12-28-14 Christmas 1 B
George Yandell
“IN the beginning was the Word….” Sublime. Simple. Poetry of God. What is “the WORD?”
How many of you have played the lottery? Maybe we’re a little uneasy about confessing it- for
those of you who didn’t raise your hands, this is not a question about morals- it’s a question
about finding order in the universe. I have observed that we lottery players fall into two
camps- those of us who have special numbers we play again and again, and those who do quickpicks. (The special number people might argue that the quick-pickers are just lazy- but let’s
discount their slurs against us to science’s sake.)
When we special numbers people play the lottery we make a monumental, unconscious
statement about the universe God is creating- some of us believe there is a detectable pattern
within chaos and that we have clues about the pattern, and we wager $$ on our way of
believing.
Then the others of us, the quick-pickers, we believe ultimately that randomness rules, that
chaos is the nature of things, and that any numbers will do. So of you who play the lottery, or
have an opinion about picking the numbers, how many are special numbers people? How many
are quick-pickers? There is one rule all of us follow- what my father taught me years and years
ago- you can’t catch fish if your line is not in the water. You can’t win unless you buy tickets.
For special numbers people, there is some evidence that your approach may be slightly better- it
has a lot to do with the “Word become flesh and dwelling among us.”
Many of you know about the chaos theory. I’m not a theoretical physicist, so I don’t pretend to
understand it. But the gist of the chaos theory is that even within the most complex, random
systems, certain predictable patterns are present. In effect, there is some order within chaos.
Are you with me here?
In 1983 I read a book called Grammatical Man- Information, Entropy, Language and Life by
Jeremy Campbell. It changed my attitudes about God and science. He asks and answers one of
the most profound questions about humans- how does a child learn language?
Now most of us say that’s pretty simple- the infant is spoken to and begins to associate certain
words with specific things- “mommy, daddy, food, bath,” and so on. But Campbell says a
monumental event occurs when the child links words together- “Mommy wet!” when the child
has splashed all the water out of the bath.
What happens, Campbell says, is a tremendous achievement- no one taught the baby grammarno one said, “You have to use certain rules of syntax and sentence construction in order to be
understood”—rather he says that within randomness and chaos are detectable patterns of
communication, of grammar. All humans are innately sensitive to those patterns. And when
babies begin to link words together it’s the finest example of this marvel.
Some chaos theory buffs are also called “contextualists.” They say that the background noise of
our spheres of life holds clues to order, and that we just have to know what to screen out in
order to have patterns of order to emerge. So whether it’s called contextualism, chaos theory or
human intuition, I have come to believe in a message within chaos, even tho’ I’m mostly a
quick-picker in Powerball.
The Logos, the Word of which John speaks is this ordering principle. John tells in magnificent
poetry of the surpassing love which God injected into creation at the beginning. The Word,
uncreated, was with God before creation. The Word created everything that is. The Word
became flesh, literally ‘enfleshed’ or ‘incarnated.’ It is this divine creative urge, the wisdom of
God, which is the force of relationship within God. However we try to define Logos, we miss
the mark. But that’s the whole of the Christmas miracle- the eternal became finite. The
unknowable Christ became the human Jesus. The human spark within the chaos of the cosmos
took form and spoke.
I deeply regretted when Calvin and Hobbes left the funny papers years ago. If I’m down, I still
read a compilation of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons and quickly break into gales of laughter. I
know myself within warped little Calvin. I know what it’s like to have imaginary worlds, fully
alive stuffed toys, and to play for hours without any rules. ‘Calvinball’, where Calvin and his
stuffed tiger Hobbes play a football game without boundaries, with constantly changing rules,
makes me contort with laughing. Within the craziness of Calvin’s mind there is a constantCalvin loves Hobbes more than anything- Hobbes, of course, argues that Calvin is a creation of
Hobbes’ mind- But this is close to the mystery of the logos and the grammar of the universe.
The thread of perceivable order within the chaos of creation is the urge to relationship//
repeat.
Calvin loves Hobbes and Hobbes loves Calvin. The infant is propelled to express herself so
that love can grow between her and her father. The Word became flesh to express directly what
lies within the stuff of creation- God created humans out of God’s own self, and loves us so
much that the impossible happens- Christ is born. The urge to love us and be loved by us
overpowers every impossibility. We have all won the lottery.
I want to attract your attention to the poem by Charles Wesley printed in your service sheetyou may want to read it silently as I read aloud. Wesley was that great Anglican priest who
with his brother John created the Method of Bible study and small-group renewal which became
Methodism. For me, this poem gathers the mystery of Christmas’ unknowable essence and
offers it whole.
The Incarnation:
Glory be to God on high and peace to earth descend:
God comes down: He bows the sky: He shows himself our friend!
God th’ Invisible appears, God the blest, the Great I Am
Sojourns in this vale of tears and Jesus is his name.
Him the Angels all ador’d their maker and their king:
Tidings of their Humbled Lord they now to mortals bring:
Emptied of his Majesty, of his dazzling Glories shorn,
Being’s Source begins to BE and God himself is BORN!
See th’ eternal Son of GOD a mortal Son of Man,
Dwelling in an Earthly Clod whom heaven cannot contain!
Stand amaz’d ye Heavens at This! See the Lord of earth and skies
Humbled to the Dust He is, and in a manger lies!
We the Sons of Men Rejoice, The Prince of Peace proclaim,
With Heaven’s Host lift up our Voice, And shout Immanuel’s Name;
Knees and Hearts to Him we bow; Of our flesh and of our bone
JESUS is our brother now, and God is all our own!