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 Sermon: "In the Beginning Was the Word" Scripture: John 1: 1-9 Reverend Larry M. Gerber Words can be as strong as deeds, with power to accomplish God's purposes and deliver a message of grace and truth. "That's just words." No doubt you've heard people say this, usually with a sneer and a dismissive wave of the hand. Maybe you've said it yourself. When Shakespeare's Prince Hamlet is asked a question about what he's reading, he responds, "Words, words, words" -- implying that the words in front of him are meaningless. And we've all been told at one time or another that what's important are deeds, not words. The Latin expression is facta, non verba. But watch out. When we give priority to action, we miss the creativity of expression. Fact is, words have real power. We Christians should get this. From beginning to end, the Bible gives testimony to the power of what God accomplishes through a word. "In the beginning was the Word," says the gospel of John -- in the beginning was the Word, not the Deed. And "the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (1:1). Genesis reports that "God said, ?Let there be light'; and there was light" (1:3). God didn't build a light-generating apparatus but instead spoke light into being. Then God did the same for the sky, the land, the seas, the plants, the animals and even humankind itself. On each day of creation, God spoke a truly creative word: Let there be?!! And it was so. According to the prophet Isaiah, God insists that "my word...shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (55:11). For God, the Latin expression facta, non verba really doesn't make sense. The Lord doesn't have to make a distinction between deeds and words. For God, words are deeds; God's words actually accomplish his goals. The significance of God's word reaches its peak in the New Testament, in which we learn that God's "Word became flesh and lived among us" as Jesus (John 1:14). No longer limited to speech, God's Word actually takes human form, becomes incarnate and begins to walk among us as a living and breathing expression of God's grace and truth. Word, deed, flesh and spirit all come together in Jesus, to show us most clearly what God desires for us. "No one has ever seen God," claims John in his gospel. "It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known" (v. 18). Word. It shall not return to God empty but shall accomplish God's goals. Word. It became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth. Action! Check it out at UrbanDictionary.com and click on "W." At the time of writing this sermon, Word was the 12th most popular "W" word out of more than 31,000 entries for that letter. The Word has power to bring light into darkness, accomplish God's purposes and deliver a much-needed message of grace and truth. Words can be seriously powerful, right and good. They can even change the world. Just think about the words that have had a profound effect on our lives during the past 25 years: In 1985, Allen Carr wrote The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, and 25 million people kicked the habit. Two years later, Randy Shilts wrote And the Band Played On, forcing the world to pay attention to AIDS. In the early '90s, Peter Kramer's best seller Listening to Prozac got America popping pills in a whole new way. According to mental_floss magazine, Kramer noted that drugs such as Prozac seem to make many people -- including those who aren't depressed -- more confident, less sensitive to rejection and more willing to try new things. Please understand that I am not advocating that non-depressed persons begin popping pills, just reporting the findings of Kramer in his article. Words have creative power and can actually change the world. Remember the words: "When E F Huttin speak - people listen. When one says: "Listen" people stop and listen and what they hear sometimes transforms them. Let's look at the word Transformation. Transformation is the purpose of the incarnational presence of God in the word. Our theme for this year is transformation. Be ye transformed, receive Him anew, be changed by Him. The gospel of John tells us that 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" (1:14). Jesus is the most world-changing of words, full of grace and truth, and he made God the Creator known to us. Be ye transformed by the renewal of your heart. Change was not an easy accomplishment for Jesus. John tells us that Jesus "was in the world..yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him" (vv. 10-11). Words often have to overcome tremendous resistance and rejection before they can change the world. Jesus is the Word. The Word faced resistance and rejection, and even His death, but the Word changed the world. "But to all who received him," says John, "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" (vv. 12-13). Transformation begins when a word is received, and a person starts to believe it -- when a reader receives what Randy Shilts has written about AIDS, for example, or when we receive what God is saying to us through Jesus and believe in him, then our lives are changed forever. The Lord gives us power to become children of God, and we discover that we're eternally loved and guided by the One who has created us. Transformation begins once we've been exposed to the Word of God. When we receive Jesus and believe in him, we become nothing less than children of God. Such transformation is seriously powerful, right and good.. So how do we receive these words, believe them and put them to work to change the world? As we start a new year, there is no more important focus for us. Receiving grace means accepting God's love as a pure gift -- one that comes to us, unearned and undeserved, out of the endless and eternal expanse of God's merciful heart. God accepts us simply because he wants to accept us, and he offers us his unconditional love because he desires to surprise and delight us. As children of God, there is no good we can do to make God love us any more, and no evil we can do to make God love us any less. The love that comes to us through Jesus Christ is overflowing and unconditional, "grace upon grace" (v. 16). The Word comes to us in Holy Communion. Along with receiving God's grace comes believing God's truth -- a truth that can change the world. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we will celebrate this month, certainly shocked our society with a profoundly simple and truthful Christian message. In a Sunday morning sermon at Montgomery's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, King was preaching about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He concluded with the words, "As I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you, ?I love you. I would rather die than hate you.'" How many of us can truly speak those words? What a statement. It's beautiful, radical, challenging and thoroughly Christ-centered. "I love you. I would rather die than hate you." That's a truth we can embrace today and put to work in transformative ways. Never underestimate the power of words. They can be world-changing - especially when they're grounded in the Word of God. The Word is: This is the Body and this is the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Come and feast on His Word. It can be and should be a life changing event. Take and eat in remembrance. Take and drink and be transformed, made new, forgiven. Love came down at Christmas and the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us. The Word was despised and rejected. The Word said "It is Finished" and went to the cross. The Word said: "This is my body broken for you" and "This is my blood shed for you for the remission of sins." The Word invites you to His table. Come, the table is ready. Sources: Ahern, Rosemary. "The 25 most influential books of the past 25 years." mental_floss, March-April 2009, 36-52. Vowell, Sarah. The Wordy Shipmates. New York: Riverhead Books, 2008. |
