A Christmas Word

 

I don’t know whether a dictionary is your idea of a good Christmas present, but if it is, perhaps last Christmas you got the latest edition of the Collins English Dictionary. For this 30^th anniversary edition the editors asked the public to nominate a new word that should be chosen for inclusion, and from hundreds of suggestions the one which made it into the new dictionary was meh.

 

In case you don’t know – and apparently the word is in common use in both spoken and written language – the word an expression of indifference or boredom.

 

Now you might think that that’s a word which in many ways characterises our modern society, where the only possible response to the question, ‘what is the difference between ignorance and apathy?’ -  is, I don’t know and I don’t care. . On the other hand it’s an attitude which has been around a long time. 

 

Take the Christmas story itself, as reported by John in the first chapter of his gospel. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world (v9).

 

That’s a happening of truly momentous proportions. God working among us, a once-in-history occurrence which God’s people had been expecting for a long time. But what was their response when it happened?

 

Meh….

 

Or as John put it slightly more wordily, though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 

 

Words, of course, and one word in particular, are at the heart of this passage. The word on which John is focussing is not our response to God, but that Word of God to us, the richness of the message embodied in Jesus. What does he mean when he calls Jesus God’s word, and what does it mean for us, as we decide what our response will be?

 

Words are very powerful things. In Alice in Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty is very fond of using words in unusual ways. "When I use a word," he declares, "it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less." But in fact words are just not that flexible. Communication happens based on what both parties understand by the words being used.

 

The word God used to express himself to us is Jesus. He existed from the beginning: the eternal, unchanging word. 

 

From the beginning God’s word is at the centre of the biblical account. The first act of God recorded in the bible was to speak. He spoke and the world came into being. His word is creative, powerful and life-giving. His word is illuminating: those first words in Genesis were, ‘let there be light’; and now Jesus, God’s word, is described as the light of the world (v4).

 

For each one of us, our words are part of what we are. If they are at variance with how we behave then that is because we are not constant. But God is faithful and Jesus, God’s word, is the trustworthy utterance of the Holy Almighty God. There is such close identification between what God says and who he is that the Word IS God. 

 

And this Word became flesh. The word who IS God is now one of us. The substance of God, the verdict of God, contained within a human baby.

 

So what is our reaction?  Meh……The word has become flesh and has made his dwelling among us. The light has shone in the darkness but many still walk away. Yet to all who receive him, to those who believe in him, he gives the right to become children of God.

 

These are not empty words. Backed up by the most amazing of actions, God did not just speak, he became one of us. Jesus did not just teach, he gave himself. From the fullness of his grace we receive one blessing after another (v16). This isn’t just for those who met Jesus in the flesh, not just for people all those years ago. It isn’t just for one race or one nationality or one type of person or one part of the world: God came so that people from every place and time and circumstance could be born into the new sort of humanity of which Jesus was the founder:  a humanity in harmony with God and his word. To respond to this word is to live our lives in the light of it. 

 

As I write this the Christmas letters are arriving. Some of them we warm to more than others. We hate the ones that seek admiration, or that we suspect do: the best try to keep up a connection with family and friends we cannot see as often as we would like. I suspect the Christmas letters we appreciate most are those we know are based on a real relationship and are written to maintain it.  God didn’t send a letter. He came. He too seeks relationship with us, whatever the cost. Because he loves us. 

 

 Jane Cornish