Copyright by WH Marchl Page 1 of 2

Abstract: John’s first verses comprise a poem or a hymn to God in Christ. John writes his hymn, his poem which serves as the introduction to his gospel, about the Word, Jesus, that is God; about creation and the world; about what it means for us that Jesus came into the world--as God and man--and dwelt among us. “From his fullness have we received, grace upon grace,” John writes. ‘Come thou long expected Jesus.’ Jesus is the light--the true light that enlightens every man. We are the children of God. We are born of God. Hope and Love and Grace and Faith are miracles, the gift from God to his children--the one and eternal Christmas present. One theologian writes about the book of John being a record of glory breaking into the world through the flesh. The glory of God, the glory of his church comes into the world. Physical light comes to a darkened space, where we all stand as God's children. Glory shines through in this world in God's presence among his people. Pray for healing and God’s grace.

Darkness Cannot Quench It

In the past seven days we have witnessed two acts of God, one major and one minor. First, we continue to pray for the untold lives lost in the Far East. We pray that light perpetual will shine upon the dead, and that disease will spare the living. The minor event was last week’s storm that kept from preaching about one of my favorite texts in the Gospels, the prolegomena—or introduction—to the gospel according to John. Not to be too beholden to the lectionary, therefore, we will use that gospel this morning.

John’s first verses comprise a poem or a hymn to God in Christ. To employ a musical analogy about this hymn, John sets in 18 verses, the key signature for one of the most difficult and moving and recognized passages in the New Testament. John writes his hymn, his poem which serves as the introduction to his gospel, about the Word, Jesus, that is God; about creation and the world; about what it means for us that Jesus came into the world--as God and man--and dwelt among us. “From his fullness have we received, grace upon grace,” John writes.

In the church year, we have come to that wonderful season of Christmas. All of our presents are opened; hopefully you have all had a good long nap or two. Now we reflect upon and ponder the wonderful event of Christmas--the coming of the Christ-child. Come thou long expected Jesus. All throughout Advent we prepared ourselves for the greatness that was coming. Now we sit back to allow the full implications of the coming of the Christ wash over us. That is why we are brought to this place in John for Christmas season.

In these words of John we have a kind of poetic "explanation" or poem of praise to capture the wonder of the Christmas season. John engages our hearts and minds prayerfully in the knowledge and love of God in order to root us in the hay of that manger. Listen to John: The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world…He came to his home...To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become the children of God." This Messiah has come. God took human form to live and die as one of us. Eighteen verses prepare us; help us to pray upon the central point in the history of civilization.

Many comfortable phrases are used here. Jesus is the light--the true light that enlightens every man. John gives us analogies so that we might understand how we fit in to this miraculous event called the Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh. We are the children of God. We are born of God, John writes, neither of blood nor of the will neither of the flesh nor of the will of man. We are born of God.

No wonder the lectionary gives a few days to rest up after the holidays! This is pretty heavy and wonderful stuff. Imagine: Jesus came into the world, a light to enlighten the nations that we might believe in Him and find salvation. "From his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace."

A miraculous thing happened in Bethlehem these 2000 years ago. Hope and love and grace and Faith are miracles, the gift from God to his children--the one and eternal Christmas present.

One theologian writes about the book of John being a record of glory breaking into the world through the flesh. The glory of God, the glory of his church comes into the world. Physical light comes to a darkened space, where we all stand as God's children. Spiritual light comes to a darkened, starving, disaster-ridden world in the form of Jesus Christ, that we all might believe. We know that we live and move and have our being in Him.

Glory breaks into the world through the flesh, through the birth of the baby Jesus. This is the one and eternal present of Christmas-- the gift that keeps on giving. Glory shines through in this world in God's presence among his people. Receive that gift and believe. Receive the sign of glory in communion: Christ came into the world for you.

Pray for those who cannot come to an altar this day, wherever they may be. Pray for healing and God’s grace. Feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

--WHM+.

MLK Sermon

One Episcopal Priest’s sermon on Martin Luther King

King of the Commonwealth

“’I am the LORD, who made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
who frustrates the signs of liars
and makes fools of diviners,
who turns wise men back
and makes their knowledge foolish,
who confirms the word of his servant
and fulfills the counsel of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited.’”

Isaiah 44.24-26

I bring you Good News this evening. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob–the God who sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to live and die as one of us–loves you. God watches over you this night as He works out His plan of redemption in history. As we read in Psalm 37, “He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.”

We worship together on this second Sunday in Epiphany to praise God and to remember the ministry and witness of His servant, The Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. In the season of Epiphany Isaiah’s prophecy proclaims that we shall see God’s promise of salvation at work in the world. In the words of our hymn, we see ‘God in man made manifest,’ just as the Wise Men saw a star. Epiphany means ‘revealed’ or ‘made manifest.’ Nearly fifty years ago, God’s will became manifest in the ministry of one man whose witness we celebrate, an African American who followed a Jewish carpenter to transform America. Epiphany offers a sign, like a dove descending, that our world can and will change. I bear witness tonight to the radical power of God, who changed how we live in this country–black and white, rich and poor—working through his servant The Reverend Dr King, making manifest the vision of justice and salvation.

I want to tell you the story of Martin, a preacher’s son. Martin heard the call of his father’s voice in the same Scripture you hear each week in the pews of this Alumni Memorial Chapel. Before there was a Doctor King, there was a boy named Martin. Martin faced all the challenges you faced as a child, realizing as he became increasingly conscious of the world around him that justice and equity did not reign. He saw barriers and divisions. He also saw God’s vision for humanity (in a world fraught with injustice) for all who would look. Martin saw in God a plan made manifest in history, a kingdom where no second-class citizenship exists, no barriers hobble God’s children because of the color of their skin.

Before Christmas, we gathered to hear Isaiah’s call to a world that changed forever by the birth of God’s son, the Messiah. Isaiah writes to a people who have eyes, but cannot see, and ears but cannot hear. Isaiah writes, “Here am I, Lord, send me, Lord.”

Nearly two thousand years later, Martin saw what Isaiah saw. Martin heard God’s call. Martin spoke. The victory he proclaimed from pulpit and lectern unfolds this very night, nearly forty years after his murder. We hear in Isaiah the words of a loving God who transforms lives and cultures, who beneficently rules a commonwealth in which the peace of Jerusalem is established, may they prosper who love her. Martin lived with that peace. It gave him strength and resolve to do God’s will on this earth, no matter the cost. The cost was his life, just like the Jewish carpenter he followed.

Martin listened to the Word in his Father’s church. He studied the Law and covenant of Scripture. Doctor King grew from a carefully cultivated and nurtured field that equipped him for the work of ministry. He took up his vocation to become (not a medical doctor), but a doctor of the church. He entered the mission field with the tools of a theologian.

In the entire Bible, we glimpse Jesus the young man only once, in the Gospel of Luke. After the Feast of the Passover, Jesus goes missing. His frantic mother leaves the great caravan returning north to Nazareth. Mary finds Jesus in the Temple precincts, arguing and parsing Hebrew Scripture with the rabbis, the doctors of the church. Jesus answers his bewildered mother, “Did you not know I would be in my Father’s house?”

As the young Jesus grew to manhood—the Messiah—to establish the peace of Jerusalem, so did young Martin grow to proclaim the message of the Acceptable Year of the LORD, a time when the blind see and the deaf hear, when the windowed and orphaned are loved, and the joyous shielded. As God’s servant, Dr. King pruned the choking weeds of segregation and injustice from the field given to him by his Father in heaven. He tended a civilization almost—but not quite–ready to break into blossom.

Tonight we sing praise to “God in man made manifest.”

This evening I bring Good News. Be radically transformed by the words of Isaiah and Luke and Doctor King. Leave this church tonight strengthened by this journey to the altar of God whose child, Martin, saw the vision of a world where divisions cease. See God manifest in the world. “Fret not yourself because of evildoers” as you follow the path. God’s power will sustain you. God’s power sustained Doctor King in his ministry, his proclamation of a citizenship in a commonwealth where no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, and no authority reigns except that of an All Loving and All Merciful creator. For a time, we gather as a community triumphant, ready to march forward strengthened by God’s word and sacrament, bearing joyous witness and praise and blessing and honor to our Everlasting King.—Amen.

–The Rev. William Marchl