Hello,
Friends.
Mark Gladman,
Munkin' Docs with you.
For another Lectio session in this Guide-Is series,
And today.
.
.
We're going to sit with John chapter 1 verses 1 to 18.
Again for those of you who aren't familiar with Lectio Divina I'll give a brief introduction.
And then you'll hear the text read.
And basically the prayer as the text is being read is a prayer that asks God,
What are you drawing me towards?
What do you want me to notice today in the text?
And to allow that word or phrase,
Whatever it might be,
That might come from the text or it's triggered by the text.
Just to sit with you.
After a minute's silence,
The text will be read again,
And after another minute's silence,
Read again,
And then a two-minute silence before we close in prayer.
The idea being that in those other readings and silences,
You allow that word or that phrase to become your prayer and that by the time we're done,
You kind of have the direction that you think you need to take and carry out your mission.
Into the world for the day.
But before we enter.
Into the Lectio time,
I just want to offer you a thought.
For a moment.
And that is the idea that what if.
.
.
At the heart of reality,
There isn't isolation,
That there isn't a solitary power.
What do I mean by this?
That there isn't some enormous distant being sitting alone in eternity.
John's gospel starts with an amazingly different image.
He doesn't begin his gospel with Bethlehem or Mary or shepherds,
Not even with Jesus.
He begins before the beginning,
In the beginning.
Was the word and the Greek for that word word is the Greek word logos which can mean word but it can also mean speech or expression or reason or meaning.
The Greek philosophers spoke of this Logos as being,
I suppose,
The power,
The force that makes all of creation possible.
Word.
Is probably the right place to begin.
Because a word is something that moves outward.
A word is expression,
Communication,
Relationship.
You can have a thought inside yourself,
But When you speak it,
Something happens.
What was hidden becomes expressed.
What was inward becomes outward.
Something crosses the distance between one person to the next.
And John says the Word was with God and the Word was God.
So there's already something deeply relational happening in the very beginning of God.
God already is not a solitary power.
God is communion.
God is relationship.
And God is self-giving.
And then John takes it somewhere.
Almost crazy in terms of how people thought about God.
The Word became flesh.
The Word doesn't just stay an idea.
The Word doesn't remain you know,
Abstract somewhere,
The word becomes flesh,
God speaks,
And what God says is somehow a life,
A human life.
Jesus.
That's something worth carrying into the passage today,
Because we often think of words as information.
God says something and our job is to understand the information,
But John's word is more than that.
John's word is God expressing God's own life.
God communicating and making God self-known.
God moving towards us and eventually God becoming one of us.
Maybe when we encounter Jesus.
We are encountering God's self-expression,
The invisible made visible,
The unknowable being made knowable,
The infinite.
Come in close enough to touch.
And notice what kind of word this is.
John says the Word became flesh,
Not a rule or a doctrine or a theological system.
But flesh,
A person,
Body,
Life,
A human being who could be seen and heard and touched.
A person who could eat.
And sleep and laugh and weep,
A person who could say,
Come and see.
So,
As you enter the passage,
Listen for the movement.
From God to Word,
From Word to creation.
From word to flesh,
From mystery to revelation,
From distance to intimacy.
And listen for the question beneath.
The prologue.
The one that says,
What is God like if this is how God chooses to speak?
If God speaks through Jesus.
If God's word looks like Jesus.
If the word becomes flesh,
Then maybe we need to pay very close attention to the life of Jesus,
Because this isn't simply a message from God.
This is God coming near.
So sit with the passage,
Let the words wash over you,
Notice what catches you.
Whatever that may be.
You don't need to understand it all or solve the theology,
Just listen.
The God who's more,
Speaks,
The God who's mystery.
Reveals the God who is beyond words becomes the Word,
And the Word becomes flesh.
So now let's listen.
Let's enter this beautiful vision of John's and wander together.
What if at the heart of reality?
God is not isolation.
But friendship.
What if God is the Word?
John chapter 1 Verses 1 to 18.
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.
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,
Who has made him known.
John chapter 1 verses 1 to 18.
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.
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,
Who has made him known.
John chapter 1 verses 1 to 18.
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.
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,
Who has made him known.
God of the beginning.
God beyond every beginning.
You are not silent isolation,
Not distant power,
Not a god who keeps yourself hidden.
You speak.
You reveal,
You give yourself,
And your word became flesh.
Teach us to recognize your word,
Not only as the words of scripture,
But as the life of Jesus.
In His compassion,
His courage,
His tenderness,
His truth,
His welcome,
His willingness to draw near.
Bring us back to Jesus.
When we make you distant,
Remind us that you have come close.
We make you about ideas,
Remind us that your word becomes a life.
And when we can't find the words to pray,
Let us simply rest in this.
The word is with us.
The word is among us.
The word is alive.
God who speaks make our lives attentive enough to listen.
Open enough to receive.
And courageous enough to become in our own small way.
A word of love to the world.
And may Grace,
Peace and Love go with us and remain with us as we go,
Today and always.
Until tomorrow,
Friends.
Peace be with you.
