The Word Became Flesh...

So, if you were in our Congregational Community this Sunday, you heard me talk about this already, but let me paint the picture of my life being a reflection of worldliness. Maybe this happens to you on occasion.

I started this week feeling tired, selfish and bitter which is a cycle that maybe I find myself in too often. It is a worldly cycle. Mind you, you need not be bitter to be worldly...but to be caught up in a world for yourself - personal accomplishment, happiness, materially-focused, creating idols of family or friends - now that is being of the world. So, that's where I was last Monday and Tuesday - completely caught up in mind and in spirit in the flesh. Oh, and let's add to this that I was trying to prepare a lesson on who is Jesus Christ according to John 1:1-14.

So, I suggest we all go back and read / pray over those scriptures. Do you see the same contrast I was feeling?! I was completely caught up in worldliness, but not in the world God created...a world where "All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that has been made." Yes, a world where Christ preceded creation, a world where Christ was a part of the plan for this world long before he ever became flesh and dwelt among us, a world where God and the Word ("who was with God and who was God") had a greater plan for creation than a plan for us to live for ourselves.

So, the contrast to me was amazing. Rather than living from a worldly perspective, I prayed that God would lead and teach on Sunday and that I, and my worldliness, would fade to the background. And here is what he revealed about Christ:

• As already mentioned, Christ was a part of creation
o He was involved and vested in the plan for this world (which, amazingly, included his life and death )

• Jesus is the giver of life
o He gives to us a life of completion, a life of joy and a life of peace
o He was God and he dwelt amongst us and related to us
o He was God and he was tempted in the flesh and fought the same battles we fight every day by ignoring his own royal nature and coming to live in the world and to be with us
o He wants a relationship with us. He had a relationship with God since before creation and he came to earth to dwell with us and to relate to us and with us

• Jesus is the light
o The light shines in the world and, though the world doesn’t understand it, he is what gives us life
o John the Baptist gave testimony to this light not because God needs it, but because the world needs it

So, what does that mean for us? I suppose it means quite a bit, but let's sum it up with three points:

1) It means that we can enjoy and appreciate this life that God has given us in Christ.

2) It means that we should live our lives as a testimony, not to ourselves and not for other people's pleasure, but as a testimony to the light which is Jesus Christ.

3) We also know that through prayer and devotion, we should have a relationship with God where we talk and listen because he does care for us. And we should be grateful and praiseworthy in our devotions to the life we receive through Christ in the midst of this world (which, unknown to most, is not life, but death).

So, for me, personally, what did I learn? I was made aware that I can often be drawn to a self-centeredness, and toward a life where God is a supplement to me. Maybe it makes me bitter one day, proud another, and, scariest still, is yet another day where I'm indifferent altogether to my egocentrism and to the contrariness this is to a life in Christ. I learned that I need to focus more on who Jesus Christ is - not a supplement to me, but a part of our God, one who took part in creation. He is one who took on the same mind, body and flesh and humbled himself for our sakes. So, I too will work to be grateful for the life I have in him. I too will work to focus my devotion time so that it has a grateful, praiseworthy relationship-driven aspect to it. And, I too will work to improve on my attitude so that my life can be a testimony to the light.

Amen.