Isaiah 61:10-63:3 • Psalm 147 • Galatians 3:23-25, 4:4-7 • John 1:1-18
The Rev. Dr. Israel Ahimbisibwe
Prayer (Collect of the Day): Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate word: Grant that this light enkindled in our hearts may shine fourth in our lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.
I would like us to focus on the Collect of the Day and how this prayer carefully fits into the selected readings for today – especially the Gospel of Saint John, who stresses that everyone who receives Jesus, the incarnate Word, and believes in His name is given the power to become a child of God…born of the will of God.
If you read literature about world missionary projects, or about why churches should be planted, or about why we should invite so many people to come and attend our Bible Study groups, or about why we should do outreach to the poor neighborhoods, you will find that the main agenda underlying these projects is to help people “go to heaven,” especially to baptize them before they die.
In one sense, this is all right because it agrees with the great commission of Jesus, where he instructs disciples to go in all corners of the world, to preach and baptize in the power of the Holy Spirit.
In another sense, we need to be very careful because while the gift of eternal life is the ultimate benefit of salvation that will be realized in heaven, there are many benefits that are here with us today.
The genius of today’s reading from the Gospel of John is that Jesus gives everyone who accepts and believes in Him as the incarnated Word the power to become children of God; which means, yes, there is the promise of eternal life to come, but there is also a radically transformed life through the power of God right now.
That the word of God would become flesh and live among us is so huge that it does not and must not make us hope only for eternal life. God living among us is a way of life and should direct our daily interactions with others. It is a life of rearranged attitudes, desires and motives within us and towards others and ourselves in accordance with a God who is living among us. It is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, “casting an anchor upon Jesus and being held fast to it…founding my life upon a foundation which is outside myself, upon an eternal and holy foundation, upon Christ.” It is Christ’s way of life.
I believe that sometimes God is grieved when church people or those who call themselves Christians become part of the problem in a society. Among the things that dominate our lives and the airwaves of television, computers and cell phones, we have these issues – to name only a few. Ask yourself:
- What do you think about women and unequal employment with men?
- What do you think about the Affordable Care Act?
- What do you think about immigration?
- What do you think about the whole criminal justice system?
Are these Republican problems, Democrat problems, or just purely human problems that need to be understood in light of the incarnated Jesus? Saint John the Evangelist is here to help us see that these things can be viewed either in the light of Jesus or the darkness of the world. John also says that, “If anyone says ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” In fact, John passionately champions the theme of love in both his Gospel and Epistle by asserting that you cannot convince the world that you love God when you do not love other people.
One of the great sermons that John the Baptist preached was when he told the people who came for baptism to repent, prepare the way of the Lord and make His paths straight. His style and strength convincingly revealed that something new and extraordinary was about to happen in the world, something that became true when Jesus arrived for the salvation of people.
Of course, Jesus did not come into the world like a tourist, expecting to see great things and places full of amusements. Jesus became the incarnated Word because God wanted to save us using a completely new and radical act of grace that no one had a right to expect. And now that He has come, we too need to be bold and radical in trying to live according to the identity of Christ.
We are so blessed that He gives us the power to identify with Him while we still live in this world! It is very comforting to read the Psalmist, who in Psalm 147 says that, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love.” Interestingly, God conditions His pleasure only on “fear” for Him, which in this case means a combination of respect, honor and trust in the Lord. For example, before Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis, he wrote that, “Faith means…holding fast during life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It is true, because Saint John also wrote that nothing would separate us from the love of God that we have received in Jesus Christ.
We meet every challenge that we face in the power of the incarnated Son of God and we will overcome any power of darkness because God has made us children who are born by His will.
Amen.