Dear Partner in Preaching, There are so many themes worth exploring in the Prologue to the Gospel of John that it can be difficult to decide just where to land for a sermon. Do we make the connection between the first verse of John and that of Genesis, calling attention to John’s audacious claim to be writing a new Genesis? Do we let our gaze settle instead on the fourteenth verse, John’s Christmas story and the heart of the doctrine of the Incarnation? Either of these elements of John’s magnificent “hymn to the Word” would make for a fine sermon on this second Sunday of Christmas. But I’m going to suggest two other verses, not...
John 1:16
posted by DJL
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. Some would argue, and with good reason, that the climax of John’s Prologue is verse fourteen, what we read two verses ago. It is, after all, an incredibly succinct summary of the whole point of Jesus’ mission and ministry and an...
John 1:14a
posted by DJL
And the Word became flesh… This phrase, at the heart of not just John’s Prologue but his whole Gospel, is likely quite familiar to us. We’ve heard it before, perhaps many times, probably as one of the readings on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. But while we may be very familiar with it,...
John 1:12-13
posted by DJL
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. My initial inclination at this point in John’s Gospel is to move immediately to the next verse, John...
John 1:1-2
posted by DJL
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. This is perhaps the central claim of John’s Gospel and, indeed, Christianity. That the divine Word that takes on human flesh in Jesus is not just from God, or only was with God,...