Piling It On- Sermon for the Second Sunday of Christmas Year C

Piling It On

Christmas 2C

January 2, 2022

Good Shepherd, Wells, MN

John 1.1-18

The Rev. Shelly Fayette, Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, WA, has created tongue in cheek Christmas plays from each of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Here is part of her “Christmas Pageant” from John: 

“The room is dark. Tiny children wear black capes. They whoosh around the room whispering, ‘in the beginning...in the beginning...in the beginning.’ One of them whirls around to display a glow in the dark WORD, and they dance over to another child, whose belly reads GOD, and then they link and become one unit, together, dancing, dancing. They keep pulling out glow in the dark scarves that say ‘light, light, light,’ and they dance around lighting all the candles scattered throughout the room. They chant, ‘the darkness did not overcome us! Ha!’"

The “pageant” goes on from there, including the appearance of a “haggard man” who bears witness to the light. Finally, at the end of all the pageants, Pr. Fayette notes, “none of these sets contain stables.” (Look it up; there is no stable in any of the Christmas stories.) Granted, her retellings are an excellent example of geeky pastor humor. But this creative retelling points out that John’s Christmas story, like the Gospel itself, is radically different from the rest of the three Gospels. (Okay, two Gospels, since Mark doesn’t have a Christmas story.) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God … The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. … The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have behold his glory as from a Father’s only Son. … From his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.”

If some of the words of the Prologue to John’s Gospel sound poetic, you aren’t alone. Scholars have long noted hymnic phrases embedded here. And if the opening sentences sound a lot like the creation story in Genesis 1, that’s not accidental either. John insists, rightly so, that the first Christmas was not 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but even before time began. John claims that before God took on human flesh, the whole of creation was infused with the presence of the Christ. He insists that Jesus was not some afterthought or Plan B that God desperately devised when all else failed. No, John claims, Jesus was there at the very start of it all.

John is my favorite Gospel, and verse 16 is one of my favorites in this Gospel: “From his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.” Whenever I encounter this verse I have images of God piling God’s love upon us over and over. I imagine it is some cosmic version of the game, “Monkey Pile” we played as kids. Or even better, how visitors to my parents’ table would constantly be assaulted with an invitation to eat more. “Did you get enough? If you go away hungry it’s your own fault.” Though my parents didn’t wear their religion on their shirtsleeves, they understood hospitality and lived “grace upon grace.”

Even as the stores have pulled all their Christmas stuff and replaced it with Valentine's Day the day after Christmas, John’s Gospel and the church insist that Christmas continues throughout the year. (That’s one reason why I like to leave the Advent wreath up for the 12 days of Christmas.)  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” John says. The word for “dwelt” literally means that God pitched a tent or tabernacled with us. Furthermore, even as Christ died, was raised, and ascended, we believe Christ still tabernacles with us.

In a few minutes, we’ll gather around the Table of Holy Communion where God will continue to pile it on, grace upon grace. Bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus, Immanuel, God with Us. God knows that we need constant, tangible reminders of God’s love for us and freely gives such in the sacraments. As a colleague of mine once noted, when we receive Holy Communion we take the very creator of the universe into our bodies and it’s a wonder we don’t explode. Merry Christmas, God’s Beloved. May you experience the piling on of God’s grace upon grace this Christmas and always. Amen.

My written sermons often preach differently "live." To watch the video, click here.