We Are God’s – John1:1-14

A text – John 1:1-14

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ 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.

A reflection:

The amazing New Testament scholar Dr. Karoline Lewis loves the book of John. Here is what she says about the opening lines of this passage: 

“The first verse of John 1 is deceptively complex. ‘In the beginning’ should stir up biblical resonances, particularly that what follows will have something to do with creation. The next verses secure Jesus’ role as creator with God. Furthermore, God has chosen to recreate God’s very self in Jesus. God has been reborn into the world, now as God’s creating Word in the flesh.”

Lewis is reminding us that Jesus created the universe with God the Father and God the Spirit – Jesus was the Word that was spoken to make everything. When most of us think of Christmas we think of the baby Jesus, but that baby had always been and was still part of that great creator who had made everything thousands of years before this moment: the moment God chose “to recreate God’s very self in Jesus. God has been reborn into the world,” Lewis says.

God is not separate from the world God created and loves. God is a part of Earth and its people. And of course part of a real family, and not a wealthy, royal one. A normal, working family who obeyed the law and took part in a census that brought them far from home and a more comfortable birth.

And because Jesus was God, reborn into the world, everyone connected to him and who believed in him became adopted by God into this vast clan, the Children of God, open to not just those in Israel and Judea, but to all people. The angels in their song to the shepherds are explicit about that: “Here are tidings of great joy that shall be to all people!”

In case we forget, Jesus is our adoption certificate. God being born into the human family secures us a place with God for as long as we to claim it. When we claim this gift, we are, as John puts it, “born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” God came to live with us so that we could come to live with God. Christmas. Adoption. By the triune creator of everything. Cast off your fears, whatever they might be. We are God’s.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for recreating yourself as a human baby, part of a real family in this real world. Thank you for adopting us and giving us everything. Thank you for your generosity and your love, made especially clear to us on Christmas. Amen