The
Power of the Logos The Reverend Dr. Howard J.
Hess
Christmas
Day 2012 The Episcopal Church of the Ascension
I.
Introduction.
On this Christmas Day, our Gospel reading is the beautiful Prologue
to John. Many, myself included, believe it to be one of the most
moving passages in the Scriptures. “In the beginning was the Word
(The Logos) and the Word was with God and the Word was God All things
came into power through him . . . ‘”The Word, The Logos, is of
course the Son of God, Jesus Christ. This passage affirms that Christ
is co-eternal with God, present at the formation of the world. Not
only was Christ present, but the creator of all that was made, the
agent that brought order out of chaos and light out of darkness. In
sum, Jesus Christ, The Logos, created the world as we know it – all
that is beautiful all that is inspiring. And Christ created even us.
And as we read in Genesis,
God looked upon creation and said that it was good.
II.
But as we know, in the midst of the beauty of creation, darkness
emerged as well.
Theologians have written many a volume about the origin of that evil.
The consensus of opinion over the centuries is that in order to
create human begins like himself, God built the freedom of choice
into our design. That freedom is not constrained. It is freedom to
choose light or to choose darkness. But in God’s love, we were not
left to either manage that choice along or to suffer the consequences
of our choices alone. The Word, The Logos, The Christ, has continued
to be present in the ongoing creation to always help us overcome the
darkness. Not only present, but always seeking us out – actively,
walking beside us and when we can’t walk, carrying us.
We cam really see
this in the Greek translation of the phrase “The light shines in
the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” The Greek word
for “overcome” is KATAMBONA. What fascinates me about this Greek
word is the number of potential meanings it can have. It can mean
alternatively:
“The
darkness did not overtake
it”
“The
darkness did not seize
it”
“The
darkness did not win
over
it” and
“The
darkness did not surprise
it.”
All of these
meanings suggest that the darkness does not have the power to
overcome the light. This is important, because no matter how
frightened we may become, no matter how large an obstacles we are
facing in our lives, we can rely upon the strength of the light to
protect us and help us prevail.
The other set of
potential meaning for the term KATALMANBONE are slightly different,
but as important as the first:
“The
darkness did not
comprehend
the light”
“The
darkness did not find
the light”
“The
darkness did not realize
the light” and
“The
darkness did not understand
the light.”
These
terms suggest that no only does the darkness not have the power to
destroy the light, but
the darkness does not even understand of comprehend how the light
works! The
darkness does not understand love, or mercy, or persistence in the
face of what would appear to be hopelessness. I am reminded of
Corinthians
13, where we are told that love is all things and conquers all
things.
III.
What I have noticed, first as a psychotherapist, then as a teacher,
and finally as a priest, is that the forces of darkness operate on
the principle of lies and will take the power to deceive us that we
allow others to have.
This is why it is so important to testify to the power of the light
as did John the Baptist and countless other Christians since the
coming of Christ. I remember learning of an Anglican missionary,
Michael Breen, who was doing mission work in an area of Africa where
he was in considerable danger. He felt God had called him there and
so he went to testify to the light of Christ in a very dark place.
One day, just several years ago, he and his guide were driving on a
dirt rutted highway, when suddenly they were surrounded by a hostile
force of revolutionaries who moved very close to attach them with
their guns ready to fire. The Reverend Breen and his drier had no
real defense against this large force. However, shortly before there
were to be overrun, the attackers dropped their weapons and ran off
in terror. Later Reverend Breen asked one of the attackers why they
had done that. He replied, “Did you not see the large group of
white glowing men that surrounded. The darkness did not overcome
the light.
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