A Sermon preached on 31 December 2023 (Christmas I) at St. Augustine’s, WI
Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Galatians 3:23-25, 4:4-7, John 1:1-18
As today is the final day of 2023, why is our Gospel reading all about beginnings? “In the beginning was the Word!” (John 1:1) Perhaps because we are already looking forward – if that is the right word – to 2024. The passage we just heard from John's gospel is called the Prologue and a prologue looks forward. The dictionary defines the word as meaning the “part that comes at the beginning of a play, story, or long poem, often giving information about events that happened before the time when the play, story, or poem begins.”
The prologue to John’s Gospel does both. It gives us information about events that happened well before the time when the actual story begins, gives us information about events from before time even began, from before Creation. And the New Testament scholar N.T. Wright notes that: “These opening verses are … such a complete introduction to the book that by the time you get to the story you know a great deal about what’s coming, and what it means. (It is about) the full meaning of everything (Jesus) was, and is, and did.”[1]
What does this prologue tell us? The first verses recall the Genesis account of creation. The Word that will be born as a human being already existed, the Word we know as Jesus Christ was not only with God but was God. The Word we know as Jesus Christ is the source of all life and light. Some scholars describe what they call a great cycle in John’s Gospel. The Son descends from heaven to our level and ascends back to heaven bringing us up with him to the divine level.[2] The prologue also tells us that many people, initially most people, will reject him, only a core of followers will believe in him. Evil will try and extinguish the light by killing him, but instead he will come back stronger than ever before: the darkness did not overcome the light of all people. And last and certainly not least, the prologue tells us that we can see God in Jesus Christ. “It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.” (John 1:18)
We don’t have a prologue for next year. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And both our faith – and empirical evidence – warn us against trusting in fortune tellers who can tell us exactly what will happen! According to Nostradamus’ predictions for 2023 for example:
“The Black Sea’s living fish shall all but boil,” they didn’t (but rising water temperatures do threaten maritime life!)
There will be “celestial fire on the royal edifice.” Neither Buckingham Palace, nor any other royal edifice was hit by a meteor or comet in 2023. Though we don’t need celestial fire to destroy buildings, sadly we are very good at doing that ourselves: see Ukraine and Gaza.
And his prediction that in or around 2023, “The antichrist very soon annihilates the three. Twenty-seven years his war will last” was also not fulfilled, though I can think of a few candidates for the role of the Antichrist!
Even institutions much more serious and reliable than Nostradamus, for example the Economist news magazine, were unable to predict the future: Turkey’s president Erdogan did not lose the election (sadly) and the world did not slide into a global recession (thankfully)!
We don’t have a prologue for next year. We don’t know what will happen in 2024 but we can, however influence what happens! At least those things for which we human beings are responsible for.
We who worship a God who gave up his divinity and his life, should also be willing to make sacrifices. We can and should continue to look critically at how we live, what resources we use, and how we impact the environment and make the necessary changes to safeguard God’s creation. For that I commend Susan Pinnells’ regular emails on climate and creation care to your attention.
We who worship a God who made all human beings in God’s image and who are called to recognise and serve Christ in others must make that knowledge not only the basis of our own actions, but also our political decisions. We live in democratic societies, and we can and should vote only for parties and candidates whose policies are based on and further our shared values, and not just particular, selfish interests.
We who worship a God who “will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations,” (Isaiah 61) can and should continue to raise our voices and use our influence to ensure that the societies we are part of do not neglect the care of the stranger, that they continue to support the victims of aggression, such as Ukraine, and that a peace based on justice and reconciliation is pursued in the Holy Land.
What a difference we could make to the world if everyone who professes faith in the God of John’s Gospel actually acted accordingly! I don’t mean to sound cynical, and I am not, I live in hope, and I trust in our God.
We may not have a prologue – or a reliable prediction – for 2024, but we have the Gospel, the Good News that we are created by a loving God, that God became human, dwelt among us, and with God’s Spirit dwells in our hearts. The prologue to John’s Gospel is also a prologue for our own lives. God sent the Word who is the source of life as a light for us to walk in. We know where to go, what path to follow! We can be sure that darkness will not overcome. We are God’s children, chosen and empowered by God. We have seen God’s glory in the father’s only son, full of grace and truth. We share in this wealth of grace, this gift of divine favour and divine influence working in us for our sanctification. The prologue tells us (and I am quoting N.T. Wright again) that “something can happen to people in this life which causes them to become new people who believe (and act) in his name.”[3]
The beginning – or to be precise the eve of the beginning - of a new year is a good time to remember that to be a Christian is to begin a new life, to be born anew, “not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” And that this spiritual rebirth is not a one-off event. Our transformation was initiated at our baptism, but never stops.
We don’t know what will happen in 2024, but we do know how we should live in 2024, and every year: Following the teaching and the example of the one who made God known on his life, Jesus Christ, our light, the eternal word, our Lord and Saviour, and our friend and companion.
Amen.
