Sermon Seeds: Enlightened
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Second Sunday after Christmas/Epiphany | Year C
(Liturgical Color: White)
Lectionary Citations
Jeremiah 31:7-14 or Sirach 24:1-12 • Psalm 147:12-20 or Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21 • Ephesians 1:3-14 • John 1:(1-9), 10-18
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=c&d=11&y=384
Focus Scripture: John 1:1-18
Focus Theme: Enlightened
Series: Posted Sentinels (Click here for the series overview.)
Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay
I attended elementary school with descendants of Garrett Morgan, the inventor of the three way traffic light, which continues to be the basic tool used today to regulate the flow of traffic. Morgan invented other innovations including a breathing hood that paved the way for gas masks and an improvement for the sewing machine. He even established a hair care company. Later in life, the self-identified “Black Edison,” would become an outspoken voice for civil rights and equality. Yet, Garrett Morgan is most closely associated with the traffic light.
A carriage accident he witnessed in the early 1920s in Cleveland prompted this famous invention. As the first black man in the city to own a car, Morgan would have understood the need for a way to regulate traffic because experience can make a difference. His basic technology has impacted drivers around the world for generations now, and it happened because he responded to a need once it was revealed.
That is the hope of epiphany, which means revelation. But, revelation without responsive action hardly seems worthwhile. No shortage of passive bystanders and silent accomplices exists. As Tim Kaine stated, “Most evil in the world is only partly because of an evil person. Most of it is because of the complicity of bystanders.” Gabby Giffords put it this way,
We know that silence equals consent when atrocities are committed against innocent men, women and children. We know that indifference equals complicity when bigotry, hatred and intolerance are allowed to take root. And we know that education and hope are the most effective ways to combat ignorance and despair.
Gabrielle Giffords
Revelation is not enough yet it provides a starting point. In the biblical narrative and the Christian calendar, Epiphany follows Christmas. Today, gender reveals occur before the birth as parents take advantage of innovation in obstetrics to plan the nursery and inform the baby shower registry. In the gospel accounts, the gender of Mary’s child never becomes significant. It’s the identity of Christ that matters. Of the four gospel accounts, only Matthew and Luke concern themselves with the surrounding details of the birth of Jesus. John’s narrative proves more reminiscent of a modern reveal as the identity of Jesus as Creator, Messiah, and Embodied Word opens the account.
The whale shark has a gestation period that may last as long as three and a half years. Elephant pregnancies last nearly two years. We may assume a typical human gestation of forty weeks for Jesus in Mary’s body, yet the divinity of Christ is eternal. John emphasizes that reality. Jesus’ life and impact does not begin with the Incarnation. His birth makes his reality enfleshed, tangible, near, and experiential.
The opening of John’s Gospel may surprise first-time readers familiar with the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke. Absent are the virgin Mary, the manger, the magi, and all other elements of the “Christmas story.” Instead, the prologue situates Jesus within the relationship between God and humankind that begins with Genesis, and proclaims the universal scope and significance of the Gospel’s salvation story. The prologue’s opening words, “In the beginning,” quote the opening of the biblical book of Genesis (Gen. 1:1). The quotation signals that what follows is not just another biography but a story of life-giving significance for all creation.
Adele Reinhartz
The passage serves as an introduction, often called the Prologue, to John’s gospel, which is known for its two primary divisions: the Book of Signs and the Book of Glory. The entire narrative focuses on revealing the full identity of Jesus the Christ, not just the human, but the one carrying divinity and humanity within their body. This is the story of God with us, Emmanuel, that John documents, reflects upon, and proclaims.
[quote] This historical tale, however, is embedded in a larger cosmological story, about God’s Son who existed with God before creation, came to dwell among humankind, and returned to God. In contrast to the historical tale, this cosmological tale is not bound in space and time but has the cosmos as its location and eternity as its time frame.
Adele Reinhartz
This story reflects the time when Creator’s concern about creation caused Creator to enter creation. It’s a specific event in human history, associated with particular location, dates, and political climate. This is the Holy One observing their people in need and responding as tangibly as Garrett Morgan does after witnessing that carriage accident.
How does Creator respond? By bringing God’s creative energy into their human life: word and light. John describes Jesus as both Word and Light. In the first creation narrative, an introduction of Genesis and the collection of books comprising the Bible, God creates through words and begins with, “let there be light.” Light is the first fruit of the creative act, and while Jesus participates in the creative act, John’s identification of Jesus as Light reflects them as the source of light in creation. Even then, Creator and creation have connection, unity, and sameness in their essence.
In identifying the first five verses of John as “preamble,” rather than the first eighteen as “prologue,” we are breaking with tradition, and within these five verses we break with tradition again by accenting “the light” rather than “the Word” as their major theme. John’s Gospel is classically remembered as a Gospel of the Word (ho logos), and its christology as a “Logos” christology to be placed alongside other New Testament christologies. But the significance of “Word,” or Logos, as a title for Jesus, real as it is, must be kept in perspective. It appears only four times in the Gospel, three times in the very first verse, once in verse 14, and never again in the rest of John. “Light,” on the other hand, is a dominant image through at least the first half of the Gospel. The preamble begins with “the Word” (v. 1) and finishes on a triumphant note with “the light” (v. 5), giving away at the outset the ending of the story, and succinctly describing the world as the Gospel writer perceives it: “And the light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.” The Gospel of John is about revelation; the text begins with audible revelation (“Word”), moving on to visible revelation (“light”), and thence back and forth between the two (embodied in Jesus’ signs and discourses) as the story unfolds.
J. Ramsey Michaels
Epiphany means more than observation; it does not occur without comprehension. Revelation with understanding marks the significance of this day and the season that follows it. More than that, the season provides only a fraction of emphasis for the mission of Creator in the world: to demonstrate what it means to be formed in the divine image that creates and is light. For John, the mission and ministry of Jesus may be summarized in this way: “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”
May we be enlightened in a world that relates to knowledge and information with suspicion, that attempts to avoid discomfort and create false narratives by banning books, and that further sows division under the guise of fairness by indiscriminately adopting a both sides sensibility regardless of facts or issue. May we testify to the possibility of a new world of abundance, mutuality, and love where basic needs are easily met, those who flourish share rather than hoard their resources, and the oppressed are released from every imposed burden. May we declare “Let there be light” when illumination is necessary or helpful, and may we embrace the blessed rest that the darkness offers as we recognize and declare both good.
May we be enlightened to the glory of God.
Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
“Today Americans, who used to feel welcomed wherever we went, travel abroad with trepidation. We know we are not trusted or liked, that we are even hated, by millions of people around the globe. We must ask ourselves why this is so and do the work of discovering our historical behavior toward the other countries and peoples of the planet. As disturbing as this will be, it is a first step toward a peaceful existence. Not because we can make peace for our country, but because we can make peace without ourselves by changing any harmful behavior or attitudes that contribute to our present predicament. Choose any country on the map that appears to hate America. Listen to what people are shouting at their rallies and read what their banners proclaim in the street. Sit with their anger until you can see America through their eyes… Remember that you, yourself, are America. The U.S. Behave as if you are the entire country and carry yourself with humility and dignity.”
― Alice Walker, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Light in a Time of Darkness
For Further Reflection
“There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.” — Nhat Hanh
“However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them? ” — Gautama Buddha
“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.” — Eckhart Tolle
Works Cited
Michaels, J. Ramsey. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.
Reinhartz, Adele. “John.” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set . Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.
Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
Create a list of banned books and encourage the congregation engage them. You may add them to your church library or donate them to local library, community center, or nursing home.
Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.
A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.