People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: The Right WORD Now and Always, First Sunday after Christmas '17 Yr B

For Sunday, December 31, 2017, 1^st Sunday After Christmas, Year B, Readings: Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Psalm 147, Galatians 3:23-25; 4-4-7;

John 1:1-18

For the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up...For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest... [Isaiah 61:11a; 62:1a]

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds...The LORD lifts up the lowly, but casts the wicked to the ground. [Psalm 147:3, 6]

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law...So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. [Galatians 4:4, 7]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God...What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it...The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [John 1:1-2, 3b-5, 17]

The Gospel of John has marked differences from the other three Gospels which are known as the Synoptic Gospels because of their similarities to each other. John's emphasis might be thought of as more "theological" and contains material not in the other three and, in some cases, seemingly contradicting them. But the beauty of the mysterious opening, for me, is something to linger with and ponder. Jesus, the Word, was with God, and the Word was God...The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

The Word comes from the Greek, logos, and is usually defined - in theological terms - as Jesus. Once we understand who the Word is, then the Prologue [John 1:1] may be more easily comprehended in verse 14: the Word became flesh and lived among us. Jesus is the face of God, was with God from the beginning, and was sent to be among us to make God and God's will known.

In the 4th century, St. Athanasius said of Jesus, He became what we are that he might make us what he is. Paul tells us in Galatians that Jesus is faith revealed by God. Those who followed Jesus in his time and who influenced others who came after, have all tried to instruct us in ways to be more like him, our Christ, the Messiah. This Child, just born, is God's promise, God's Word, with flesh, blood, and a beating heart, like us, and that I can grasp and almost understand. Yet the mystery of God endures, for if we do think we fully understand God, Jesus, and the Spirit - the Triune God, the Holy Trinity - then our god is too small.

As the Church year unfolds we will soon be led through the woes of Lent and Holy Week until the glorious Resurrection. In the meantime, let us savor this moment of great Birth, and through all of the days to come let us also know that our Redeemer lives. If we relinquish ourselves to steadfast faith, however difficult at times, and allow ourselves to be open, Jesus is the light in our hearts that darkness cannot overcome. Jesus is the right WORD, now and always.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ O God of All That Is, Seen and Unseen, into this fullness of time You have sent our Messiah, woman-borne, to redeem us as Your own children. Let us rejoice with our whole beings, as heirs of Your eternal Kingdom, justified by faith, and proclaiming Christ’s grace and truth.