"Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." the Sound of Music's Do-Re-Mi opening floats through me head as I hear the familiar words that kickoff the Gospel of John.. The words are obviously a riff off of Genesis. This is not simply the Genesis account, however. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This does not contradict the Genesis account. Instead John's gospel compliments Genesis with some mysterious, new understanding that is added.
"He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being."
This new presence is now anthropomorphized. The presence of a, so far, unnamed Christ.
"In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." Now we have this presence associated with The Word, Creation of Life, and Light.
"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light." A man is introduced, a specific man, a man with the same name as the author of this gospel. He comes to testify.
"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God."
"This is the beginning of God's love story." Pastor Janell preached today. She loved The Message's translation "The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." This is the testimony of this specific man with a vision. The he being talking about will not be accepted by his own people. For all who receive him and believe in his name he gives the power to become children of God. These are people who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
This is a holy statement. Who are the people who receive him and believe in his name? People who were born of God. The author seems to make divisions that seem real when declared but where truly there are no divisions. After all, one of the opening statements is "All things came into being through him". All people are born of God.
"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. (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.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known." We started at the very beginning and are not given the name of Jesus until the end of the reading, followed by a koan-like sentence. The sentence invites us to contemplate two things it introduces:
1) Did Moses see God? Moses was in the presence of God seven times at Mount Sinai and hears God's voice in the burning bush on Mount Horeb. What did Moses see in those moments.
and
2) Before answering the Moses question we may need to answer, what does it mean to see God?
Pastor Janell summed it up in her sermon "Our future is in the love of God."
No comments:
Post a Comment