In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
Before anything was created, men, earth, angels or heaven, God the Father was not alone. Knowing and comprehending himself completely, he eternally spoke everything that he was as an eternal Word, which like the Father himself, had no beginning or end. The Father and the Son loved one another with a love so real that it was itself a person, the Holy Spirit. Before time began the Triune God shared in a mutual embrace of joyful communion. But what we celebrate this morning is that they refused to keep that joy to themselves, couldn't help but share it, even if they had to create an entire universe in order to fill it with individuals who could receive it.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
Creation came about through the Word of God. Creation was not itself the Word that would become incarnate in Jesus. But it was in some way made through him, as if he were the divine blueprint. The content of the eternal Word was in some sense reflected in the words spoken to create time and space. The apex of this creation was undoubtedly the creatures made in the image and likeness of God, humankind. The eternal Word found its most clear representation when this image and likeness was spoken into being. In particular, when those made in God's image were themselves joined in relationships of loving communion God saw something which he could not help but call, "very good" (see Genesis 1:31).
It is important to know our origin story. From it we understand that there is a reason why there is something rather than nothing. We tend to look around us in see the damage this universe has sustained and the battle scars that mark the human race in particular and see mostly darkness. We are tempted to believe that we are just an accidental blip in history as entropy progresses inexorably to the heat death of the universe. We are assured by scientists that since we are created by evolution and evolution is a directionless process that we too must be without purpose. But if we recognize why there is a world where such processes as evolution can play out we can recognize in our creation a hand of providence at play at a level still deeper. God is so transcendent that he can even work through things like evolution without usurping the causality proper to them.
God knew that we would be tempted at times to believe that things were coming from darkness and heading back toward it with light being but a momentary aberration or dream. He knew that at times the universe would appear to give evidence to the lie that darkness has triumphed over the light. Even if we perhaps came from a loving God it is sometimes hard to believe that the many problems we see in the world could ever be solved. It seems at times as though Satan had has way and that the light and love that is in the world is too little, too late. But because God knew that we would be tempted to believe things like this he chose to manifest the fullness of his light and the depths of his love for us by sending the Word to become incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. His incarnation reminds us where we came from and of the real truth of the destiny intended for us by God. Not only that, but he himself is the bridge that makes it possible for us to leave sin and death behind and reach out to embrace that destiny.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
...
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God
By appearing on earth Jesus himself became the like a new master recording that could be used to correct the errors and damage sustained by those created based on that original image. We see in watching him what we are meant to be. And he himself, by the power of his Spirit, makes his life present in us and enables us to conform to the original pattern. But there is more. He demonstrates why we should desire it. We see the original joy from which we came as the place to which we are invited to return. The incarnation creates for us the bridge to return to that joy. No wonder, then, the joy that filled Isaiah when he foresaw it.
Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry,
together they shout for joy,
for they see directly, before their eyes,
the LORD restoring Zion.
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