John 1:1–14
The prologue of John is our gospel lesson for Christmas day. John does not begin his account of Jesus with a story about his ancestry and birth, but of the birth of all creation. This is a midrash on the Genesis creation story and it also plays on Jewish wisdom tradition, in which the Logos–God’s wisdom proclaimed–is personified. God creates through God’s wise word. This is in stark contrast to other creation accounts in which the world is born out of violence between gods. For example, the Genesis account probably dates from the times of exile in Babylon, and in the Babylonian creation the world is created out of the slain blood and body of a god. Here John harkens back to how the Hebrew people’s Genesis creation story was a counter-story to Babylon’s. We are not born of blood or human desire and passion, but out of the word of God, light that transforms chaos and darkness. Furthermore, this Word does not abandon us to violence and suffering, but becomes flesh like us, intimately entering into violence to bring transformation through our relationship with God’s wisdom.
For the abolitionist preacher this reassures us that the core of no-one’s nature is violence and when our lives are marred by violence the solution will arise out of wise, loving, relationship. The violence and suffering of the world will not be transformed by more bloodshed and passionate, fearful reactivity. We must seek wisdom born out of communication and relationship. We can trust that even in the most desperate situations the wisdom of God is with us, within us, working to shine a light on vulnerable, shame-filled places. Bringing the seeds of violence and places where we have been traumatized into the light breaks the cycles of violence which are enabled and exacerbated by the violence of the penal-justice system.
Sarah Lynne Gershon (she/her) is an MDiv/MTS student, DOC pastor, and lives at the Bloomington Catholic Worker.