josephholubsermons


 

December 25, 2011 -   Christmas Day

John 1:1-14

CHRISTPOWER

John Shelby Spong along wrote  poem called “Christpower” that was inspired by the rather cosmic descriptions of Christ in John 1.    In it we hear echoes of other scripture references as well.  I will try to do justice to this free verse poem in my dramatic reading of it.  A couple of places in my reading  I will pause and reference John, chapter 1.  

From John’s gospel: “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.”  (John 1:1-2)

CHRISTPOWER!

Far back beyond the beginning, stretching out into the unknowable,
incomprehensible, unfathomable depths, into the dark and void
of infinite eternity behind all history, the Christpower was alive.

This was the living, bursting, pulsing, generating, creating
smoldering, exploding, fusing, multiplying,
emerging, erupting, pollenizing, inseminating,
heating, cooling power of life itself:  Christpower.
And it was good!

Here - all things that we know
began their journey into being.
Here - light separated from darkness.
Here - Christpower began to take form.
Here - life became real, and that life spread into
emerging new creatures evolving into ever higher intelligence.

There was a sacrifice here and  a mutation there.
There was grace and resurrection appearing
in their natural order, occurring, recurring,
and always driven by the restless, creating, energizing
life force of God, called the Christpower,
which flowed in the veins of every living thing.
And it was good!

From John’s gospel: “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ” (John 1:4)

In time, in this universe, there emerged creatures who were called human,
and the uniqueness of these creatures lay in that they could perceive this life-giving power.

They could name it, and embrace it, and grow with it, and yearn for it.

Thus human life was born, but individual expressions of that human life
were marked with a sense of incompleteness, inadequacy,
and a hunger that drove them ever beyond the self
to search for life’s secret and to seek the source of life’s power.
This was a humanity that could not be content with anything less.

And once again, in that process, there was sacrifice and mutation,
grace and resurrection in the human order, occurring, recurring.
And it was good!

From John’s gospel:  “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.   He was in the world, and the world did not know him.  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.  The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”  (John 1:5, 10-12, 14)

Finally, in the fullness of time, within that human family,
one unique and special human life appeared:
whole
complete
free
loving
living
being
at one
at peace
at rest.

In that life was seen with new intensity that primal power of the universe,
Christpower.  And it was good!

Of that life people said: Jesus,
you are the Christ, for in you we see
and feel and experience the living force of life
and love
and being
of God.

He was hated, rejected, betrayed, killed,
but he was never distorted.

For here was a life in which
the goal, the dream, the hope of all life is achieved.

A single life among many lives.
Here among us, out from us,
and yet this power, this essence,
was not from us at all,
for the Christpower that was seen in Jesus
is finally of God.

And even when the darkness of death overwhelmed him,
the power of life resurrected him;
for Christpower is life eternal,
without beginning,
without ending.
It is the secret of creation.
It is the goal of humanity.

Here in this life we glimpse
that immortal
invisible
most blessed
most glorious
almighty life-giving force
of this universe
in startling completeness
in a single person.

Men and women tasted the power that was in him
and they were made whole by it.
They entered a new freedom, a new being.
They knew resurrection and what it means to live
in the Eternal Now.
So they became agents of that power,
sharing those gifts from generation to generation,
creating and re-creating,
transforming and redeeming,
making all things new.

And as this power moved among human beings,
light once more separated from darkness.
And it was good!

They searched for the words to describe
the moment that recognized the fullness of this power
living in history,
living in the life of this person.

But words failed them.

So they lapsed into poetry:
When this life was born,
they said,
a great light split the dark sky.
Angelic choruses echoed the heavens
to sing of peace on earth.
They told of a virgin mother,
of shepherds compelled to worship,
of a rejecting world that had no room in the inn.
They told of stars and oriental kings,
and gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

For when this life was born
that power that was
and is
with God,
inseparable,
the endless beginning
was seen
even in a baby
in swaddling clothes
lying in a manger.

Christpower.

Jesus, you are the Christ.

To know you is to live,
to love,
to be.

O come, then, let us adore him!