LOOKING AHEAD TO SUNDAY
As my colleagues have gone on vacation this month, I'm looking ahead to preaching the remaining four Sunday's in August. I'm so pleased that as I began to prepare I found that the lectionary takes us to the Gospel of John. It's not the particular content which will begin this Sunday in John's 6th chapter that makes my heart pitter-patter, rather, how John approaches Jesus on every page of his Gospel. John, like me, sees the mystery, the unknown and the unknowable in this man Jesus.
John believes that our human understanding will only take us so far and lest God meet us, we will remain clueless. The way past the sleepiness of our comprehension for John is this man Jesus. And one of the first things John would have us know about Jesus is that He is no mere man at all... but God Incarnate. Jesus is unlike anyone who came before Him and there will not be another after Him.
It's not our human reasoning that will bring us to these things, no matter the score we earned on the Facebook IQ test, or the number of years we've spent in higher education. The understanding we need is not in our mind at all but in our Spirit. And we know that it is "deep that calls to deep" and Spirit that speaks to Spirit. There is no other way in John's writing, than to allow Christ to reveal to us who He really is.
These thoughts came tumbling into place as I read my texts from John and realized his writing is somewhat like a Rorschach test. It's what we perceive from his writing that's the indication of whether we are approaching it from our head or our heart; if we're being led by self or Spirit, if Jesus is not only for us the subject but the author as well.
I commend to you a slow and reflective reading of John's Gospel. Take the time with each passage to ALLOW IT TO READ YOU. Consider the words and phrases. Form a perception and then ask God to interpret your perception e.g. "why does this passage speak to me in this way at this time?"
May the mystery which is John's Gospel mix with God's Spirit within you in healing ways. Blessings & Joy, THE CELTIC MONK
John believes that our human understanding will only take us so far and lest God meet us, we will remain clueless. The way past the sleepiness of our comprehension for John is this man Jesus. And one of the first things John would have us know about Jesus is that He is no mere man at all... but God Incarnate. Jesus is unlike anyone who came before Him and there will not be another after Him.
It's not our human reasoning that will bring us to these things, no matter the score we earned on the Facebook IQ test, or the number of years we've spent in higher education. The understanding we need is not in our mind at all but in our Spirit. And we know that it is "deep that calls to deep" and Spirit that speaks to Spirit. There is no other way in John's writing, than to allow Christ to reveal to us who He really is.
These thoughts came tumbling into place as I read my texts from John and realized his writing is somewhat like a Rorschach test. It's what we perceive from his writing that's the indication of whether we are approaching it from our head or our heart; if we're being led by self or Spirit, if Jesus is not only for us the subject but the author as well.
I commend to you a slow and reflective reading of John's Gospel. Take the time with each passage to ALLOW IT TO READ YOU. Consider the words and phrases. Form a perception and then ask God to interpret your perception e.g. "why does this passage speak to me in this way at this time?"
May the mystery which is John's Gospel mix with God's Spirit within you in healing ways. Blessings & Joy, THE CELTIC MONK
Comments
Post a Comment