Who is that?
sermon by Manfred Schreyer

John 1:1-14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:2 He was with God in the beginning. 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. :4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. :5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. :6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. :7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. :8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. :9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. :10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. :11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. :12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– :13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. :14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Gospel was written approximately 78 A.D. by John at the end of his life and it was written for Christians.

In the beginning was the Word. . .what does this mean? The Greek word for this word is

This is important to know, because the word 'logos' has not only the meaning of "the word" as a communications medium, but symbolizes an expression, and intent, a reason.

Breaking it down to this level, we understand that God in a philosophical sense gave purpose to all creation, i.e. the cosmos.

The verses tell about "the light". The light being God and that Jesus brought that very light into the world.

Jesus symbolized in a way the first Adam. He symbolized the life it was meant to be, to live in a perfect world. A world that was originally filled with light and nothing but the light. But in this world Adam and Eve made a choice that would be detrimental to those who followed and to them. They brought darkness. They brought to this world knowledge. . .but not the knowledge of the light, but knowledge of darkness.

God in a way wanted to create the world for His glory. No one here on earth, now or ever had an answer what the purpose could possibly be. I would like to think that we are among a complex structure in the universe where we are a minute part off. But we are essential to the whole that was brought into existence by our creator.

As we departed from the will of God, God took several steps to insure that even though we had a free will we would be guided by Him.

He tried by catering to us by promises of "Milk and Honey"

He tried show us by punishment to follow His guidance.

He tried to work with us in our desires to appoint Judges and Kings

He sent prophets, who spoke His words

He spoke to us

But in all instances we knew better. We sought heroes for our life. In each of the stories of human suffering we battled our pain and sought our hope and solutions in human beings.. . we can do it. . .so we think and thought!

I was reminded of a sermon that Martin Niemoehler gave in 1936 in the midst of a Germany where the Nazi’s proclaimed themselves God.

Though we are frightened when we hear this story now, we as humankind have not worried much when it came head to head when we proclaimed we are God and the old God is out.

The biblical story tells us that as soon things are going good, as soon as there is an opportunity not necessarily to follow God’s will for us. . .we do it.

God’s simple message is this and always was: "I am God and don’t you forget it."

But we do forget.

So in the end. . .there was only one thing to do. To bring the Logos, the Devine, the purpose, the intent to the world.

We describe the process theologically as incarnation. God came to us. God came to us to show us the intended way. The way that would bring us back to the place where we had left.

In many ways this was the ultimate that God could do for us.

God knew that we needed to see, we needed to hear, we needed to see examples of how we should live act and we needed to embrace

Even though we thought we could find heroes on earth and we thought we could manage our affairs to bring harmony to the disarray and chaos of the world we were not able to and this feeling of "something is wrong" was with us and lingered in us.

But the desires in some of us. . .the desires of pride, misunderstanding, not wanting to understand, of expectations according to our will took over.

So some took it into there own hands. . .those who should have known. . .those who God had worked with since the beginning of time, who He had delivered the will of Him in actions and promises and covenants. . .they were the ones who denied Him and all He had to offer.

And because He came in flesh, they (really the symbol of us) decided to kill the flesh after they had already killed the word. Nothing but nothing could stop them.

But then something remarkable happens. Those who believe they can shut out the truth have to recognize that they are not able to kill the truth. God is the Truth. His actions are the truth. . .the ultimate good. . .

As Jesus died a human death, little did anyone know that He would rise again. He rose from the dead as the light shines in the darkness. And finally then some saw the light in the darkness and their shadows began to fall slowly.

Jesus is the God. He is the Word. He is your Savior. If you are walking in darkness, the history of human kind tells us that there is no other light then the light of our God. Try other so called lights, but their lights grow dim over time. They come with non-exchangeable batteries and you are often get stuck with a useless body of flashlight and you search and search for batteries to replenish the old.

God is telling you to turn on the switch. HE is asking you not to wander and seek matches, candle lights, flashlights, kerosene lights or whatever. . .but as John describes it: