NewCreation

Homily for the Second Sunday of Christmas

Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to this, the homily for the second Sunday of Christmas. In today's Gospel we're faced with one of the most extraordinary texts ever to have been written. St John's Gospel is that anyhow. The beginning of St John's Gospel is that to the power of n, because what it says seems so crazy as to be incomprehensible. So here's a go at seeing whether something of the comprehensibility of it can be brought out, because if you like, with Christmas we start with the baby, we then move to the Holy Family, we then celebrate the Mother of God. Each one is, as it were, stepping a little bit further back to see what's going on here. But what we have with John is simultaneously both the visibility of the baby and the hugeness of what's really going on, and it's what you get throughout his Gospel, which is a particular human being doing something, and yet it is simultaneously the Most High in person speaking into our world. I think that actually we're really helped in understanding this Gospel by looking at the passage from Wisdom, because it reminds us a little bit of the fact that we're dealing with Jewish texts, and that everything in the Jewish text is related to creation. What we're in, everything that's created including ourselves, we're inside something. Creation is an insider matter, and the notion that it's something good is because the one who is bringing it into being allows hints to those of us who are on the inside of what the creator is really all about. The creation created through Wisdom, so Wisdom speaks her own praises in the midst of her people; she glories in herself. Now this doesn't mean she's a self-righteous speech. This means that the principle of Wisdom is precisely that it's making alive creation, holding it all together in such a way that it shows off of itself the glory of God. It gives off, points up to, gives away the glory of God. If you like, that creation, the Wisdom comes into our midst to open our eyes, to make it possible to be on the inside and actually see something clearly for what it is. And in the back of this, in the, if you like, part of the deep sense of this, is that everything that is — there's a rationale to it, there's a logic to it. Reality is not simply a chaotic and random series of events and things. But this is what the creation means: that there is a rationale, an inner structure of reality, which when it's brought alive and we're enabled to share with it, opens us up to what's going on, the possibility of us being participants and insiders in this, in creation. The world — creation means God's rational… Dynamic product which is functional, which is for something, and inside which we are and can grow. So when we talk about — when we finally get to St John's Gospel — we have these extraordinary phrases: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." So for "Word," understand the logical structure, the structure of reality. That's what is coming into the world. The logical, structural reality is actually going to enter into creation to open us up, actually, to be able to come to life, to become fully alive in creation, to become sons and daughters of God. So this baby who is born is not just a baby. He's the beginning of the manifestation in our midst of the dynamic, structuring reality of everything that is. If you like, the plan, the form of communication — all of that is being made alive so that it speaks to us, and so that if we accept it we can be included in it, so that we can actually become this as children of God. This doesn't mean people who said, "Oh, I decided to take you on board as children — there they are, hopefully nice now, put on a bib and behave properly." No. Being children of God means being equal with God as heirs, participants in creation on the same level as God. We actually get to be the heirs of creation, creation fully alive, its entire dynamic fully revealed; we get to be participants in it. In other words, this is something which is — less fashionable than it should be in Christian circles — is that Jesus is actually bringing about the reality of what is. That's part of what this birth is: it's the beginning of it becoming available and clear to us, the reality of what is. And as John says, the reality turns out to be something much, much better than had been hoped for. He says, "The Word became flesh and lived among us, dwelt among us" — literally, tabernacled amongst us, put its tabernacle in our midst. This is obviously referring to the Holy One in the tabernacle before the holy place in the Temple. "And we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son." In other words, what John is saying is that the principle of reality came into our midst as the Son was supposed to do through the holy place. The holy place, remember, was the virgin. "And we have seen his glory." In other words, this person we have seen physically. I saw his face, I touched his hand. That's what this is about. He ceased to be invisible. And it says, "full of grace and truth." These are key words. This is hesed and emet — these are the two qualities of God from Exodus. It says Moses gave the Law; the Law does give a certain — it points… To this, it's not a question of denying the law, but the law points to the grace and truth. But we've actually seen him. He's come into our midst so as to open it up for us, so that we can actually participate, receive the grace and the truth, and participate in the making alive of creation. "From his fullness we've all received grace upon grace." He's saying that the real thing turned out to be a much, much more benign and rich presence than anything we could have thought. The actual structuring reality of what is turns out to have been much, much richer than we could have imagined. We'll see this as we develop this with John's Gospel over the years. We see this. But what's being brought out is how the one came in, came in making it possible for people to receive him and therefore to become children of God, which meant that he became available as a sacrifice of forgiveness. Those who were able to receive this actually found that forgiveness turns out to be the structuring dynamic. There's not, as it were, a law and then something to be forgiven. There is the structuring dynamic of everything that is, that is in fact opened out by forgiveness. It is this that we're invited to participate in. John is saying here that this is the one that's coming in, this is the one that John the Baptist pointed to. What we're seeing here is not merely a baby. It's the baby who is going to grow into a man. We are going to be able to see him, and he is going to become the way the structuring principle of reality opens us up to it and to being participants in it. This is the greatest thing that could possibly ever have happened. "No one has ever seen God. It is God's only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known." This was the Lord, understood to be the begotten, not created, Son of God, who had come into our midst thanks to the Virgin, who became the holy place. That was how the Shekinah, the Most High, tabernacled in our midst, and this is how the whole fullness of God became revealed to us, shown to us — but not, if you like, simply something for us to see, but for us to become participants in the making finally alive and full of creation. So this is, if you like, the richness of the Christmas story, the fullness of the invitation that's going on here, and the source of endless joy and the opening up of our imaginations. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.