Advent

December 19, 2021

Scripture Reading: John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And 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.

What does it mean to be born of God? The stories of Jesus’s birth relate the great mystery of one born of God, assumed to be a king. Jesus was born into a world full of gods of all types and purposes. The Roman kings of the first century all claim to be divine. Jesus’s being proclaimed as the Son of God was not unusual in that time and place. The unexpected element of Jesus’s ministry was having been given the power to make everyone children of God.

John reminds us that Jesus was with God at the beginning of the world when all humans were created in God’s image. John then tells us that God wants humans to choose to accept and love God. I do not believe it is possible to make anyone love someone else. Love does not love unless it comes from the heart and soul of the lover. The whole idea of free will is tied to that concept. We often interpret free will as the right to sin or not. I think John may be viewing the free will that God grants us as the right to love God by choice. What accompanies the choice to love God is the commitment and empowerment to love others as we love God. Indeed, separation from God exists when we choose not to love God, and all types of folly can follow. We are experiencing that in our world today.

Prayer: Creator God, You designed a world that functions at its most excellent efficiency when love rules, help us let go of anything that distracts us from living in love.  Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.