Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | January 5, 2025
John 1:1-14
While walking past a display of phones at Costco, a worker there asks, “Excuse me, may I ask what phone service you use?” He stands in front of a sign for AT&T.
This conversation happens occasionally and I enjoy having it each time. I answer saying, “I use T-Mobile.”
I know what comes next; the question, “May I ask how much you pay each month?”
“Sure,” I say. “I pay around $20 a month. For two lines. Not each, but total.”
The response to that answer is usually one of surprise, followed by the question, “How is that possible?” Said with an expression of realization that I won’t be buying the services he offers.
I don’t go into great detail, but say something along the lines of, “It’s a special deal they offered when I bought the phones.” To not leave you wondering, I like doing research or looking into things. Phone companies offer deals and sometimes underneath the deals on offer are deals they have, but don’t push because there’s not much profit in them.
Lindsay has a basic flip phone that she uses to make a phone call if she is away from a landline. For $5 a month she gets 30 minutes of phone time, a limit which she has reached only once in six years. My phone is a basic android model that I use only for calls, the occasional text and map directions. There’s a data limit, but I’ve never reached it.
I remember when my great-grandmother passed away at the age of 92. She was born in 1870 and her family migrated from Tennessee to Oregon in a covered wagon in 1875. She was amazed at the changes she had seen since those “pioneer days.” Back in my own early days I thought about the amazing things I might wonder about when I got old. What, “In my day,” stories would I amaze my grandchildren with? One thing about change is that the cultural reference points also change; so that a statement such as, “It’s like something out of Dick Tracy,” is likely to be met with, “Okay boomer.” Thinking of my phone as a necessary bother makes me ponder what modern wonders my great-gran was annoyed with.
And now what has happened with this convenient phone, this thing that fits into our pocket, that allows us to talk to anyone, anywhere at any time, that we can watch videos on and take pictures and record videos with, is we’re reluctant to answer it. If it’s a number we don’t recognize, forget it, no way. If it’s someone we know, maybe we think, “Why are they calling me?” Or if we’re into the proper manners of communication, we schedule a phone call.
Though we celebrate Christmas Day on December 25th, Christmas is a season that lasts twelve days. January 5th is the final day of Christmas. Since the four weeks before Christmas we’ve considered what it means for God to come into the world in the person of Jesus. In the stories of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke, the writers told of how God communicated. God used angels to say what needed to be said – to Mary, to Joseph, to the shepherds. Some people were wise enough to see that God was telling them something through a star in the sky. Once the story took hold, it spread through that tried-and-true method of “word of mouth.”
When God began creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void; meaning it did not yet exist. The very first thing that God did in this formless void, was to speak. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
What did the voice of God sound like? And in what language did God speak?
In that beginning was the “Word.” The Word was with God. The Word was God’s desire to communicate with creation. The Word was God. The essence of God is to share God’s self with creation. And so, the Word became a human being.
We know how impactful words can be, how impactful in fact they are. Words lift us up and they can tear us down. During the days of slavery in this country, it was against the law for slaves to learn how to read. Reading words can lead to ideas and ideas can lead to empowerment and empowerment can lead to freedom.
Jesus is like God’s open book to humankind. His words, his actions, his very life speaks of what God’s ideas and the empowerment and freedom God hopes for humankind.
Last weekend I was at a wedding. Christine and my son Elliott were married and I conducted the service. Their five children in the combined family now range in age between 6 and 13 years. We stopped in at their house on Saturday around noon and were met by everyone, including the two dogs. The wedding was Sunday, so Saturday was a big getting ready day.
Before I even had a chance to sit down, they all said the same thing, yea, demanded the same thing. “Grandad! Tell us a story!” And not just any story, but one in particular. I won’t go into detail because it’s not really a sermon story, but it involves an episode from when I was in the 7th grade. And they want to hear it the same way, with the same details and I better not leave anything out, every time. Words convey meaning. God’s Word tells us what life means. It’s as if God says, “This is the story, make of it what you will.
We are just finishing up the season of God’s wish for goodwill to one and all. There’s something I appreciate about hearing the story read the way it’s supposed to be read. It has to do with one simple word in the story. We hear it every year – “They wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the…” We fill in the blank, “in the inn.”
The “inn” of course; the local whatever in those days would have passed for a Motel 6. But there’s room in the stable out back, so get out there and have your baby. And we fill in the blanks, so that there must have been an innkeeper who was angry at having been woken in the night, but whose wife talked him into letting these traveling misfits have some of the cattle’s straw to sleep on.
We heard it read along the lines of, “Because the guest room was full.” There is a difference between an inn and a guest room. So, which is it?
Like all Presbyterian ministers, in order to be ordained as one, a requirement is to study and learn how to read, to write, to speak and to understand the meaning of Hebrew and Greek. The words used in writing the bible, God’s word.
The Greek word for “inn” appears twice in the Gospel of Luke. Once for place where there was no room and once for a more accurate description for what it actually was: the upper room. The Gospel writer didn’t have to explain what that meant, because the people reading or hearing the story in those days would understand perfectly well.
The house was full. It was full because the Romans demanded an accounting. Everyone had to return to their ancestral home and register. Once they knew who was where they could better control the population and they would have an accurate record for taxing people. So a lot of people showed up in Bethlehem. But it being Jewish culture where hospitality is part of the cultural DNA, even if you are a second cousin twice removed, they will find room. If someone in that crowded house was going to give birth, then they needed to be in a more accessible part of the house so that the other women there could assist. There was no stable out back because family animals slept in the house.
My theory as to why it was translated the way it was is because in the days of King James of England, the underlying culture would have no issue with a pregnant woman being sent to the cow shed to have a baby.
If we take an understanding of the original language, together with a basic understanding of the culture of the time, then a different story emerges. One that speaks of family and community. One that reveals how this Word who became flesh came into the world like anyone. Anyone could identify with him. As the story goes, to anyone who did identify with him, or does identify with him even all these years later, God gives the power to become a child of God.
My son asked me to do something witty for his wedding. I said I could wear my kilt, but that would be too witty. So leave it to me. What I did was to put the word out to the extended family. The five children and the sixth one on the way would be the wedding attendants. I put out a quiet word to the extended family, for folks to say something about their hopes and dreams for the children. I spoke to the children beforehand and asked them to come up with some ideas on their hopes and dreams for their immediate family.
They spoke to the gathered congregation – “We want everyone to be happy and we want to continue to have new adventures.” And when all the vows were made, the children and I said the benediction together. The blessing that sums up God’s hopes and dreams for all people, now that the Word has become flesh:
“On your hearts and your homes – the blessing of God.
On your loving and your laughter – the blessing of God.
On your hopes and your fears – the blessing of God.
Now and forever. Amen.”
Wahkon Presbyterian Church 