Gospel: The Word Became Flesh. John 1. 1-17
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 overcome 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. 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Sermon: There is always light.
The Gospel this first Sunday in 2022 are some of the most beautiful words in our Bible. The beginning of the gospel according to John, is in the most profound, philosophical and poetic way describing the beginning – not only of John the Baptist or Jesus Christ, but the beginning of everything.
And it is so befitting and such a blessing to begin yet another new year with these words of hope, grace and eternity. Words that tell us that our world and we are connected, depended, intertwined, blessed, God-made, God-willed.
The beginning of this new year 2022 is put on a string of many days, months, years, decades, centuries, millenniums, and eons, that we still count and try to connect and explain and explore.
This year of ours, this time and age of ours, is not floating around on its own, it is connected and created from the past – and a prophecy about the time to come.
In the beginning was the word and the light and God. I the beginning was an intention, a will, a vision and a blessing.
As it equally poetic says in Genesis:
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
So, this is the beginning of yet a new year, but this beginning is connected and carried, created and blessed from the year first breath of life and being, of word and light.
“For there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brace enough to be it.”
These words of the young poet Amanda Gorman from the inaugural poem “The Hill we climb” testify to the light. To the light that was in the beginning and still is. To the light that enlighten and encourages us. The light that calls us into the day and into action. The light that is always stronger than darkness.
So, now on the first wavering steps into 2022, we welcome this new year with her new poem “New Day’s Lyric.”
“New Day’s Lyric”
May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren’t ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
We steadily vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.
This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.
What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake.
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.
Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.
We heed this old spirit,
In a new day’s lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.”
Amanda Gorman truly is a poet of her time. Her words are passionate and compassionate; hopeful and heartfelt; bright and bold; Her poem is a call to us to “come over, join this day just begun, for wherever we come together, we will forever overcome.”
Her poem, like our prayers this morning, are carried by the light of creation and beginning. That life was and is indeed good. That darkness will never overcome the light. That goodness will always prevail. That life is always worthwhile despite everything that might despair, disrupt, disappoint, disillusion, derail or devise, - as darkness will not, cannot, never will overcome light.
That is what we believe and confess on this First Sunday of 2022, when we say the Old Apostle Creed together united in faith.
That is what we believe and pray on this first Sunday of 2022, when we pray Our Lords own Prayer, to our God, our Father, who gives and forgives.
That is what we believe and remember when we share Communion and share life, beginnings and ends.
That is what we believe today: that in the beginning was the word and the light… and it still is. We live in it and by it.
“For there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brace enough to be it.”
“Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.”
As we enter the year 2022, with all the struggles and unsolved tension from 2021 and beyond, let this be our prayer. That we will move and mend, we will cure what was cursed, we might come torn but will try to tend, we are battered to do better, we tend to argue but we will try to agree, and we will look up with kindness and forever overcome.”
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not over it.
Happy New year to you all! Amen.