A Series on The Gospel of John - #3
Speaker Notes
John 1:1-14 "An Odyssey of the Heart"
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
David mentions “Come Healing” by Leonard Cohen (on his 2012 album “Old Ideas”).
Soren Kierkegaard - “For Self-Examination - Judge For Yourself!” (1851), pages 13-14:
PRAYER
Father in heaven! What is a man that you are mindful of him,
a child of man that you are concerned for him - and in every
way, in every respect! Truly, in nothing do you leave your-
self without witness; and finally you gave him your Word.
More you could not do. To force him to use it, to read it, or
to listen to it, to force him to act according to it - that you
could not wish. Ah, and yet you do more. You are not like a
human being. He rarely does anything for nothing, but if he
does, he at least does not wish to be put to inconvenience by
it. You, however, O God, you give your Word as a gift -
that you do, Infinitely Sublime One, and we humans have
nothing to give in return. And if you find only some willing-
ness in the single individual, you are promptly at hand and
are, first of all, the one who with more than human - indeed,
with divine - patience sits and spells out the Word with the
single individual so that he may understand it aright; and then
you are the one who, again with more than human - indeed,
with divine - patience takes him by the hand, as it were, and
helps him when he strives to act according to it - you, our
Father in heaven!
T.S. Eliot - “The Wasteland” (1922):
Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
The Breastplate of St. Patrick, (also known as The Lorica), Section 8:
VIII.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ when lying down, Christ in sitting,
Christ in rising up.
David is a Theologian and Ethicist.