{"id":6334,"date":"2009-11-30T12:21:35","date_gmt":"2009-11-30T17:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/"},"modified":"2009-11-30T12:21:35","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T17:21:35","slug":"christmas-words-1-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Words 1: Word"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning,\u201d the Gospel of John tells us, \u201cwas the Word.\u201d He furthers this with this: \u201cThe Word was with God and the Word was God\u201d (John 1:1). The first Christmas word we will look at in our Advent 2007 series is\u00a0Word<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Christmas is about God\u2019s self-expression, God\u2019s Word, in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Christmas message, if it is faithful to John 1:1-14, is the message about Jesus Christ. What God wants to say to us has been said in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

First, as with Creation so now with the New Creation: it is the act of God. John establishes Advent, Christmas, and the Incarnation as the Act of God to Create.<\/p>\n

Second, the Word is the Creator or, perhaps more accurately, God created originally\u00a0through\u00a0<\/em>the Word.<\/p>\n

Third, God originally created The Adam; now God\u2019s work begins with the One who becomes Incarnate, taking on flesh and blood (1:14).<\/p>\n

Fourth, for John there are almost certainly allusions to Wisdom and Torah when he uses the word \u201cWord.\u201d It is entirely reasonable to think, also, that some would hear the Logos of the Greek world \u2014 that by which all things cohere.<\/p>\n

Fifth, this Word is a Person. The ultimate and final act of \u201cwording\u201d is \u201cpersoning\u201d because the \u201cWord\u201d is the communicative act of God. Our words gain meaning from this Word; our words represent and extend who we are to another. Here God\u2019s Word is both \u201cword\u201d and \u201cperson.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn the beginning,\u201d the Gospel of John tells us, \u201cwas the Word.\u201d He furthers this with this: \u201cThe Word was with God and the Word was God\u201d (John 1:1). The first Christmas word we will look at in our Advent 2007 series is\u00a0Word. Christmas is about God\u2019s self-expression, God\u2019s Word, in the Person of Jesus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1749],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent"],"yoast_head":"\nChristmas Words 1: Word<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""In the beginning," the Gospel of John tells us, "was the Word." He furthers this with this: "The Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1). The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas Words 1: Word\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""In the beginning," the Gospel of John tells us, "was the Word." He furthers this with this: "The Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1). The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-30T17:21:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/\",\"name\":\"Christmas Words 1: Word\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-30T17:21:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-11-30T17:21:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"\\\"In the beginning,\\\" the Gospel of John tells us, \\\"was the Word.\\\" He furthers this with this: \\\"The Word was with God and the Word was God\\\" (John 1:1). The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Christmas Words 1: Word\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christmas Words 1: Word","description":"\"In the beginning,\" the Gospel of John tells us, \"was the Word.\" He furthers this with this: \"The Word was with God and the Word was God\" (John 1:1). The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christmas Words 1: Word","og_description":"\"In the beginning,\" the Gospel of John tells us, \"was the Word.\" He furthers this with this: \"The Word was with God and the Word was God\" (John 1:1). The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2009-11-30T17:21:35+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/","name":"Christmas Words 1: Word","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-11-30T17:21:35+00:00","dateModified":"2009-11-30T17:21:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"\"In the beginning,\" the Gospel of John tells us, \"was the Word.\" He furthers this with this: \"The Word was with God and the Word was God\" (John 1:1). The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/30\/christmas-words-1-word\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christmas Words 1: Word"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}