St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

First Sunday after Christmas
December 28, 2008
John 1:1-18
The Rev'd Deacon Art Bass

All Things Made New in Christ

I wish you all a very merry Christmas this morning! We are now four days into our twelve day Christmas season. I was very fortunate this year to spend Christmas Day with both my children, who are in their mid-twenties. We had a wonderful time together, and I thank God for it. I hope many of you were also able to have time with your families on Christmas Day.

Yesterday, while at home, I found myself reflecting back on Christmases past. I remembered one Christmas when both my children were very young. Kelly and I knew we were getting a new carpet for the living room in January, so on Christmas Eve, after the children were in bed, and as we were putting their presents under the tree, we dug out an old pair of hiking boots. We rubbed the soles of those boots with ash and soot from the fireplace, and we made tracks, footprints on the old carpet, leading all the way from the fireplace to the Christmas tree and back again. For years after that, I heard my children citing the evidence of those footprints to counter the arguments of their friends, who no longer believed in Santa Claus.

Finally, my Christmas past reflections took me all the way back to when I myself was small. That was a long time ago, but I remembered trips into the woods with my father to select and cut down a Christmas tree; I remembered family gatherings with all my young cousins at my grandparent’s home, and of course, I remembered the toys.

Children’s toys were so much simpler then. Very few of them required batteries. Some were spring wound, but most were powered only by hand and by imagination. But for some inexplicable reason, so many of my childhood toys were incredibly accident prone. At least, that’s the only way I have to account for their deplorable lack of longevity.

Alright, maybe I was just a little rough on them. . sometimes. But then, I remember toy miracles began to occur. Damaged and broken toys would disappear, only to reappear a few days later. And when they reappeared they were like new again, all shining and bright. In fact, oftentimes, they were better than new. They were changed, improved and enhanced. They had been transformed, recreated if you will.

It was not long until I discovered the author of these toy miracles. It was none other than my retired grandfather who lived next door. Armed with paint brushes, wire, screws, wood carving tools, soldering irons, and soft metal casting skills, had he not been so tall, I’m certain that my grandfather could easily have found employment at the North Pole.

It seemed to me as a child that there was no toy so broken that my grandfather could not restore it and recreate its newness. It was to me a joyous discovery and a cause for great celebration in my young life.

It’s nice sometimes, no matter how old we are, to remember back to the simple days of childhood, when our only care or cause for concern might be a broken toy. But we always have to come back and remember who we are now in the real world, this complex adult world in which we all live.

“In the beginning. . .” Those are the very first words from the prologue to John’s gospel, and those words are intentional. They are designed to echo, and to cause us to remember, the first words from the Book of Genesis and the biblical story of creation, which is recorded there.

The earth was void immersed in the darkness and waters of chaos, but then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light he had created, and it was good. God proceeded to create plants and animals, birds and fish, every living thing, and all that God created was good.

God spoke, and by the power of his creative word, good things came to be. Then came the climax of God’s creation. In his own image, God made man. He created humankind.

But as we all remember from our youth, from bible stories and Sunday school, there is more in Genesis than just the story of creation. There is also the story of mankind, of us, becoming disobedient to the loving God who made us. It is the story of how a new darkness came into the world, a darkness created not by God, but by errant humanity, the darkness of sin.

God had created everything good, but by our sin that goodness was broken.

Now, however, John’s gospel gives us a story of a new beginning, a new creation. It gives us good news, new hope, and a cause for greatest joy and celebration at Christmas and every day.

God’s all powerful creative Word, known in Greek as “Logos,” the source of all life, which was always with God, and in fact, was God, entered into our world of history, time and space. God as Christ Jesus lived among us and was one of us. This is the great miracle of the Incarnation.

Through Christ, God came to understand our pain, because he experienced it himself. Through Christ, God came to understand our brokenness, because he experienced it himself.

Through Christ, a new light came into the world, an eternal light, to give enlightment and unending life to all who believe, a light which even the darkness of sin and death can never overcome.

Through Christ, we have received the power to become children of God. We have received new life and grace upon grace.

Through Christ, the brokenness which we brought into the world has been healed, and we have a new and restored relationship with God the Father. Through Christ we have been transformed, and all things have been made new again.