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 overtake 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. (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.’ ”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
Sermon Text
The dawn of a New Year asks that we reflect on the year we just saw pass. I challenged us all to wake up each day with the same goal in mind, “To be more Good today than I was yesterday.” Now, as the year dawns, we join together to pursue the righteousness together, through a rededication of ourselves to God in the form of a Covenant Prayer spoken in unison.
Covenants are not something that we talk about much these days. We often talk about them in terms of legal agreements, contracts drafted between two interested parties. However, the concept as explained in Scripture is much more than signing a contract – it is devoting every part of one’s life to each other. The term in Hebrew is “בְּרִית” (Berith,) and this reflects every aspect of the relationship between the members of the relationship it represents. The terms which the relationship are founded upon are only part of the relationship. God speaking to the people gathered at the base of Sinai did not capture every aspect of their life together in that moment. Those of us who are married can attest, “I do,” is far from the complete story told by a marriage.
[The Christian life is defined by the work of God. However, our enjoyment of the Christian life and our ability to grow is dependent on our willingness to take part in God’s work. We participate in God’s grace and are drawn into it. The gifts of God enable us to take more and more on. This does not mean that we get more and more work piled on us, but that we take on more of God’s goodness, hone our skills to act out what God has set us apart for. We do not live our Christian life by exhausting ourselves, we live it out by knowing ourselves and God enough to work to our fullest.
That each of us take on particular calls in life is natural. Some of us are called to work in service industries, others in production, other to work directly in the work of the Church. Whatever the vocation that we choose in life is, we do so as Christians participating in God’s vision for the world. There is a lie that we choose to believe that we serve God only when we pray or only when we proclaim the Gospel. While both of these are aspects of the Christian life, simply pursuing excellence in what we do is a form of service to God. It shows that we wish to contribute to the goodness of others, to work earnestly to help others.
Outside of working to the best of our abilities are the ways that we should serve one another. Helping one another by lovingly serving those we are community with – whether we know them through work, as part of the church, or as our friends and family. We serve those around us by doing what we can to further their good. This means helping them in times of need, supporting them in their pursuit of a good life, and meeting their emotional and spiritual needs. We should be a people that speak with one another, that pray for one another, that help one another. We cannot be passive participants in one another’s life.
Our community is not limited to those we know, not even to those we like. The stranger, those who pass through our life for only a season or even a day, these people we have obligations to. While we can never truly treat someone we do not know with the same fullness as those who we know well, we can show them what God has put on our hearts. When we meet the eyes of those who are begging on the streets and in the medians. When we give to honest charities and to people we know need it. When we fight for the rights of people who are not like us, or who we will never meet. These are all expressions of our love of those we do not know, of hospitality for those outside our households.][1]
Our Scripture may seem separate from these discussions of Covenant, but I think that if we think more closely about it, the Incarnation fulfills and expounds upon God’s Covenant in ways nothing else could. God, not content to remain in Heaven came and became a human being among us. This God-Man was not given a life of luxury, but lived in poverty and hardship. The creator of every person, the imprint of God’s image within every person, was now treated as a stranger wherever he went. Though the Light had entered the world, and though it was not snuffed out in becoming part of Humanity, Humanity did not recognize its presence among them.
Christ chose to take on this life of obscurity for our Good. In doing so God made it clear that every stranger on Earth, more than ever, was now inextricably tied to God’s image. The basic imprint upon all people was now enhanced. To love God, to know God, to see God face to face, a person now had to seek out those society pushed away. More than that, those once known as enemies would soon become family. “Stranger,” began to erode away as a category of person and only “sibling,” would remain.
The way that love should be carried out was reflected in the way Christ lived. Feeding the Hungry, praying constantly for Himself and Others, living alongside friend and enemy alike. Every part of the Incarnation shows us something more about who God is, and every part of our vows we take before God are meant to show us the way we can become more Godlike. Today as we gather to recommit our life to God, I pray that we will take seriously the words we are about to share together – for in them is life and life abundant, as long as we truly believe them and do all that God requires of us. Let our words be true, and our Covenant be renewed today and always. – Amen.
[1] Sections enclosed in brackets are revised from an earlier sermon, preached 12/29/2019 to the Shenandoah Junction Charge
Teach us to Number our Days 