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| Punctuation; (sermon 01/03/10) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 2 2010, 06:23 PM (134 Views) | |
| Dewey | Jan 2 2010, 06:23 PM Post #1 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 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. 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. 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. 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. (Joh 1:1-18 NRSV) ===== The past week or so, if you’ve gone anywhere near a newspaper, television, or the internet, you’ve probably seen some kind of a summary of 2009 – a recapping of the biggest stories; pictures and videos of the most important events, sort of a stroll down memory lane of the recent past. We do it every year, and it’s a good thing to do. It’s like putting a period at the end of a sentence. In this case the sentence isn’t just a year, but a whole decade. Putting the period on that sentence is important, but not because of what’s happened, what’s past. Whether that sentence, those memories of the past, are good or bad – and of course, they’re always a mixture of the two – we aren’t really putting an end to those things. Those things that have happened will continue to be a part of us, to shape us in some way. We can never really say goodbye to our past, making a clean break from it. There really isn’t any such thing as getting “closure” from the past, there’s just learning how to reconcile one’s self to it and continuing to move on. The importance of all the reflection, the placing of the period, is that it marks the point of a new beginning. Something new and better is coming. That’s exactly why today, the first Sunday of the new year, we read this passage from John’s gospel. Its opening words are “In the beginning;” and it isn’t a coincidence that the first words of John are also the first words of Genesis, because John begins by offering us a kind of supplemental explanation of creation. John says that in the beginning was the Word of God. That can be a confusing way to translate John’s term, because we’re accustomed to thinking about a “word” being a literal, printed thing. We call the scriptures the Word of God, the printed mode of God’s self-revelation to us. But the actual Greek term that John uses, which we translate as “word,” is the term “logos.” I’m not going to bore you with a long, drawn out sermon about ancient Greek language, but it’s important to understand just what John is really saying here. This word, “logos,” doesn’t just mean a literal, printed word; it was used in a technical sense to mean reason, reckoning, or an explanation. It’s the root word used to create our English words like technology, biology, theology, and so on. In a philosophical sense, to the Greeks logos meant the principle and pattern that gave the universe its character, coherence, and meaning. It was a very good fit for translating Hebrew scriptures that described God’s speaking or making something happen or come into being – like in the creation account, when God said “Let there be light,” and there was light – that was accomplished through the “logos” of God. It was intelligence that made something come into being; it was a noun that was almost a verb. And John tells us in this passage that the logos, the “Word” of God, was with God, and was God, since the very beginning. And John goes on to say that in the beginning, everything came into being through the logos, and that this logos isn’t a “what” but a “who” – it wasn’t an “it,” but a “he” – and that in him was the true light, and life. In him was the entire summary – the full message, meaning, and will of God. But John says that even though everything came into being through him, the world still didn’t recognize him. There was darkness in the world, and even though the darkness couldn’t overcome him, it apparently overcame us. The darkness clouded our hearts and minds, and we couldn’t fully understand, or even recognize the Word. We couldn’t really understand the evidence that bears witness to him in creation, in nature, in the remarkable beauty and intricacy of the cosmos. We couldn’t even fully recognize him, and God’s meaning, in the Law – the written summary of God’s precepts given by God to God’s chosen people, the Israelites. In our own human ignorance, and all too often, we paint our ignorance as so-called intelligence – we’ve missed seeing and understanding the presence of God all around us, and what God wants for us – what God wants us to be. But John goes on to say that at the time of God’s choosing, God decided to make a new beginning – to put a period on all that had happened up till that time. Not to write it off as unimportant, or to ignore it – not at all – but rather, to put the real meaning of the past into better focus. To show God’s intent, embedded in everything that had gone before. John says that God did that by sending the Logos – the Word – into the world, in human form, in Jesus. The Word came into the world to be the ultimate illustration of God, and God’s will, to us. The Word came into the world to be the direct, flesh and blood interpretation of everything the Law and the prophets tried to make clear. Now, there would be no misunderstanding about what some aspect of the Law meant; all that you had to do was to hold it up against Jesus’ life and teachings. Jesus is the trump card. He’s the Rosetta Stone, the whole key to understanding the meaning of scripture and God’s will. Just as we have the possibility of a new beginning with the new year, God made a new beginning possible for the world through Christ. When the Logos, the Word of God came into the world through Christ, it literally changed the course of history. It disrupted the status quo. Jesus’ message shook a lot of people out of the comfortable ways and thoughts that they’d settled into. Of course, that was the whole point of his coming into the world. And it’s the same point for all of us, too. We’ve probably all seen those little rubber wristbands with the initials WWJD – for “What Would Jesus Do?” imprinted into them. A few years ago, you saw them all over the place, and at the time a lot of people made snide comments about them. I suppose some people wore them for the wrong reason, using them as a sort of sign to say that they were somehow better than the great unwashed who didn’t wear one, too. But at its core, the idea of wearing those bracelets, and paying attention to the message behind them, was a very good one. They were meant to be a continual reminder to ask if our actions throughout the day were really consistent with Jesus’ example. It was a reminder for us to look at our lives – to really examine our assumptions, our traditions, our thoughts – and to hold them up to the light – the true Light – of Jesus’ teaching. To ask if it’s consistent with the Logos, the Word, of God - and if it isn’t, to make a change. Next Sunday is the day that we read about, and remember, Jesus’ baptism – the point at which Jesus made a break from his earlier life, and began his earthly ministry. Baptism is that same kind of punctuation that separates the “then” and “now” of our lives, too. As part of next week’s service, there will be an opportunity for all of us to reaffirm our own baptism. We’ll have an opportunity to put a period on our past. To make a new beginning, not just for the new year, but for every day that follows. Thanks be to God. |
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"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685. "Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous "Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011 I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14 | |
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| brenda | Jan 2 2010, 06:32 PM Post #2 |
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..............
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Happy New Year, Dewey!
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“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.” ~A.A. Milne | |
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| Dewey | Jan 2 2010, 06:33 PM Post #3 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Backatcha, Brenda!
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"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685. "Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous "Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011 I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14 | |
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4:32 PM Jul 10