The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas
Today is the last day of the calendar year. It makes sense, then, for today’s reading to begin like this: “Children, it is the last hour.” We may not feel as if the world will end tonight but we do have a sense of finality this week. Most of us take some time, however little, to reflect on the year just passed. TV shows and websites count down the “best of 2013.” Many people take stock of their own years, asking what was great and what was not so great. At the end of this tally, many people will find ample things to change and make resolutions to do so.
One might expect that the readings for the last day of the calendar year would be about sins, about the ways we’ve failed to live up to our baptism. This would lend itself nicely to figuring out our New Year’s resolutions! But it is important to remember that this is just the beginning of our liturgical year as Christians. Furthermore, we are still celebrating Christmas! As we close out our calendar year, we are offered the first chapter of the Gospel of John by the lectionary. The Gospel of John begins not with the Christmas story we get from Luke but with a more poetic and philosophical reflection on the same event. It begins by reminding us of Jesus’ divinity, a divinity that would have demanded he be present at the moment of Creation. The passage then tells us about John the Baptist, who “was not the light, but came to testify to the light.” And finally, the Gospel of John states simply but beautifully the truth of the Incarnation: “No one has ever seen God. The only-begotten Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.”
As we continue to celebrate Christmas and the beginning of a new year, each of these three points from the Gospel of John gives us something to ponder. First, the reminder that Jesus is truly God should not become so familiar that we do not stop and think about what it means. Truly, this contention should lead us deeper into prayer and reflection on the mystery of God. Second, the witness of John gives us a model of faithfulness as well as a chance to look around for prophets among us. Who can we point to as people who testify to the light, not mistaking the light of God for their own? And finally, the notion that no one had seen God but in Jesus we do in fact see God is quite a big deal!
Just one simple question, then: are we living each day as if this is the case? Our country and world might look quite different if Christians actually behaved as if God came into the world and dwelt among us.
- Katherine Schmidt