Second Sunday of Christmas (B)—John 1:(1–9) 10–18

Mike Chapman: Christ Child Just Born (1999) 

St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London

Grace Upon Grace

 

This prologue,

this introduction,

this foreword to John’s Good News,

turns out to be, simply,

a whole long list of gifts

that one might unwrap,

one per day,

in these days of Christmas.

Pick a verse, any verse.

“. . . Word was God.”

“He was in the beginning . . .”

“All things came . . .”

“. . . the light of all people”

“. . . darkness did not overcome”

“. . . a man sent from God”

“. . . all might believe through him.”

And so on.

John’s just getting started,

warmed up for telling his story,

uncovering the jewels that

you, too, can stick in your back pocket

to pull out some day

when you need a reminder that,

even if you don’t see God today,

grace and truth are still yours

because of this Jesus, this Christ,

this astonishing news for a New Year.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

Every Grace Upon Grace

 

And the Word became flesh
And the Word lived with us,
And though John knows no crèche,
And no first Christmas fuss,
Still he tells us this news
Of this Word in the world
So we'll be disabused—
Woman, man, boy and girl—
Of the notion God lives
In a place we must find!
Au contraire! What God gives
Is the world now defined
Where we fully receive—
By the Maker's embrace—
Every love now conceived,
Every grace upon grace.

Scott L. Barton

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. 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. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

 

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

 

He 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. But to all 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.

 

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.