PROPERS: 1 CHRISTMAS, YEAR C
TEXT: JOHN 1:1-18; ACTS 6:8-7:2a,51c-60
PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2021.
ONE SENTENCE: The Word of God is not some easily heard and applied message of a free life, but one that requires a serious response.
In the Gospel lesson we have what is known as the Prologue to John – the first 18 verses of John’s gospel, the prelude to all that will follow.
John’s gospel – the last of the four in the Bible – is inarguably the most theologically profound of the gospels. It stands alone in content and meaning. And all that begins with the first 18 verses:
“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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)
John is getting across the point that the baby Jesus – and the man Jesus – was not ordinary. He is the preexistent Word – in Greek, the Logos. Logos was a theological and philosophical concept in ancient times; ancient Stoic philosophers referred to the logos spermatikos as the generative spirit present in creation.
John the Evangelist took those various understandings and pointed toward Jesus: “Here is the Word incarnate. He has always been and will always be. All things came into being through him.”
On a more basic level, we have come to the Word of God in a banal, neutral way. It is harmless – it is meant to assure us of divine approval and love. It is soft and malleable – no one should be offended by it.
Try telling that to the saint whose life we commemorate tomorrow – St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
St. Stephen’s feast day is one which we seldom get to celebrate. It comes hard on the heels of Christmas when our attention is focused elsewhere. To him, the utterance – through proclamation – of the Word was a literal matter of life and death.
Stephen was among the first group of seven deacons chosen to serve the church – seven Hellenistic Jews chosen by traditional Jews. They were ordained to tend the needs of the world, to provide care and sustenance to widows and orphans within the ecclesia – the fellowship of the faithful.
The story of his call, selection and ordination are in Acts, Chapter 6. Yet, his ministry and his proclamation of the Word were short. Soon after he was ordained, we are told later in that same chapter:
“Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.” And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
“Then the high priest asked him, “Are these things so?”
“And Stephen replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. You are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
“When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.” (Acts 6:8-7:2a,51c-60)
Stephen paid the price many would pay after him for the genuine articulation of the substance of Jesus – the proclamation of the Logos.
His example should be chastening to us – the genuine Logos is not without price. Some examples are dramatic, like the martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a Nazi prison in 1945, or Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum at the hands of Idi Amin in Uganda in 1977, or Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, murdered as he celebrated the Mass in El Salvador in 1980.
Those are among countless dramatic examples. But more often is the price paid by people who proclaim the Wordfaithfully in the pulpits, churches, communities, and organizations. They are shunned, belittled, harassed, and lose their jobs for their faithfulness. I have seen it happen.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote,
“Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
Yes, it is. The Logos that slept in that manger on the first Christmas night was, indeed, tender and mild. But the truth of his Word – the hard truth to love, forgive, give, and serve – would be, and is, hard for many.
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