Beginning
Read John 1:1-14.
And so Advent begins again. It's a new (Christian) year, and for the next four weeks we will be anticipating the best beginning of all: the birth of a baby who has come to save the world. It's not Christmas yet; it's Advent. It's not the season of gifts and candy and shopping and endless gatherings. It's the season of anticipation, of looking forward to a new beginning. That's the way John begins his Gospel: "In the beginning..."
But John wants us to have a grander view, a larger picture, in our minds. He doesn't just take us to the beginning in Bethlehem, the beginning of a single birth, miraculous as that is. He doesn't even tell us that story (nor does he mention anything about Mary, Joseph or a virgin birth). John takes us back to the beginning of the world, another birth, a creation spoken into being by the one who is coming to be born. It's a strange, mysterious paradox: the one to be born is the one who was there from before creation. The one who will soon nurse at his mother's breast is the one who spoke men and women into existence. The one who is eternal will become temporal—for the sake of us all. In the beginning...God. And that's all, because that's all we need.
Just as he was at the very beginning, he is in the midst of all of our beginnings as well. He was there when we came to be, he was there when we were born, and he will be there when we begin again, when we enter into the new creation. In between, in all of our starts and restarts, in all of our do's and do-over's, in all of our mess and muddle, God is there. That's the focus of these days of Advent: God with us, in all our beginnings, in all of our re-beginnings, in all of the moments in between. God is with us. Thanks be to God.
And so Advent begins again. It's a new (Christian) year, and for the next four weeks we will be anticipating the best beginning of all: the birth of a baby who has come to save the world. It's not Christmas yet; it's Advent. It's not the season of gifts and candy and shopping and endless gatherings. It's the season of anticipation, of looking forward to a new beginning. That's the way John begins his Gospel: "In the beginning..."
But John wants us to have a grander view, a larger picture, in our minds. He doesn't just take us to the beginning in Bethlehem, the beginning of a single birth, miraculous as that is. He doesn't even tell us that story (nor does he mention anything about Mary, Joseph or a virgin birth). John takes us back to the beginning of the world, another birth, a creation spoken into being by the one who is coming to be born. It's a strange, mysterious paradox: the one to be born is the one who was there from before creation. The one who will soon nurse at his mother's breast is the one who spoke men and women into existence. The one who is eternal will become temporal—for the sake of us all. In the beginning...God. And that's all, because that's all we need.
Just as he was at the very beginning, he is in the midst of all of our beginnings as well. He was there when we came to be, he was there when we were born, and he will be there when we begin again, when we enter into the new creation. In between, in all of our starts and restarts, in all of our do's and do-over's, in all of our mess and muddle, God is there. That's the focus of these days of Advent: God with us, in all our beginnings, in all of our re-beginnings, in all of the moments in between. God is with us. Thanks be to God.
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