Advent Visions

December 22:  The Word
(Photo by Jack Hotchkiss)

The Christmas story is a small moment in the Bible, told only in two places.  Luke gives us the story of the shepherds, and Matthew tells about the Magi and the star.  John, the one who had a special place in Jesus' heart, ignores the tales of Jesus' birth altogether.   He opens his version of the story with a magnificent riddle, one that human beings have never fully understood.    Here's what he says:  "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. What has come into being  in him was life, and the life was the light of all people."

This remarkable "Word" is "Logos" in Greek, from which we get our word "logic."  Great fields of knowledge like anthropology (study of human beings) or psychology (study of the psyche) have "logos" in them.   When John talks about "the Word" he is referring to the logic or reasoning behind the very existence of everything.  It is the idea which was in the Creator's mind that brought the universe into being.   And like most bright ideas, they don't amount to anything until they are communicated, expressed in words.   So what Word do you suppose God used to express his fundamental idea?   Douglas Adams, in his book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, imagines that a superior race invented a supercomputer that they hoped would answer the question that has plagued philosophers for eons:  “What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?”  And the answer churned out by the computer turns out to be "42."   It's the central joke in this wonderful novel.    Along those lines, it would be puzzling if God's initial word was "salami," or perhaps "hello."   

But John gives us a beautiful answer.   The great Word, the mind and heart of God, was "love."   And love can never be communicated abstractly, only in flesh and blood.   So what holds everything together, the reason behind our being, can be seen in a flesh-and-blood "word":  it's Jesus.    The one whose love holds the stars together, breathes the wind under the wings of seagulls,  and makes the sun give life to minnows, maple trees, and me.   It's the song at the heart of our carolling, the laughter of a baby, the whispering of lovers.  It's the mystery that touches our hearts most deeply, and brings us all to this stable in Bethlehem every Christmas.   It is that first holy word which "became flesh and dwelt among us."  It still does.

The Word

Listen.
Look East as the sun rises,
feel the wind in your hair,
the cry of the gulls rising
into the glorious blue above.
Listen
to the silence 
on this Christmas morning,
the quiet of a world
being made new 
at root and bud,
the peace of possibility.
Listen
to the breath
of the one you love,
a heartbeat that is life,
a miracle, a gift.
Listen
to the Word 
under and over 
every blessed thing:
Love.