John 1 — Sermon by Drew Ibach

may I speak to you in the name of the

father son and holy spirit

amen after giving a lecture to a

classroom full of students a theology

Professor took took some time to answer

any questions the students might

have some students asked about fourth

Century trinitarian

controversy other students asked about

how Jesus could be both fully human and

fully

God other students asked about how

Christian theology relates to secular

politics and then one student one Brave

student asked a more personal question

the student asked when were you

saved now now this question when were

you saved is a more personal question

than a that a uh theology Professor

usually gets so he took his time and

thought for a moment as if he was trying

to recollect the moment that he said the

sinner's prayer or maybe he was trying

to remember the date of his

baptism then he

said 2,000 years

ago I was saved 2,000 years

ago I found this answer to be surprising

and eventually quite

helpful because it places Jesus Christ

front and

center this theology Professor was

acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the

fixed Point around which his life

revolves rather than trying to fit Jesus

into his

story this professor had recognized that

his life his salvation had been grafted

into the story of Jesus Christ

and perhaps there is no better season of

The Church calendar to remember that

Jesus is the fixed point in all our

lives than the season of

Christmas and maybe there is no better

passage to help us remember that Jesus

Christ is the center of all things than

our gospel passage for this morning John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1

now John's prologue the beginning of

John's gospel is carefully constructed

and masterfully

designed and it uses tropes from Greek

philosophy that would have been familiar

to his original audience so if you are a

fan of the philosophical landscape of

first century Greco Roman culture then

today is your day today's your Super

Bowl and if not if you're not interested

in the philosophical lscape of first

century GRE Roman

culture Buckle

in and Hold On Tight cuz here we go John

Begins by saying in the beginning was

the

word and the Word was with God and the

Word was

God he was in the beginning with God all

things were made through him and without

him was not anything that was

made the Greek word that we translate

into English as word in the beginning

was the word the Greek word is

logos Scholars note that in Greek

philosophy this word is deeply

significant and its meaning can be hard

to nail

down it can mean something like word

word thought

principle speech or

reason but it is also has something to

do with the way the universe is

ordered as one commentator puts it the

Greek schools of thought in Greek

schools of thought the universe is the

cosmos in its in ordered

place and what lies behind the Cosmos

and gives it order is the

logos so as Greeks were looking around

at everything that is at the entire

universe they were thinking there must

be something behind it that gives it

order this was the

logos and John is saying that he's

adopting it and he's saying that Jesus

Christ is in fact the

logos he is the one that gives order to

the

cosmos what's more John's prologue

immediately makes one think of Genesis

CH 1 both Genesis 1 and John 1 begin

with the phrase in the

beginning and in

Genesis how does God create the

universe how is it that God brought

order to the formless void how did God

bring light to the darkness that covered

the face of the

deep he

spoke he said let there be light he used

words John again is pointing his

audience to the fact that Jesus is the

very thing that brought order to the

universe Jesus Christ is the word of God

made flesh

another theme that is prominent

throughout the beginning of John's uh

gospel is

light he uses the metaphor of light over

and over again making it clear for his

audience that Jesus is the light of the

world one of the things that's

interesting about light is you can't

really see

it but yet it is the source that allows

you to see

you cannot grabb a hold of light and yet

it fills a room and allows you to see

clearly Jesus Christ is the very source

of light from which we live our

lives in these first 18 verses John

masterfully places Jesus Christ at the

center of all history Jesus is the very

thing that orders the universe Jesus

Christ is the one through which all

things were made and without him there

would be

nothing and just as God spoke in the

beginning and brought light Into

Darkness so too does Jesus's birth bring

a new beginning to the created

World a new beginning that once again

brings order in into chaos light Into

Darkness this is what we celebrate in

Christmas this is what the church

remembers that Jesus the birth of

Jesus was not simply an

event it is the

event it is the event that brought about

a new story of a story that brings life

to a world full of death it brings

Redemption and

salvation to a world full of

disorientation and

Brokenness when the word became flesh he

he brought life and

light into the

world and death and darkness shall not

overcome it

this is the story that we live

from this is the story that we have been

grafted into through our baptism through

the life death and resurrection of Jesus

Christ but we too often look

elsewhere we often do not recognize the

Light of Christ

we too often try to Define our own

stories and this temptation is

especially true here in

America we love our

individualism we love the story of

someone who's self-defined who who

picked them themselves up by their

bootstraps we love the story of someone

who has no story other than the one that

they have

chosen the danger of course is that we

have all learn to pick and choose what

we want our story to

be like our phones that we customize

picking this app and

that we prefer that our lives be

customized to be exactly the ones that

we

want and Jesus Christ

becomes just another

accessory just another thing along among

the long list of things that we have

chosen and can choose to get rid of if

it suits

us what we fail to remember is that the

truest part of who we are the deepest

part of us is Jesus Christ he is the

heir we breathe the light that allows us

to

see even when we do not recognize it

Jesus is the center of everything

including our

lives even when we

forget we were saved 2,000 years

ago therefore we must adopt the posture

of John the Baptist who as John tells us

was sent from

God and in the Christian tradition

whenever John is depicted in art he is

nearly always

pointing not towards himself not towards

his own

story but towards Jesus

Christ towards the light of the

world this is the posture that we must

take we must recognize that we are not

the source of our own salvation and we

must bear

witness we must bear witness to the

goodness of a God who saves

us we must Point others towards the

light of the world and live in Defiance

of the

darkness we must recognize that even in

the midst of Despair even in the midst

of Heartache we can live in Defiance of

the darkness of our broken world because

the light still

shines no matter what happens no matter

what comes our way we can always say

with courage and confidence the light

shines the light shines and the Darkness

shall not overcome

it we must live in defiance of hatred

and point others towards Jesus Christ

who is the very appearance of God's

loving kindness towards

us we must not join those who would have

us love our or hate our

enemies rather we must Point others

towards the one who taught us to love

our

enemies we must not prioritize

the rich and the

powerful rather we must direct others

towards the one who taught us to love

the least of

these we must not be a violent

people but Point others towards Jesus

Christ who is the Prince of

Peace we must live in Defiance towards

the darkness in our own heart hearts of

all the vices that occupy our hearts and

Minds because we bear witness to the

light of the

world and we must learn to

die we must learn to die to ourselves

daily as we point others towards Jesus

Christ the word made flesh the light of

the

world whose love is strong longer than

death amen