Day: December 27, 2025

Sermons

Sermon for the Feast of St. John the Evangelist

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

Between the martyrdom of Stephen and the slaughter of the Holy Innocents there is The Feast of St. John the Evangelist. All three feasts comprise the three great Holy Days of Christmas and enlighten our understanding of the mystery of Christmas. With today’s feast we have the divine ground of human lives in all of their complexity illuminated for us. We are returned, as it were, to the wonder of Christmas Eve in the pageant of God’s Word and Son in The Letter to the Hebrews and in the Prologue of John’s Gospel. We contemplate this morning the radical mystery of the Incarnation by way of John’s first letter and the ending of the very last chapter of his Gospel. These endings and beginnings are nothing more than the ways in which we are enfolded in eternity, enfolded and embraced in the love of God toward us.

The life of the Church and the doctrine of the Christian Faith is greatly influenced and shaped by “the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John,” as the collect puts it. The Divine Word signals life and light communicated to us through “that which was from the beginning, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled”; in short, the Word of life, as John’s 1st Epistle says. For in this, “the life was manifested”, the life that is “eternal life, which was with the Father … [which] and was manifested unto us”. To what end? Our fellowship with God and the joy of that heavenly fellowship. For “these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”

Is the Word of God only or simply what is written? No. Neither the Christmas Gospel from John’s Prologue nor the last words of the last chapter of his Gospel allow us to draw that conclusion. God’s Word and Son is more than words written, though not less. The greater mystery is how the words written lift us to the wonder of the eternal word with us whose thoughts, words, and deeds, we might say, far exceed all that could be written. “The world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” This is not about more information or facts or data that belong to finite reason and experience; it is about the eternal Word itself as exceeding by definition human comprehension. It is not something to which we can add or from which we can subtract. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord” (Isaiah 55. 8). And so too, we might say, ‘My words are not your words’.

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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

Diego Velázquez, 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 Judea.

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