“An urgency of message”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Monday, January 10, 2022

John 1:1-18 (Forward, p. 73) CEV p. 1100

Years ago, in 1968 in fact, the three brothers in the Bee Gees wrote a plaintive, rut-wrenching song entitled, “I’ve Got to Get a Message to You”. According to the writers it was based on the story of a condemned death-row prisoner begging the chaplain to pass on a message to his wife before it is too late.

Quite apart from this rather gruesome and unsavory background, the central theme of that song is one that really should be centremost in our hearts, minds and deliberations. We do need to get a message, the message of salvation in Christ Jesus, out to people before it is too late. Yes, there is exactly that kind of urgency about it!

In a very real sense, that is exactly what today’s passage, the Prologue to John’s Gospel, is attempting to do. He wants to get his message out. Accordingly, he begins his gospel with a rather loaded and significant word, the Greek word, ‘logos.’ In today’s passage, John has chosen to use it eight times in just five verses (vs. 1,2,3,10,14) and has made that choice rather deliberately.

Logos, which we translate as ‘word’, had already enjoyed a long history in classical Greek. While it could be understood both as ‘reason’ and ‘word’, the translation, ‘thought’, probably gives us the best equivalent of the Greek term. That is because it was thought to include both one’s thoughts as formulated in the mind and speech, that is, the outward expression of those thoughts. However, in both senses it was seen as impersonal, abstract, lifeless and disembodied, as a kind of cosmic ‘force.’

Within this framework, John mentions four things that would have been quite consistent with the already existing Greek concepts concerning the Word:

a) That the Word, the Logos, existed from the very beginning, that it is

eternal (verse 1);

b) That the Word, Logos, is none other than God Himself (verse 1);

c) That the Word, Logos, created the world and was the author and giver of life itself (verses 3-4);

d) That the Word, Logos, was the source of the intellectual, moral and

Spiritual life of humankind (verse 4).

However, John wants to build upon this basic understanding with two new concepts,

a) Firstly, that this Word entered into human history and into our world (verses 10-11)

b) And secondly that this Logos was actually a person, Jesus Christ.

“The Word became flesh, became a human being, and lived here with

us” (verse 14).

This, to the ancient Greeks, was nothing less than revolutionary. It suggested that God was more than just a ‘clockmaker’ that created everything, put it into motion and left it to manage itself. It suggested that God takes an active interest in our world and in its doings, and furthermore, is willing to step into it, to intervene, and try to make a difference.

And, in what is ever more radical, more revolutionary, it suggests that God actually entered into ‘our mess’, taking on our own humanity and everything that it involves. All of God was to be revealed in its glory and fulness but in one unique mortal, human being, Jesus Christ. God, in His incarnation in Jesus Christ, never ceases to be God, but takes upon Himself the fulness of what it means to be human. In other words, He comes to understand us and identify with us as no one else ever could--in a deeply personal and real way as being ‘one of us’ in every way.

All of this has two very definite and direct application to our life and times. On the one hand, there are many, especially those exposed to Wicca or earth-focused thinking, who think in terms of an impersonal, inanimate earth force or cosmic force—hence, Star Wars’ slogan, ‘The force be with you.’ In this thinking the force can be both good and bad and can therefore be accessed, manipulated and used in either direction. There is absolutely no sense that it is personal or that there is any entity behind it. It is simply part of the interconnectedness of all of creation.

On the other hand, there are those who think only in terms of rationalist, materialistic formulations. In other words, the universe was set up (by whom or how they never say) with certain basic and irrefutable laws and principles that control all else, mindlessly and impartially, it would seem. DNA is seen as one of these, and so the ‘Word’, ‘Logos’, can be seen as just one of these impersonal, relentlessly controlling principles, one that, unlike gravity for instance, actually has a physical or materialistic aspect. And so, in essence, it says that we are shaped, inevitably and unconsciously, by something that is outside of our control and certainly does have any interest or stake in what happens to us. What John therefore says is of the highest significance: namely, that we are not products of an impersonal process, be that called evolution or DNA or anything else. We were created by a loving God and are valued by Him, so much so, that He actually took the drastic step of becoming one of us, one with us in our humanity. That is how incredibly important and valued we are to Him. And is not this, more than anything else, the message that we need to get out to people? It is that urgent a message. As the Bee Gee song says “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You”. Amen.

Forward notes: “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” (verses 7-9).

“John the Baptist’s witness to the light caused him to radiate God, the true light. This scripture reminds us that while John radiated God’s light, he was not himself the light. John served as a vessel to produce the rich truth about God.

“Can you imagine a person so filled with purpose that they emanate an unquenchable light? Do you wish you were this person? In some small way, I think we are constantly emanating the light of God so that others may become witnesses to God’s divine truth. John gave his testimony. He wore it visibly for others to see. This is how God uses our testimony to shine a mirror onto others.

MOVING FORWARD: “Who needs to see the light of God in your life today? Take the opportunity to offer your testimony, to testify to the light.”