There's a part of me that's getting sad that I've got to turn the reading plan to the last page. Only 17 more days of reading after today. If you're feeling similarly, let me know. I'm pondering what reading plan will be next, as I want to keep this up and am willing to do it in a shared format. You know how to get hold of me.
John 1-2
Latest gospel written. Opening parallels the opening of Genesis in which God speaks things (creation and creature) into existence. Jesus speaks the word and it happens: forgiveness and judgment, healing and illumination, mercy and grace, joy and love, freedom and resurrection. Everything broken and fallen, sinful and diseased, called into salvation by God's spoken word. The fixing is accomplished by speaking. Raises importance of words and how we use them. John's gospel goes at a different pace than the three before it. It's not as rushed, movement based, hurried. Pay attention to the imagery in John's words...
"Everything was created through him; nothing, not one thing, came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life that was Light to live by."
John came to point the way to the light, to tell people where to look, who to believe in. John wasn't the light but was there to show the way to the light.
"Whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, he made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. God-begotten, not blood-flesh-or sex-begotten. The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood."
"We live off of His generous bounty, gift after gift after gift." Jesus is the new tabernacle and temple of the Hebrew people. But Jesus comes to us, unlike a fixed building...
I want to be thunder in the desert, announcing the presence and reality of Jesus. "The one who comes after me but is really ahead of me. My task has been to get Israel ready to recognize him as the God-Revealer."
Rabbi, where are you staying? (Can we follow you?) "Come along and see for yourself." Nazareth?! Phillip follows on a morsel of faith, a morsel of Jesus' speaking and seeing--You haven't seen anything yet!
Wedding at Cana. First shall be last--another illustration of that? Best wine comes at the end, contrary to custom of the day. Last/least good wine is first. Changing the water of our lives into wine.
Chasing people out of the temple. This happens at the beginning of John's gospel, and much later in the other gospels. Don't turn the temple into a shopping mall (paying for services vs. giving your heart?). Written in a reflective way, knowing the end before the beginning--that the disciples remembered what he'd said here at the end. This episode does happen at the Passover Feast, which is consistent with the other mentions, but again, at the beginning of John, setting a different tone for what follows than in the other gospels.
"People noticed the signs Jesus was displaying, and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn't entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn't need any help in seeing right through them."
Chewing on what this means for leaders of faith communities today, and how we live together...
Hebrews 3-4
"Take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. " Name Jesus is used more often than in any other NT book. Why? Some say because folks in that day were getting fixated on religion and angels, and the writer was trying to hone them back in on Jesus, the One who came, making faith real and relevant, rather than other-worldly or full of "head" stuff. Tell me about your everyday personal relationship with God. Parallels to Moses, but Jesus is clearly higher.
Don't turn a deaf ear...in Moses' story, the deaf ear turners were the very ones who had been led out of the wilderness, who had been set free toward the promised land. They, the generation who was freed, never got there because they never listened, never believed. We receive the same promises they did; do we handle them differently? God did God's part--God rested the 7th day, having completed his work." They didn't get there because they were disobedient. God repeatedly renews that promise. The promise of arrival and rest is still there for God's people. God is at rest, and we can join God. Don't drop out through some sort of disobedience.
Rest is essential. Why? We understand where we've come from. We understand where we're going. We look back and see how God has providentially led us along the way, how God has protected and provided for us. If we're too present focused on pressing issues of now, we'll never see God's providential care for us. Everything depends on God, and we ought to live like it does! Take the mercy, accept the help! May it be so. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment