Christmas Day 2025
St. Helen’s Anglican Church,
Point Grey, Vancouver BC


Here’s a dad joke— a bad one--baseball related. When is baseball first mentioned in the Bible?
In the very first book—Genesis, when it says, “In the BIG INNING. It’s Christmas. You can
groan.


“In the beginning...” We find this verse twice in scripture, once in Genesis, and again, as we
have just heard, in John’s gospel. The repetition is deliberate. The author of John’s gospel
knows that as soon as “In the beginning...” was heard, people would immediately think of how
the Bible begins. They would think of the creation as the ancient people understood it. Like
every human they would pause to marvel at the miracle that anything exists at all—and that
we’re part of it!


So, when they heard the story of Jesus begin this way, they would understand the reference to
‘the word’. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.” They’d understand that ‘the word’ is the first sound spoken in creation when God said,
‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” God said. A word was sounded. The Word. Listen
now to how John’s gospel explodes this, “The Word was in the beginning with God. All things
came into being through the Word, and without the Word not one thing came into being. What
has come into being ... life, and the life is the light of all people.


Let me put it simply. What John’s gospel refers to is the word is actually the creator speaking the
creation into being, “Let there be light.” And John’s gospel understands Jesus is of the same
energy that brought light into being the light of all people.


This reading from John is my favourite account of Christmas. The shepherds and the angels, and
the magi are all great—but the cosmic view in John’s gospel really appeals. It appeals to me
because it expresses Franciscan theology, that the birth of Jesus is not the first incarnation of
God. The first incarnation of God is the big bang. It is, to use the language of the bible, ‘in the
beginning.’ That’s when divine energy exploded into materiality. So, everything on earth is
charged with the glory of God. That’s why our hearts are moved when we see the natural world
in its beauty. That’s why a sunset can make us cry or the mountains can make us gasp in awe.
Because the divine is manifest in nature. That’s the first incarnation.


Then, in the fulness of time, the divine energy became enfleshed in a human life—the life of a
teacher and healer. A life that itself became a parable of the ways of a self-giving God. A life that
showed the deep truth that there is more to existence than what we see—there is an energy within
that is the truest expression of reality. The energy that brought the worlds into being is within
each human heart. That’s what Christmas is all about.


Brian McLaren puts it this way: “The Fourth Gospel tells us that what came into being through
Jesus was not merely a new religion, a new theology, or a new set of principles or
teachings—although all of these things did indeed happen. The real point of it all, according to
John, was life, vitality, aliveness....”

This is the living word of God. A word that speaks of vitality, justice, peace, human dignity and
the integrity of creation. Yet every day we hear words not of vitality but of fear, not of justice
but of retribution, not of peace but of war, not of human dignity but of cruelty, not about
creation’s integrity but about exploitation.

In a time such as this, the living Word needs to be sounded more clearly. This morning you will
receive the living Word of God under signs of bread and wine. May this Christmas sacrament
give you the courage to take your part in speaking words that bring life and vitality and peace
and joy. Steve Garnass-Holmes writes: Do not be afraid to commit to this world, for the Divine is
in it. There is in this world, beyond your understanding, a blessing, a grace, a Presence that will
save it. Even in the mess, name it Emmanuel, God