Sunday Sermon 1/4/15

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
This is the beautiful beginning of John's writings, a brilliant and complex concentration of theology  and thought. John, as a fisherman likely without any real education, was probably illiterate so the origin--and, of course, the sincerity--is always in debate. There is some belief that this beginning might have come from a hymn of the time but that begs the question; this is beautiful and profound.
The themes of light vs. darkness, spirit vs. flesh, and origin tremble in the constraints of the language and end in the explosive "And the Word became flesh."
The original writing used "Logos" and that was translated as "Word" but that translation is a bit limited. This makes the writings more complex as "Logos" has meant "argument" or "discussion," but also the organizing principle of the universe in Greek thinking. Some writing is impaired by myopic dissection and this is one. One can just bathe in these thoughts.

The English poet and mystic, Henry Vaughan, wrote a poem--a bit grimmer than one might like--with an opening line that has similar impact:

I saw Eternity the other night,
Like a great Ring of pure and endless light,
............All calm, as it was bright,
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years
..................Driv'n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov'd, In which the world
............And all her train were hurl'd;
The doting Lover in his queintest strain
..................Did their Complain,
Neer him, his Lute, his fancy, and his flights,
..................Wits sour delights,
With gloves, and knots the silly snares of pleasure
..................Yet his dear Treasure,
All scatter'd lay, while he his eys did pour
..................Upon a flowr.

The darksome States-man hung with weights and woe,
Like a thick midnight-fog mov'd there so slow,
...........He did nor stay, nor go;
Condemning thoughts (like sad Ecclipses) scowl
..................Upon his soul,
And Clouds of crying witnesses without
...........Pursued him with one shout.
Yet dig'd the Mole, and lest his ways be found
..................Workt under ground,
Where he did clutch his prey, but one did see
..................That policie,
Churches and altars fed him, Perjuries
..................Were gnats and flies,
It rain'd about him bloud and tears, but he
..................Drank them as free.

The fearfull miser on a heap of rust
Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust
............His own hands with the dust,
Yet would not place one peece above, but lives
..................In feare of theeves.
Thousands there were as frantick as himself,
............And hug'd each one his pelf,
The down-right Epicure plac'd heav'n in sense
..................And scorn'd pretence
While others slipt into a wide Excesse
..................Said little lesse;
The weaker sort slight, triviall wares Inslave
..................Who think them brave,
And poor, despised truth sate Counting by
..................Their victory. Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing,
And sing, and weep, soar'd up into the Ring,
............But most would use no wing.
O fool (said I,) thus to prefer dark night
.................Before true light,
To live in grots, and caves, and hate the day
............Because it shews the way,
The way which from this dead and dark abode
.................Leads up to God,
A way where you might tread the Sun, and be
.................More bright than he.
But as I did their madness so discusse,
.................One whisper'd thus,
This ring the Bride-groome did for none provide
.................But for His bride.