This sermon was preached on December 28, 2025, being the First Sunday after Christmas Day, at the 9:00am Rite II Eucharist at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church (Lappans) in Boonsboro, Maryland.
Readings: Isa. 61.10—62.3; Ps. 147.13-21; Gal. 3.23-25; 4.4-7; Jn. 1.1-18
Collect of the Day: “Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your Incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”—Jn. 1.14
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Like many Christian churches this past Christmas Eve, we here at Saint Mark’s Church sang arguably the standard Christmas anthem, “O come, all ye faithful,” also known as Adeste Fideles, first published in the mid-18th century. The most famous arrangement of this hymn is by the late David Willcocks in 1961 while serving as the Organist and Master of Choristers at King’s College, Cambridge.[1] What makes Willcocks’s arrangement particularly popular is his use of “crunchy” harmonies for the hymn’s fourth stanza, “Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning.” It is when one gets to the phrase “Word of the Father” that Willcocks utilizes a half-diminished seventh chord at fortississimo level for the word “Word” to make it dramatic, surprising, and punchy to the point that the organ and singing together rattle the windows and makes one feel the vibrations emanating from their very person. This was an intentional choice by Willcocks, illustrating through the music Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, becoming flesh and breaking into our time, bringing Heaven and salvation to Earth.
For those of us who attended the Christmas Day Mass at Saint John’s, Hagerstown, we have just again heard as today’s Gospel lesson John’s Prologue, the foundation of the Church’s belief that Jesus is God tangibly revealed in human flesh. If you weren’t at Saint John’s Church on Christmas Day, perhaps this is your first time hearing these Scriptural words since the last Christmas season or maybe even the first time in all your life. Regardless, the Church is again presenting us these words because of the significant importance they convey—God’s Word is here dwelling among us! It is the profoundest and most important thing to have ever happened in all human history.
I find amazing how Willcocks was able to do with one chord in a Christmas carol what today’s Gospel lesson does in eighteen verses, both conveying pictures of the main themes and motifs of the larger Gospel story. We are presented the story of God who existed before all the world we know existed. Despite our failings, God still yearns to be with us. God descends into our time to redeem us and all our lost time with Him. “The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations.”[2] This is the good news of the Gospel that points our eyes out of this world into God’s Kingdom that is timeless and boundless. It is good news no longer just read and heard, but also seen and heard.
We now see and hear the Gospel because Jesus Christ the Word “became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” The only time we read the word “grace” in John’s Gospel is in his Prologue. Going forward, we see grace take on a fleshly experience in the Person of Jesus. To put the word “became” between “Word” and “flesh,” between the Word and mortal human nature, to equate God and humankind, was the greatest equation ever devised. Like Einstein’s famous principle between energy and matter being the physical world’s fundamental equation, that of Jesus Christ and flesh, of divinity and humanity, is the spiritual world’s basic equation and most important for salvation.[3] Through Jesus’ Incarnate Body we will receive grace upon grace. “Taste and see how gracious the LORD is,” tells the Psalmist.[4] God’s grace is now sensorial because God became human.
Thus, not only do we hear the claim that Jesus is God, but that His purpose is to reveal God. Jesus reveals God as relational, wanting to be known in an intimate way by His creation. That is what makes Christmas such a profound season in the Church’s liturgical year. Through the Incarnation, Jesus literally brings God into our midst and draw us into a closer relationship Him. At the end of John 17, Jesus says, “I made known to them your Name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”[5] This shared love between God the Father and Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word is aimed toward this world’s recognition of God’s love for and desire to be with us. Love has come down and been born at Christmas.[6]
It used to be in Roman Catholic and some Anglo-Catholic parishes in the old days that today’s Gospel lesson would have been read as “the Last Gospel” upon the conclusion of every Mass. Except for the Words of Institution during the Eucharistic Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer, no other words from the Scriptures would have been repeated at every Eucharistic celebration.[7] John 1.1-18 was read every Sunday to reinforce God offering Himself repeatedly, wanting us to accept the precious gift that is Himself. Just like with His disciples, Jesus is inviting us to also have a personal relationship with Him. As Jesus presents Himself to us, the only thing needed from us is to likewise present ourselves, our souls, and bodies to Him. By offering ourselves to the God who repeatedly offers Himself to us, we receive adoption as His redeemed children.[8]
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” David Willcocks was onto something when he arranged that now famous Christmas chord. In that chord is the truth that in this life are dissonances and unresolved tensions, struggles between good and evil. Into this drama Jesus breaks in. He is the light that drives away the darkness, death’s sting, and the Devil. In their places, Jesus brings into our lives light, truth, and love.
Only through Jesus can we see glimpses of God’s glory and gracious nature on this side of life. To see such glimpses requires real faith. Do you trust God? Will you open yourself up to receiving Jesus, God’s Incarnate Word, the greatest gift this world has ever received? I hope so. Jesus is the absolute best gift you can ever give yourself.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
[1] Willcocks’s birth and death years are 1919-2015. His choral arrangement of Adeste Fideles is published in 100 Carols for Choir (Oxford University Press, 1988), edited by Willcocks and John M. Rutter (b. 1945). Willcocks served at King’s College, Cambridge from 1959 until 1974.
[2] Isa. 61.11.
[3] Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings (Year A) (Word on Fire, 2022), p. 107.
[4] Ps. 34.8 as translated by Myles Coverdale (c. 1488-1569).
[5] Jn. 17.26.
[6] Cf. Christina G. Rossetti, “Love Came Down at Christmas,” (1885), Web, accessed December 27, 2025.
[7] This tradition, started as a silent prayer by the celebrating priest or bishop around the 12th century and which became an audible part of the Mass by the 16th century, was eliminated as part of changes to the Mass instituted through the 1964 document Inter Oecumenici, itself an implementation of the Roman Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Fr. Charles Grondin, “When Did the Practice of the Last Gospel End? Web, accessed December 27, 2025”; “The Last Gospel,” An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians, Web, accessed December 27, 2025).
[8] Gal. 4.5.
THE ANGLO-CATHOLIC GENTLEMAN 
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