As ever, my thoughts are never completely original – or at the very least are triggered by others. This week’s offering for our online service started a couple of months ago when I was reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s ‘When God is Silent’ which is subtitled ‘Divine language beyond words’.
Words are the universal currency of the preacher, the poet and the playwright. But sometimes it feels as though that currency has been devalued.
**In a world of fake news, what have words become? what is truth?
**in a world of constant noise and information overload, how do we know which words to listen to?
**in a world of advertising spin, when vine ripened tomatoes don’t always live up to our hopes or their hype, how do we know what to believe?
**in a world of abbreviation and soundbites, how do we experience the value and beauty of words?
**and yet the Word became flesh
But how do we know we can trust this word? Might it too prove to be fake news, this God in human form? Might the hype not live up to the promise? How do I hear the truth in a maelstrom of other voices?
This poetry of John, this hymn to the Word, this is one of the most beautiful passages in scripture. The beauty and the value of the words draw me to it every time I hear it. Strip away the myths of the nativity with the donkey and the kings and the stable that’s never even mentioned and leave me with John.
The Word became flesh and lived among us.
Through the Word the universe came into being, the Word who spoke the world into being in creation, who spoke and out of the void created stars and planets and universes and the cosmos; who spoke and imagined snowflakes and sea anemones and sunflowers; the Word became flesh.
All things came into being through him, and not a thing was made that was not made by him.
He was the light of all people, and the light that shines in the darkness.
In a world of fake news and advertising and twisted statistics, this Word shouts an eternal truth.
That there is darkness. That all is not well and the Word does not deny it. You know this past year has had its fair share of darkness, but this year is not the only year and our darkness not the only darkness. There is always darkness and challenge and pain.
And there is pain in this for the Godhead too. The rejection of those whom you brought to birth. The rejection by the people you loved into being.
John’s words about the Word don’t sugar coat the truth or gloss over the facts. And perhaps, sometimes it’s a relief to hear that all is not well and it’s not just me. That this strange journey of faith we’re on, you and me, doesn’t require us to pretend that life is fine or we’re always full of the joys of spring, even in the deep midwinter.
Telling the truth, naming the darkness, admitting all is not well allows us to wake up to the Word among us, to hear the call of the one who knows our name and to hear the truth that follows. This is no fake news, no advertiser’s ploy. Telling the truth about the darkness lets us trust the good news too.
And there is good news.
While there is darkness, the darkness will not win. The light shines on. This is what Frederick Buechner calls the ‘tragedy and comedy’ of the gospel we preach*. The darkness gives way to the light. Tragedy moves to comedy – even a tiny candle beats a room of darkness – and then to the greater truth. That the Word has come to dwell among us, right in the middle of the darkness, but that the darkness will never have the final word.
Words are the universal currency of the preacher, the poet and the playwright. And John’s gospel begins with a prologue full of poetry and drama, of words full of richness and depth that proclaim the truth of the Word, creator of the cosmos made human, truth and light dwelling among us. And in his prologue, words describing the Word reach their full potential again as we read
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
If we take one verse into the new year with us, let it be that one.
*Telling the truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairytale. Quoted by David Lose and now on my ever growing list of Books I Must Read.
Musings of a Maverick Priest 