1st Sunday of Christmas

Well, Christmas is over. That December season of shopping and presents and radio stations playing holiday music non-stop is over. By my account, it ended at 11 pm on the 25th. That's when the classical musical channel on Direct TV stopped playing Christmas music. But for those of us who are here on this Sunday, "Christmas," or the Feast of the Incarnation, has just begun. Two days have passed, but 10 remain for us to celebrate the Incarnation: God taking on human flesh and blood.

It began three nights ago, with the babe in the manger, surrounded by sheep and shepherds and angels. It is so joyous, and so concrete, to see the soft flesh which could be touched and be reassured that in this uncertain world a fire was lit 2,000 years ago. And that light continues to warm our hearts with hope for a better, more just, more peaceful world. Shining on that soft and fleshy newborn we can bask in that light and warmth. But as much as we hear about the light in today's Good News, or Gospel, I wonder if we feel as warm as we did three nights ago.

Instead of a fat infant full of milk, we have the "Word." Have you noticed how many logos don't have any words in them now? All you need to see is a golden arch and you know it's McDonald's. Increasingly, it is images that compel our attention, not words. Words are abstract symbols. Their only connection to an object or idea or feeling is whatever meaning the speaker gives to them, if he can actually figure out that meaning. We strain to find the right words to express our conflicted feelings. But sometimes the burden of all the conflicted emotions in our hearts is too heavy for mere words. Words can be twisted into whatever meaning a speaker wants to that extent that public leaders can even quibble over what the meaning of "is" is. What's warm and fuzzy about "The Word was with God and the Word was God"?

But as Jesus himself says quite often in John's Gospel; "Very truly I tell you," you cannot get to the baby in the manger, to the Word that was made flesh, without starting at: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." But the Word who is with God and is God is so much more than a word or a string of words put together to persuade, seduce, to con or to condemn. The Greek word logos doesn't mean a single word. It means something more like, "May I have a word with you?" The Word is not a string of letters tied together for some purpose or ulterior motive. The Word is a conversation. This Gospel could begin with, "In the beginning was the Conversation."

No human words will ever explain fully the God who was responsible for that indescribable Big Bang that happened when God said, "Let there be light." But we do know that God and The Word were there together in one Conversation about how to direct this creation. There they were: God the Father and Creator, God the Son and Word, and God the Holy Spirit moving with the wind through all creation. They were always, and always have been, one in conversation and one in action. And this one God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, has always been in conversation with those creatures who knew they were created and understood, therefore, that there is a Creator.

As archeologists have uncovered the burial sites of those long gone human beings we call Neanderthals, they have found petrified meat that was cooked before it was placed in the grave. As simple minded as they were, those prehistoric humans understood that they had been created. And having been created, they knew there was a Creator. In that knowledge, their Creator conversed with them in as much as they could comprehend. And those Neanderthals joined in the conversation as best they could, and expressed their hope that this conversation would be more fully known one day.

As was said before the baby, three nights ago, this day is the day that conversation has become more fully known. The Word has been made flesh and blood. The Conversation has become a human being who "dwelt among us," and has never left. Through the words he left us, he speaks to us today. Among we who become living members; arms and hands of His Body, when we eat the bread and drink the wine, Jesus speaks to us through each other. The light of that holy conversation shines in our darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.