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1/5/2025 0 Comments Jan. 5, 2025 - Welcome Home![]() Old Testament Reading: Jeremiah 31: 7-14 The Gospel: John 1: 1-18 Growing up I would often ask my parents and church teachers why we were Christians if Jesus was Jewish? I think they eventually got through to me what the word Christian means, one who follows Christ, and that God sent Jesus because at least some of the people needed to change their ways - to better remember and understand God’s teaching. That does not mean that there is anything wrong with Judaism or Islam for that matter: we all worship the same God. I believe it is a matter of finding the religion that brings you closest to God, and that can be different for different people. Throughout history, various groups of people have found themselves on the outside - exiled, without political power, even enslaved. What gave many of these people hope from the ancient Jewish exiles to the African people who were enslaved here in America, was scripture. The scriptures remind us that we will not always remain on the outside, that God will gather us in as he says in the Jeremiah scripture. “See, I am going to gather them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor together..for the Lord has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him…their life shall become like a watered garden and they shall never languish again.” While this scripture speaks of the people of Israel, and some have used the idea of being God’s people to exclude others, I believe we are really all the people of Israel here. God wants to gather us all in to protect, encourage and inspire us throughout the challenges in our lives. Anyone who has ever struggled, felt outcast, been frustrated fighting for peace when others want war, been discriminated against, been ill or been looked down upon can take courage from the thought of being gathered in - protected by God’s sheltering love. The beautifully poetic opening lines in the Gospel of John provide the reassurance that God the Wise Creator, God the Son and through them, God the Holy Spirit have always and will always be with us. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Here the Greek Word Logos represents the Word. In Jewish tradition, Logos represents God’s Wisdom, a creative agent that eternally coexists with God. The Logos or God’s Wisdom became associated with Torah or the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But we Christians can think of all of the Bible as God’s Wisdom. Logos evolved to mean logic or facts and would become a part of Aristotle’s Rhetorical or Persuasive triangle including ethos for credibility and pathos for emotion. How fitting that the Word that is and has always been God is also seen as fact, even if we sometimes have to wrestle with interpreting it. Yet the word of God fills in all parts of Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle. The ethos is the scripture and history of the spoken and written words inspired by God. The pathos or emotional appeal is of a God that John says in 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” One could also say that the emotional appeal is our faith itself. John’s Gospel starting with “In the beginning...” echoes Genesis 1, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light and there was light.” But John now equates that light with Jesus for whom John helped prepare the way. “The true light which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Here in speaking of Jesus, John reinforces that Jesus is of God - he not only brings the light of life and hope but enlightens - bringing God’s wisdom to the people through the very model of the way he lived his life. But John emphasizes, as is often the way, that many people did not recognize love and wisdom when they saw it, “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” How many times have we been discouraged and felt unaccepted? Well, Jesus felt some of that too! But not everyone rejected Jesus, John goes on to say, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” If even God in human form struggled, why should we think that we won’t? Life is struggle at times, but with faith there is always hope. There is always the reassurance that God is seeking to gather us in, to give us the courage to get through the present crisis, to inspire us to help others in need, to inspire us to lead with love, to lead with light. Jesus was the light - the model of all that is good, accepting, healing, helping. The Word that is God, that is the scriptures continues to shine that light: to teach, remind and encourage us that it is our turn to be God’s light in a world that sometimes feels very dark. We saw the darkness of hate in the attack in New Orleans this week that left 14 people dead and in the attack in Las Vegas. We see the darkness in the wars in Ukraine/Russia, Sudan, and Gaza/Israel. We see the darkness in the hopelessness people feel when they are cold, hungry, homeless or victimized. But God’s light did not go out of the world when Jesus died. First it shifted to the disciples and now it has shifted to us - the millions of people around the world who believe in a God who loves rather than hates, a God who welcomes rather than excludes, a God who helps rather than hurts. We are called to be points of God’s light wherever we are. Like the old Motel 6 ad that said, “We’ll leave the light on for you” we are not only gathered in by God’s light but we need to shine that bit of God’s light that is within each of us out to welcome, love, and help all of God’s creation as we can. We need to shine our light on injustices, in order to make change. We need to shine our light on those who feel lost to welcome them home. We need to shine our light to bring hope to those who are sick or discouraged. Our lights are a reflection and extension of God’s light that should not and cannot be hidden. God offers us grace upon grace and like a watered, sun-fed garden we must continue to grow, shining God’s light of peace, justice, healing and hope. I want to conclude with Howard Thurma’s poem “Work of Christmas.” When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart. We may not be Magi, but we have gifts of light that we can bring to the world. Let your light shine. Amen. Pastor Michelle Fountain
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