St Michael's Church (Church of England)

We read written word, hear spoken word : In fact there are so many words flying about I wonder sometimes if the best sermon I could offer any congregation might be ten minutes of silence! ….

That way we could let the words that infect our heads and thoughts settle….. simmering down as if a great pool of sentences, or questions, statements or facts, stirred up by a whirlpool or huge ladle had been turned off at the wall, unplugged just for a while..

Setting us free from our world contained in the media and World Wide Web --- free from its constant regeneration and bombardment to us of information or challenges.

In that ten minutes of silence what might we find if we were to look into the settling word pool to see what had floated to the surface?

or what might have settled at the bottom on the sand and debris of chaos and noise of the world about us. …….

What is at the heart of things? what is the truth? - the centre where we can find peace from all that noise and business…….?

In the beginning was the Word.

What word? If it was with God, what on earth (or heaven) was it, or even is it? But hang on, we just heard that it was God.

When we think of God we might have an idea of an old man with beard, or a fierce looking judgment figure like in the Michelangelo painting.

Perhaps we think of the icon of the Trinity by Andrej Rubijow, Father, Son and Holy Spirit the three persons of God.

A dangerous picture that because it can encourage us to think of God literally as 3 persons rather than thinking of Trinity as a way to understand and encounter God and the idea that there are three dimensions or activities of God.

The Gospel reading tonight keeps repeating ‘Word’ to describe God. It starts with

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and it was God. It goes on to describe this Word as life and light, stronger than death or darkness. And then a short description of how John the Baptist came to warn and show people about the Word this important message that he had for anyone to hear who would listen.

But can God be a word?

Well another term for Word is Logos, Greek, Aoyos, meaning

word or reason

Logos is used in Christian thought about God particularly when thinking of the second person or aspect of the trinity.

In other words Jesus.

Its interesting isn’t it? How many of us, I wonder, thought that tonight’s Reading from the Gospel of John was about Jesus?

Quite a lot I suspect and yet nowhere in the text was the name Jesus mentioned. Not once! yet most of us will have presumed we were talking about Jesus, not just because we hear those sentences at Christmas, but also because through other readings, or sermons, or songs or prayers we have started get the meaning behind them.

The meaning that the messiah, the baby born to Mary, is the light of the world.

The Greek term Aoyos, Logos, was known both in pagan and in Jewish antiquity. Around 500 years BC Heraclitus thought of the Logos as the universal reason governing and permeating the world. Other philosophers took this idea and made it popular.

In the Old Testament God’s word was not only the medium of his communication with people but it was understood that what God said had creative Power. Think of the creation story in Genesis where words represent how God brought the world into order and being and then later in the times of the Prophets the Word of the Lord (word of God) was given as having an almost independent existence.

This concept has since been developed but the basis remains that God as ‘Word’ has been around for all time. A divine energy or will, that is connected with the whole of creation as we know it.

However, when John first wrote of it in his gospel, the idea of the Logos or Word as being identified with the Messiah was an entirely new concept. Logos, Word, is understood by John as ‘God from eternity’, the creative Word who became incarnate, born into the world by the birth of the child that grew to be the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Incarnate – God on earth

Emmanuel – God’s Son

Messiah – the Saviour of the world

The Word - God as was before the big bang, during all time, and after the end of it all.

Big words, Big thoughts – big meanings, ,.

Going back to the busy words of our day just the past week has been one of immense of variety.

Did you see the programme on television ‘night with the stars’ a presentation to comedians about the building blocks of molecules by Prof Brian Cox. Fascinating.

Then, the excitement over Strictly come dancing …who would hear those words Strictly champion? Good old Harry. or what about the X factor for those who watch the other side..

Talking of ‘factors’ did you know that The Nativity Factor has been announced – Beatbox nativity by Rev Gavin Tyte. (For those who are interested www.thenativityfactor.com).

Then there is the news of the real world: reports of death in North Korea, bombs in Iraq and earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand.

So many words to entertain and to provoke fear or worry in just one week, it’s a wonder we can keep up.

And what of ‘The Word’ where do we think God is at this time? With suicide bombers, natural disasters, and the income gap rising faster in the UK than many other wealthy nations there is plenty to prompt us to say ‘if there is a God where is God in the middle of this’?

I believe God is in the midst of the past week and will be in the midst of next week, in the quiet and in the drama.

just as God was in the midst of ordinary lives and extraordinary lives when God first broke into the world as a helpless human child,

a child that held the potential and real presence of the divine.

God in Jesus touched the smelly outcasts of the shepherds, the politicians and leaders of the day in Herod and the priests, and the scientist in the wise men.

God in Jesus can still touch those who feel outside of community or society

God in Jesus can still touch those in power and influence

God in Jesus still invites all who will, to come and hear of the love and peace that can be found by knowing him.

What brings us to this church again this Christmas night?

May be a bit of nostalgia, May be a sense of ‘doing things properly’ feeling right. May be out of duty or obedience, May be out of longing or need.

Maybe a hope of new beginning, of transformation, healing and joy.

Many things can bring us to church, but perhaps one of the best is hope. Hope for ourselves and our lives, and hope for the world.

I cannot give you a simple answer of where god is for you or the world tonight, but I do think God has given one.

God’s answer to the eternal question of “Where is God?” is to be found in the word spoken of in the Gospel of John.

Jesus’ Life and light overcame the darkness by his resurrection. The Jesus who grew up to be both a human man and the Son of God, is the answer to the question ‘where is God’.

For in Jesus we discover God is love. God is love so strong it can bring peace of mind and spirit. It can repair our small dents and large hurts if we let it.

Today we are invited once more to see the answer and the question of God. The answer is love,

The question is “will you take the time to form a relationship with this love in order to let it grow and live and transform in you”?

As it says: But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.

When we re engage with the world of many words I hope we will take with us The Word

To be our measure of justice or of peace, of appropriate relationships and to be a comfort for our lives and a light on the way.

May the word grow in you and bring you to everlasting light.

Amen.

The Rev'd Camilla Walton

Vicar St Michael & All Angels Church, Beaconsfield.

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