The Short Version

 The Christmas celebration continues

         And today’s sermon is about God’s adoption plan.

 

From the Epistle reading for today, Galatians 4, we read:

4   But when the fullness of time had come, 

         God sent his Son, born of a woman, …

5   in order to redeem those who were under the law, 

         so that we might receive adoption as children. 

6   And because you are children, 

         God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 

         crying, "Abba! Father!" 

7   So you are no longer a slave but a child, 

         and if a child then also an heir, through God. 

 

And this brings me to the Gospel reading for today.

 

The first Sunday after Christmas Day, 

the Gospel is always what is called the Prologue of John,

         the first 18 verses of John’s Gospel.

 

It is also the Gospel for the 3rd set of readings 

                  that can be read on Christmas Day, 

as well as showing up 6 times  [count them à 6 times!]

         as the assigned reading in the Daily Office lectionary!

So you can get the idea of its significance just from the frequency of its use.

 

The first chapter of the gospel of John 

has been significant for me personally

         in my own understanding of who Jesus is 

         and all the reasons I feel such love for him 

         and am devoted to him as teacher, savior, Lord, Truth, and Life itself.

 

It is a passage in which I am always finding new depths, 

and about which I could easily spend an hour or more preaching on, 

although I will spare you that today.

 

In this profound passage is the heart of the mystery of our faith

         in regards to creation, incarnation, death, resurrection, salvation,                            and life in Christ.         Wow!  All that in one passage

In these few verses we are told how everything has been taken care of.

 

In the beginning…

in the same words of Genesis 1:1…

in the beginning, the origin, the source…at the source of it all

         there is always God, the Divine Self,

and this Divine Self is continually expressing, giving expression, 

                                                                                 that is, creating.

So the beginning or origin point, the source is always present here and now, 

         as creation continually comes into being.

You see, God did not just create at some temporal beginning point 

         and then leave it all to evolve on its own.

Creation is continuing to happen moment by moment,

                           continuous Divine Self-expression.

         Is it not self-evident?

 

 

The whole passage then becomes more and more rhapsodic 

         about the l/ogos, the Word, becoming flesh, 

that is, entering into the created order, 

         a one-time begetting by the Father, 

so that all living beings, all of us can see for ourselves 

         the glory, the richness, 

         the weightiness of abundance, honor and splendor,

the fullness of one grace after another

         showered upon us,

revealing to us the very essence of God manifested in this Only-Begotten Son.

 

In the whole passage the only thing we have to attend to is receiving, 

         owning for ourselves what has been provided for us – 

                  our adoption as children of God.

 

The adoption done for us is what brings us into union with God through Jesus.

The Resurrection Spirit of Jesus fills us, 

         envelopes us, 

         swallows us up, 

and we live and breath and have our being within the Heart of Christ.

 

All we have to do is receive, take the Word, lay our hands on it,

         the Logos, the Life, the Light.

How do we do that?         by having faith in his Name.         his Name.

 

Verse 12: “As many as received him, who believe in his name, 

         to them he gives power to become children of God.”

 

Quoting from a commentary on the Prologue of John,

         [written by my meditation teacher]:

 

“…faith is not belief in doctrines, 

         is not about ideas held with conviction, 

         is not even fundamentally a self-generated trust in God 

                  for the sake of one’s own ultimate well being. 

No. Faith is the wakeful potency of the Word in us and as us. 

Faith is the power of our being as divine life.” 

                                                                        Ponder that.

 

Faith is a participation in the creative power of God,

         the ability of God’s creativity in us.

Faith is fundamental and essential to our being human;

                  we are beings of faith.

 

But it is God who empowers faith in us;

         there is a huge potency of faith in us, 

                  maybe latent, 

         but definitely possible as a great strength within us.

And Jesus is the One who lived that potency of faith as light for all of us.

 

Again verse 12:         “As many as received him, who believe in his name, 

                           to them he gives power to become children of God.”

 

It isn’t until the 17^th verse that the Name in whom we are to place our faith 

                           is revealed: Jesus, in Hebrew: Yeshua,

         a Name that means salvation, to deliver, to make wide, spacious, 

to be or live in abundance, freedom, liberty.

That’s what the Name Jesus means.

 

So you can see the Name Jesus, as we are graced to experience it, 

         incorporates within it tremendous depth,

                  the Name through which we are adopted into the family of God.

 

You see, adoption into the family of God is only the beginning.

There are the benefits of adoption 

                  – salvation, resurrection life, union with God – 

but there is also the rest of what goes along with that

         when one belongs to a family when one is adopted:

there are the obligations and the way of life and the work of the family.

 

And – note this – 

the work is the same work that Jesus had to do 

                  – the will of the Father.

The way of life is the same as the way Jesus walked 

                  – the way of the Cross.

Discipleship is the way of life in this family for those adopted into it.

 

And the Word became flesh and lived among us,

         and we have seen his glory…

                                    full of grace and truth.

 

Glory, that is, expansive presence, radiance of life,

         that which is primary in importance and of greatest worth.

Full of grace and truth

         Grace – the spontaneous flow of unbounded generosity,

                  the very nature of divine creativity

         and Truth – actuality, what is finally and fundamentally real.

 

Jesus the Word, the Logos, is full of grace and truth,

         whose whole being expresses the very nature of divine creativity,

         who is Living Truth.

 

Now here is the main point:

The whole passage, the Prologue of John, is about the primacy of Jesus, 

and that who he is, we also are meant to become,

         to actualize, 

         to act the way we truly are, God-begotten, just as he was.

 

So the context for your life together at St. Stephen’s

         is faith awakening and ever burgeoning within you,

                           as light shining in the darkness

         as ever increasing awareness of who and what we are.

 

Coming to see this, 

coming to greater understanding of this,

coming to grips with this

         is the spiritual work before each of us

                  now at the end of this year

                  and as you enter a new year and a new chapter 

                           in your life together as the faith community.