First Sunday after Christmas, December 30, 2018
Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18
St Thomas the Apostle
The Rev’d Leo Loyola
Recently I got a new car.
You can’t miss it. It’s the very, very bright yellow Jeep Renegade in our parking lot.
Since getting it, I’ve heard two basic comments.
The first is something most new car owners expect to hear: “Wow, what a nice car!”
The second, most don’t. I know I didn’t, when asked “Did you want yellow?”
On the surface, the comment seems to stem from curiosity:
Was this your only choice at the dealership? Did Melody want you to get yellow?
But, of course, I know better. I know sarcasm when I hear it.
What they’re really saying is, “What an ugly color. I would have gotten it in black or white or red.”
The truth is I absolutely wanted my yellow Jeep.
The dealership didn’t try to palm me its leftovers. And Melody approved of the color choice after the fact.
Yellow was something I’ve dwelled upon for over a year.
Yellow is a color that stands out. It says to all the drivers around me, “Look at me! Here I am.”
But, more importantly, it’s a happy color.
Driving through Dallas for the past couple year can be depressing. Every day, you are surrounded by nothing but a sea of drab, dark-colored cars. And our sometimes overcast weather adds to the dreariness.
So if I’m going to drive through traffic, I want something that makes me feel happy. Whether or not people approve of my color choice is irrelevant.
But, to me, and to anyone who loves the color yellow, it means the world.
In the same way, this was how the first century viewed Jesus’s incarnation into their world. As our Gospel describes, Jesus was the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
Jesus was like my yellow Jeep in a sea of dark cars.
Either people went “Wow”, or simply shrugged their shoulders.
Of the latter group, there were people who:
- Already passed judgment, deciding that Jesus wasn’t for them; rational or not, they believed that Jesus was a waste of time; or
- Were content with the status quo, absolutely fine the way things were; or
- Were convinced that fulfillment could be found by worshiping other Gods such as money or power or personal pride or pleasure or personal philosophy
Clearly they were the naysayers, those who saw no benefit in making Christ a vital part of their lives. As the Gospel says, “Jesus was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.”
They would never be convinced in the awesomeness that is Jesus.
This group found greatness in Jesus.
They who will never understand or appreciate why Jesus came into this world.
They who will never understand or appreciate why Jesus had to die.
They who will never understand or appreciate why Jesus rose from the dead.
But, more importantly, the Gospel was not for those who close themselves off completely from the Christ.
To them, Jesus simply doesn’t matter. To them, he makes no sense. But even if the mystery of Christ could be explained rationally or proved empirically, I doubt it would change ever their mind. They are set in their ways.
As our Gospel says, Jesus came to those “who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”
Just as there are people in this world convinced by how awesome my yellow Jeep is, there are people equally convinced that Jesus was “in the beginning with God”.
The Gospel is, at once, for the world but recognizes that not everyone will accept this truth. And yet, God, to this day, yearns that the whole world recognize this truth.
As our Gospel proclaims:
All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
Of course, as much as I’ve spoken about my Jeep, it doesn’t really matter to me if you like it or not. But I do care about what you think of Christ. I do care about how you’ve allowed his presence shape your life and the decisions you make.
In this season of Christmas, we proclaim that Christ come into this world. My question to you is “how will you respond to Jesus’s incarnation?”
The choice is up to you.
Amen.
