30th December, 2007 John 1:1-18 ¡¡[ To Live as God’s children ]

1.The Word Became Flesh

The last week we had three days of Christmas celebrations: Eve worship, Sunday service, and a children’s party. Although it was a very busy period, it was filled with joy and satisfaction. We worshiped together, praising God for His grace and wisdom, through the birth of His son Jesus.
Now we are waiting for the new year. So it is this very time, just after Christmas, in which we pause to contemplate what we must do in the year ahead regarding, the ongoing progress and development of ourselves and the Church. We shall seek guidance by reading some verses from chapter 1 of the Gospel according to John.
The opening verse commences with “¦Å¦Í ¦Á¦Ñ¦Ö¦Ç” meaning in English,"In the beginning.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Why would John choose the word “beginning” to commence his writing? I think he might have been referring to chapter 1 in the book of Genesis. The Bible in the era of John was written in Greek and the first words of Genesis 1 are also “¦Å¦Í ¦Á¦Ñ¦Ö¦Ç ” which means “in the beginning.” “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Geneses 1:1-3).
God created the world with words of beginning, and John commenced his Gospel by saying, “In the beginning was the word”. John was a witness to the messianic identity of Jesus of Nazareth. And he says: “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:4-5).
By the verses above he testifies the world was in darkness, and the world did not recongize God’s son Jesus as the light. John’s Gospel is said to be written about 90 C.E., some 60 years after Jesus’ Crucifixion, during which time nearly all the disciples lost their lives through violent persecution. And John’s ministry also experienced the same threat. So much so that his writing is filled with expressions alluding to such dangers. For example, regarding the blind man who was healed by Jesus: “His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue” (John 9:22). And further, “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also’” (John 15:20).
The Jewish establishment not only killed Jesus but they also oppressed Jesus’ believers. John was not able to understand why faith in Jesus was considered to be a heresy. Christians were also exiled and persecuted without having any legitimate protection. So John experienced this darkness which rejected the light. He writes: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:10-11).
Those who lead the ordinary people to put Jesus on the Cross were Jewish Priests and law teachers. The very persons who undertook ritual services for God’s worship killed Jesus, the Savior sent by God. Because Priests and law teachers profited from their social positions, by interpreting the commandments as they wanted, and used tithes for themselves. By these means they lived like rich aristocrats and requested excessive social respect. Matthew unveiled it like this: ” they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi’ (Matthew 23:6-7).
By giving religious services, Priests and law teachers considered themselves to be the elite, and in the light. But in reality they were also in the darkness. Therefore when Jesus revealed this fact, and accused them of corruption, they put him to death. Furthermore, they attempted to do the same to His followers too. We can feel the pain and grief through John’s writings, whose ministry suffered from persecution.
Nevertheless they did not abandon the hope of becoming God’s children. They would not be deceived, but encouraged, as John teaches:
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). That hope is only realized by God’s will: “children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:13).

2. To be a child of God

I choose Romans 8:14-15 for today’s invocation verses: “because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father. ‘”
Paul says we were slaves of sin, but now we are God’s children. It means that our raison d’être is completely altered. A slave works for the master, and even if the master is kind and gentle, a slave remains a slave, and is measured merely according to his working abilities. Good slaves are hard workers, and bad slaves are inefficient laborers. The policy in those times referred to inefficient slaves as disposable, a policy which created a precedent which continues to affect our lives today.
But God claims all of us as his children. And a father doesn’t measure his children according to their capacities nor their intelligence. Our heavenly father loves us regardless of our aptitude. The single fact that we live pleases God, who accepts us just the way we are.
I would like to tell you about a situation which occurred in Nazi Germany as a characteristic example of an ability-estimating society. During the war period about 200,000 disabled people were forcefully euthanized because they were unable to contribute to society. But, an institute for the disabled, named the Bethel Charitable Foundation, refused to carry out the Nazi’s orders, while the majority of other institutions and churches accepted it. It was a life and death challenge.
The founder of the Bethel was a priest, Bodelschwingh Senior, and the institution was administered by his Church. Bodelschwingh Senior, established the institute after the deaths of his four children, which happened over a period of only 2 weeks. At that time he felt destroyed, but through his agonizing pain he heard God’s voice, which lead him to understand the meaning of the tragedy; he was about to take care of other children near him, who were not yet under God’s grace and care.
He bought a house in a suburb of Bielefeld in Germany where he received 5 epileptic children and opened a sort of commune with them. Then in the 1870’s, those who suffered from epilepsy were objects of segregation. The priest named the house “Bethel”, in other words “God’s house”. The institute developed and became a symbol for the whole city. It was treating 3000 patients in the 1930’s when the German interior ministry ordered all hospitals and institutes to send their disabled patients to some special establishments. The Bethel received the orders too, but the then Bodelschwingh Junior, the nephew of Bodelschwingh, Senior, rejected the request by saying he and his staff preferred to die before their patients. Their slogan was “Humans are made as God’s children freed from slavish existence so there is no life unworthy of living.”
Under the rule of Nazism, a monstrous power, such a resistance was miraculously and successfully achieved. The episode which, in the beginning, was a tragic incident of 4 children’s death, finished with a heroic revelation of God’s saving grace. History shows that those who became God’s children can change grief into blessing.
This church collects a donation of “one yen coin” in order to help an institute for disabled children, an establishment also founded by a priest, one of whose children was suffering from a severe mental and physical illness. It might prove to be another venture which will benefit through the knowledge and teaching of God’s love and care for His children.
The situation under which John, a Gospel writer, lived, was very difficult too. But, he didn’t abandon hope in the one who created the light of the world. He believed that God would light up the darkness again for his generation. Bodelschwingh Senior said, “please kill me in place of these children”. The power which makes the impossible, possible, is the power of God, through his children by filling us with the Holy Spirit. When we are baptized the foundations of our lives must change. We become more pure and sincere as we enter into a new way of life. So let’s start the new year by seeking to find the adequate way of living as a child of God.

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