Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Xmas Day 2013

Those of the Danish and German Traditions had Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve, opened gifts, and attended Midnight Candlelight Mass. Now, on Christmas Day we are ready for some heavy philosophizing. It doesn't get much heavier than John 1.

Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

God's Word, logos, and God are synonymous. God's Word has the power of creation. Darkness is equated with evil and light with good. God's Word brings Light to enlighten us. The writer of John is giving us a play on words.

Joh 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Jesus then is the Word, (God), made flesh, the incarnation of God; He who brings Light to the world.

Isaiah and the Psalmist celebrate Israel's deliverance.

Hebrews makes the connection between the Bringer of Good News in the OT and Jesus.

John the Baptist then is seen as being the Messenger who bore witness to the Light. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

This then is the good news of Christmas. That God cared enough to become one with us in the person of a child.

On Christmas Eve we got the story of God's birth as the child Jesus. John talks of the living word. logos connotes the spoken word, a living entity that has the power of creation. God's word and God are synonymous and in the Christmas event God becomes made man and intervenes in human history. We celebrate the fact that God cared enough to take on human form and dwell among us. Behold I present to you a mystery.





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