Thomas J Parlette
“In Our Midst”
John 1: 1-18
1/4/26
Shortly after we moved here, I took the boys to visit Niagara Cave down in Harmony. It’s a pretty cool family fun center with miniature golf and gem mining. But the main feature is a cave that offers a mile walking tour with a 60 foot underground waterfall and unique geological features like the “Grand Canyon” formation, “Battleship Island” and “Cathedral Dome.” It’s a great mid-summer day trip because the cave stays at 48 degrees year round – a great way to beat the heat!
I remember that when we got to the deepest, darkest part of the cave, our tour guide told us to grab hold of the handrail and put a hand in front of our face – because he was about to turn off the lights, and we would experience complete and utter darkness. He gave us explicit instructions to stand still and don’t let go of the handrail, because total darkness can be very disorienting and you might fall.
So we did as we were told, and the lights went out.
When our guide said we would experience complete and utter darkness – he wasn’t kidding. The hand I had in front of my face – couldn’t see a trace of it. Inches away, I could not see a thing. I could understand why we weren’t supposed to move – I’m convinced if I had not been holding onto that railing, I would have fallen over, it was so dark. With no light, not even ambient light, it was impossible to get your bearings.
Luckily, the lights were out for only about 30 seconds maybe, and the guide said – “Not to worry everyone, I have my hand on the switch…” and he turned the lights back on, to everyone’s relief.
That’s what John describes this morning in the opening verses of his Gospel. What came into being in Jesus was life, and his life was the light of the world. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
The world was in utter darkness, but God flipped the switch, and the light came into the world.
This passage is often referred to as “The Prologue of John.” John is quite intentional about using the language and imagery we find in the 6 days of creation story from Genesis – in fact, many scholars consider this to be one of the 7 creation stories in the Bible.
The Prologue is also John’s version of a Nativity story, a story of how God’s Son Jesus came into the world. But, as always in the Gospel of John, John doesn’t just tell us what happened – he also tells us what it means, and what it says about Jesus.
And there is a lot to say. These 18 verses are full of theological ideas, densely packed. One of the concepts suggested here is the idea of the Trinity. The word, “Trinity”, is never used in the Bible – but it is one the bedrock principles of Christianity – that God exists in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Or, if we describe them in terms of their functions – God, the creator, Jesus the redeemer and the Holy Spirit as comforter or the source of God’s power available to us. All of those functions are present in this passage.
John establishes Jesus as being on the same footing as God – there from the beginning, equal on all accounts. Then in verse 12, John refers to Jesus as providing to all who believed in his name, the power to become children of God – many scholars read this “power” as referring to the Holy Spirit. And so, the basis of the Trinity is established.
But at the forefront of John’s mind is the idea of Incarnation. For John, Jesus is the Word of God, there from the beginning, actively involved in creation, and now incarnated into human form. Jesus is literally God with us, in the flesh.
Rembrandt, the Dutch artist, once painted a piece called “The Holy Family at Night”, which portrayed the holy family in contemporary dress, enjoying at evening at home together. (1) Mary is depicted reading from a book, which art historians have guessed is a Bible, while Joseph sits off to the side, appearing to nod off. The Christ child lies peacefully in a cradle at the center of the picture. The painting highlights the two ways we traditionally interact with God. First, we read the scriptures, as Mary does. And the second way is that we interact with Jesus, a living being – in this case a baby. Every parent knows that you can learn a great deal about babies and parenting from books, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” But when the baby arrives, it’s a whole new ball game – you learn a whole lot from the real thing that you can’t learn from a book. Ultimately, that’s what the Incarnation is about. We can learn a great deal about God from the Scriptures, but God is fully known through the Son, Jesus Christ. And thanks to the Incarnation, Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, we can know God. Through Jesus, God is with us, as one of us.
Perhaps my favorite rendition of this passage comes from Eugene Peterson’s, “The Message.” Technically, The Message is not a translation, it is a modern paraphrase that strives to stay faithful to the biblical text while bringing modern language and imagery to the scripture.
In the NRSV translation, verse 14 reads, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
In the Message, Peterson renders that verse, “The Word was made flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”
I like Peterson’s way of talking about this verse because of one word in particular – “neighborhood.”(2) The idea of God moving in next door as a real human being is very intriguing and quite comforting.
Many of you know I grew up in many different places. I moved about every three years when I was a kid, so I learned how to adapt to different environments, different communities, different schools, and of course, different neighborhoods. This had it’s challenges as you might expect, but there were good things about moving a lot to. For instance, I have fond memories of some of the neighborhoods where we lived.
One of my favorite neighborhoods was when we lived for about two years just outside Stroudsburg, PA, in the Pocono mountains. We lived in a modest, split-level home in a new sub-division that was still taking shape. Most of the other families that lived there were young, adults in their late thirties and early forties with kids all about the same age. This was great because there were always all kinds of kids to play with. And the most amazing part was that everyone got along pretty well. We ranged in age from 9 to 15, everyone wrote bikes around the neighborhood hung out together. My favorite time was the summer’s when we stay out late and play neighborhood games, like capture the flag. We used the whole neighborhood, nobody had a problem with kids running through their backyards, and every so often, some of the adults would join in.
In addition to capture the flag, we used the best block parties I had ever experienced. Since it was a new sub-division, we had virtually no traffic except those people who lived there. So, to my knowledge, nobody bothered with permits and the closest thing we had to blocking off the streets were a couple of saw horses and some caution tape.
I remember how the dad’s would roll out their grills and set up tables and folding chairs in the streets and driveways. The moms would set up buffet lines with card tables and fill them with homemade casseroles, (Yes, I said casseroles – remember, this was Eastern Pennsylvania) while the kids would play “Horse” at the driveway basketball hoops, or “Pickle” in someone’s yard. The older teenagers would put their speakers in the bedroom windows and blast music I’d never heard before, like Fleetwood Mac, Boston and early Bruce Springsteen. Then, when it was time to eat, we would fill our paper plates and sit together at the tables to enjoy our food and each other.
I like the thought of God, in the form of Jesus, moving into a neighborhood like this. Standing with the dad’s, discussing which grill was the best while debating when to flip the burgers. Hovering over the buffet table with the mom’s “oohing and ahhing” over the various casseroles. Shouting up to the teenagers, “Turn up the music… when “More Than a Feeling” came on the stereo. And shooting hoops with kids my age in the neighbor’s driveway.
And when the food was ready, Jesus would fill his paper plate and sit down at the table to enjoy the meal and the people gathered there, much like we do on this communion Sunday.
On this first Sunday of 2026, we gather at the table to celebrate that God has moved into our neighborhood. Jesus, the incarnation of God, sits with us, as one of us, to enjoy the fellowship and make us one.
So come, let us sit at the table in God’s Kingdom.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Thomas Troeger, Feasting on the Gospels, John, Vol. 1, Westminster John Knox Press, 2015, p 189.
2. Frank Thomas, Ibid…, p 188.
