Switch

 

Switch

 

John 1:(1-9), 10-18

God with us 

 

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 

1:2 He was in the beginning with God.

 

1:3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being

 

1:4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

 

1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

 

1:6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

 

1:7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

 

1:8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

 

1:9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

 

1:10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.

 

1:11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

 

1:12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,

 

1:13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

 

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.

 

1:15 (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'")

 

1:16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

 

1:17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

 

1:18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

 

Back in the 1970s, there was a Glenn Larson TV series called “Switch,” that ran for about three years. Eddie Albert (of “Green Acres” fame) and Robert Wagner (later of “Austin Powers” fame) played a former bunco cop and an ex-con, respectively, who form a detective agency together. With Charlie Callas as a restauranteur and master of disguise, the show was a hoot. Shows like this, and movies like “Trading Places” have always caught my attention, as they activate that part of our brain that likes to contemplate what such extreme “shifts” or “switches” would look like. Isn’t part of our fantasy world to occasionally “imagine” what life would look like in another form or field of work? When we hear of someone winning $gazillions in the lottery, don’t we take a little mental detour to think about what WE would do, were that us? I read this week where the Powerball lottery is up to over $1 billion, and here is my plan, were I to win something like that: take the lump sum (about $500 million); pay the necessary federal taxes (about $250 million); find the easiest way to gift each of my adult children with $10 million, each; give my church $10 million to pay for its capital campaign; give my seminary $10 million; use $150 million to begin a benevolent foundation that offers annual grants to non-profit, justice-oriented causes; and invest $60 million for later, and to provide some serious “walking around” money for me and the Mrs. By the way, the time it took to share this “plan” with you took 500 million times longer than my chances of winning the Powerball, odds reduced only infinitesimally by the fact that I don’t buy a ticket.

 

If you weren’t who YOU were, or didn’t do what YOU do with your life, who would you be, or what would you do? Have you ever thought about that? There’s nothing wrong with you, if you have, believe me. I’m sure it’s quite a natural thing, given the immense capacity for dreaming and fantasy our God-engineered brains have. As a kid, I wanted to be a space scientist, of some sort, a dream cut short by my junior high discovery that I wasn’t good at mathematics, and that I basically hated it. In senior high, as it turned out, my theoretical physics aptitude was off the charts, as was my interest, but again, that math thing got in the way. We didn’t have computers yet, and slide rules and I never developed much of a “working” relationship. I did manage straight A’s in an advanced physics class I was selected for, but mostly because we were to pair up with another student in the class (there were only eight of us selected) for all of our work, and I chose a friend who was a whiz at math. We made a great team, although our teacher had fits with our quarterly report papers, as I could be a bit “creative” in my verbiage, turning one of the papers on an electrical project into “The Sterile Farad.” Because our work was exemplary, though, he couldn’t give us anything but an “A,” but he always cautioned me that such literary license would never wash in the field of science at the college level. Later, in graduate school, I was admonished by a professor who said that I “wrote with too much passion,” which I thought a bit odd, given it was theological seminary, and “passion” seemed to be central to our studies, but whatever. Now that we are back to theology, here is where the “switch” comes in.

 

Today’s text is the famous “prologue” to the Gospel of John. And its author tells of the most magnificent “switch” ever! In verse 13, John tells us that as “children of God,” we are “born of God,” “not by blood or flesh.” We are “given the power to become the children of God” by God, not by “the will of man.” We are God’s children in that our “flesh and blood” are superseded by the grace and will of God. The author tells us this to set up the “great switch” coming in verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory…full of grace and truth.” There it is! WE are empowered to become CHILDREN of GOD, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, because Jesus Christ, the Son of God and “full member” of the Godhead, BECAME flesh and blood and “tented” among us! Our claim on being children of God would be on dubius ground, if not outright wishful thinking, if it were not for Jesus’ foray into the “far country.” Jesus staged a raid on sin, and defeated it. He snatched life from the evil clutch of death. He broke all of the ”human” rules for deity and touched, and ate, and laughed, and cried with the earthbound “creatures” he had a hand in creating. He suffered at the hands of authoritarian leaders, religious and political; he bled; he died, like any condemned person could. He imagined a “kindom” where all people truly mattered, and lived at their best when ALL could do so, equally. He promised a life no longer earthbound, and no longer handcuffed to the ticking of a clock or the setting of the sun. He opened the “gate” between the realm of humanity and that of deity, first crossing into our world, not just to bless, but to BE, and to BE with us! Because of HIS “switch,” we have been forever “switched” as well, from persecuted, tempted, and sin-ravaged “bloody people” to eternal lifers in the heavenlies, with only the blood of Christ shared among us. 

 

A new year is upon us, but as this “Great Switch” that is redeeming us is yet unfolding, every day is a “new year” to the Christian believer. And working for full inclusion and acceptance for all of God’s children is the “blood oath” passed on to us by Jesus, himself. Paul said “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” It was Jesus’ “switch” that started this process, and we are left to continue carrying it out. Discovering the common ground between ALL of us, regardless of anything that “in the flesh” might separate us, or give one group credence or privilege over another, is the “Jesus command.” The work that continues to “reconcile the world” to Godself is Jesus’ work, not ours. We are its messengers, and its heralds, not its lawmakers or its arbiters.

 

As we begin this new year, each of us is compelled to ask ourselves, “Do I BELIEVE that God wants to embrace ALL of humanity?” If we still harbor divisive or judgmental thoughts (or even boundaries?) against those of other creeds, nations, ethnic origins, sexual orientation, or level of economic fortune, we have our own “switch” cut out for us. Until we conquer this “queuing” attitude, we are not living into our call to BE children of God. As long as we yield to the Holy Spirit of God, we have an open spigot to the GRACE of God that first crossed the threshold into “blood time” in Jesus Christ. Our way over that threshold into GOD’S time is paved with this grace, a grace that IS available to all, even before they know about it. Mr. Wesley called this “prevenient grace,” the offer and understanding of which is Methodism’s great contribution to the Christian faith.

 

A line from an old cigarette commercial from my childhood became quite famous: “I’d rather FIGHT than SWITCH.” In our time, it’s sadly too easy to believe this became the slogan for our time, and not just a TV ad. Now it’s time to turn it around, Dear Ones. In Jesus Christ, who pulled off the greatest “switch” of them all, we are called to make the transformational “switch” that can end the fighting, end the division, and put a serious dent in all of the world’s hatred. May 2026 see us yielding to the Spirit and grace of God, and moving in the right direction—“homeward.” Remember, Grace is the grease of greatness! Amen.