Reading 1
The Word made flesh
The reading
John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light. The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The companions
Psalm 33:6-9
By the LORD’s word, the heavens were made; all their army by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood firm.
Isaiah 55:10-11
For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
The note
John does not start with a birth. He starts with speech. Everything that exists was made through a word, and the word was God. Sit with how strange that is.
We handle language all day. We type, send, generate, reply, and almost none of it makes anything.
Then verse fourteen turns. The Word became flesh, and lived among us. Not a message about God. God, in a body, in a particular town, with a face people could look at.
And mostly did not recognize. John says it twice in one breath: the world was made through him and did not know him; he came to his own and they did not receive him. The light shines and is not overcome, and is also missed.
Both are true at once, which is the hard part. Something enormous can stand in front of you, made of the same stuff as you, and go unread. That is worth remembering by anyone who expects recognition to be easy.
This week
Count, for one day, how many words you produce. Messages, comments, prompts, replies, drafts. Then find the one that actually did something: changed a decision, kept a promise, reached a person who needed reaching. Most of the rest is weather.
This is not a reason to feel bad about the weather. It is a way to feel, in your own hands, the difference between words that move air and a word that makes a world. Write that one down before the day ends.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” in the Psalm.
This page is made for paper too: print it and the reading prints clean, ready for the table.