Is This The Same Christmas Story?

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No mangers, shepherds, angels or wise-men.  No mention of virgins, leading stars, censuses or full-up inns.  John’s version of the Christmas story is stripped down, scaled back and bare bones.  It reads as if it is not so much about the birth events of Jesus as much as it is about the entry of God into the world.  It seems to scream, in it’s economy of story, of a much larger thing than any one single event can ever be.

How often have I been distracted by the historical time lines and historical facts presented in scripture and been unable to hear the essence of the message?

John has removed the facts and dates and times and even most of the major players.  Here’s a fist full of essence for you to wrestle with today.

John 1:1-18 NRSV

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴And 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.

¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

The Word was there “in the beginning”, the Word was life, the life was light, the light shines in the darkness and darkness does not overcome it, the true light was coming into the world, a world which did not know Him.

The essence of the Christmas narrative.  God is light and life, darkness will not overcome it AND He has come into the world to be directly among us!  We struggle to believe that, even the best of us.  We struggle and God sends us Himself, one of us fully, yet still uniquely and ultimately Himself so that we can see it, hear it, live with it.

No matter the details surrounding His entry, God spilled Himself out into our world so that we could see what “life” looks like when it is lived.  The gift of the Christmas story is that we would finally see what the “Light” looks like when held up against the darkness.

Now, for me, here’s the kicker… He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. Verse 11 says the darndest thing.  His own people, that’s us, did not accept Him.  Other translations say did not receive Him. As I read the rest of this text, I can’t imagine not accepting or receiving that Light when it comes.  I can’t imagine it and yet I know I am guilty of it.

I know that, far too often, I reject life.  I hide from the light.  I walk toward darkness.  I do it with gossip and insult.  I do it by ignoring the needs of others.  I do it by making sure that I “get mine” first.  I do it through self pity and playing the martyr.  I do it whenever I defend myself and my personal interest ahead of justice.

But then there is the Truth and the Truth is that the darkness did not overcome the light, ever.

Good thing too.  Apparently, if this text and our own behavior is to be believed (and I see no evidence that it shouldn’t be) that’s what we do.  We reject the Light and the Life but God keeps sending it anyway.  He continues to enter into this world and our lives and walk among us.  There’s the hope for me.

That’s what makes me try harder tomorrow and what keeps me coming back and entering into the invitation to be part of the plan.  That Grace and Truth that come through Christ’s entry into a rejecting world makes me realize the fight is worth it and I am not alone.

My prayer is that I am able to keep this Christmas story simple.  God is light and life, darkness will not overcome it AND He has come into the world to be directly among us!

Happy Christmas. Keep it simple.  Be Life, accept the Light.

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