Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, December 19, 2021
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: In the beginning, a triune God brought light to a dark nothingness. Christ renewed that light.
“In the beginning…”
“…when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep,”
“…was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
“…while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”
“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.”
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
“God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
John 1:1-5
Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning was God’s Word, and God’s first word was “light.” The wind (Hebrew: ruah, breath, spirit – the Holy Spirit, perhaps?) swept over the waters (chaos, formless, void, emptiness). God spoke and there was light, which has the power to illuminate the darkness, to make sense of chaos, and to create order out of disorder.
At the time of John, the people were living in a dark world. They were occupied by Rome and their living conditions were difficult. John’s words offered the hope that there would be light in the midst of their darkness. If light marked the beginning of creation, then the light of Christ marked the beginning of a new creation—one in which humanity could truly know the triune God.