The Beginning - A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Christmas 2025

GOSPEL: John 1:[1-9] 10-18

The holy gospel according to John.

Glory to you, O Lord.

John begins his gospel with this prologue: a hymn to the Word through whom all things were created. This Word became flesh and brought grace and truth to the world.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
  6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
  10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
  14 And 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.’ ”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

The Christmas Story.

Elizabeth, Zechariah and John,

Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.

Luke tells us about Angels and Shepherds,

Matthew tells us about the Magi and the Herod,

Mark doesn’t even bother with Christmas,

Jesus just kind of shows up,

not even a little drummer boy...

But John’s Gospel begins with placing Jesus,

not just in a manger,

but placing Jesus within and beyond

the ordering plan of the universe.

John tells us that Jesus is the Word of God,

and reminiscent of Genesis,

In the beginning was Jesus, the Word,

and the Word was God.

Genesis teaches us - God speaks: and it happens.

Let there be Light,

and there was Light.

John is seeking to answer the question

that humans have asked as far back as we know:

the question of our origin.

How did we come to exist?

Why are we here?

Traditionally speaking,

Science has sought to answer the first question,

and religion the second –

How did we come to exist?

Why are we here?

Science explains the origin of the universe

in the big bang theory.

Although the majority of people accept the reality

of some sort of big bang,

this kind of origin and its subsequent evolution

is troublesome for many Christians –

sometimes called creationists,

because it questions the textbookness of the Bible.

For some people,

science and religion are natural born enemies.

I would say this is because we expect the Bible

to hold scientific fact,

when this was never its purpose.

Similarly, Science doesn’t say “who created”

but what is created, and how.

Religion asks who created,

and why.

Science and Religion need not be separate:

they can be best buds:

both Bible and textbook seek the truth.

I am no expert in the sciences,

but allow me to briefly explain

the origin that is understood

through the big bang theory:

which originated with a Belgian Catholic Priest

named George Lemaitre.

Lemaitre was not trying to explain

a religious moment of creation,

but to propose a theory of creation

based upon good physics.

Scientists can now trace back our universe

to the origin of time,

to the beginning.

At the moment of the big bang,

science says that our universe was infinitely small –

a point of infinite heat and density,

smaller than an atom, perhaps,

smaller than a pair of dice.

At that moment, 13.8 billion years ago,

there was infinite energy

in an infinitely small universe.

Then the big bang,

an explosion,

unimaginable force,

flinging energy in all directions

at the speed of light,

and galaxies are carried away

with the expanding space.

Science cannot tells us exactly what started it.

But we know what the immediate results were:

a great explosion and Light,

this sudden burst of energy,

was followed by quantum fluctuations

which created sound waves

in the primordial plasma.

These sounds waves led to the formation

of stars and galaxies.

In the beginning: Nothing. Darkness.

Explosion.

Light.

Sound waves.

Matter created out of nothing.

The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not overtake it.

God said “Let there be light”

and there was light.

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was God,

and the Word was with God.

Sound waves.

Science points to the big bang as origin of light and energy.

John’s gospel tells us that

the Word of God, Jesus Christ,

brought forth light and life;

That Jesus Christ, fully God, the Word of God

was in the beginning,

and spoke,

and God created:

That Jesus is the revelation of God;

that Jesus is the God of creation,

that all things came into being through him.

John’s gospel exists in the first place

that we might believe that this Jesus is Son of God,

and that through believing,

we may have abundant life in his name.

And John’s Gospel tells us that there are

two kinds of people in the world –

those who believe that Jesus Christ

is the revelation of God,

and those who don’t.

The whole gospel of John

is about the struggle between those who believe

that Jesus reveals God,

and those who do not.

Yet from the fullness of God,

all receive grace upon grace:

That is the believer and the non-believer,

the agnostic and the atheist,

the doubter and the fanatic,

the scientist and the preacher.

Grace upon grace

is God coming to a people who don’t all believe.

Grace upon grace is God coming incarnate,

in the flesh,

to be born of a woman.

Grace upon grace is in the One born of woman,

in whom we see God.

Not in some magical Star Trek ‘beam me up Scotty’

arrival of God,

but in the threat,

and pain

and blood

and mess of a human birth.

Grace upon grace is the messiness of God –

God’s willingness to be born

just as you and I were born,

and God’s action to step into the muck of our lives.

That’s the why.

God doesn’t just create this world and humanity,

God becomes one with humans,

so that humans can become one with God –

God created to live with us:

with those who believe and those who do not.

In the Greek language,

there are many verbs that can mean ‘to live.’

When we hear that

“The word became flesh and lived among us”

the verb used here can also mean

‘pitched his tent.’

The Word became flesh and pitched tent among us.

That is to say that if our world is a camp-ground resort, 

Jesus did not come for a day trip and a picnic.

Jesus did not come with a motor-home.

Jesus did not book a private room in the resort hotel.

Jesus pitched a tent,

like the normal folks of the day,

and lived among us –

Jesus stayed among those who believe and those who don’t.

And in God’s wisdom,

No one has seen God,

but if you see the Son,

you will see God.

The cosmic One,

the Creator of the universe God,

is Jesus.

The real God,

the God that no one has seen,

is Jesus.

Jesus is not a shadow of God,

but Jesus is the one at Father’s bosom –

at the literal heart of God –

as close as it gets.

In the grand cosmic scheme of life,

Jesus is the God

that so many people painfully experience

as distant

and removed

and not available,

As though God lit a stick of dynamite and left.

What is radical is that Jesus is the God

who invites us all to rest on his bosom –

to rest in God in a deep, intimate relationship.

Jesus invites us all to be a close part of all history,

in the fullness of time,

in relationship with the God of the cosmos.

And this offer is open to all –

to those who are children of the light

and those who are not children of the light.

To those who believe,

and those who don’t.

The radical claim of Christmas is that Jesus,

the God of the cosmos,

comes to pitch tent with us.

How did we come to exist?

Why are we here?

Christmas radically answers these questions

that humans have asked as far back as time itself.

We came to exist because in the beginning,

Light shone in the darkness,

the cosmic universal God spoke,

made sound waves in primordial ooze

and made this grand universe out of nothing.

We are here because God spoke to create us,

God speaks God’s love for us,

and in all our messiness,

God continues to call us into relationship

and live with us.

To this God the Cosmic Creator,

to this Jesus Christ the new born Son,

and to the Holy Spirit,

be all honour and glory, now and forever.  Amen.