ENGLISH TRANSLATION

The Word becomes Deed

A sermon on the text for Christmas, John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.”

Dear Congregation,

one lesson that we humans learn quickly is to mistrust just words. Children learn quickly that their parents can’t always keep their promises. Parents learn quickly that the good intentions of their children can burst like soap bubbles when they are excited or angry. We have learned to mistrust spoken words—whether it be of the presidential candidate’s election promises or the security assurances of the nuclear and chemical industry, be it the golden words of the advertisers or the testimony of the effectiveness of pills for weight loss, headache, or the problems of aging. Yes, we read even newspaper articles with a certain amount of healthy skepticism—as we have learned through experience, and rightly so.

We ourselves are not exactly the most trustworthy doers of our own words. We know well how often we say something, how often we claim good things about ourselves, and do the opposite. Trustworthiness is hard to attain. Several bitter sayings of our time show, my friends, that trust in a person’s word or the power of words among us has dwindled: “Your mouth to God’s ear,” we hear people say when someone speaks of an important expectation; or “Actions speak louder than words,” or even “Put your money where your mouth is.” Even books carry such titles—and between the lines we read the common understanding that words have no worth unless they are accompanied by deeds.

How could the spoken word have lost its worth? Can’t words also give comfort and courage? Can’t words also praise and encourage? How else could we read and learn, sing and preach, teach and discuss, get acquainted and love? Our world would go begging without words. We humans would be completely helpless if we had no language and if our newspapers and books contained only blank pages. It was not always so—that speech had lost its worth because of so many broken promises and the common experience of lies.

The Old Testament shows a totally different picture of the power and worth of words. Once the word was God’s companion when God created the world. It was by means of the word that God created light, and through the word God separated the water from the land. The word called Adam to life and set the boundaries between the permitted and the forbidden.

The will of God—formed in words and written on stone tablets—was the most precious possession of Israel as they made Canaan into their new homeland and built the temple in Jerusalem. The words of the law became for Israel the holy object in the Holy of Holies, the very dwelling place of God. But then the power of the words decreased because people didn’t believe in them any more. The voices of the prophets were silenced because people didn’t believe them any more. The word of humans became empty and of no account. Yes, even Jesus made it clear to people: “You talk too much. Stop your vain repetition, like the pagans; and don’t call, ‘Lord, Lord,’ without meaning it. You should act! You should do the will of my Father in heaven, do not just talk about it. Then you’ll be on the right track.”

Was Goethe right when he began his “Faust” with a new version of the prologue to John’s gospel: not “In the beginning was the word,” but rather, “In the beginning was the deed.”? Or as he wrote later in “The Education of Wilhelm Meister”: “Words are good; they are, however, not the best. The best is not made clear by words. The spirit from which we act is the highest.”

Yes, if you will, God has only now fully understood his human children. They can’t really be helped with words alone. No command, no restriction, no punishment on this earth can convince a person that he or she is on the wrong path when far from God. No command, no restriction, no punishment on this earth can convince a person that God loves him or her, if there is no deed to do the convincing; if there is no new spirit that urges him or her. Nothing else, beloved, is the meaning of God’s becoming human. Nothing else is the meaning of Christmas: the time of the words is fulfilled. The time of the law is fulfilled. God causes deeds to follow his words that that we humans can understand him—deeds in Jesus Christ. We read it clearly in Galatians, where it says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

Therefore the Bible text that since the beginnings of our church has shone over the Christmas celebration says, “The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.” (John 1:14) The word became deed. And the people Jesus met and experienced were able to sense with their own hearts how thrilling it is to meet God in him. But where are they today—these deeds of Jesus? Don’t we have once again just words? Words that just tell us stories of those deeds?

It’s true: Jesus Christ as the loving one, as the credible one, as the Savior of body and soul, was active among us humans. And now he is all of that no more. But he has called people to him—and wherever they came from, he called them to follow his example. And in every disciple, every follower, Jesus’ deeds remain—right down to today.

For example: The Bible says, “God is love.” There is nobody God doesn’t love, nobody God doesn’t seek, nobody God doesn’t want to win back. If these are just words, then the love of God would be just a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. So the word became deed: A person came among persons—one who sat at table with prostitutes and convicts, who treated tax collectors as his friends, who described a despised Samaritan as a good example, who protected the adulterous woman from death by stoning. It was glorious for each individual to experience something of him. Even when I was guilty, even when I had so messed up my life that it could not stand before God’s eyes, I remain in God’s eyes worthwhile and worth loving. Even if I have betrayed others or I was unfaithful to my husband, even if I have pursued my own advantage and turned myself away from God and God’s will, God wants me back. God does not wish me lost. On the contrary, God brings me back to land of the living.

The word became deed. And the love of Jesus has changed people, led them to conversion, saved them. Many have done as Jesus did—for centuries now. Not everybody has been successful; some have overdone it, some have not found the right way. Many, many, however, have made deeds out of words.

And today we are in the line. Is it possible for us to become doers of the word and not just hearers? If we want to see today how glorious it is, if God is actually present among us, then we’ll not miss it. God’s words want to become deeds; and we are the ones who can do it.

Think about the children. They not only want to play with their new toys these days around the Christmas tree. They would perhaps much rather hear a story or build something with you out of their Lego blocks’ perhaps conversing and playing their new CD for you. Let’s give them what they need, the gift of our time, and not just talk about it.

Think about the elderly people who so often sit alone in their rooms. Very few of them hope for presents, because their rooms are full and their tables richly spread. They want to talk about the past, to sing the beautiful, old songs and to feel that they really belong.

Think about the people we don’t get along with, those we have not written to and who won’t telephone us in these days. In no other season is the yearning of people for peace deeper that at Christmas time. It is the season, then, to extend the hand of reconciliation—at least to offer a hint for a way back to you.

Think about the hungry, who can’t imagine how rich and festive our tables are these days.

Think about the refugees, who have neither home nor future.

Each of us knows where there are people suffering. And all of us know exactly how we can help personally, how we can cause words to become deeds. We could be on the other side one day and discover how glorious it is when somebody sees our need and our sadness and lets the word of love become a deed.

I believe, dear congregation, that this was the best idea God ever had: that God not only told us about his love, but that he made it possible for us to sense it through the life and love that Jesus gave us. In this way we have not only heard about the glory of God’s grace, but we have experienced it. And that encourages us to help others to experience this glory.

Therefore, beloved, let us love, because God has first loved us. Let us become real humans beings. God did, too.

INVITATION TO THE LITURGY—INTRODUCTION

Don’t look at what you are yourself
In all your guilt and weakness.
Look at the one who has come
So that he can speak for you.
Look at what is happening to you today,
Today your Savior has turned to you,
To bring you home again
On the strong wings of the eagle.
Don’t look at how poor you are, O sinner,
Look rather at your helper, Jesus Christ—

(Anonymous)

Pfarrerin Dorothea Zager, Hauptstr. 22, 67591 Wachenheim / Rhh.
Tel. 06243 - 905465

Translated by Bruce E. Shields
Emmanuel School of Religion
Johnson City, Tennessee, USA