I sometimes find myself ‘staggered’ at the anomalies of the Common Lectionary of readings that we use in the Church of England!

At Christmas we had John 1:1-14, then 2 weeks later we had part of it again, and then today, just another month on, and here it is yet again!

So, avoiding the temptation to simply repeat the sermon I preached at Christmas Midnight, I’m going to go down a different line today!

Words can be very powerful!  When used in a certain way, they have the power to inflict pain, incite hatred and cause long-term harm – and sadly, we see the consequences of this over and again in the harmful rhetoric of our politicians, and I am sure you can all think of examples of words that have hurt you! 

And even when words are used carefully, they're still open to misinterpretation and misunderstanding. I may not hear exactly what another person has said, or I may not properly interpret the thoughts or the feelings behind the words, so I may come away from a conversation with a very different understanding, than that of the other person that I've been speaking to!

But more importantly, and thinking more positively, words also have the power to support, to comfort and to encourage, and like music, when used artistically and poetically, they have the power to lift us to a higher realm, and show us wonderful things, that we might otherwise have missed!

And again, I’m sure we can all think of times when words have had a profound and positive effect on us!

So I am in no way surprised that John, the Gospel writer, with his poetic use of signs and symbols, chose to begin his Gospel, not with references to the birth of a child in Bethlehem, but by referring to Jesus as ‘God’s Word’!

‘ . . . . and the Word became flesh, and lived amongst us’!

At my first Christmas as a choirboy, some almost 60 years ago, when I was only 8, I distinctly remember being profoundly influenced by the words and music of today’s Gradual hymn – ‘Of the Father’s Love Begotten’!

And it has remained one of my favourite hymns ever since! It’s perhaps the oldest hymn that we sing! Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, who wrote the words, lived through the latter part of the fourth Century, and was a Spanish poet and successful lawyer who became a judge. Prudentius has been described as the “the first great poet of the Latin church.”  And the tune which we still sing, is almost as ancient, dating from 11^th Century Italy.

At a time in history when there were many debates and controversies about religious doctrine, Prudentius applies both his legal and poetic skills to make a case for what has become the orthodox understanding of the Trinity. And from the first line of stanza one, “Of the Father's love begotten, e’re the worlds began to be”  - meaning literally, “Born from the parent's heart before the beginning of world's”, Prudentius sets forth his argument that the Son has always, is always, and will always be with God, and with us. The great nineteenth-century translator of classic Greek and Latin poetry, John Mason Neale, shaped Prudentius' poetry into six stanzas, adding the refrain “Evermore and evermore”!  

So, by the time this hymn comes to us, it has travelled an amazing journey through seventeen centuries and at least four countries: a Latin poem from a Spanish poet in the fourth century, a tune from Italy in the eleventh century, and translation from an Anglican in nineteenth-century England! And in it we find that glorious phrase:

“By his Word was all created,

He commanded, and ‘twas done . . . .”

Here, we find the ‘Word made flesh’ of today’s Gospel, the very Incarnation of the Old Testament concept of God’s Wisdom.

In that Old Testament understanding of God’s Wisdom, wisdom was said to be “with” God from the beginning.  Gradually, wisdom became thought of more and more as an actual person, and is pictured in some of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament as a young child playing and skipping with God, while God created the universe. 

Wisdom was considered to be a female figure, Sophia, and this idea has continued in many Christian traditions, which regard the Holy Spirit as the female aspect of the Trinity.  But in the prologue to his gospel which we heard this morning, John takes the idea of Wisdom and applies it to Jesus, combining the idea of Wisdom with the Greek idea, the Logos, which was thought of in Greek philosophy as the founding principle of the universe.  Logos is a male noun, and is translated as “The Word”.

Hence Jesus is “The Word” who, for John, was with God from the beginning, from the creation of the world.

And taking John’s writing, to its extreme, Jesus is the embodiment of God’s words, spewing out from his mouth!  So, In Jesus, God speaks to us, and informs us, in a way that he had never before done!

This is all difficult stuff, so John used poetry to make his point, and rather than explicitly talking about Jesus, he talks instead about “the Word” and leaves his listeners to understand at whatever depth they can manage!

So words are very important.  If we want future generations to know anything at all about the Word of God, then we need to find our own words, right now, to tell them about the gospel in ways which will inspire them and introduce them to God in every day terms which other people will understand.

It's a big challenge, but I do believe that how we (the Church of today) deal with the use of language, will be a defining factor in whether there is, or is not, a continuing Christian culture in our land!

So, my friends, if words are important, may we have the grace to remember that each time we open our mouths to speak, we are given the opportunity to influence and change other people’s thinking and understanding! 

That is an awesome responsibility, and one in which we can only be sustained through our worship of the Christ, who is God’s word made flesh and come amongst us!