needed “North”. There are
people lost in the darkness of this free-living world who need to know where
“north” is so that they can make the best choices.
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| Light for the path. |
“… he gave the power to become children of
God”.
Marcus Borg also
points out that the Christian way is a path of transformation. We embark on a
journey of becoming more whole human beings. I was in a country town settled
down at a table outside a café watching the traffic. It was a Sunday lunchtime.
It was amusing watching the farmers driving in to this village. Their
four-wheel drives came into town and immediately slowed down to about 10kph.
They looked around to see who was walking up town and what shops were open.
Tourist cars passing through just had to bide their time. I saw one bloke see somebody they knew,
so he just stopped. His friend sauntered over and they chatted while he leaned
on the driver’s door. He was double-parked and others had to drive around them.
A massive tractor came down the road. The driver decided he wanted to buy a
pie. He just stopped, again double-parked opposite the shop and wandered over
to buy his pie. These country drivers just got used to doing whatever they
liked, without considering any other drivers. We often tend to live like that.
We live for ourselves, with a small circle of concern. Because we live
like that we live stunted lives, often hurt others and often do not see the
needs of others. Apathy abounds. If we begin to take notice of Jesus he comes
into our lives as a catalyst transforming us into a bigger person. Jesus as our
life guide calls us and prompts us to widen the circle of concern so that we
become more loving, more giving and better people. I celebrate the life of Jesus because he does give me the power to
become a bigger hearted, life-enhancing and giving person. He has even
managed to bring changes in me.
It is Christmas and I celebrate the life of
Jesus because…
- he shows us God’s “grace upon grace”.
- he is the light for the path, he shows us “north” for our living.
- he does give me the power to become a bigger hearted, life-enhancing and giving person.
To all my readers, especially any regular readers let me say, "I hope you have a really great Christmas surrounded by love."
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