The Word Made Flesh

(Sermon preached on Sunday 2nd January 2011 at North Ryde Community Church).

Still in the Christmas Season

Today is the 9th day of Christmas, and, if your true love is sending you 9 drummers drumming, it will be a noisy day for you.

Nevertheless, it is still the Christmas season. We can still recall the stories and infancy of Jesus, given to the world as the Christ for all time.

We can still celebrate the wonder of this incarnation as we stand at the threshold of the new year of 2011 with all the challenges and opportunities that it will bring.

In John 1:10, we read the version from John’s Gospel, the Word made flesh, or, as Charles Wesley put it, “Our God contracted to a span Incomprehensibly made man.”

“Incomprehensibly” is the word, particularly in this holiday season when even our brains are likely to go on holiday as well.

We’re having a well-earned break and you want us to get our minds around the Word becoming flesh for us.

The story of Pinocchio - My most influential religious film

Let’s not feel guilty about it. It has taken over 2000 years and the human cranium is still having some difficulty coming to grips with it.

This is why I have found the story of Pinocchio so useful. Some of us saw the film when we were small children. I would say it became one of the most influential films in my childhood.

When I am asked what was the most influential religious film I’ve seen, I raise eyebrows for replying, “Pinocchio”.

The condition for true humanity (Jn 1:10)

It is the story of Geppetto the woodcarver who carved a wooden puppet he named Pinocchio.

This lonely old bachelor carved him in the form of a son he’d wished he had and yearned that this puppet could be a real boy, free from strings and enabled to become truly human.

Geppetto gets his wish from the blue fairy but with the condition that Pinocchio can behave as a real human with all the humane qualities of humanity.

We start to see what it means for God’s Word to become flesh, and again the challenge is for this expression to behave as a real human with all the humane qualities of humanity.

Pilgrim’s Progress

The baby Jesus grew up to be a trailblazer for us, but Pinocchio becomes so much like us stumbling along the way. He becomes like the pilgrim in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”. I found that book a bid hard and formidable to read, and way above my head.

Pinocchio? He was a child like me, and he was called to be a pilgrim to go on his journey towards true humanity.

Pinocchio is easily distracted by smooth talk to follow the line of least resistance.

A nose for truth (Jn 8:32)

Remember when we were children and we were told when we told a whopper that our nose was growing and growing and soon a little bird would come and build a nest on the end?

We’d get into all kinds of trouble trying to get around the truth. But here again, Jesus tells us through John’s Gospel (8:32), “You will know the truth and the truth will free you.”

Making asses of ourselves

Remember when our antics were described as making an ass of ourselves and how we could be exploited through our unwise decisions?

That is the point of becoming human of rising above those instincts that can trap into mere animal existence.

We see Pinocchio about to become trapped.

Pinocchio Made Flesh - Buried in Monstro (Mt 12:40; Jn 15:13)

Geppetto risks his life to rescue him and is swallowed by Monstro the whale.

Pinocchio, in turn, risks his own life to rescue the man he’d known as creator and father and, like him, ends up in Monstro.

Here, we remember the words from Jesus, this time from Matthew’s Gospel (12:40), “For as Jonah was 3 days and nights in the belly of the whale, so will the son of man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth.”

This refers to the ultimate self-sacrifice this Word made flesh would make, his crucifixion and resurrection, echoed back in John’s Gospel (15:13), “Greater love has no one that anyone should lay life down for friends.”

In the story, Pinocchio becomes entitled to become a living human being because he turns his back on making an ass of himself, or a puppet to others, and gives himself for the life of another.

Also sent (Jn 20:21b)

This is where the story of Pinocchio leads us back into John’s Gospel. The Word became flesh and came and stayed with us. He put his self-interest aside for every human being. So far, we know this.

But where does this take us in this new year of 2011 still within this season of Christmas?

Again, we find the context within John’s Gospel (20:21b), this time towards its end as Jesus breathes upon his disciples. “As the Father sent me, I also send you.”

As God sent Jesus to be truly human, so Jesus breathes upon us to be truly human that all may experience what it means to be truly human.

Jiminy Cricket

It is no coincidence, that Pinocchio was supplied with a companion, named Jiminy Cricket, to be his conscience and his guide.

An earlier film, “The Wizard of Oz” has Dorothy exclaiming, “Gee, gosh, jiminy cricket” as part of the expressions overheard from pious adults disguising their impiety.

The initials “JC” give it all away, don’t they?

This year we have the spirit of Jesus Christ as our constant companion and guide so that the decisions we make, together and personally, reflect the true humanity that has been presented to us through the Word made flesh.

AMEN