The thoughts that follow are based on this passage:
John 1
The Word Became Flesh
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In his book “Lost for Words”, John Humphreys, that radio scourge of politicians demonstrates just how much we abuse language, by bad usage. He reserves his greatest anger for politicians, quoting, for instance Tony Blair, in his speeches, was short of verbs: in a speech to the Labour conference a total of 163 verbless sentences were included. Things like “New challenges, New ideas”, and “The future, not the past”, “The age of achievement, at home and abroad”, and “For our young people, a brighter future”. It was all good rhetoric. John Humphries asked a few delegates, immediately after the speech about what was said – they were unsure, yet they had all applauded wildly. But little of it made sense, because there were very few promises, and if one looks back little was achieved. The speech actually promised little, for action requires verbs.
When I speak words, it is, in a very real sense, part of me. It is breath that comes from inside of me, making the noise that I give it with my larynx, my mouth and my tongue. When people hear it, they assume I intended to say it, and we remain responsible for the words we say.
Words can change lives. Think of the words “I love you”, or “It’s time to go”, or “You’re fired!” These sorts of words create new situations, and people respond accordingly, for these are words that cannot be taken back. Words are at the core of our being without them communication moves to a whole different level. Think how, if you had no speech or language – as many in our world are – how you would communicate simple things as “I love you”.
In the Old Testament God regularly acts by means of his word: what he says happens.
“God said, ‘Let there be light – and there was light’”. Regularly God speaks – either through his mouthpiece – the Patriarchs like Abraham and Moses, or through the prophets like Isaiah, who proclaimed “God’s word will go out of his mouth and bring life, healing and hope to Israel and the whole creation”. (Is. 55/10-11) It is a backbone concept amongst all the OT writers.
Which, I suppose is why John uses this in the prologue that we are more accustomed to hearing at Christmas time. The Greek word that he uses is “Logos”, which means a variety of things: it encompasses “Wisdom”, “Expression” as well as “word”. In some ways by using such an opening to his gospel, John was trying to appeal to readers who came from a Greek background as much as those of a Jewish background. Many Jewish teachers had grappled with the age old question – How can one true God be both different from the world and active within it: how can he be remote, holy, and detached, and also intimately present? For some, simply the written word was the proof of God’s presence with his people, the fact that God’s word was enshrined in the Torah, the Law. Others believed that the Temple in Jerusalem contained the presence of God within the community of Israel.
But John goes further. The Word (logos) is not an abstract principle, it’s a person, it is the issue of God himself – God’s expression in his Son – the word became flesh – God became human and lived among us: God became Jesus. That is the whole theme of John’s gospel – if you want to know anything at all about the one true God, then you have to look at Jesus, take a long hard look, and what you see is the face of God himself.
Preachers and theologians and professional churchmen have for hundreds of years made Christianity so complicated, and so difficult to follow. They have turned the Church, whether protestant or catholic into sacred clubs with rules to be obeyed before you can take up membership. It is as if they need to protect God from his creation (us)!
John’s gospel blows it wide open. “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but may have eternal life. Indeed God did not send his Son into the world, to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him”. (John 3/16-17) -those are the central words of the gospel of John and of the whole meaning of Christianity.
In today’s reading, (above) this opening prologue it harks back to the creation, to the themes of light and darkness, but it prepares us for what is to come: to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.
Ultimately the choice is down to us: we may side with those who believe it is wrong to say prayers in Barnstable Town Council meeting, and choose not to accept the existence of God, and therefore chip away and the presence of Christianity in our society – and believe me it is increasingly under attack; or you can seize the fact that God is, he always has been, and always will be and that he has expressed himself by becoming human and is in our midst. That is why I believe that all who take this on board and try to live by it are welcome to come and receive holy communion in our churches because the bread and wine are living symbols of the fleshiness of Jesus – God in our midst. Therefore any church which seeks to prevent a person approaching the living God in the sacrament of Holy Communion is treading on dangerous ground. As Jesus himself said “Come to me, and I will give you rest”. He welcomes all to come to him.