Isaiah 52.7-10; John 1.1-14
Intro to John 1 reading
Before we have this reading, I just want to give some explanation. The Bible is a record of the relationship between Abraham and God and Abraham’s descendants and God, a relationship that impacts all of us and this relationship was expanded to include all of humanity with the birth of Jesus. God’s Son.
The first five books in the bible are thought to have been written by Moses and right at the start are two differing stories of God creating the earth, us and the universe. The first creation story states that God spoke the universe into being - just by naming everything it came into being. The power of creativity was in the spoken word. And the Word is understood to be one of the three persons of God.
Fast forward to the time of Jesus and the disciple who wrote John’s gospel, likens Jesus to this word, the third person of the Trinity. So let’s hear this wonderful passage. Please stand.
This is amazing news - God becoming a human being. The creator becoming one of the creatures he had created. And it impacts all of us. For in becoming a human being, Jesus revealed the enormity of God’s love for us, his commitment, his delight in each one of us. And he offers himself to everyone of us. Tonight we remember and celebrate God with us, Immanuel. At Easter we fast forward to the end of his life, when he died for us and rose again from death, so that we can be forgiven and enter God the Father’s presence. This is a gift from God for every person. It does not matter what colour we are, what race, our background, our age, our social status, this gift is open for all to receive. And we do need to receive it. To welcome it. To allow this gift to become real to us. It is the perfect gift for each one of us - a release from the clutches of evil and the bondage of sin, of wrong, the promise of eternal life with God when we leave this world. Without it, we do not know the fullness of God’s love, we do not have the fullness of life….So where do you stand? Is it a gift you recognise is for you? Or do you turn away and let it pass you by?
To go back to the first story of creation. Cosmologists, in their study of the universe have seen that the universe is expanding at a phenomenal rate. It is estimated that the diameter of the universe is now about 93 billion light years. A light year is the distance that light will travel in one year, which is about 6 trillion miles. 93 billion times 6 trillion - that’s a big number - the universe is vast. When this expansion is played in reverse it points towards the theory that this expansion began some 13.8 billion years ago with a huge explosion of energy from a very small centre which expanded out rapidly in all directions - a moment which has been called the Big Bang.
The indications are that before the Big Bang there was nothing. Not even empty space, not even a vacuum, just nothing. The word of God, Jesus Christ, was there at the start creating all this. The amazing fact is that there are four fundamental forces acting in the universe and these forces are absolutely perfect to make it all happen. Stephen Hawking wrote: “If any one of forty physical constants had more than slightly different values, life as we know it would not exist.”
To take one example. A slight modification to Newton’s inverse square law of gravitation and the moon would not be able to orbit the Earth, the Earth would not be able to orbit the Sun and the Sun would not be able to orbit around our galaxy and so on. There would be no stable astronomical structure, the Earth would not enjoy the stable equilibrium it currently does and life would not exist anywhere within the Universe.
Lee Smolin (physicist) estimated that the probability that the constants in our standard theories of the elementary particles and cosmology would, were they chosen randomly, lead to a world with carbon chemistry, is less than one part in 10 to the power of 220.” This is no accident, no random coming together of life.
When you look further into the science, the extraordinary truth is that this whole universe was created so that life could happen on earth. Everything points to supporting life on earth. 93 billion light years in diameter just so we can live. 2000 years ago at a point in history this creator entered the world he had created as one of the creatures - the word became flesh and as with everything with God this was no accident this was a purposeful, intentional action.
This week we received a parcel. It was addressed correctly to Revd Graham and Emma Phillips with the Rectory address, And we opened it up and were rather surprised to see what was inside. It was not something that we immediately felt suitable or appropriate. So I need your advice, do you think it suits me? Do you think I can wear this walking around the parish? What will people think? My immediate reaction on receiving this is that someone was playing a joke on us. However today I learnt that it is not for me or for Emma, it is a present for our Son, Matthew, and I know he will love wearing it.
God’s gift of himself is for all of us.
The challenge with gifts is that sometimes we receive something unusual, something we do not understand or see is relevant to us and so we never engage with it. I have heard of some people receiving a present but never opening the box. It lies sealed in a cupboard until the person dies. There is a danger that we do the same with God’s gift of eternal life. Some of us will think it is not something we will engage with - just like this hat - it is just not my style, not my character, does not fit with my approach to life, or my experience. The whole universe was created with one purpose - so we could live here on earth. We have been created with an ultimate purpose - to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. The reality is that we all need God’s gift of life. This is the creator offering us what he knows we need. An everlasting relationship with God as Father in which we become children of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, knowing God’s guidance in life, receiving freedom from sin, freedom from death. This is the most important gift we can ever receive….Will you receive it? Will you embrace it?
The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
Amen