The Other Is Born Into Daily Life

 

A Homily for the 1^st Sunday of Christmas                       Holy Trinity Episcopal, Hertford NC.

December 31, 2023                                                      Thomas E Wilson, Supply Preacher/Celebrant

Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Galatians 3:23-25;4:4-7 John 1:1-18

The Other Is Born Into Daily Life

The community of the Beloved Disciple, around 90 AD, sees that some of its members who had known Jesus in the flesh more than a half century before are dying off from old age. Over the years, the community has shared many stories about their interaction with Jesus and now the fear is that there will be no one to continue to tell the stories, so they collect the stories in writing under the direction of several editors who winnow down the number of stories so it might fit into a scroll. The editor, who casts himself as the Apostle John, the Beloved Disciple, begins the collection of stories with a poem to set the theme. The editor knows that the language of prose is inadequate to tell a spiritual story, only poetry has that power where words glisten in greater complexity, and in reflection go ever deeper in levels of meaning. Many theologians want to hold on to prose to be precise and academic; which are two things that Jesus wasn't and faith isn't. The first line goes: “ Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.” Which on the surface can read “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

“Ἐν ἀρχῇ”, “Hen archay”, can mean “In the beginning” and it can mean “First of all”, or “At the highest and more complex”, or “At the basic or simplest level”, or “Most importantly”, or “Before there was time and space.” Which is the right translation? And the answer of course is “Yes! It is all at the same time!”

ἦν ὁ λόγος, “En ho logos”, can mean “There was the Word”, or “Personal Expression”, or “Plan”, or “Promise”, or “Intension”, or “Audit”, or “Dream”, or “Hope”, or “Mystery”, or “Deepest murmur of the heart and will”, or a dozen other shades, and this multitude of meanings was echoing in God and was the fulness of God, Godself. Then later on in the poem this multitude of meanings became “σὰρξ”, “sarks”.

“σὰρξ”, “sarks”. Can mean “became flesh”, or “entered into our brokenness, our selfishness, our self centeredness, our sinful nature, our limitedness, our weakness, our idiocy, our loneliness, our natures that are turned in on ourselves, our hardheadedness, and our soft heartedness, our delight, our ability to laugh and to love, the ability to blush in embarrassment or to have the need to, our enjoyment of our bodies, our tears, our longings, our chatter, our silences, our boredom, our excitement, our pratfalls and our nobility, our deepest fears, our darkest moments, our hidden dreams and “being human” keeps on going. The editor is trying to tell us that the multitude of meanings of logos didn't just put on a costume and prance around for awhile; this logos emptied self out to live in our earthly tents as one of us.

We have this simple view of the universe and on one side of the great divide between the divine and the human, God sits all alone in splendid isolation, the unmoved mover, and pulls the strings or leaves us alone depending on the divine whim, while on the other side of the great divide we humans wallow around in the mud. The problem with that simplistic view is that the editor wants to tell us of the deep longing of God to be united with each part of us; a longing on which God acts and which is still calling for union.

This God acted in history and people experienced occupying the same space, and breaking the same bread, and drinking deeply of the same cup. But not content with just looking like slumming it only once upon a time in the person of Jesus, the divine invites each of us to come and cross the divide with our spirit emptied into God's hopes and dreams and God's spirit emptied into our daily life. God is the lover who calls us to come and lay our burdens down so that we may lie down with the divine and participate in the poetry of love. Listen to the one who Matthew remembers calling using the words in an Idiomatic Modern English Translation of the Bible by Eugene Peterson: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (The Message Translation 11:28-30)

The Other Is Born Into Daily Life

God is a lot easier to talk to in ritual,

Where the words are well used, worn

Into palatable speech so easily borne;

Thoughts trapped, becoming habitual.

Thees or Thous, which once intimate,

Had calcified into religious formality,

Devolving into a speech of banality,

Drowning a faith with heavy weight.

However, “sarks” comes by entering

Into the mundane and, in every day,

Worms in to give Divine another say,

Uses love language, not by lecturing.

Aimed at our heart and senses adorning.

Deeper faith brought forth by a-borning.