Day: December 27, 2017

Sermons

Sermon for the Feast of St. John the Evangelist

“Even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written”

John is the great Evangelist of the mystery of Christmas at once soaring into the heights of divinity on eagle’s wings and with an eagle’s sight and witnessing to the reality of the Incarnation. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life … declare we unto you.” His Gospel and Epistles testify to the nature of the Incarnation and counter the earliest debate and heresy known as docetism which argues that God could not be God and engage our humanity by becoming human. Spirit and matter are utterly opposed; there is a fundamental dualism to reality in such a view.

John the Evangelist argues to the contrary that the mystery of the Incarnation of God’s Word and Son reveals the greater mystery of God himself. God does not cease to be God in becoming man. In the life of Christ as the Gospel reading makes clear “there are also many other things which Jesus did” and, no doubt, said, that have not been written; indeed so many “that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” The mystery of Christmas is about the inexhaustible mystery of God in the wonder of his intimate engagement with us in the humanity of Christ. The Word made flesh, that Word “which was from the beginning,” from the principle of all life and thought, “was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.”

Things have been written in witness of these things “and we know that his witness is true,” John says about himself it seems. We may think that is a kind of special pleading but it is in the context of Peter following Jesus and asking about “the disciple whom Jesus loved following,” the disciple “which also leaned on his breast at supper” and as John tells us, the disciple who said at the last supper “Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?” They are all strong arguments about the person of the Evangelist and about what he has heard and seen, and even more, what he has come to understand and believe. The Gospel reading belongs to the resurrection appearances of Christ and reflects on the theme of betrayal and crucifixion – all testament to the reality of the body of Christ at the same time to the divinity of Christ. All things which belong to the witness of John the Evangelist, he who wrote these things.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint John the Evangelist

The collect for today, the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

MERCIFUL Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 1:1-5
The Gospel: St. John 21:19-25

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of PatmosJohn and his brother James (St. James the Greater) were Galilean fishermen and sons of Zebedee. Jesus called the two brothers Boanerges (“sons of thunder”), apparently because of their zealous character; for example, they wanted to call down fire from heaven on the inhospitable Samaritans. John and James, together with Peter, belonged to the inner group of the apostles who witnessed the Transfiguration and the agony in Gethsemane. It was John and Peter whom Jesus sent to prepare the final Passover meal.

In the lists of disciples, John always appears among the first four, but usually after his brother, which may indicate that John was the younger of the two.

According to ancient church tradition, St. John the Evangelist was the author of the New Testament documents that bear his name: the fourth gospel, the three epistles of John, and Revelation. John’s name is not mentioned in the fourth gospel (but 21:2 refers to “the sons of Zebedee”), but he is usually if not always identified as the beloved disciple. It is also generally believed that John was the “other disciple” who, with Peter, followed Jesus after his arrest. John was the only disciple at the foot of the cross and was entrusted by Christ with the care of his mother Mary.

After Christ’s resurrection and ascension, John, together with Peter, took a leading role in the formation and guidance of the early church. John was present when Peter healed the lame beggar, following which both apostles were arrested. After reports reached Jerusalem that Samaria was receiving the word of God, the apostles sent Peter and John to visit the new Samaritan converts. Presumably, John was at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15). He is not mentioned later in the Acts of the Apostles, so he appears to have left Palestine.

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