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St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

215 N. 7th, Terre Haute, Indiana

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A Word: Grace Upon Grace

Sermons · December 25, 2019

In the prologue to John’s gospel, we get a deep, wonderful, and expansive image of God that builds up our awe and our gratitude.


embracing the extravagant love of God
Christmas III | John 1:1-14,16

Grace Upon Grace

From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

Whenever I hear this opening to the Gospel according to John, I am filled with an unspeakable sense of grace. I want to bathe in it. It is a healing salve, a bubble bath, hot chocolate by the fire wrapped in a fuzzy blanket on a chilly winter night. This is an introduction to the joy of Jesus and few words can rival it.

And then we return to our chilly world, these long nights of winter, these expanses of disappointment and discouragement, these times of unsurpassed humanness and I am left with a John hangover.

This, of course, is not his fault. He’s just trying to capture the ineffable truth of God, grace, and all reality. You know, the easy stuff. It is our shallow minds and incomplete thoughts that masquerade as reasonable and objective truths: deceptively certain and improperly fixed.

I suppose this is all too heavy for Christmas morning. But let me share with you an image. A small thing to bridge this gap between the sheer grace-filled warmth of John’s prologue and the muddled existence we so often bring with us to share like a bad habit.

It starts with the image Christians have shared for centuries. Why this time, so close to the solstice, is the time we celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation with the Christ Mass. The image which pervades the whole season before, which we know as Advent…


The full text may be found here.

For a limited time, the audio may be found here.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Christmas, grace, John 1:1-14, prologue of John

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CONTACT

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
215 N. 7th St
Terre Haute, IN 47807

812-232-5165

officeadmin@ststephensth.org

ABOUT

St. Stephen’s is a sacramental community following Jesus’s Way of Love.

We worship on Sundays at 8 & 10.

AFFILIATIONS

St. Stephen’s is a member of The Episcopal Church and congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.

St. Stephen’s is a member of the Homeless Council of the Wabash Valley

PARKING

St. Stephen’s is across from Indiana State University. Nearby parking lots are run by ISU and are free after 5pm weekdays and are free all weekend long. 

Five marked spots in the lot directly behind the church are available during the week.

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