Christian Pathway

Words have power, the power to hurt, or to heal,  to raise up, to construct or destroy
I think if we look back on our lives, the first time our life partner says we love you or a parent that perhaps never says those words will linger long in our memory. Longer in our hearts,  they can affect how we think about ourselves or others. .   They can pollute or make pure. as Jesus says, “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him `unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him `unclean.’” That is ritually unclean and in need of his salvation.


 Words are the source of the ripples we send out into our world.   Like waves, some are lost in the ocean, and others become tsunamis that galvanise and create massive movements.

These examples are the words of people.

How much more then is the word of God. When God speaks and states a thing, it becomes a fact.   As our reading said today When God spoke What came into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  Jesus  is the fact that happened when God spoke.

God expressed himself and Jesus is the expression of God.   Also, because God is love what God expressed was love, and so Jesus is the expression of Gods love and is Gods love.

This means that we as creatures, as people can learn something of Gods Love by looking at Jesus.  When we see a helpless baby, we see God’s love.  We see Gods love expressed in the vulnerable refugees.   What we don’t see is power and being zipped up, all sorted.

Love is expressed by being vulnerable, by lack of power. This isn’t a Donald Trump or Vladmir Putin expression of power, in fact quite the reverse.  Whereas the  people  in the Christmas story are on the run from a despot. These people need help, and yet that baby will do more than any man-made power will ever do and save us all. 

All is vanity as it says in Ephesians and our Lord has seen it all a thousand times,

What has been is what will be,

    and what has been done is what will be done,

    and there is nothing new under the sun.

The word that was spoken today, was spoken by God and was quite deliberate. God cannot make mistakes, and  therefore what we see is Gods deliberate action.

To come in to our world weak and in need of Love and protection.

He could have come on golden chariots, on the tip of a nuclear bomb, on  angry acts and deeds, destroying enemies, he could have sent every refugee back where they came from, he could have othered people. Instead, he became homeless and was the other.

However, you deal with that paradox, if you worship Jesus you have to acknowledge it.  What this world and the shouty, angry people call power is the reverse of power when expressed by God.

As I look at the news and I see people try to make themselves powerful, most times I see the reverse of how Jesus did it and the example he set.

I have met people like this, the richest man I ever knew wore clothes with patches, his family was historically richer than the king, and yet he drove an old Rover. 

Stephen Bartlett said theres a direct correlation between the size of the logo’s you wear and your self-esteem and understanding of your own self-worth.  The most powerful people on the planet rarely if ever wear any logo’s.  The most disenfranchised often wear the largest. 

This is where Jesus’ example is made real.  He showed that nothing he had is worth anything more than the love he expressed.  When Gods love spoke it made Jesus, and nothing could be added to that, so its own limitless power and value did not need the adornment of riches.

This is where you come in.

This all happened to save you, Gods love entered into the world to save you, from yourself.   That is how much God values you. Nothing this world or the next can add or remove a thing from that fact. No logo , no car, nor house, no word or deed, can detract from just how precious you intrinsically are. Nothing in this world or the next can affect the love God has for you.

You are precious to the greatest power ever, nothing in this world or the next can affect that love.

A love that spoke , and made Jesus,  come into the world as helpless to save us all.

That is what happened tonight.