<html><body><div>We're using John 1:1-18 as the Gospel for this Sunday, one of two when The Episcopal Church may diverge from the standard RCL texts. So this may not speak to what you're preparing.</div><div><br></div><div>Happy thoughts, and blessings on the new year.</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST ALBAN, ALBANY<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>1 CHRISTMAS b</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>ISAIAH 61:10 – 62:3<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>31<sup>st</sup> DECEMBER, 2017</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>GALATIANS 3:23-25; 4:4-7<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM 147</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>JOHN 1:1-18</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I may have quoted this before. I know I’ve referred to the poet and mystic, John O’Donohue. He wrote, “It would be infinitely lonely to live in a world without blessing. The word ‘blessing’ evokes a sense of warmth and protection; it suggests that no life is alone or unreachable.” <sup>1</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“No life is alone or unreachable.” What a blessing! What a promise!</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>There are as many reasons why God came in Jesus as there are stars in the sky, but way at the top is that God never wants not one single one of us to be alone or unreachable.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>What would have happened if the first hominids had behaved with compassion, with concern, with love – even in their rudimentary forms? That’s a question that can never be answered, at least on this side of the veil. But it’s worth considering. And we don’t need to go that far back. What if our great grandparents or even our grandparents had recognised that to be truly human, to be truly reflective images of God<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>? Of course, they have the benefit, as we do, of living after the birth, and life, and death, and resurrection of Jesus, just as we do. Still, the principle is the same.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“What if…” games <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>CAN</u></b> be counterproductive. They can actually make one give up, whether or not one is starting down a new path or trying to repave a current one. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>BUT</u></b>, if folk had not drifted more and more into a self-centred, self-absorbed existence; if folk had, instead, remembered, constantly, the needs and the prayers of those who live in every-growing circles around us, and stopped worrying about themselves, I’d bet that most of the problems on this earth might not have occurred.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>But this wasn’t so. I can decide for myself, regardless of how it affects my neighbours, even my family; I can go wherever and whenever I want; I’m the greatest and brightest thing since sliced fruit – and we’re not even finished thinking outside the garden of Eden. “Me first” must not only be the worst possible thing for ourselves, it must be incredibly distressing to God. And so God, remembering how little attention was paid to all those who’d brought prophecies and guidance in the past; God came to earth in the visible, touchable, listenable Person of Jesus, Son of Mary.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This is what the Gospel of John is about. As we all know, I’m sure, John’s Gospel doesn’t paint a picture of sheep and cattle; nor of burdened donkeys traipsing along trails; nor of inns, nor shepherds. It may seem that this Gospel’s opening chapter is dry and academic, rather than the personal nature of, say, Luke’s words of last weekend. But the Fourth Gospel is intent on widening our horizons, in bringing us to take in the totality of the universe and not focus on simply one insignificant village and a few people. This Gospel whose opening we heard once again this morning is intent in making sure that we understand just who Jesus is.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Right at the end of this Gospel we hear the words, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” <sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>In other words, you believe in Jesus already. You know who He is, or have a fair idea of that, but this Gospel is written not simply to reinforce that but to help you to try to take in the enormity of what happened.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It’s this Fourth Gospel which talks about the entirety of creation and how Jesus is to be understood, without question, as Divine. The writer of this Gospel wants those who live in the various communities of the followers of Jesus to have no doubt about the authority of Jesus, and what He’s reported to have said and done, and what those who lived with Him heard and saw done.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>When I began thinking about this sermon, based on such a famous Gospel passage, my initial question was, “Is it too late to think about surprises?” Although it’s only been seven days – and let <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT</u></b> time frame sink in, with all its associations; it’s only been seven days and the wrapping paper and ribbons and bows have all but disappeared. It’s even possible that one of the gifts has been broken or lost already, who knows.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>But surprises? Do they ever stop? Surely not. And it’s probably even more practical, certainly more noticeable, when something arrives, something awakens in us when we thought the gift-giving was over.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This is what came to my mind. Seven days after the Feast of last weekend, here we stand at the completion of one week and the beginning of the next. Creation, as the poetry of Genesis put it; creation was assembled and developed within such a time frame and then it was given to those who lived on the various parts of it, for them to treasure, to safeguard, and to keep productive.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Setting aside the fact that we now know that creation occurred billions of years ago and took an unbelievably long time to reach where we are now, the whole idea of us coming here this morning to listen to the story of how the Creator became human should make us tingle. This must be one of the greatest surprises of all time, a surprise that occurs for every generation; yet a surprise which says the same thing. God wishes absolutely no one and no thing to be alone or unreachable.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Maybe we should be grateful that this introduction to the Gospel is written in such philosophical and metaphysical terms. If they were direct – say in words no more than three syllables long; if these terms were reduced in any way, then we might be tempted to think locally instead of universally. Today’s author is pointing farther and farther away from ourselves, far past the point at which any current telescope can provide pictures. Otherwise, we might be persuaded to think far too narrowly about God. It’s only when we re-admit the utterly indescribable nature of God that we can begin to appreciate the spectacular surprise which is and always will be before us. It is this God who has come to earth, the God who trails within and behind the sparkling particles of creation. Jesus <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>IS</u></b> God, no question about that, wrote the Gospel writer. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><br></span></span></p></div></body></html>