Bible Study: Our Christmas Exercise

On the last Tuesday before we take Christmas break from Bible study (we will be taking two weeks this year), I always do what I call “Our Christmas Exercise.” In this exercise I read the prologue to John’s gospel, chapter 1, verses 1-14.

When John begins this gospel “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” he wants us to hear echoes from Genesis chapter one which uses the refrain “And God said” every time God is going to create a new thing, a new creature, a new reality. This word was God’s creative energy and power and might behind the whole created order. When God speaks a word things happen, reality is made, new life appears.

The climax to John’s opening words comes in verse 14, which reads: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory…” Imagine that. Imagine the Word of God, the same Word that was, again, part of the whole creative process, now becoming flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, and blood of our blood. Imagine that immense power becoming this small and vulnerable. Imagine this great energy coming to us as a baby that needed to be loved and changed and suckled and put to bed. Imagine how this could have happened. Imagine why God would have done all this for us and you will be in the realm of great mystery and great love.

Now, the exercise. I read this piece of scripture and then I always ask the gentlemen two questions. First, how has the Word of God been made flesh in their lives during this past year? Second, how do they need this Word to be made flesh in their lives, their loves, their relationships, their home, their work, right now?

I will not give you the content of what people said this morning—the comments were for that time and place. What I can say is that folks spent most of their time on the first question, and we heard a litany of gratitude, and all of us were blessed to hear how God had blessed those who shared a Word of hope and healing and love and support and faith.

Now, I always know that the second question is the harder one. While we can share the first question pretty well clothed, there is no way to talk about the second question without, as I said this morning, “getting naked.” The second question—where do we need God’s Word in our lives—makes us vulnerable and tender. The second question reminds us that we are all needy, that none of us are self-sufficient, that God still has some important and necessary work to do in us.

So, now let me share the “Christmas Exercise” with all of you. How has God’s Word come to you this past year and how are you thankful for that Word and how has your life been changed by it? And then, where do you need, want, desire, and seek God’s Word right now in your life?

As I finish this exercise I always remind the fellows where Jesus was once born—not in a comfortable, lighted, warm, sanitary place; no, but in a stable, surrounded by animals, visited by some rather scruffy shepherds. And it is in these places—often the messy and hard and lonely places—where we most need the Word of God to be born again in us.

Christmas peace and love to all.