By the Venerable G. Kingsley Knowles.
Christ the King Anglican Parish Church,
Nassau Bahamas.
January 1, 2020 (Delivered on December 24, 2020)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us!
Question: What does it mean to becoming flesh? John 1:14. It is another way of saying that God renegades himself.
To Re-engage: to make one self-more accessible; more intimate in relationship; to present in a new way.so his presence is experienced in a new way.
Rector of Christ the King Anglican church,
Nassau Bahamas
In the Old Testament, beginning from the Book of Genesis after the Fall, the Israelites were provided with Leaders, who arose to remind them of the need to remaining focused. God provided people like Enoch, Noah, the Judges, and Kings, and Prophets who went about Preaching and Teaching and providing symbolic action to convey the message of God from God.
You see they had turned away from the lord:
and were doing their own thing, remember the dancing and carousing when Moses went up on mount Sinai! According to the Bible, the golden calf was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as or the Sin of the Calf. It is first mentioned in Exodus …32
They forgot the good deeds that God had done for them.
Taking them out of bondage, providing food and drink
So leaders arose call the people back to
- Obedience
- Back to bring harmony
- Back to developing a right relationship with God.
But despite their warnings they continued to ignore God’s prophets, and Rebelled against them, because God’s love was so powerful a new approach became essential.
That is why the commemoration tonight is so important God is presented in a new way to the people of Israel. To develop a more intimate relationship with them by being more accessible to them, more direct It is therefore important that we understand what this means.
Thus we have the entrance of the logos among the people of God. The word became Flesh and dwelt among us.
This term word, is used in different ways in the Bible. In the New Testament, there are two Greek words translated ‘word’; Rhema and logos. They have slightly different meanings.
Rhema usually mean the “spoken word” Luke 1: 38, when the angel told Mary that she would be the mother of God’s Son, Mary replied, ‘behold, I am the servant of the lord, let it be to me according to your word(Rhema).’
Logos however has a broader, more philosophical meaning. This is the term used in John chapter 1. It usually implies a total message, and is used most in reference to God’s message to humankind for example Luke 4: 32 says, when Jesus taught the people, they were amazed at his teaching, because his words(logos) had authority,’ the people were amazed not merely by the particular words but the total massage.
“The word” (Logos in St. John’s Gospel chapter 1 is referring to Jesus. Jesus is the total message- everything that God wants to communicate to man.
The first chapter of John gives us a glimpse inside the Father/Son relationship before Jesus came to earth in human form. He pre-existed with the Father verse 1. He was involved in the Creation of everything v. 3., and He is the light of all mankind’ v. 4. The word(Jesus) is the full embodiment of all that is God:
(Colossians 1:19.29; He is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the first born from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy, for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.
John 14:9). Anyone who has seen me has seen the father also. God the Father is Spirit, in other words invisible to the human eye. The message of love and redemption that God spoke through the Prophets had gone unheeded for centuries (Ezekiel 22:26: Matthew 23:37 People found it easy to disregard the message of an invisible God and continue in their sin and rebellion. So the message became flesh, took on human form and came to dwell among us (Matthew 1:23; Romans 8:3; Philippians 2:5-11).
The Greeks used the word logos to refer to one’s “mind”, “reason” or “wisdom.” John used this Greek concept to communicate the fact that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, is the self-expression of God to the world. In the Old Testament, the word of God brought the universe into existence see (Psalm 33;6 the lord created the heavens by his command……by his spoken word. And saved the needy see (Psalm 107:20) He healed them with His command. In St. John’s Gospel, he is appealing to the Jews and the Gentiles to receive the Eternal Christ as the word also pleads on the very night for you and me to yield to the eternal Christ. This night then is more about our acceptance of the ultimate reality in and for our lives.
To show the people what they were doing he told this parable in Luke 20:9-16.
A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of his fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat shamefully and sent empty handed. He sent another servant, but that one was also treated badly, wounded and thrown out of the vine yard. Then the owner said, I will send my Son, home I love, perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. This is the heir, they said, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours”. So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
We know from the birth narrative that When the logos came there was no room in the in
When the logos came they tried to kill him causing Mary and Joseph to flee into Egypt.
When the logos came to build relationship there was denial and betrayal, there was crucifixion, there was death but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through unstoppable Love he broke the bars of Death and hell and forever dwell beyond this place waiting and watching , preparing a place for me and you that is why John wrote he way he did so that we would be reminded that the logos who was from the beginning came to communicate to us in the flesh so that we in the spirit may recognize the Seriousness of His love for us. That is what this night is all about, that is the reason why we are here tonight., so that we can be reminded that Satan was put to flight and God came in the flesh to make things right. Paul relates it this way:
God’s love (in Greek is ‘agape’). is constant and unconditional for us.
In Romans 5:5, he wrote that God’s love has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Notice how generous God is to us! God doesn’t just sprinkle His love in our hearts, but Romans 5:5 says God pours out His love in our hearts
We tonight experience the unstoppable love of God for human kind.
This commemoration each year is not about 25th December or 6th January but the need for Renewal and Rekindling in order to maintain our focus on the reason for His coming and to Caution us not to grow weary in our response of Kindness and Generosity and love to the One who from the very beginning was always Generous and kind. One who will never Fail us although we fail Him miserably all the time. And the word Logos was made flesh and dwelled among us.