LOGOS LANGUAGE OF LOVE SECOND SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS 2/01/22: READINGS: Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1 1-18.

Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s. Athens

 

May I speak in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit  AMEN

HAPPY NEW YEAR kali chronia IN A SECULAR SENSE for we celebrated the church’s new year with the start of Advent back in November. Today’s gospel reading takes us back to the reading set for Carol services and Christmas – for we are still in the liturgical Christmas season before we move into Epiphany this week.

So today we are thinking about beginnings and endings and the advent book by Maggi Dawn I followed this year has just this as its title. I probably do not have to repeat the beginning of St John’s gospel, ‘In the beginning was the Word and how that very first verse takes us back to Genesis 1. If you were to begin your story how would you start? Where does a storyteller begin?

How would you start to explain the story of Salvation and Christian Good News to someone, to everyone and how did you hear it yourself? I recently listened to a programme on Church for those hard of hearing and deaf. I trained alongside a minister with a speciality in sign language and interpreting. One participant stated that when she reads or hears about logos, Word, that there is no issue for her, she considers it God’s way of communicating with the world. Just like Creation itself, sending his Son and Spirit. That is the beginning and the evolution of the created world under God’s guidance.

The very beginning of the Christmas story is the beginning of the universe – here we are being told that these two narratives are inextricably linked. Whatever we believe and understand about them, we have to look with a different lens and filter under the layers and different dimensions below the wrappers of philosophy, hermeneutics, religion and science to see the purpose and meaning of the universe, its trajectory and human and divine existence within it.

 

Last year, if you remember, my spiritual director encouraged me to think of a word for the year and I encouraged you, in turn, to do that if you found it helpful. My word was GROWTH and I hope I have grown in many different ways under God’s love and care. Growth, I have found can also be painful. And there has had to be pruning in order to encourage new growth.

I am not at all sure about my word for 2022 because I need to take time, to reflect and pray about it but I do have an inkling, a rather strong one actually.  On a slate I have written GROWTH on one side in chalk and GRACE on the other from 2021. It remains to be seen whether this is the word – the 2G words beginning with the same letter. Have I grown in grace?  Can grace fill all the gaps? What is grace anyway?

Henri Nouwen has this to say: ‘I know that alone I cannot see, hear or touch God in the world. But God in me, the Living Christ in me, can see, hear and touch God in the world, and all that is Christ in me is fully my own. His simplicity, his purity, His innocence are very own because they are truly given to me to be claimed as my most personal possessions. All that there is of love in me is a gift from Jesus, yet every gesture of love I am able to make will be recognised as uniquely mine. That is the paradox of grace.  The fullest gift of grace brings with it the fullest gift of freedom.’ Both John and Ephesians mention the word grace more than once. Haritos and the verb eharitosen in verse 3 in Greek in the first chapter of the epistle.

 

What does grace mean? We all know the hymn Amazing Grace. In Christian circles we often end a meeting or service by saying the Grace and we say grace before meals. Its Christian sense can seem very divorced from the everyday usage of the word (logos). We know what a graceful dancer is or what it means to have a few weeks grace in which to pay or meet a deadline, I hope we know what it means to be gracious and fill all the gaps with grace. In Ephesians grace is something that comes from God and that he lavishes upon us. We learn that God has designed the world so that grace and life dance together in partnership. Christ is the lead dancer, the principal and we all have our parts to play.

I don’t know about you but I am not a very good dancer, although I know we have professional dancers among us but in God’s eternal dance that is ok, we are all equal even if we are at different stages and just learning the steps. That is a mark of unique grace. Christ weaves in and out and we are all joined together by the Holy Spirit, who inspires us. We are not alone, dance can be daunting but we need to let ourselves free to dare to join in knowing that we are accompanied even if we do not always hear or recognise the music and rhythm. In this dance there is no beginning or ending think of the Trinity and no words are needed, the choreography has been there since the beginning of the universe.

Awareness of God’s presence throughout time and eternity, listening, observing and waiting is all important. A great example of this is Rose Aisling- Ellis who with her professional partner Giovanni recently won Strictly Come Dancing, a BBC ballroom dancing show. At one point Rose, who is deaf and raising awareness for hearing impairment, danced unaccompanied to demonstrate the power of dance and that of silence.

 

To be part of the story of God’s lavish grace and dance we just need to be willing to join in, accept the lavishness which is the difficult part in itself, take part and to tell out the story and our own story within it. Archbishop Stephen Cottrell, whom I am fond of reading, listening to and quoting, calls himself a storyteller and lists John I as his favourite Christmas account. The very human master storyteller Jeffrey Archer wrote this piece entitled ‘Son of God’ in aid of Cancer Research and their sale of Christmas cards:

As you ponder the story of salvation and remember how you heard it first and what it means to you and your life at the start of this year, you may want to try writing your own summary or choosing a word – the word- to reflect on this year2022. Or you may like to ponder the nativity scene and imagine yourself there or as one of the figures and describe what they are feeling then write your story down. You could choose to write a song or dance or even a poem instead or as part of our blue Christmas section a tribute to someone dear. Whatever you do we do not leave the Christmas story behind, it travels with us.

AMEN