We begin a new year, 2021, the 3rd year of Reiwa. For many it is the end of a difficult
year, and so it brings with it the hope of something new. Thus, we can ask, “Where do we
begin?” as we begin this new year. Aristotle, among others, tells us, with the philosopher’s
flair for stating the obvious, that it is good to begin at the beginning. And so the Evangelist
does: “In the beginning was the Word.” Now John knew, as we know, that someone else, (he
thought it was Moses), had already used this phrase. “In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.” John wants us to have these earlier words in our minds and hearts so
that we hear their echo in his words. He wants us to question the similarities and differences
between these two sentences. He wants us to ask the most naïve of questions. Who is right
Moses or John? Was it God creating or the Word being in the beginning. And let me add
something a little bold. John would not have written these words if he did not intend to
rewrite what Moses had written, to correct it. For the account of the beginning of Genesis can
lead to a misinterpretation that John will not allow.
So God created the heavens and the earth, and the Word was, the Word was with God
creating and the Word was God. In the beginning with God. This tells us some important
things that go beyond Genesis. In particular it tells us two related things. First, God created
through the Word, or through the Logos in the Greek. The word Logos means more than
Word, it means “reason” as well, a kind of logic. So John is making explicit that God created
with reason, for a reason, for a purpose. The Word has meaning and through this meaning
things came to be. I think that this is important because it goes against the very common
misinterpretation I alluded to above. Because the Bible tells us a story, tells us that first God
created the heavens and the earth that God found good, and then Adam and Eve sinned and
were punished, and then the Bible tells us that after a long time Jesus was born and saved us
from our sins, we tend to see these all as distinct events. First, there was creation and that got
messed up, so then comes salvation. But John is telling us No, In the Beginning was creation
and salvation. The beginning is the creative, salvific Word. The Logos of this World means
not just creation, but also redemption, from the Beginning. God spoke a Word that brought
everything – all the creative and all the redemptive acts of all times and places into being — all
this glory and all this misery and their being saved.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus deliberately healed on the Sabbath, thus
contravening the Law of God. It was not because Jesus did not care about the Law, but it was
to overturn a deep misunderstanding that we are prone to. Jesus was teaching us that to
understand the story of Genesis as if God created the heavens and the earth and then rested
because creation was done, is to misunderstand it. Look around at 2020, the world is a mess.
God is not such a shoddy Creator. The fact that it is a mess is because it is not yet finished. It
is not that God made it good and we humans, with our sinfulness messed it up. That is not
enough. We weak humans do not have the power to mess up God’s plan. Our sinfulness
became part of the plan. Salvation is creative and it is creating a new reality.
In Genesis God speaks, “Let there be light!” and there is light. In John the Word is
spoken and it is light. The Word itself enlightens the world. There is no separation between
the Word and the reality. This is a new kind of language.
In Genesis Adam and Eve disobey. They are cast out from God’s presence into the
darkness of sin and death. In John the light of God’s Word shines in that darkness and “the
darkness could not overcome it.”
In the Old Testament there follows a very long story of fathers begetting sons and those
sons begetting more sons, with an occasional woman thrown in, as a people is formed and
their faith is tested, their repentance demanded. John sums up this whole long history in the
one sentence: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” John the Baptist is
the representation and culmination of all the men sent by God at all times and in all places. He
is Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Elisha. He is the prophets — all of them in one. He came to do
definitively what all of them did partially — to testify to the light who is the Word, who was
with God in the beginning. He came to testify “so that all might believe through him.”
The Word was in the world and the world came into being through him, yet the world
did not know him. I believe that John the Evangelist is echoing the words of the Prophet
Isaiah from Chapter 55: For God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways his ways.
We do not know his Word. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways higher
than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts. And yet he comes to dwell among
us. He came to what was his own and his own people did not accept him. They rejected him.
We are his own and we too reject him. This did not happen just once 2000 years ago. But here
is the thing, the beautiful thing. God’s uses our rejection — our rejection! — to bring about his
plan. God’s Word is never in vain. Our rejection of the Word is not the last word. “For as the
rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered
the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so
shall God’s word be that goes out from God’s mouth; it shall not return to God empty, but it
shall accomplish that which God purposes, and succeed in the thing for which God sent it.”
The Word gives power to all who receive him, to all who believe in his name, to be
children born of God.
As the New Year begins, we look for life and light. This life and light have come into
our world. We are encountering it everyday, every moment, but we are often blind, we cannot
see that which gives us sight; we are deaf, we cannot hear the Word that gives us hearing.
That is OK. God will come to you and speak to you. Prepare your heart, believe that he will
come and he will come. If you cannot believe that he will come, then act like you believe, and
that will suffice. He will give you grace and truth and make the Father known to you.
May 2021 be a blessed year for all you.
Let us pray:
Father in heaven, you sent your Son, full of grace and peace, to live among us. Help us
to recognize him, to welcome him, to serve him, and to love him. Grant us your Holy Spirit in
this New Year. Renew our hearts. Bring each of us closer to you and to one another. We ask
this through Christ the Lord. Amen.
“God’s Word Shall Succeed in the Thing for Which God Sent It”
