January 4, 2026, The Second Sunday after Christmas

Good Morning, on this Second Sunday of Christmas, as we get ready to enter into Epiphany, we remain in awe that God, who is so mighty and awesome and greater than thee, came down to dwell amongst us. Came in the fullness of flesh and bone, born of the humble virgin; to bear our sins and love the whole world. The Word of God, who was there when the world was created, who spoke life and light into existence, is here laying in a small home in Bethlehem…babbling in Mary’s lap. That’s how we think the story starts, the holy family in Bethlehem, but John, the apostle says “NO! We need to go further back, let us go to the very beginning of the start of all life, let us be reminded of who Christ is.” That is our Gospel this morning, not God in the manger, but God the creator.

Now, why might John start his gospel with an exegesis on Genesis and a throwback to Proverbs 8, why not go into the Christmas story, it’s a great story! In fact, John doesn’t even mention the Christmas story in his Gospel, after this he goes directly into John the Baptist and the Baptism of Jesus. Your guess is as good as mine; but John is doing something interesting here… John wants us to know that in the beginning, as the world is being formed, here is Christ, the light of the world, spreading his light through creation so that it may not be in darkness. Why? So that creation may see the face of God, so that it may know the grace and truth of who created them. Just as Mary and Joseph looked upon the face of God in Bethlehem, creation looks upon the face of the one who speaks life in the beginning.

His starting sentence, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1) speaks more than truth, it speaks poetic beauty, that God’s words are more than just simply words, but the second person of the Trinity. God is his own words and through the Word is life. Those who have heard his words are given life and renewal. The Word brings light into the darkness and the darkness does not overcome and this light becomes the beacon of life. Worlds are formed and dust becomes flesh because of simple, yet powerful, words.

Here is our good news! But maybe, we have been in darkness lately, maybe we have suffered, grieved, struggled; I know I have. Over the last month, I have gone through a family crisis, felt the weight of papers to write, and lost my grandmother. I have wept and felt exhaustion and cried out to God, and what has been the response, “remember who Christ is”.

In our darkness, when answers to why is this happening are not helpful; we sometimes have to remember who Christ is; the one who laid there peacefully in a manger, who had shepherds and sheep, Mary and Joseph, Angels singing loudly around him. Also the one who experienced chaos and crisis and had to become a refugee in Egypt; is the same one who was there when there was nothing. Who spoke dust into flesh, who sprouted the tree that we see, made the neighbours whom we acknowledge, put fur on the squirrels that scurry and curly tails on the pigs that root in the ground. Who offers light to our darkness, grace to our sins, and hope to our hopelessness. The one who took away death’s sting and brought salvation to the whole earth; this is our good news, that “In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn 1:1) and that Word took upon flesh, born of Mary and Joseph, taught, loved and healed. Called out systems, rode a donkey and took the entirety of sin on His shoulders so that we may be redeemed and know life and grace. Amen.