Twelve Days of Christmas Reflections - Day 4

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Gospel of John doesn't spend any time with the birth of Jesus, he introduces Jesus as the Word. John is clear that Jesus is God and that he was at creation. The beginning of John's Gospel sounds a lot like the beginning of The Book of Genesis. The Book of Genesis starts by telling us that God created the universe by speaking. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. John says that Jesus is the Word and the Word created the world. So, the Word is how God brings things into being - light, earth, sea, animals. Why did the Word come in flesh to earth at the time that He came? He didn't create a new planet, animal, plant or body of water? The Word creates but what did He create?

Perhaps He came to create a new world order. Jesus said over and over again that the poor would be rich and that the last shall be first. He consistently told anyone who would listen to love God and your neighbor; and He told them your neighbor is everyone. Jesus did not lead with a sword, He led with a message of "turn the other cheek." Jesus spoke and touched the outcast, the lonely and the unclean. He forgave sins while others wanted to stone the sinner. Jesus healed those who suffered in mind, body or spirit; He laid hands on the leper that no one would touch. Jesus went to the cross without a fight even though He had committed no crime. Not only did Jesus suffer the beating and humiliation of His persecutors, He asked God to forgive them.

How has the world changed in the past two thousand years? I'm not sure that we have honored His life, ministry and death. We are still at war, sometimes invoking His name to justify our actions. We still fail to love others, by lying to them, cheating them or gossiping about them. We seek revenge against those who have hurt them. We fail to feed and provide medical help to ALL people. We still consider certain groups of people as untouchable and we leave them to suffer alone. We look out for ourselves before others.

This leads me to wonder what I can do to live a life that honors Jesus' life, ministry and death. God's grace says that I don't have to pay the debt, because I never can. But this doesn't mean that I should just sit here and accept the grace without being changed by it. As Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 

I have found over the last year I have been challenged to do new things, way out of my comfort zone. Maybe this is the start of the "new" me. Of course soon it will just be part of me and I'll have to grow in a different way. I think that is part of the reason the Word came in flesh, to remind us that we are constantly being created.