{"id":5873,"date":"2006-01-03T11:51:53","date_gmt":"2006-01-03T11:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html"},"modified":"2006-01-03T11:51:53","modified_gmt":"2006-01-03T11:51:53","slug":"nt-wrights-christmas-sermon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html","title":{"rendered":"NT Wright’s Christmas sermon"},"content":{"rendered":"

That should be enough to grab many of you.<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a rich meditation on what it means to say that Jesus is the Word:<\/p>\n

\n

Second, John\u2019s Prologue by its very structure reaffirms the order of creation at the point where it is being challenged today. <\/span>John is consciously echoing the first chapter of Genesis: In the beginning God made heaven and earth; in the beginning was the Word. <\/span>When the Word becomes flesh, heaven and earth are joined together at last, as God always intended. <\/span>But the creation story which begins with the bipolarity of heaven and earth reaches its climax in in the bipolarity of male and female; and when heaven and earth are joined together in Jesus Christ, the glorious intention for the whole creation is unveiled, reaffirming the creation of male and female in God\u2019s image. <\/span>There is something about the enfleshment of the Word, the point in John 1 which stands in parallel to Genesis 1.26\u20138, which speaks of creation fulfilled; and in that other great Johannine writing, the Book of Revelation, we see what\u2019s going on: Jesus Christ has come as the Bridegroom, the one for whom the Bride has been waiting. <\/p>\n

\n

Allow that insight to work its way out. <\/span>Not for nothing does Jesus\u2019 first \u2018sign\u2019 transform a wedding from disaster to triumph. <\/span>Not for nothing do we find a man and a woman at the foot of the cross. <\/span>The same incipient gnosticism which says that true religion is about \u2018discovering who we really are\u2019 is all too ready to say that \u2018who we really are\u2019 may have nothing much to do with the way we have been physically created as male or female. <\/span>Christian ethics, you see, is not about stating, or for that matter bending, a few somewhat arbitrary rules. <\/span>It is about the redemption of God\u2019s good world, his wonderful creation, so that it can be the glorious thing it was made to be. <\/span>This word is strange, even incomprehensible, in today\u2019s culture; but if you have ears, then hear it. <\/p>\n

Third, and finally, we return to the meal, the food whose very name is strange, forbidding, even incomprehensible to those outside, but the most natural thing to those who know it. <\/span>The little child comes out to the front this morning, and speaks to us of the food which he offers us: himself, his own body and blood. <\/span>It is a hard saying, and those of us who know it well may need to remind ourselves just how hard it is, lest we be dulled by familiarity into supposing that it\u2019s easy and undemanding. <\/span>It isn\u2019t. <\/span>It is the word which judges the world and saves the world, the word now turned into flesh, into matzo<\/em>, passover bread, the bread which is the flesh of the Christchild, given for the life of the world because this flesh is the place where the living Word of God has come to dwell. <\/span>Listen, this morning, for the incomprehensible word the Child speaks to you. <\/span>Don\u2019t patronize it; don\u2019t reject it; don\u2019t sentimentalize it; learn the language within which it makes sense. <\/span>And come to the table to enjoy the breakfast, the breakfast which is himself, the Word made flesh, the life which is our life, our light, our glory.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That should be enough to grab many of you. It’s a rich meditation on what it means to say that Jesus is the Word: Second, John\u2019s Prologue by its very structure reaffirms the order of creation at the point where it is being challenged today. John is consciously echoing the first chapter of Genesis: In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNT Wright's Christmas sermon - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NT Wright's Christmas sermon - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That should be enough to grab many of you. It’s a rich meditation on what it means to say that Jesus is the Word: Second, John\u2019s Prologue by its very structure reaffirms the order of creation at the point where it is being challenged today. John is consciously echoing the first chapter of Genesis: In…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-01-03T11:51:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NT Wright's Christmas sermon - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NT Wright's Christmas sermon - Via Media","og_description":"That should be enough to grab many of you. It’s a rich meditation on what it means to say that Jesus is the Word: Second, John\u2019s Prologue by its very structure reaffirms the order of creation at the point where it is being challenged today. John is consciously echoing the first chapter of Genesis: In…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2006-01-03T11:51:53+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html","name":"NT Wright's Christmas sermon - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-01-03T11:51:53+00:00","dateModified":"2006-01-03T11:51:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/nt-wrights-christmas-sermon.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NT Wright’s Christmas sermon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}