What is the most important verse in the Bible?
That is a rhetorical question. The answer is as individual as we are, though I suspect the answers would cluster around several choices. But as Advent draws to a close and we begin the 12 days of Christmastide, I’ll offer my own and try to explain why it is important. The verse I’m promoting is the 14th in the first chapter of the Gospel of John: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The impact of that verse draws on the opening lines of the chapter: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The importance of verse 14 also lies in the suspicion with which spiritual people regards physicality. To be pure spirit delivers us from the pain and limitation and decay of our physical experience. Oh yes, there is much to rejoice in our materiality. The beauty of this world that our senses convey is a source of continuous delight. But the same materiality that enables us to delight in our material world also makes it “subjected to futility.” (Romans 8:20) Except.
Except, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And if God, who is spirit, was willing to enter fully into our material life, that means that materiality, even subject to decay, can be the vehicles of God’s grace and presence. That, in turn, means that all our actions in this material world have spiritual effects and spiritual consequences.
It means that we can be bearers of God’s holy and healing presence in every place, in every set of circumstances in which we find ourselves. It means that physical items can convey spiritual power and grace, whether in Holy Communion or holy oil or holy water. It is not that water or oil become magic talismans when certain words are spoken over them by certain people. It is that God is willing convey His grace in the material items of His creation and all because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The importance of the verse in question is in its application to the minutiae of our lives. All places can be holy places, all moments can be holy moments, all words can be holy words and all actions may be holy actions. And this is true because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Merry Christmas,
Jack Stapleton (The Apprentice Priest)
The Apprentice Priest 