{"id":8568,"date":"2020-12-25T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faith-andover.org\/wp\/?p=8568"},"modified":"2020-12-23T07:28:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T12:28:57","slug":"the-word-became-flesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faith-andover.org\/?p=8568","title":{"rendered":"The Word Became Flesh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by Dave Schweizer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"668\" src=\"https:\/\/faith-andover.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/nativity-in-snow.jpg\" alt=\"The Word Became Flesh\" class=\"wp-image-8571\" srcset=\"https:\/\/faith-andover.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/nativity-in-snow.jpg 800w, https:\/\/faith-andover.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/nativity-in-snow-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/faith-andover.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/nativity-in-snow-768x641.jpg 768w, https:\/\/faith-andover.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/nativity-in-snow-24x20.jpg 24w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">John 1:1-14<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u00a0<sup>2<\/sup>He was in the beginning with God.\u00a0<sup>3<\/sup>All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being\u00a0<sup>4<\/sup>in him was life,\u00a0and the life was the light of all people.\u00a0<sup>5<\/sup>The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>6\u00a0There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.\u00a0<sup>7<\/sup>He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.\u00a0<sup>8<\/sup>He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.\u00a0<sup>9<\/sup>The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>10\u00a0He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.\u00a0<sup>11<\/sup>He came to what was his own,\u00a0and his own people did not accept him.\u00a0<sup>12<\/sup>But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,\u00a0<sup>13<\/sup>who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>14\u00a0And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father\u2019s only son,\u00a0full of grace and truth.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For me, the beginning of John&#8217;s Gospel is a figurative, conceptual, and powerful description of how we should think about Jesus.\u00a0 John doesn&#8217;t provide a narration for the empirical events surrounding Jesus&#8217; nativity.\u00a0 Rather, he gives us a succinct story conveying a purpose:\u00a0\u00a0 The Word, which was with God at the beginning, and is God, became flesh and made his dwelling among us&#8230; to bring us life and light&#8230;grace and truth.\u00a0\u00a0 As I read John&#8217;s opening words, the season of Christmas becomes a time for reflection on the &#8220;truth&#8221; and &#8220;light&#8221; aspects of Jesus&#8217; ministry: he came into the world to teach us how to understand God and God&#8217;s will, and how to act as people of God.\u00a0 During other parts of the church year we focus on specifics &#8212; the meaning and takeaways regarding individual events.\u00a0 For this season, John&#8217;s words provide inspiration to consider, and celebrate, Jesus&#8217; life in its entirety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dave Schweizer John 1:1-14 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u00a02He was in the beginning with God.\u00a03All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being\u00a04in him was life,\u00a0and the life was the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent-devotions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The Word Became Flesh - Faith Lutheran Church<\/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:\/\/faith-andover.org\/?p=8568\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Word Became Flesh - Faith Lutheran Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Dave Schweizer John 1:1-14 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u00a02He was in the beginning with God.\u00a03All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. 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