Psalms: 80 * 77 (79); Judges 6:25-40; Acts 2:37-47; John 1:1-18Our Daily Office lectionary provides us with a new beginning today. We begin a two month journey with the Gospel of John. This Gospel is unlike the other three, in form and in structure and in much of its content. These writings have been used over the course of history in very hurtful ways, so I always approach John with a different kind of fear and trepidation then I have for the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke.
In these opening 18 verses John pre-images so much of what is to come. Hours and hours can spent just on these verses, drawing lines to their correlation to later parts of the Gospel....These verses are truly a thumbnail sketch of much of what is to come, with the broad general themes of this Gospel laid out for us. What stands out for me today is the word light....and the image of light as a critical metaphor for this entire Gospel: and the life was the light of all people; The light shines in the darkness; testify to the light; he himself was not the light, but came to testify to the light; The true light. Light and darkness, things that still are clear metaphors for our world.
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Copyright 2008, John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.
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