John 1:1-18
January 4, 2026
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland, California.
Happy New Year! Joy and I returned back to California on New Year’s Day after spending some wonderful holiday time with our son and family in Raleigh, North Carolina. I hope your New Year’s Day festivities were safe and eventful but that you have already come to the conclusion that after 3 days, those resolutions are already broken! There is always next year!
In only a few weeks ago, we read our beloved nativity stories from Matthew and Luke; angels and shepherds, sheep and oxen, a couple in a barn with a newborn baby, Magi exotic travelers with extravagant gifts, all go straight to our hearts. They mesmerized our hearts to wonder and delight.
Last Sunday, the lectionary lesson from Matthew 2 shocked us back to reality when Mary, Joseph, and the baby had to escape to Egypt because King Herod was threatened by the prophecy of a new Messiah King. Forewarned by angels, the Magi returned home by another route to avoid Herod that led to the massacre of innocent babies. Eventually, even Bethlehem wasn’t safe so the couple and baby resettled in Nazareth where Jesus grew up.
John 1
Unlike Matthew and Luke’s account of the life of Jesus, John’s Gospel begins theologically. We don’t have names, locations, activities, and angels singing in John. Instead, we begin with “In the beginning was the Word…” Similar to the book of Genesis, we begin, “In the beginning…” as to say that inasmuch as God was in the beginning of creation, God is beginning once again with the Word and this Word is Jesus Christ.
This is why we have both the Old Testament and the New Testament in one book. In our Bibles, we read John 1:14: “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.”
In Eugene Peterson’s contemporary rendering of the Bible in The Message, he has given us an alternative version of the text, John 1:14. “The Word was made flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”
When I read Peterson’s rendition, the Gospel of John was no longer as theological as it appears but became more like Matthew and Luke.
Jesus moving into my neighborhood in Boston’s Roxbury elicited many memories of sight, sound, smells, and people. Across from our 3-family flat building was an Italian Ma and Pa corner store where we would buy penny candy until one day a thief came in and shot the old man. The store closed soon after.
On the brick wall of our elementary school, Phillips Brooks, we would play handball with my cousins and neighborhood friends until our parents call us home for dinner.
When we walked up to Blue Hill Avenue to shop at the Stop and Shop when for $10, you can buy 12 cans of Green Giant cream corn! I can still remember how much my fingers hurt carrying heavy cans of cream corn for about 4 blocks but what seems like miles then.
During those long and hot and humid summer days, the neighbors across the street would barbecue ribs. You can smell the sauce on the ribs wafting into our living room. I wasn’t vegetarian in those days.
Wearing a white belt across the chest, I was even a street monitor helping other kids cross Quincy Street to the elementary school. That’s when we, monitors, learned how to tell what kinds of car drove by us, their make and model. I still do this but it’s getting harder now without distinctive backlights.
This is what I think of when I hear, “The Word was made flesh and moved into the neighborhood.” The Word was made flesh and moved into my Roxbury neighborhood.
What is Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church’s neighborhood on the corner of Lakeshore and Mandana? The Word was made flesh and moved into our neighborhood.
The Light
At my home church in Boston, we had a Maundy Thursday Tenebrae service of readings and candles to re-enact the Last Supper before Good Friday. The final lesson extinguishes all of the candles and the room is entirely dark. The darkness always felt long and we wanted someone to please turn on the lights. The darkness is supposed to symbolize the darkness and quietness of the tomb where Jesus laid until Easter morning when the light of Resurrection morning shines in.
In John’s Gospel we begin with everything in darkness until the Word shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. And there was John the Baptist who testify to the light of Christ to enlighten everyone in the world.
Around late December, we had the winter solstice which is the longest night time of the year before we begin again to have longer daylight in our days. Today, and the days to come, we will have a few more minutes of daylight for us to live in the light.
One of our Christmas gifts this year was growing our own mushrooms out of a box. I know that mushrooms grow in the dark and we hope to harvest some delicious mushrooms to eat soon. But for the most part, we need light to grow our vegetables and fruits, light to work and thrive, light to exercise and eat, and when we don’t get enough vitamin D from natural sunlight, we take vitamin D pills to remain vibrant and healthy.
The Word was light and the life and the life of Christ was the light to all people.
In the diminishing long, dark, and rainy winter days, we need the light of the Word to embrace the New Year with hope and the promise of new life.
New Year
In the January LABC Transmitter newsletter, we have outlined a number of important dates for listening sessions, “out with the old things to make room for new things,” Purge Day, and an opportunity to begin planning and envisioning the future of LABC. I hope that all of you will join your friends and me to engage in these sessions.
We will discern together how the Word has moved into our neighborhood and what would that mean to us today.
Beginning in late February, I will also be offering an Inquirers/Baptism/New Members Class on Sundays leading up to Easter. If you are wondering about the meaning of following Jesus in your life, what is the meaning of a disciple, and how you might join this community of faith that has been faithful for over 160 years, I hope that you would consider joining my class.
Since the Word has moved into our neighborhood, perhaps the Word is moving into your life too.
I can say that the Word is as real as I am standing before you. I was perfectly fine retired for over 10 years; getting in my daily walk, watching our grandkids, cooking fried rice, playing tennis with some old friends. But God stirred in me and led me to be with you in your neighborhood. And now, I don’t need to turn on my navigation in my car when I leave my house to get to thisneighborhood anymore. Your neighborhood is now my neighborhood too.
God’s Neighborhood
God moves into every neighborhood: from East Oakland to the Oakland Hills, from Lake Merritt to Tilden Park, from Mills College to Laney College, from Jack London Square to Chinatown, from Piedmont Avenue to Lakeshore Avenue.
The Word of Jesus dwells with us all, in all of our neighborhoods.
And when the Word moved in, he had a kind of glory that we could see—a one-of-a-kind glory like God. Going back to Eugene Peterson, “We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”
What this means is that as the Word of Jesus was generous with his life, we too are to be generous with ours as well. We are called to give and make a difference in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood can be safer, more fed, kinder, and more peaceful.
The Word of Jesus just didn’t flake on us or give up in the middle of the job. The Word was true from start to finish. The Word is true and has integrity and wholeness. The Word completed his calling from the beginning to the end, from start to finish. This Word is a great neighbor.
With the Word of Christ as our good neighbor, let us do our part to share God’s love in the world. Because we have the Word as our neighbor and we have seen and shared the table with our neighbor, the Word of Christ, let’s us share the Word with other neighbors and the world through our love and peace.
Let us pray.
Dear God, thank you for being our loving and caring neighbor sharing generously your grace and mercy with us. Remind us of our own part in being a good neighbor with all who are in our surroundings. Bless this beloved community known as Lakeshore to continue to be the welcoming and affirming witness and place for all people, all your children, all who seek your acceptance to bring peace, love, and justice in this world. Amen.