“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,^[a] full of grace and truth.  (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)  From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” John 1:14-18

This Changes Everything

By Rick Straker

That the Word, logos, God chose to be born a child. Human, and yet divine (as if we have any sense of what that really means). That’s just preposterous… isn’t it?

For me, it’s easier to go with the ethereal (pronounced in a high-brow British accent) Jesus the Divine. Like the wonderful picture William Chatterson Dix paints:

What Child is this, who laid to rest
On Mary’s lap, is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ, the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!

Angels singing… the announcement of cosmic proportions. I can hear the heavenly chorus swell.

No, no problem there. But God becoming human? No beatific halos for Mary and Jesus. Just a poor boy being born, out in a stranger’s barn, rich with the smells of the animals.  A baby who cried, suckled, and needed his diapers changed?

More like Joan Osborne’s “One of Us.”

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin’ to make his way home?

The first song fills me with awe. 

The second chokes me with feelings of “tryin’ to make my way home.”

And I am so grateful that God chooses to walk with us.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life,^[a] and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:1-5

Word Revealed

By Kirk Blackard

This passage is difficult for me to understand. I take it, however that John is referring to Jesus as the Word, and that attributing to Jesus characteristics of words gives us a better understanding of who he is and what we may look forward to. Several characteristics come to mind:

Words reveal unseen thoughts. The Word reveals the unseen God, as God has spoken to us and revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. We can learn to know God better by seeking to hear Him in every way He communicates, and especially in truly knowing the Word.

Words convey messages and meaning, and are vehicles for sharing our thoughts and providing comfort and healing. Through words we communicate with others and form relationships. Jesus has done the same things. Jesus has conveyed the message of good news, that He is with God and is the light that shines in the darkness, the vehicle for comfort and healing.

Words are powerful. It’s often true that “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Even though words are made of nothing but letters they are powerful things because they convey meaning, thoughts, and feelings. Similarly, the Word is the power of God that can change the world and assure salvation for us all.

Words maintain their relevance. The word of God is alive and active, and Jesus is the living word of God. Just as our vocabulary adapts to stay alive and relevant, the Word continues as the light of mankind, even in an ever changing world.

In summary, the Word reveals God and conveys a powerful message of good news that continues to be relevant for all of us.

“Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King
Of Solomon.

Give the king your justice, O God,
    and your righteousness to a king’s son.
May he judge your people with righteousness,
    and your poor with justice.
May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
    and the hills, in righteousness.
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
    give deliverance to the needy,
    and crush the oppressor.

May he live while the sun endures,
    and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
    like showers that water the earth.
In his days may righteousness flourish
    and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

May he have dominion from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
May his foes^[b] bow down before him,
    and his enemies lick the dust.
May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles
    render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
    bring gifts.
May all kings fall down before him,
    all nations give him service.

For he delivers the needy when they call,
    the poor and those who have no helper.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
    and saves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
    and precious is their blood in his sight.

Long may he live!
    May gold of Sheba be given to him.
May prayer be made for him continually,
    and blessings invoked for him all day long.
May there be abundance of grain in the land;
    may it wave on the tops of the mountains;
    may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
    like the grass of the field.
May his name endure forever,
    his fame continue as long as the sun.
May all nations be blessed in him;^[c]
    may they pronounce him happy.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
    may his glory fill the whole earth.
Amen and Amen.

Blessings Upon a King

By Paul Riddle

This psalm invokes God’s blessings upon a king, probably on the occasion of his coronation. It is unabashedly aspirational. It projects a world imagined, in which the king exercises godly rule, intentionally seeking divine guidance to rule with justice and righteousness. In this hoped-for world, the king thoughtfully considers the impact of his decisions on those who will be affected and seeks to mitigate the affects on those who are most vulnerable. The dignity of each person is upheld, the forces of oppression are thwarted, and the people flourish.

Few of Israel’s kings ruled with the justice and righteousness that the Psalmist envisions. Those qualities remain scarce among the rulers of our own time.

Few of us exercise power on the scale of a king, but each of us exercises power in some realm – parent, sibling, employer, supervisor, teacher, and decision maker. In those realms, where most of life is lived, our influence on the people whose lives we touch may be even more far-reaching and long lasting than the influence of a sovereign on his or her subjects.

Whatever power is entrusted to us, may we exercise it justly and righteously.

“Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.  He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.  For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.  The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.” Isaiah 7:10-17

Sign of Hope

By Daniel Marolf

Most of you (myself included) upon reading this passage were probably confused until you got to verse 14. “What does this have to do with Adven… Oh! There it is! It’s Jesus!” But before we get to Jesus, let’s take a second to consider the other seven verses. For that, I need to tell a brief story (also found in 2 Kings 16:5-20). The story begins in the 8th century BC when Ahaz is the king of Judah. During his reign, the kings of Aram and Israel rebel against the king of the supremely-powerful Assyria, and they want Judah to help them in their fight. When Ahaz refuses, these two kings turn their attention first towards Judah, hoping to overthrow Ahaz by force and put their own king in place. Enter Isaiah (and our passage). Isaiah is telling Ahaz that all he needs to do is trust in Yahweh for help, not call upon Assyria (which he later does). The sign for Yahweh’s deliverance will be the birth of this baby boy, whose name would mean “God with us.” Isaiah explains that before this child is old enough to tell right from wrong, Yahweh would have delivered them from the hands of these two kings, whom Ahaz dreads. The birth of Immanuel was to be a sign of hope. Why does this matter? Fast-forward several centuries to the birth of Jesus, whom we, as Christians, declare with Matthew 1:22-23 to be “God with us.” The 1st century experience of the Jewish people was not a whole lot better than 8 th century experience. They were subject to Roman oppression and domination, able to worship Yahweh, but only on the terms of the Romans. When Jesus was born, his birth became a sign to everyone that God had not forgotten them. In fact, God was literally with them. The ancient predicament might sound similar to our modern predicament. With so much death, violence, and hatred throughout our society and our world, sometimes it seems like God has forgotten us. But then, we remember Jesus – “God with us.” As Christians, we believe that this world is not how it ought to be – that this death, violence, and hatred goes firmly against the plan God had for his world. Jesus is our sign of hope, reminding us constantly that God is working to make the world right.

Lord, thank you for being a God who is for us, who works through us, and who most importantly is with us. During this Christmas season, may we fix our eyes on Jesus and remember that you have not forgotten us and that you are working to make the world right. May your advent – your coming – this season be to us a reminder not only that you came, but that you are coming back. Praise the Lord!