{"id":513037,"date":"2019-12-29T13:49:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-29T17:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/episcopalchurch:8888\/sermon\/the-same-story-christmas-1-december-29-2019\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T10:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T14:09:23","slug":"the-same-story-christmas-1-december-29-2019","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/the-same-story-christmas-1-december-29-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"The Same Story, Christmas 1 – 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[RCL]: Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever noticed that when you get together with your family and start telling stories about when you were growing up, or what happened years ago, the same events sound very different as different people tell the story? Depending on who\u2019s describing it, the guy who used to live across the street was a scrooge or a saint. Moving from one town to another was either a disaster, a wonderful escape, or a thing indifferent, hardly noticed. Same event, different folks in the family, different point of view, radically different ways of telling the same story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the wonderful poetry of those first 18 verses of John\u2019s Gospel we just heard. This is the Christmas story, the third time the Bible tells it. It is the same story we may have heard on Christmas Eve\u2014the story of the manger and the shepherds and the angels\u2014and it\u2019s the same story Matthew tells in his gospel\u2014with Joseph\u2019s dreams, the wise men and the flight to Egypt. But the point of view is different, and John\u2019s Gospel sounds strange to ears more accustomed to crowded inns and angel choirs. That\u2019s because different folks in the family are telling the same story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, Luke, who wrote the familiar story of Christmas Eve, was a bit of an historian. He was very concerned with getting the dates and rulers right, and with locating everything in time and space. Also, he may have been a gentile convert, and he was very concerned about the role of people who, like him, were considered outsiders. So, Luke is more concerned with shepherds\u2014who were social outcasts\u2014than about kings. And Luke focuses on the perspective of Mary\u2014a radical move since women were even lower on the social ladder than shepherds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew is more traditional. He was certainly a Jew and may have been a scribe. He was very concerned with making it clear that Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies as Messiah, King of Jews. So, shepherds didn\u2019t interest him as much as the royal wise men, and he paid a lot of attention to the flight to Egypt because of the parallel between the Exodus led by Moses and Jesus\u2019 own return from Egypt to Israel. Also, the more traditional Matthew tells the story of Jesus\u2019 birth from Joseph\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was John. John may well have read Matthew and Luke and, if so, he assumes that we have, too. But John is a theologian and a mystic. So, he isn\u2019t concerned with historical details. Instead, he writes of the meaning of Jesus\u2019 birth, and he writes from his theology, and from the holy imagination of his prayers. But he is still telling the same story\u2014all three are talking about the same birth\u2014all three are saying the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John begins the story earlier\u2014he reminds us that Christmas really begins where Genesis begins\u2014in the beginning, with God in creation. So, using language evocative of the first verses of Genesis, John begins by talking about the beginning, and about the Word of God. \u201cThe Word\u201d here is God in action, God creating, God revealing himself. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then he tells the Christmas story\u2014in nine words (in the Greek and English). \u201cAnd the Word became flesh and lived among us.\u201d He who was with God in creation, the one who is God revealing himself to humanity\u2014this one became a person, became flesh\u2014as completely human as you and I. Not God with a people-suit disguise on; not a really good person who God rewarded and made special; not a super angel God created early and saved up for Bethlehem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a person, who was the Word\u2014who was God\u2019s own self. (A chip off the old block.) Soaring words for the most down-to-earth thing that ever happened. But it\u2019s still the Christmas story, still the story Matthew and Luke tell\u2014the story of the birth of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to telling the same story, Matthew, Luke, and John also share one special way of telling it\u2014there is one image, one symbol, and only one, that they all use to talk about that birth in Bethlehem. (Can you think of what it is?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all talk about light\u2014the light of the star, the light that shone around the shepherds, the true light that enlightens everyone. They all continue Isaiah\u2019s vision of light shining on those who live in darkness. Where Christ is, people who understand talk about light. They have to\u2014there is no better image of what is going on. The light shines in the darkness\u2014John proclaims. And somehow, we understand this and we understand that this truth cannot be better expressed in any other words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In large part, we understand this because we know about darkness\u2014we know what it is like to live in and with darkness. Remember what it\u2019s like to try to walk through an unfamiliar place when it\u2019s really dark\u2014or to wake up confused in the middle of the night in someone else\u2019s house, trying to get somewhere? We know what it\u2019s like when we don\u2019t know where things are, and we don\u2019t know what we have just bumped into, or whether we\u2019re going to get where we want to go, or if the next step will be OK or if we will break something and make a mess. We know how easy it is to go in circles in the dark and to get turned around and to stub a toe and get angry and hit whatever is handy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we know what it is like to live like that in broad daylight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What John and Luke and Matthew all say about Christmas is that a light begins to shine\u2014suddenly, quietly, but with absolute certainty. And by that light, we can begin to see. By that light, we can begin to see who we are and who we are created to be. For it is in the person of Jesus that what it means to be fully a human being is finally made clear. In him, we see that our lives are made whole as we surrender them in love and service; in him, we see that really being alive means risking everything for\u2014and because of\u2014the love of God and the Kingdom of God. In him we see that hope need never be abandoned\u2014never\u2014and that we contain possibilities beyond our imagining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, by that light that has come into the world, we begin to see God clearly for the first time. \u201cNo one has ever seen God,\u201d John reminds us. But God is made known to us in Jesus. So, everything we thought about God, everything we had figured out, everything that we were sure we knew about God\u2014all of this is put to the test in Jesus. Who God is, in relationship to us, is fully revealed in Jesus. Not in one saying or one parable or one miracle\u2014but in all of him: in his life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Through all of these together, we finally have the light to see God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The light of Christ, the Word made flesh, comes among us at Christmas\u2014and we celebrate its coming into the world. God had revealed himself and his love to us in Christ. That first Christmas, the stable stank but the light shone\u2014and it continues to shine. It continues to allow us to see\u2014and to show a world living in darkness what we have seen. For by that light we have been given power to become children of God\u2014and to take our places with the light. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sermon was written by the Rev. James Liggett<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon-English-1-Christmas-2019<\/strong><\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[RCL]: Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18 Have you ever noticed that when you get together with your family and start telling stories about when you were growing up, or what happened years ago, the same events sound very different as different people tell the story? Depending on who\u2019s describing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,43,52,3],"tags":[158],"class_list":["post-513037","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-christmas-1"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":16,"label":"Christmas"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":158,"label":"Christmas 1"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/513037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/513037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477266,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/513037\/revisions\/3477266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}