January 3, 2010
SCRIPTURE
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Psalm 147 12-20/ Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21
Ephesians 1:3-14
John 1, 10-18
-Biblical commentators have long considered this passage as the prologue to John's Gospel. Some have viewed it as poetry that draws from gnostic and Hellenistic imagery in order to capture the interest of Gentile and Greek readers. William Danaher Jr.
- this is the second appearance of John's prologue in three weeks, the other being on Christmas Day. B.B. Taylor
-J.B. Phillips once wrote a book entitled, YOUR GOD IS TOO SMALL. I would like to suggest to you that Phillips should have written another book entitled, YOUR JESUS IS TOO SMALL Marqurat
-This text contains none of the conventional elements of the Christmas story. Instead of manger, angels, and magi, John 1:1-18 presents the church with its explicit theological vision of the difference the incarnation makes in the life of the world. O'Day
-This mission of Jesus is picked up in the last verse of our text: "No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known (exegeomai -- related to "exegesis" -- Jesus "interprets" the Father for us)
-John knew that the Jewish idea of the Messiah would not have much of an appeal to his non-Jewish audience. So John searched for symbols that would speak to his Greek-educated audience. John realized that Christianity had to be packaged into familiar cultural concepts. He colored outside the box.
--As C.S. Lewis noted in The Chronicles of Narnia, how depressing it is when "it is always winter, but never Christmas!"
-"The Word Became Flesh," Here is a good review of the John scripture for this week.
- The words light, life, glory, and truth will recur later, and therefore the prologue introduces these governing motifs in order to provide structure to the ensuing narrative. these words are largely abstract concepts that the preacher, like John will need to bring to earth. Preachers must find ways in which John made God's light, glory, grace, and truth concrete. On Sunday before Epiphany, this makes sense. ibid See Sermon, Put skin on it, below.
-Not one. Not one painter has been inspired to attempt to paint the Christmas story according to the Gospel of John. Why? John’s Christmas story is too abstract, too philosophical, and too mind numbing. Marquart
- the Christmas season begins with Christmas day and continues for twelve days rather than the twelve days before December 25, even though some Christmas trees are already finding their way to the curb and stores are advertising after Christmas sales and putting up Valentine and spring decorations.
-I've heard some Christians described as being "so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good
-The Gospel of John can remind us that Christmas is more than all the pageantry of the nativity scene (or Christmas trees and candlelight services). Christmas is a concrete demonstration of God's love for all humanity -- a concrete expression of God's love for us. Stoffregen
SERMON PUT SKIN ON IT This idea came from Barbara Brown Taylor when she said, "Until someone acts on words such as justice, compassion, love, etc....they never will become flesh." That is incarnation! Lindy
-Compassion wears a human heart/ mercy wears a human face. William Blake
-We are meant to help God in his Godly tasks: love, compassion, forgiving, etc. Lindy Black
-We must flesh out his flesh
-The God-shaped hole within us needs to be filled. Jim Price
-May our love be as simple as what you've made us to be. May our knowledge be a simple as the wisdom that comes from our hearts and may our righteoudness be as simple a doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with our God. Lindy
-The sycamore tree is me! To lift others above the crowd so they might see the approaching salvation.
-We are part of that which we call eternal We are incarnations of what God is. The me in me is God Catherine of Genoa
-but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:6-8
-"The Ideas That Use Us." Fosdick observed that ideas are the ultimate parasites. They have no life of their own. Either they find adherents in each new generation, or they die out. An idea with no one to carry it forward simply ceases to be. Fosdick went on to say that each of us sustains particular ideas with his or her life. Each of us stands for something, This might be intentional or unintentional but it will be something. We have no choice over whether our lives will represent something. We do have a choice on what that might be.
- Sadly, I have spent more of my time proving than being.
-I love you takes awhile for the word to become incarnate.-
-If I were fire, I would burn, If I were a woodcutter, I would strike; but I am a heart, and I love. BBTaylor
-As he thinketh in his heart so is he. Proverbs 23:7
-A Christian is a mind through which Christ thinks; a heart through which Christ loves; a voice through which Christ speaks; a hand through which Christ helps.” (Church in London)
-An average church is filled with people doing jobs. A great church is filled with people involved in ministry.
-Go from "leave world to join church" to "enter world and be church"
-Some keep the Sabbath going to church;
-Man's nature to love; a scorpion's nature to sting.
-The church is a BEING church. (not a DOING church)
-Forgiveness is spirit...it's our nature
-Do you not know that you are God's temple? 1Cor. 6:19
-What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.Abraham Maslow
-Everything we can be, we already are. Beatitudes images are inside us.
-Jesus did not take something out of us to make us good. He made us see what we already have....truth, love, forgiveness, etc.
ILLUSTRATIONS
-So I wish there were some
wonderful place
called the Land of Beginning Again,
where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
and all our poor selfish grief could be dropped,
like a shabby old coat at the door,
and never put on again." Louisa Fletcher Tarkington
-There is an ancient legend of a man with a scarred face who in trying to hide his scars had a mask made to cover his face. It appeared as a saint. He falls in love in the legend. Years later his past is revealed, and an attempt to reveal what he really looked like was made by ripping the mask away. His face had taken on the form of the saint's face
HUMOR
CHILDREN
- Discuss with the children how we are able to put skin on the good things like love, honesty, truthfulness, caring, etc. No one would ever see these words unless we "DID" them. In the same way the only reasons we know the words hate, hurt, cheat, lie, etc. is because some one did them to us....someone put skin on them. Sound funny? Well, that's what Jesus did....God sent Jesus to us so we could see how great a human being can be. Jesus loved like no one ever loved before. Now we do a lot of the things Jesus did like love, serve, give, and care because Jesus put clothes on those words for us. That's what we mean when we say, "the word made flesh'. Lindy
PRAYER PHRASES
-...may we not think of your coming as some far distant event that took place once and never happened again. Instead, may we know that your truth, love, power and strength is ever here with in us.
-And now may we be tall and upright as the Christmas Tree that points upward. May we be reaching; may we be sharing; may we be sparkling; may we be life-giving, may we be solid; may we be sturdy; may we be strong-rooted in our love for you and in your love for us. In the name of Him whose birth we celebrate this season...in his name we pray...Amen Lindy
-Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives;
-May our love be as simple as what you've made us to be. May our knowledge be a simple as the wisdom that comes from our hearts and may our righteousness be as simple a doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with our God. Lindy